Yes, I think a lot of people have this idea that a secretive character requires that the players all be tricked. I've seen this fall flat many times - generally because it turns out that the whole table doesn't see the changeling (or whoever it is) to be the main character of the story so their eventual reveal isn't all that earth-shattering.
What you're actually doing there is denying those other players the chance to roleplay their characters. It can actually be a lot of fun when the whole table knows what the changeling is but everyone is roleplaying characters that don't. Now you're all in on it. That is how collaborative storytelling works.
Funny anecdote about this I did something similar yeaaaars ago back when we had only done a few campaigns of DnD, it was revealed my character was a werewolf and I shit you not my buddy turns to me and said "JESUS man can you NOT play something normal???"
The best thing they can do currently is to make a homebrewed race using the Changeling as a Template and change the name of it to whatever they are pretending to be, and then set their character sheet to Private. It will only display PC name that they enter (whatever they enter doesn’t actually have to be the PC’s real name if they wish to hide it), whatever race they are pretending to be, class(es) & subclass(es), and whatever alignment they list (even if it’s not their real alignment). That’s at least what everyone else does for their Changeling PCs.
Oooohhhhhh I like that idea! Good workaround! I was hoping that someone had figured something out. Thank you!
Happy to offer the advice, but I dunno how much it will help. Wysp is right, it will still likely rains an eyebrow if any of the others notice since most Players don’t keep their sheets set to private. You might want to let your player know they will only have a limited window before it’ll go from 😯 to 🤔 to 🤨, so they might want to have their moment sooner rather than later or people will have at least figured something is up, if not already guessed the Changeling angle.
If you two really, really want to pull of a “tada moment,” then the absolute most secretest thing to do would be to actually Copy the character sheet and change the race entirely on the second one and put the fugazi in the campaign as a public character and keep the real version with it as a Changeling in a separate campaign you start just for them. That way their secret identity won’t draw attention by being set to private; however you will still have DM access to their real sheet if you need it; and it’ll still keep things tidy for you in the encounter builder. As for the plan to explain it away as merely a trick, their best options are to either choose a a false identity that somehow would grant either access to Disguise Self, or at the very least proficiency with a Disguise Kit, or else you’re gonna wanna get a Hat of Disguise in their inventory ASAP.
I'm about to start a campaign where one of my players wants to play a cursed human who slowly turns into a Kenku (raven in this case). She took Kenku as her race to get all the proper stats, but now the other players can see that on her sheet. We were working on her character together, and we thought it would be so much fun to slowly but surely reveal her curse to the other players, but oh well.
No issue with D&DBeyond though. This game has infinite possibilities, so there's always going to be something they need to retrofit and fix. Hopefully, they come up with a privacy setting in the future that just shows a super simple character thumbnail; character name, player name, and level, that's it.
Could she do a character where her race is listed as human but you homebrew some items to give her the kenku stat changes? Then she can slowly activate them as the curse progresses? At the end, have a totally kenku character as a separate character?
I think it would be the easiest to have a private-setting for the whole Campaign.
It's not only about the "aha"-moment and twists ect, but also for not having people stalk your character-sheets. Especially if you have a Sleight of Hand character, or as some already mentioned, disguised characters. Sure you could say "please don't look at my sheet" or the gm saying "please don't look at their/anyones sheet", people are curious and will sooner or later check it out, just because they can. Sometimes not even just because they're simply curious, but because they want to compare their character with yours.
Update on my game. The jig is up and the reveal was amazing. It was very easy to keep the secret with separate campaigns and everyone was super curious about what secrets the others were keeping, but it was all above board and very friendly. I love my table!
That’s a good question. Some people really enjoy role playing and want introductions and reveals to be in character. Like in a movie where the heroes don’t know each other very well at the beginning but more is revealed as you work together.
I’ve had players that wanted to hide their race and or class for that reason. Lots of people want to do that with their backgrounds and such. Just different style of play
My solution to this has been creating a copy of my character sheet in DDB, and saving a pdf file of my original so they have that info. I used the original to play but put the one with a different class/race into the campaign.
Well I've just found myself here in 2024... Still no sign of a fix since 2018? Any D&DBeyond people here, please a campaign character visibility toggle would be amazing.
I'm running a session this week and was helping my brother (a first time player) create his character. We've finished and I noticed that his character appeared on my GM screen immediately.
The link has already gone out to other PCs and when they follow it and join, they'll immediately be able to see the class and race of my brother.
I love the characters first introductions to one another! It's small but people take huge pride in their character creations, and sometimes the information they trust the DM to keep secret (at least for a while).
It'd be great if there was a preparation mode where players couldn't see the other characters until the DM is ready.
I sent the link out on a group chat so managed to delete it before others followed it. Then I told the other players to just make their characters on DNDbeyond without the link to the campaign. Then I THINK when I give them the link later on they'll be able to select their characters.
It was a minor inconvenience but as Rowan said, its a shared campaign space and for me as a DM, I should be able to use that space ahead of the campaign without worrying that my players are able to see stuff.
Anyway, I'm over it and the campaign starts tonight. Wish me luck everyone!
