Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: Club on <08-26-17/2208:22>
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Running a modified 2050. The group has run into the Ork Underground Co-op organization maybe four times. It's a combination grocery store and salvation army, with a couple crooked members doing black market stuff.
Then last session one of the players realized, "oh shit, it's the Universal Brotherhood." I wish I could have drawn it out longer, but their looks were still amusing.
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hehe very nice +1
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[Standing ovation]
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What that player did is called Metagaming, and is frowned upon is most roleplaying groups.
Just because a player knows something doesn't mean their character knows it. This is a HUGE part of role-playing.
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Yeah, but still, the look on the player's faces is always fun when they realise that. Their characters are oblivious, but the players know that the fecal matter has really hit the oscilating unit.
I once did it in an Alternity campaign, where one player had the powerful enemy disadvantage and another player had diveded loyalty. I managed to link the two groups (they weren't the same group as that would be too obvious) together using the actual background provided by the setting (luckily the fine print). It was quite funny to see their paranoia skyrocket because the enemy always seemed to know where they were.
Also the divided loyalty was below the radar so to speak. The player who had it knew about it off course, but I had told him that he had to do provide some information in one of the first sessions and he agreed to it. I never brought it up after that again, letting it run in the background (he had agreed to it) and simply used it.
Here the players never figured it out, so when the campaign had finished I told them. That was also a very fun moment.
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What that player did is called Metagaming, and is frowned upon is most roleplaying groups.
Just because a player knows something doesn't mean their character knows it. This is a HUGE part of role-playing.
No, this isn't metagaming. If his character acted on the knowledge the player figured out, that would be metagaming. We have no indication that has happened here.
To the OP: If I had a group I would be tempted to run 2050 just for that one moment. (Or for Archology shutdown.) Congrats.
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Indeed, there is a difference between OOC and IC knowledge and actions. If the players act on the OOC knowledge, that is metagaming. But a pants-browning moment like that is a beautiful thing to behold. Well done, OP.
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It appears that the players were wrong, and the co-op wasn't a bug spirit front. OOC knowledge almost had them burn the place down before they double-checked. I admit to egging them on. And since the residents realize they were planning a murder-fest, they sorta want to know why.
I had to abandon my plan because of the kid. You know the kid, he plays his computer-rpgs with a strategy guide open, and is forbidden from using any called shots from Run & Gun until he figures out the rules for the ones in the main book (He never will.) I suspect he got pdfs of the old sourcebooks so he could read up on the situation.
Kinda wish Shadowrun Returns hadn't use the old UB plot; it's a spoiler for too many old adventures that had fallen off the radar of newer players.
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Just gotta say it. NICE!