It's a bit unclear what you mean by this. Are you, as a player, spying on your fellow players? Is your character spying on the other characters? Or is your character trying to spy on others? This distinction is important.
Either way, your trying to get information. I suggest friendliness, asking for details in a way that seems like its for the sake of small talk. Skills that are important in game for this are Insight, Investigation, and Persuasion. Sometimes you need to sneak around, steal, and observe. Spells that are good starters would be Charm Person, Comprehend Language, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Silent Image, and Sleep. Grab Detect Thoughts and Invisibility as soon as you can cast 2nd Level Spells, Knock, Locate Object, and Suggestion are also good options.
Those are the suggestions I have until I know more about the situation.
I'm assuming here that you're working for an NPC to spy on the party? Spying for the 'DM' doesn't make sense, as the DM should know everything that's going on to begin with :)
I've had players be forced (or choose) to spy for NPCs before. Honestly, best tactic is to just act normal. The party is going to be talking about their plans, lending magic items, etc etc. Just do what a normal party member would do. If you start casting spells on people, they'll figure it out pretty quickly.
Insist on taking notes. You can say that you want to remember the journey and it's your journal. Since you're already writing that, take notes on the quests, the people you talk to, locations you plan on visiting, if you have a way to get sleight of hand, you could use it to make dead drops unless you want to "go green" and pick up all of the trash you see lying around and throw it away to cover dead drops. As a spy, you wouldn't want to do anything overtly different while trying to collect a lot of information. Try to think of mannerisms, perhaps OCD driven ones to cover some things, and other ways to cover other things. Don't announce every time that you're doing these things, particularly after it's been established that you're a little weird. Of course, you might decide that you like your party members and start disseminating false information periodically. Talk to the DM about that to see what their thoughts are on that subject.
I'm planning to do this to one of my players tomorrow. An unexpected turn of events has essentially given a villain dirt on a player character that the other players and their characters don't know about, so I'm gonna have the villain blackmail the PC into spying. I think the key is probably not to try and do too much too soon, it's a lot cooler to have a dramatic reveal that you've been spying for the bad guy for the last twenty sessions than it is to overeach and immediately get found out.
I'm planning to do this to one of my players tomorrow. An unexpected turn of events has essentially given a villain dirt on a player character that the other players and their characters don't know about, so I'm gonna have the villain blackmail the PC into spying. I think the key is probably not to try and do too much too soon, it's a lot cooler to have a dramatic reveal that you've been spying for the bad guy for the last twenty sessions than it is to overeach and immediately get found out.
Twenty sessions may be too much. If I were you, I'd watch the group dynamics. It may really upset a player that he has to do this, it may mess with the roleplaying vibe.
The best instance I've seen of this was a paladin who got charmed and then possessed by a demon. Demon wanted to know the group's plans, so he (paladin player, as possessing demon) walks back in, and starts asking "Okay so...wait, how are we going to recovery the ancient ring? And how is that supposed to help us, again? It's where?" Totally hooked the whole party, they spilled the beans on everything. And when he went to leave (to go pray), they asked him to take a valuable communication amulet with him, in case he got lost. So the demon stole that too. It was great, masterfully done by my player. But...I think something like that continuing for long would have made it less fun for the player. He's not really 'part of the team'. But ymmv, I'd just suggest having a bail-out plan in case it's not going as well as you think it will.
I'm planning to do this to one of my players tomorrow. An unexpected turn of events has essentially given a villain dirt on a player character that the other players and their characters don't know about, so I'm gonna have the villain blackmail the PC into spying. I think the key is probably not to try and do too much too soon, it's a lot cooler to have a dramatic reveal that you've been spying for the bad guy for the last twenty sessions than it is to overeach and immediately get found out.
Twenty sessions may be too much. If I were you, I'd watch the group dynamics. It may really upset a player that he has to do this, it may mess with the roleplaying vibe.
The best instance I've seen of this was a paladin who got charmed and then possessed by a demon. Demon wanted to know the group's plans, so he (paladin player, as possessing demon) walks back in, and starts asking "Okay so...wait, how are we going to recovery the ancient ring? And how is that supposed to help us, again? It's where?" Totally hooked the whole party, they spilled the beans on everything. And when he went to leave (to go pray), they asked him to take a valuable communication amulet with him, in case he got lost. So the demon stole that too. It was great, masterfully done by my player. But...I think something like that continuing for long would have made it less fun for the player. He's not really 'part of the team'. But ymmv, I'd just suggest having a bail-out plan in case it's not going as well as you think it will.
Twenty sessions was probably a bit of a comic exaggeration but the beauty about this plan is that there's nothing compelling the player to go along with it, he isn't charmed or dominated, it's down to him if and how long he goes with it.
I'm planning to do this to one of my players tomorrow. An unexpected turn of events has essentially given a villain dirt on a player character that the other players and their characters don't know about, so I'm gonna have the villain blackmail the PC into spying. I think the key is probably not to try and do too much too soon, it's a lot cooler to have a dramatic reveal that you've been spying for the bad guy for the last twenty sessions than it is to overeach and immediately get found out.