Happy to offer the advice, but I dunno how much it will help. Wysp is right, it will still likely rains an eyebrow if any of the others notice since most Players don’t keep their sheets set to private. You might want to let your player know they will only have a limited window before it’ll go from 😯 to 🤔 to 🤨, so they might want to have their moment sooner rather than later or people will have at least figured something is up, if not already guessed the Changeling angle.
If you two really, really want to pull of a “tada moment,” then the absolute most secretest thing to do would be to actually Copy the character sheet and change the race entirely on the second one and put the fugazi in the campaign as a public character and keep the real version with it as a Changeling in a separate campaign you start just for them. That way their secret identity won’t draw attention by being set to private; however you will still have DM access to their real sheet if you need it; and it’ll still keep things tidy for you in the encounter builder. As for the plan to explain it away as merely a trick, their best options are to either choose a a false identity that somehow would grant either access to Disguise Self, or at the very least proficiency with a Disguise Kit, or else you’re gonna wanna get a Hat of Disguise in their inventory ASAP.
How would having another character sheet in another campaign affect the public rolls that happen on Foundry, for example?
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Funny anecdote about this I did something similar yeaaaars ago back when we had only done a few campaigns of DnD, it was revealed my character was a werewolf and I shit you not my buddy turns to me and said "JESUS man can you NOT play something normal???"
So uh.. tadaaaaaah big shocking moment lol..
Oooohhhhhh I like that idea! Good workaround! I was hoping that someone had figured something out. Thank you!
Happy to offer the advice, but I dunno how much it will help. Wysp is right, it will still likely rains an eyebrow if any of the others notice since most Players don’t keep their sheets set to private. You might want to let your player know they will only have a limited window before it’ll go from 😯 to 🤔 to 🤨, so they might want to have their moment sooner rather than later or people will have at least figured something is up, if not already guessed the Changeling angle.
If you two really, really want to pull of a “tada moment,” then the absolute most secretest thing to do would be to actually Copy the character sheet and change the race entirely on the second one and put the fugazi in the campaign as a public character and keep the real version with it as a Changeling in a separate campaign you start just for them. That way their secret identity won’t draw attention by being set to private; however you will still have DM access to their real sheet if you need it; and it’ll still keep things tidy for you in the encounter builder. As for the plan to explain it away as merely a trick, their best options are to either choose a a false identity that somehow would grant either access to Disguise Self, or at the very least proficiency with a Disguise Kit, or else you’re gonna wanna get a Hat of Disguise in their inventory ASAP.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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Could she do a character where her race is listed as human but you homebrew some items to give her the kenku stat changes? Then she can slowly activate them as the curse progresses? At the end, have a totally kenku character as a separate character?
I think it would be the easiest to have a private-setting for the whole Campaign.
It's not only about the "aha"-moment and twists ect, but also for not having people stalk your character-sheets. Especially if you have a Sleight of Hand character, or as some already mentioned, disguised characters.
Sure you could say "please don't look at my sheet" or the gm saying "please don't look at their/anyones sheet", people are curious and will sooner or later check it out, just because they can. Sometimes not even just because they're simply curious, but because they want to compare their character with yours.
Update on my game. The jig is up and the reveal was amazing. It was very easy to keep the secret with separate campaigns and everyone was super curious about what secrets the others were keeping, but it was all above board and very friendly. I love my table!
That’s a good question.
Some people really enjoy role playing and want introductions and reveals to be in character. Like in a movie where the heroes don’t know each other very well at the beginning but more is revealed as you work together.
I’ve had players that wanted to hide their race and or class for that reason. Lots of people want to do that with their backgrounds and such.
Just different style of play
My solution to this has been creating a copy of my character sheet in DDB, and saving a pdf file of my original so they have that info. I used the original to play but put the one with a different class/race into the campaign.
That's a pretty great idea, too.
August 2023 is here, has any progress been made to resolve this issue?
Sincerely, Non-stop Homebrewer.
Since we've posted workarounds, the company reps who post here probably won't apply a fix.
Well I've just found myself here in 2024... Still no sign of a fix since 2018? Any D&DBeyond people here, please a campaign character visibility toggle would be amazing.
I'm running a session this week and was helping my brother (a first time player) create his character. We've finished and I noticed that his character appeared on my GM screen immediately.
The link has already gone out to other PCs and when they follow it and join, they'll immediately be able to see the class and race of my brother.
I love the characters first introductions to one another! It's small but people take huge pride in their character creations, and sometimes the information they trust the DM to keep secret (at least for a while).
It'd be great if there was a preparation mode where players couldn't see the other characters until the DM is ready.
It is not possible for you print them out, so you have your own copies?
It is, but that kinda defeats the whole point of players having a shared campaign space.
I sent the link out on a group chat so managed to delete it before others followed it. Then I told the other players to just make their characters on DNDbeyond without the link to the campaign. Then I THINK when I give them the link later on they'll be able to select their characters.
It was a minor inconvenience but as Rowan said, its a shared campaign space and for me as a DM, I should be able to use that space ahead of the campaign without worrying that my players are able to see stuff.
Anyway, I'm over it and the campaign starts tonight. Wish me luck everyone!
Good luck!
How would having another character sheet in another campaign affect the public rolls that happen on Foundry, for example?