So I am starting a campaign and in an attempt to help two people, I suggested they play as Warforged that would disguise themselves as a different race in order to pass as “normal”. While they are on board, and don’t know if they plan to play it as them keeping it hidden from the rest of the group or revealing it right away, I don’t want it to be ruined by their sheets saying Warforged on the campaign section when they may be passing off as Dragonborn or something. Is there a way to help cover this or would I need to make two character sheets on the site?
The only thing I can think of is to have two separate campaigns. One for all the players where these warforged "disguised" characters are, so elves or humans that the other players see. Then a second campaign just for the warforged characters to view and access the true character sheets.
I had a feeling this would need to be the solution, it's not great, but it's better than nothing or lacking the ability to help them access their stuff.
Yes, since there is no "super secret" function in the DDB coding, even if the other players cannot access the character sheets of other PCs in a campaign they can see Name, Class, Level IIRC and race.
*However*
I do not see the point in secrets. Why the F do players want to have secrets? They want hidden backstories. They want hidden capabilities. They want to disguise their PCs classes. They want to in your game disguise their race. Worse, is when the player decides that no one including the DM can know the truth about the ultra cool secret their PC carries around with them until the time is right for the *Big Reveal*!
I am not advocating not having secrets from a mechanical perspective, that players have a right to know what every one is playing what what their capabilities are so the party can be a lean mean encounter defeating machine. On the contrary, as a narrativist at heart that awards Inspiration for PCs performing actions that are both in character, novel, and occasionally sub-optimal, I do not hold to the idea that PCs know what another PC can do *until* they do it. For instance a party might not be aware that the Illusionist can't actually cast spells that summon monsters or that the Illusionist is actually a Sorceror with the Ritual Magic feat. *But* the players at the table knew this all along. They make certain to roleplay their PCs to go along with the ruse or what have you. Heck, in my last example that is a valid way to play a Full Caster.
What I am advocating is that the players drop the pretense of having *secrets* from the other players. Allow the character's to have those secrets, have there be in game scenarios and consequences based on those secrets, allow the other PCs to engage in roleplay with the Warforged that deals with that secret (either threatening to reveal it or conceal it). This will result in a better game for all.
I think Hawksmoor has a good point. There is definitely a difference between Player Knowledge, and Character Knowledge, and a decent Player should be able to sort the two out.
I think we see the rise of Character secrecy possibly because of Critical Role where the Characters in the current campaign are all super-secretive ( well, almost all ), so people think that's how it is supposed to be done. What people miss is that Critical Role is employing secrecy from the Audience, not necessarily the Players ( who all have varying degrees of actual ignorance of other Players' secret lore ), where secrecy and reveals have a much more dramatic impact on the Audience entertainment value. I don't think that most home games have an Audience.
On the flip side, I can see some Players deriving fun from being "the man with no name" - the Character will a secret past. I can also see certain other Players deriving fun from trying to figure out those secrets, and enjoying the "big reveal". That kind of fun isn't wrong.
However, it certainly seems to be a trend which is being overdone recently, and in no case should there be secrets from the GM.
From a technical side, I just did a quick experiment where I created a homebrew race which was based ( straight copy ) on the Warforged race, called it Dwarf, and it shows up as an option in the Character creator for me if I enable homebrew content for that Character.
If you wanted particular sub-races, you would need to recreate those as well. You would also be wise to set the picture appropriately.
Any Player in your campaign who was creating a Character with homebrew content switched on might see the custom race as an option and wonder why there were two copies of a particular race available - so it's not impossible for them to still see that the custom race is there.
From a game perspective, I think it would not take long - mechanically, even - for the Party to pick up on the fact that these Characters are not Warforged. Warforged are constructs. It's the worst race to try and disguise as another. I think someone will notice that their Dragonborn companion is odd in the fact that they never sleep, eat, drink, pee, poop, blink, cough, sneeze, fart, burp, etc. - and I think that list of purely unconscious behavioral tics which are a result of being a biologically based lifeform is so long that it would take amazing Deception or Performance rolls over huge amounts of time to pull off, even if the Character was trying their best to simulate those tics. Eventually, they'll miss a roll, and end up below someone's passive Perception score, and I'd have to say "You've started to notice something odd about Bob ... "
That's on top of the disguise of their physical form, which I assume they are pulling off with some magic disguise item. I don't think such an item would simulate those biological tics, as there's no need to build that capability into it. An Elf trying to disguise themselves as a Dwarf is still going to have all those tics, so why build in simulated Dwarven farts?
I'm just not sure it's practical for them to keep that secret from the Party for very long - and that window might be so narrow as to make the creation of a custom race not worth the effort for you.
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Thank you both, and ultimately, it wasn't the players idea for the secret, it was mine as a way to help two people with trouble thinking of what characters to build play. Is there a chance this all gets ruined first session? Possibly, but I also know that sometimes secrets are interested to have because while there's no overall audience, there are other people at the table who may enjoy a good surprise as much as anyone else. While I realize I may be pushing, and I plan to make sure the people are aware that they may get revealed right away, I also don't want to push them to reveal a secret they want to have unless they really want to give it up or there is no more hiding it.
