My group has a one shot planned in a few months that I will be playing in. The DM approached me secretly and asked me if I would like to play as the murderer in the one-shot.
So far the plan is a Murder on the Orient Express murder mystery where we are all trapped somewhere secluded so we can't get any outside help. A murder will occur and the party will begin to interview the NPCs to try to figure out the murderer. In reality, I'm going to be the killer and each in game night I will text the DM privately, naming a new NPC to kill. Kind of like the game Mafia or Werewolf. The DM already has a cast of incredibly bizarre NPCs to interrogate (from a centaur barbarian who is severely insecure to a sentient wheelchair) and I have already met them all in a similar one-shot with another group. The rest of the group hasn't met them though so I'll be the only person who knows anything about them.
We're planning on me continuing to play a normal character and my goal in killing the NPCs is to summon some sort of evil entity. Then when the party figures out I was the murderer all along, the monster will be summoned. I'll continue to play my character fighting against the party and the DM will play the summoned horror. Before I was picked to be the murderer, I had called dibs on the cleric class because I haven't played it yet. I think I will continue to play that class (at least, that will be my cover) but I have multiple ideas for how to build my character.
One idea, is to say that I'm a cleric but really play a warlock. I'll have high wisdom and charisma so they won't immediately see through it. My first idea was to be a GOOlock and pretend to be a generic devout priest always murmuring prayers to my deity through my holy symbol. Then the twist is my holy symbol is actually a disguised communication device and I'm actually speaking to and receiving message from a eldritch alien civilization who want to invade earth. Imagine Dwayne Barry from X-Files and the Screecher's Reach episode from Star Wars Vision.
I might instead choose a fey patron for the illusions and trickery to better disguise myself. If I picked the Pact of the Tome, I could choose some cleric cantrips like Sacred Flame to really mislead the rest of the party.
My other idea was just to actually play a cleric but lie about which subclass I really have. I'd probably say I am your generic life domain cleric but actually play either trickery or death domain. If I play trickery, this whole murder scenario could be an act of worship to my god of lies. If I play death, each NPC I kill could be a sacrifice to my god. Death would also probably give me a better advantage when fighting the party at the end because they have some combat focused special effects. I also like the idea of playing a Death Domain Cleric because I don't often get the chance to play evil characters.
So what do y'all think? Is there anything specific we should be aware of or watch out for? Any ideas for the story, character design, or monster choice? Any feedback is welcome.
I think this is a dope idea. Mind if I ste-borrow the idea for a future campaign? And did you say sentient wheelchair? What's the stats on that thing?
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In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
I think this is a dope idea. Mind if I ste-borrow the idea for a future campaign? And did you say sentient wheelchair? What's the stats on that thing?
Feel free to use whatever inspiration you got from it!
Yes, I did say sentient wheelchair. I have no idea what the stats were for it. He was originally posed as the Stephen Hawking of poetry. His mind was brilliant but he was confined to a wheelchair. Through our investigations we discovered that the poet was actually the sentient wheelchair and the paralyzed man sitting in the wheelchair was actually just a fake dummy.
In a one shot where there might not be a boss battle. I would multi class into everything I could and just have fun with that. Might be more skill checks than anything. I'd take the skilled or skill expert feat and push stats into stealth and deception.
Careful with meta gaming and letting out to much information to the others. When you do reveal something make sure players who meta don't actually know that information.
I've ran a train murder mystery before but my players were very good at not meta gaming. Mostly because when they did on the past.. very bad things happened.
If there is a murder weapon try to plant that onto a NPC or player. Have fun with it.
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My group has a one shot planned in a few months that I will be playing in. The DM approached me secretly and asked me if I would like to play as the murderer in the one-shot.
So far the plan is a Murder on the Orient Express murder mystery where we are all trapped somewhere secluded so we can't get any outside help. A murder will occur and the party will begin to interview the NPCs to try to figure out the murderer. In reality, I'm going to be the killer and each in game night I will text the DM privately, naming a new NPC to kill. Kind of like the game Mafia or Werewolf. The DM already has a cast of incredibly bizarre NPCs to interrogate (from a centaur barbarian who is severely insecure to a sentient wheelchair) and I have already met them all in a similar one-shot with another group. The rest of the group hasn't met them though so I'll be the only person who knows anything about them.
We're planning on me continuing to play a normal character and my goal in killing the NPCs is to summon some sort of evil entity. Then when the party figures out I was the murderer all along, the monster will be summoned. I'll continue to play my character fighting against the party and the DM will play the summoned horror. Before I was picked to be the murderer, I had called dibs on the cleric class because I haven't played it yet. I think I will continue to play that class (at least, that will be my cover) but I have multiple ideas for how to build my character.
One idea, is to say that I'm a cleric but really play a warlock. I'll have high wisdom and charisma so they won't immediately see through it. My first idea was to be a GOOlock and pretend to be a generic devout priest always murmuring prayers to my deity through my holy symbol. Then the twist is my holy symbol is actually a disguised communication device and I'm actually speaking to and receiving message from a eldritch alien civilization who want to invade earth. Imagine Dwayne Barry from X-Files and the Screecher's Reach episode from Star Wars Vision.
I might instead choose a fey patron for the illusions and trickery to better disguise myself. If I picked the Pact of the Tome, I could choose some cleric cantrips like Sacred Flame to really mislead the rest of the party.
My other idea was just to actually play a cleric but lie about which subclass I really have. I'd probably say I am your generic life domain cleric but actually play either trickery or death domain. If I play trickery, this whole murder scenario could be an act of worship to my god of lies. If I play death, each NPC I kill could be a sacrifice to my god. Death would also probably give me a better advantage when fighting the party at the end because they have some combat focused special effects. I also like the idea of playing a Death Domain Cleric because I don't often get the chance to play evil characters.
So what do y'all think? Is there anything specific we should be aware of or watch out for? Any ideas for the story, character design, or monster choice? Any feedback is welcome.
I think this is a dope idea. Mind if I ste-borrow the idea for a future campaign? And did you say sentient wheelchair? What's the stats on that thing?
In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
Feel free to use whatever inspiration you got from it!
Yes, I did say sentient wheelchair. I have no idea what the stats were for it. He was originally posed as the Stephen Hawking of poetry. His mind was brilliant but he was confined to a wheelchair. Through our investigations we discovered that the poet was actually the sentient wheelchair and the paralyzed man sitting in the wheelchair was actually just a fake dummy.
In a one shot where there might not be a boss battle. I would multi class into everything I could and just have fun with that. Might be more skill checks than anything. I'd take the skilled or skill expert feat and push stats into stealth and deception.
Careful with meta gaming and letting out to much information to the others. When you do reveal something make sure players who meta don't actually know that information.
I've ran a train murder mystery before but my players were very good at not meta gaming. Mostly because when they did on the past.. very bad things happened.
If there is a murder weapon try to plant that onto a NPC or player. Have fun with it.