I'm not sure if this is the place for this but... Would it be a good idea to play as a changeling but only the DM knows that its a changeling? Like it appears to just be a regular high elf?
People do that all the time. But it's hard to pull it off on DnDBeyond. I went to my group's campaign page to make an unassigned character, and I accidentally saw that the human Sorcerer wasn't exactly human.
If you're going off the write ups in either publication of the Changeling, in game a Changeling can maintain a persona for as long as they want. As far as making a "secret between you and the DM" the question would be why? There's no benefit and lot of indulgent knowing winks to endure on the DM's side of things. I generally say D&D is a team sport (DM included on the team) and the secrecy stuff seems pretty vain, and more often than not the _players'_ reaction to the _player_ when this aspect of the _character_ is "revealed" tends to be something like, "Ok. Thanks for letting us know now as opposed to a few sessions ago when some of the players might have helped you prompt some uses of your features for the benefit of our goals as a party."
I just don't get players who don't play openly with their cards on the table, given the team sport nature of the game. If I were your DM I'd flat out say, "Ok, about that. At my table we don't do special secrets. Privileges in the game are earned through playing the game, not playing coy with character generation. If you want to play a Changeling who has been passing as an elf for the past two centuries or whatever, that's fine. But to the table, they'll know you're a Changeling whatever level whatever class(es) and you can trust that they'll play their _characters_ as if those _characters_ think your _character_ is an elf. Unless you start trying to be sneaky of course you start trying to be sneaky, then the high perception and insight characters may be prompted to think something's up with you. Deal?"
Other tables are fine with the sort of indulgence you're proposing, but it's a pet peeve of mine.
I'm not sure if this is the place for this but... Would it be a good idea to play as a changeling but only the DM knows that its a changeling? Like it appears to just be a regular high elf?
What is your opinions on that idea?
I personally think it is not a good idea. Duping the players almost never has the outcome people are hoping to get. The other players likely will not be mystified, they will probably feel deceived, which risks turning into frustration. That is assuming they care at all.
If this is something you are interested in, enlist the aid of the players to make their PCs shocked when the reveal finally comes. It will be far more satisfying for everyone involved. This is a collaborative game. My recommendation is to collaborate.
I'm not sure if this is the place for this but... Would it be a good idea to play as a changeling but only the DM knows that its a changeling? Like it appears to just be a regular high elf?
What is your opinions on that idea?
I personally think it is not a good idea. Duping the players almost never has the outcome people are hoping to get. The other players likely will not be mystified, they will probably feel deceived, which risks turning into frustration. That is assuming they care at all.
If this is something you are interested in, enlist the aid of the players to make their PCs shocked when the reveal finally comes. It will be far more satisfying for everyone involved. This is a collaborative game. My recommendation is to collaborate.
I think if you tell them ahead of time it won't be much of a reveal. I'm just imagining the star trek animated meme where a guy looks shocked but not really
I always feel that D&D campaigns where every detail of every plot twist is revealed ahead of time its not organic and kinda scripted, just my opinion tho
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I think if you tell them ahead of time it won't be much of a reveal. I'm just imagining the star trek animated meme where a guy looks shocked but not really
I always feel that D&D campaigns where every detail of every plot twist is revealed ahead of time its not organic and kinda scripted, just my opinion tho
It is not much of a reveal if the player hides it for X amount of time either. Telling the players allows them to make their PCs seem impressed. This is what I assume is the goal. Most players likely will not give a toss and that tends to mean their PCs will not ether. That assumes that the players are not feeling deceived, which carries much more grave consequences. Telling the players affords them the chance help the changeling player get the reaction they want in-game, while avoiding any negative reactions they should hope to avoid at the table.
We do not know what the OP is hoping to get out of such a con, but we do know what it feels like to be lied to as players, generally speaking. It is not very fun and really, it just opens the door for unnecessary PC vs PC conflict. Or worse, player vs player conflict. There are few benefits from duping other players and a lot of benefits from including the players in this. It is a collaborative game and it is a role playing game. Including other players in this information achieves both points of the game.
The campaign started with our characters in a prison cell…I had told the DM that my character was a changeling; but they would present themselves as a half-elf.
It was made more amusing that they took the name “Tricky Nym Suda” as their name; which was a phonetic anagram for “tricky pseudonym” (fake name).
So Nym traveled with the group, and they did start to gather that things weren’t adding up for my character…no Darkvision, for starters…which they brushed off as “being more human than elf”.
The second clue was not knowing the Elvish language…and again, Nym claimed it was because they were raised to be more human.
Then a few sessions later, the party needed to get inside a dwarf city; but there was danger afoot and the guards weren’t keen on letting a party of non-dwarves inside.
….so begrudgingly, my changeling abandoned Tricky Nym Suda, and became “Yuri Goodforge” (good forgery), the gregarious dwarven merchant. Thankfully, he actually knew Dwarvish.
The party was momentarily stunned…this dwarf sort of sauntered out of nowhere while their half-elf companion vanished…but they needed inside the city, and so went along with it. Yuri shared a joke or two with the dwarven guards, claimed the party were their caravan assistants, and gave them some gold to smooth things over.