Twenty sessions may be too much. If I were you, I'd watch the group dynamics. It may really upset a player that he has to do this, it may mess with the roleplaying vibe.
The best instance I've seen of this was a paladin who got charmed and then possessed by a demon. Demon wanted to know the group's plans, so he (paladin player, as possessing demon) walks back in, and starts asking "Okay so...wait, how are we going to recovery the ancient ring? And how is that supposed to help us, again? It's where?" Totally hooked the whole party, they spilled the beans on everything. And when he went to leave (to go pray), they asked him to take a valuable communication amulet with him, in case he got lost. So the demon stole that too. It was great, masterfully done by my player. But...I think something like that continuing for long would have made it less fun for the player. He's not really 'part of the team'. But ymmv, I'd just suggest having a bail-out plan in case it's not going as well as you think it will.
Twenty sessions was probably a bit of a comic exaggeration but the beauty about this plan is that there's nothing compelling the player to go along with it, he isn't charmed or dominated, it's down to him if and how long he goes with it.
I hear you :) I like the idea, too. I'm just saying that in-character betrayals can actually cause hurt feelings among the players, it's a legit thing to watch out for. I saw a couple of friends, totally sober, almost come to punches in a very Lando moment in a star wars campaign. Of course, one guy was a hothead, and the other (the betrayer), love him to death, was sometimes oblivious to other people.
Anyway, giving the player more agency is a good idea for a long term plan. Good luck :)
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It's a bit unclear what you mean by this. Are you, as a player, spying on your fellow players? Is your character spying on the other characters? Or is your character trying to spy on others? This distinction is important.
Either way, your trying to get information. I suggest friendliness, asking for details in a way that seems like its for the sake of small talk. Skills that are important in game for this are Insight, Investigation, and Persuasion. Sometimes you need to sneak around, steal, and observe. Spells that are good starters would be Charm Person, Comprehend Language, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Silent Image, and Sleep. Grab Detect Thoughts and Invisibility as soon as you can cast 2nd Level Spells, Knock, Locate Object, and Suggestion are also good options.
Those are the suggestions I have until I know more about the situation.
I'm assuming here that you're working for an NPC to spy on the party? Spying for the 'DM' doesn't make sense, as the DM should know everything that's going on to begin with :)
I've had players be forced (or choose) to spy for NPCs before. Honestly, best tactic is to just act normal. The party is going to be talking about their plans, lending magic items, etc etc. Just do what a normal party member would do. If you start casting spells on people, they'll figure it out pretty quickly.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Insist on taking notes. You can say that you want to remember the journey and it's your journal. Since you're already writing that, take notes on the quests, the people you talk to, locations you plan on visiting, if you have a way to get sleight of hand, you could use it to make dead drops unless you want to "go green" and pick up all of the trash you see lying around and throw it away to cover dead drops. As a spy, you wouldn't want to do anything overtly different while trying to collect a lot of information. Try to think of mannerisms, perhaps OCD driven ones to cover some things, and other ways to cover other things. Don't announce every time that you're doing these things, particularly after it's been established that you're a little weird. Of course, you might decide that you like your party members and start disseminating false information periodically. Talk to the DM about that to see what their thoughts are on that subject.
I'm planning to do this to one of my players tomorrow. An unexpected turn of events has essentially given a villain dirt on a player character that the other players and their characters don't know about, so I'm gonna have the villain blackmail the PC into spying. I think the key is probably not to try and do too much too soon, it's a lot cooler to have a dramatic reveal that you've been spying for the bad guy for the last twenty sessions than it is to overeach and immediately get found out.
Twenty sessions may be too much. If I were you, I'd watch the group dynamics. It may really upset a player that he has to do this, it may mess with the roleplaying vibe.
The best instance I've seen of this was a paladin who got charmed and then possessed by a demon. Demon wanted to know the group's plans, so he (paladin player, as possessing demon) walks back in, and starts asking "Okay so...wait, how are we going to recovery the ancient ring? And how is that supposed to help us, again? It's where?" Totally hooked the whole party, they spilled the beans on everything. And when he went to leave (to go pray), they asked him to take a valuable communication amulet with him, in case he got lost. So the demon stole that too. It was great, masterfully done by my player. But...I think something like that continuing for long would have made it less fun for the player. He's not really 'part of the team'. But ymmv, I'd just suggest having a bail-out plan in case it's not going as well as you think it will.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Twenty sessions was probably a bit of a comic exaggeration but the beauty about this plan is that there's nothing compelling the player to go along with it, he isn't charmed or dominated, it's down to him if and how long he goes with it.
I hear you :) I like the idea, too. I'm just saying that in-character betrayals can actually cause hurt feelings among the players, it's a legit thing to watch out for. I saw a couple of friends, totally sober, almost come to punches in a very Lando moment in a star wars campaign. Of course, one guy was a hothead, and the other (the betrayer), love him to death, was sometimes oblivious to other people.
Anyway, giving the player more agency is a good idea for a long term plan. Good luck :)
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)