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So I am starting a campaign and in an attempt to help two people, I suggested they play as Warforged that would disguise themselves as a different race in order to pass as “normal”. While they are on board, and don’t know if they plan to play it as them keeping it hidden from the rest of the group or revealing it right away, I don’t want it to be ruined by their sheets saying Warforged on the campaign section when they may be passing off as Dragonborn or something. Is there a way to help cover this or would I need to make two character sheets on the site?
The only thing I can think of is to have two separate campaigns. One for all the players where these warforged "disguised" characters are, so elves or humans that the other players see. Then a second campaign just for the warforged characters to view and access the true character sheets.
I had a feeling this would need to be the solution, it's not great, but it's better than nothing or lacking the ability to help them access their stuff.
Yes, since there is no "super secret" function in the DDB coding, even if the other players cannot access the character sheets of other PCs in a campaign they can see Name, Class, Level IIRC and race.
*However*
I do not see the point in secrets. Why the F do players want to have secrets? They want hidden backstories. They want hidden capabilities. They want to disguise their PCs classes. They want to in your game disguise their race. Worse, is when the player decides that no one including the DM can know the truth about the ultra cool secret their PC carries around with them until the time is right for the *Big Reveal*!
I am not advocating not having secrets from a mechanical perspective, that players have a right to know what every one is playing what what their capabilities are so the party can be a lean mean encounter defeating machine. On the contrary, as a narrativist at heart that awards Inspiration for PCs performing actions that are both in character, novel, and occasionally sub-optimal, I do not hold to the idea that PCs know what another PC can do *until* they do it. For instance a party might not be aware that the Illusionist can't actually cast spells that summon monsters or that the Illusionist is actually a Sorceror with the Ritual Magic feat. *But* the players at the table knew this all along. They make certain to roleplay their PCs to go along with the ruse or what have you. Heck, in my last example that is a valid way to play a Full Caster.
What I am advocating is that the players drop the pretense of having *secrets* from the other players. Allow the character's to have those secrets, have there be in game scenarios and consequences based on those secrets, allow the other PCs to engage in roleplay with the Warforged that deals with that secret (either threatening to reveal it or conceal it). This will result in a better game for all.
I think Hawksmoor has a good point. There is definitely a difference between Player Knowledge, and Character Knowledge, and a decent Player should be able to sort the two out.
I think we see the rise of Character secrecy possibly because of Critical Role where the Characters in the current campaign are all super-secretive ( well, almost all ), so people think that's how it is supposed to be done. What people miss is that Critical Role is employing secrecy from the Audience, not necessarily the Players ( who all have varying degrees of actual ignorance of other Players' secret lore ), where secrecy and reveals have a much more dramatic impact on the Audience entertainment value. I don't think that most home games have an Audience.
On the flip side, I can see some Players deriving fun from being "the man with no name" - the Character will a secret past. I can also see certain other Players deriving fun from trying to figure out those secrets, and enjoying the "big reveal". That kind of fun isn't wrong.
However, it certainly seems to be a trend which is being overdone recently, and in no case should there be secrets from the GM.
From a technical side, I just did a quick experiment where I created a homebrew race which was based ( straight copy ) on the Warforged race, called it Dwarf, and it shows up as an option in the Character creator for me if I enable homebrew content for that Character.
If you wanted particular sub-races, you would need to recreate those as well. You would also be wise to set the picture appropriately.
Any Player in your campaign who was creating a Character with homebrew content switched on might see the custom race as an option and wonder why there were two copies of a particular race available - so it's not impossible for them to still see that the custom race is there.
From a game perspective, I think it would not take long - mechanically, even - for the Party to pick up on the fact that these Characters are not Warforged. Warforged are constructs. It's the worst race to try and disguise as another. I think someone will notice that their Dragonborn companion is odd in the fact that they never sleep, eat, drink, pee, poop, blink, cough, sneeze, fart, burp, etc. - and I think that list of purely unconscious behavioral tics which are a result of being a biologically based lifeform is so long that it would take amazing Deception or Performance rolls over huge amounts of time to pull off, even if the Character was trying their best to simulate those tics. Eventually, they'll miss a roll, and end up below someone's passive Perception score, and I'd have to say "You've started to notice something odd about Bob ... "
That's on top of the disguise of their physical form, which I assume they are pulling off with some magic disguise item. I don't think such an item would simulate those biological tics, as there's no need to build that capability into it. An Elf trying to disguise themselves as a Dwarf is still going to have all those tics, so why build in simulated Dwarven farts?
I'm just not sure it's practical for them to keep that secret from the Party for very long - and that window might be so narrow as to make the creation of a custom race not worth the effort for you.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Thank you both, and ultimately, it wasn't the players idea for the secret, it was mine as a way to help two people with trouble thinking of what characters to build play. Is there a chance this all gets ruined first session? Possibly, but I also know that sometimes secrets are interested to have because while there's no overall audience, there are other people at the table who may enjoy a good surprise as much as anyone else. While I realize I may be pushing, and I plan to make sure the people are aware that they may get revealed right away, I also don't want to push them to reveal a secret they want to have unless they really want to give it up or there is no more hiding it.