After they got inside, Yuri spilled the beans on what they truly were, and how they would go for long stretches of time with a given persona while traveling.
Intentionally, they would seldom assume their true changeling form; instead just remaining in their persona...it helped keep from derailing the DM’s momentum.
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I'm not sure if this is the place for this but... Would it be a good idea to play as a changeling but only the DM knows that its a changeling? Like it appears to just be a regular high elf?
What is your opinions on that idea?
¯\_🤠_/¯
People do that all the time. But it's hard to pull it off on DnDBeyond. I went to my group's campaign page to make an unassigned character, and I accidentally saw that the human Sorcerer wasn't exactly human.
Insert interesting signature here.
If you're going off the write ups in either publication of the Changeling, in game a Changeling can maintain a persona for as long as they want. As far as making a "secret between you and the DM" the question would be why? There's no benefit and lot of indulgent knowing winks to endure on the DM's side of things. I generally say D&D is a team sport (DM included on the team) and the secrecy stuff seems pretty vain, and more often than not the _players'_ reaction to the _player_ when this aspect of the _character_ is "revealed" tends to be something like, "Ok. Thanks for letting us know now as opposed to a few sessions ago when some of the players might have helped you prompt some uses of your features for the benefit of our goals as a party."
I just don't get players who don't play openly with their cards on the table, given the team sport nature of the game. If I were your DM I'd flat out say, "Ok, about that. At my table we don't do special secrets. Privileges in the game are earned through playing the game, not playing coy with character generation. If you want to play a Changeling who has been passing as an elf for the past two centuries or whatever, that's fine. But to the table, they'll know you're a Changeling whatever level whatever class(es) and you can trust that they'll play their _characters_ as if those _characters_ think your _character_ is an elf. Unless you start trying to be sneaky of course you start trying to be sneaky, then the high perception and insight characters may be prompted to think something's up with you. Deal?"
Other tables are fine with the sort of indulgence you're proposing, but it's a pet peeve of mine.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I personally think it is not a good idea. Duping the players almost never has the outcome people are hoping to get. The other players likely will not be mystified, they will probably feel deceived, which risks turning into frustration. That is assuming they care at all.
If this is something you are interested in, enlist the aid of the players to make their PCs shocked when the reveal finally comes. It will be far more satisfying for everyone involved. This is a collaborative game. My recommendation is to collaborate.
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I think if you tell them ahead of time it won't be much of a reveal. I'm just imagining the star trek animated meme where a guy looks shocked but not really
I always feel that D&D campaigns where every detail of every plot twist is revealed ahead of time its not organic and kinda scripted, just my opinion tho
my name is not Bryce
Actor
Certified Dark Sun enjoyer
usually on forum games and not contributing to conversations ¯\_ (ツ)_/
For every user who writes 5 paragraph essays as each of their posts: Remember to touch grass occasionally
It is not much of a reveal if the player hides it for X amount of time either. Telling the players allows them to make their PCs seem impressed. This is what I assume is the goal. Most players likely will not give a toss and that tends to mean their PCs will not ether. That assumes that the players are not feeling deceived, which carries much more grave consequences. Telling the players affords them the chance help the changeling player get the reaction they want in-game, while avoiding any negative reactions they should hope to avoid at the table.
We do not know what the OP is hoping to get out of such a con, but we do know what it feels like to be lied to as players, generally speaking. It is not very fun and really, it just opens the door for unnecessary PC vs PC conflict. Or worse, player vs player conflict. There are few benefits from duping other players and a lot of benefits from including the players in this. It is a collaborative game and it is a role playing game. Including other players in this information achieves both points of the game.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
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I think I'm going to include the players on it since I don't want them to have the wrong reaction
¯\_🤠_/¯
I feel it’s ok to hide, as long as you reveal it in a few sessions and don’t hold it back for like, 15 sessions.
Heh. I actually did manage to do this for awhile.
The campaign started with our characters in a prison cell…I had told the DM that my character was a changeling; but they would present themselves as a half-elf.
It was made more amusing that they took the name “Tricky Nym Suda” as their name; which was a phonetic anagram for “tricky pseudonym” (fake name).
So Nym traveled with the group, and they did start to gather that things weren’t adding up for my character…no Darkvision, for starters…which they brushed off as “being more human than elf”.
The second clue was not knowing the Elvish language…and again, Nym claimed it was because they were raised to be more human.
Then a few sessions later, the party needed to get inside a dwarf city; but there was danger afoot and the guards weren’t keen on letting a party of non-dwarves inside.
….so begrudgingly, my changeling abandoned Tricky Nym Suda, and became “Yuri Goodforge” (good forgery), the gregarious dwarven merchant. Thankfully, he actually knew Dwarvish.
The party was momentarily stunned…this dwarf sort of sauntered out of nowhere while their half-elf companion vanished…but they needed inside the city, and so went along with it. Yuri shared a joke or two with the dwarven guards, claimed the party were their caravan assistants, and gave them some gold to smooth things over.
After they got inside, Yuri spilled the beans on what they truly were, and how they would go for long stretches of time with a given persona while traveling.
Intentionally, they would seldom assume their true changeling form; instead just remaining in their persona...it helped keep from derailing the DM’s momentum.