[jonathanc]

I tried a little experiment in prop use with my group this week. I tend to keep such things rare, because I feel it has more effect when it's "special". I started out just wanting to convey some game info to a couple of people via their contacts, but in the end I made up messages for everyone.

The situation is that they're on a smuggling run (their first time) running a gauntlet from Seattle to Dallas with stops in Boise (Idaho), Stockton (California), Phoenix (Arizona), and finally Dallas (Texas). The Boise drop was almost blown because their contact was under surveillance by an enemy syndicate, who made a play for the packages they're delivering (drugs; I've decided that they're moving Tempo, but they haven't done much investigation yet). They repelled the attempt but were largely unhappy with the results, as one of the assailants escaped (barely) in a car, and everyone else they could have questioned was dead. While hiding out for the night in Boise one of the players had a random encounter (I prepared a list of these to use whenever they stay in a motel on the road): a mysterious scream from the room next door. He investigated and found a dying hacker who had been IC'd pretty badly, but he performed First Aid and after they both fled the Motel (the Hacker, "Bit Lee", believed that a cleanup crew was incoming) the group agreed to transport her out of Boise and away from Salish territory in general.

They parted ways with her in Stockton, and she paid them a total of 2,000 nuyen. I had her offer to act as their regular hacker, but RP-wise the group was in separate trouble and didn't want to add her problems to the mix. They did take advantage of her offer to check up electronically on their next drop, and during the trip to Stockton she prevented a freeway battle with mysterious assailants by hacking their car. But I'm rambling. The point is that the group has no hacker, so they're very vulnerable in that regard; I tried to toss them an NPC, but it bounced. Still, she became a low-level contact for two members of the group.

The Stockton drop went fine, but one of our new players has been sniffing after every female NPC, so I decided to finally toss him a bone (so to speak). The drop was at an auto body shop modeled roughly on the Teller/Morrow shop from Sons of Anarchy. While the rest of the group was delivering the goods, he took advantage of the gang's hospitality and ended up nailing some of the random ladies in attendance.

So now the group was on their way from Stockton to Phoenix, going down I5 towards Los Angeles. When they came in, each of them had a message.

• One guy just had a message from a hacker (not Bit Lee) that he took as a contact, relating to the trouble they were on the run from in Seattle (which is why they're smuggling).
• The horny guy (literally - he's a troll) got a message from one of the ladies he nailed, who had basically "stolen" his commcode while he wasn't looking. I was hoping he'd notice and be concerned about the breach of security, but nobody was.
• One guy got an update from the smuggler they're working for back in Seattle that due to concerns after the Boise fiasco, Phoenix had gone off the grid and had left directions to their camp in the desert with a homeless woman that had one green eye and one blue eye.
• Two of them who made contact with Bit Lee got an encoded message (see below) warning them that their networks were compromised and they were under surveillance by unfriendly hackers. I decided that she had tried contacting them normally and received no response; after looking into the matter, she decided to sneak a warning to them without the watcher noticing by disguising her message as porn spam. The watcher was working for bounty hunters who are after the group for a reason I'd rather not get into here; suffice it to say that the bounty hunters know about the drop in the desert and the homeless woman.

Now, for the coded message I wanted something mildly clever, but that my players would see through. As it turns out, none of them saw it, and I had to hint carefully for them to even consider that it wasn't just porn spam (why would any GM write spam mails for his players?) Here's what I wrote:

Code: [Select]

To: Mr. Nobody and Dryad
From: Kandy Kanez

Hello, my name is Kandy and I would LOVE to party @
your place. I got lots of hot, wet, flexible friends. Get on your
commlink, only 100 nuyen per minute for the hottest cyber-love. This
isn't your daddy's cyber-escort service. We provide pure filth in a
safe, encrypter environment. Your friends will never know.

REACH OUT + TOUCH ME @
00-173-488-697
Now if you just take the first word of each line (I've seen this joke on Reddit/4chan as a method of Rick-Rolling people), you get:

Hello
your
commlink
isn't
safe

The commcode given would take them to an encrypted node where Bit Lee was waiting to give them the skinny on their situation as she saw it.

So, what do you think? Was this a good idea? Too obscure? Something you'd like to try?


Incidentally, they did get it eventually, but they were driving so long on the road that realistically, I had to make them either rest or suffer some sleep deprivation consequences (one of them as the Sustenance power, but he can't drive; the Rigger has no sleep regulator). That gave the bounty hunters time to find the homeless lady and set up an ambush...basically they just wanted for anyone to approach her and trade goods with her (the instructions were to give her an RFID tag in exchange for the GPS coordinates of the desert camp). The players thought they were clever sending the Troll in, since the Bounty Hunters wouldn't know him and he wasn't part of the trouble they were running from, but of course the hunters didn't care what he looked like. He ate a decent number of bullets (I was nice/rushed, didn't feel like having all six roll shots on him) and some stick'n'shock that left him barely standing, and he ran for it. Fancy driving got them to temporary safety and a successful drop. Now the group is planning a showdown/trap to get the hunters off their backs.

[farothel]

To be honest, I don't think I would have seen the real message either, but then again, I'm not very good at these things.  What you can do in such circumstances is to let one player make a roll.  Pick the one who's character has the most probability of figuring it out (he has the most logic, he has that thing that gives +2 to solving puzzles (I don't recall the name), or something else) and if he gets the roll, take him appart and give him another hint (or pass a note).  That way he feels like those points he put in the knowledge skill (anagrams and puzzles) was worth something, and he can tell the other players (or not).

As for making hints too easy or too difficult, there is no real rule for that.  It depends on your players and the circumstances.  Sometimes they will get a hint you never thought they would see (and they shortcut your session), other times they don't see the hint even if it's shooting at them with a panther canon.

[jonathanc]

It would have been no fun if they rolled for it, or if it was based on their character's stats. Well, that's my opinion, anyway.

[farothel]

It would have been no fun if they rolled for it, or if it was based on their character's stats. Well, that's my opinion, anyway.

true, but if they don't get the hint, it might give you a way out.  And the characters might have knowledge that the players don't.  Like in our latest vampire session, where the GM (a historian by education) started dropping hints out of mythology.  Some of our characters should be able to get it, but we, the players, didn't.  In that case a roll might be the last way out, after they tried to get it without one of course.

[Zilfer]

I think they should have realized something was up with it. I'm not sure I would have gotten that unless i had been looking for a good while at it. I may have to steal that motel random event however, just think it's too good to pass up.

[Netzgeist]

[...], he has that thing that gives +2 to solving puzzles (I don't recall the name), [...]

Analytical Mind is the name you were searching for.

[jonathanc]

I think they should have realized something was up with it. I'm not sure I would have gotten that unless i had been looking for a good while at it. I may have to steal that motel random event however, just think it's too good to pass up.

Might as well steal the full random event chart:

RANDOM ROAD ENCOUNTERS
1 - While staying in the motel, you hear suspicious screams from the room next door.
2 - Speed trap. Cops attempt to pull you over and perform an Rating 4 SIN check.
3 - Dying junkie pounds on your motel door, begging for help.
4 - Child of dying junkie knocks on the window
5 - Motel Manager is racist vs Metahumans
6 - Flagged down by hitchhiker; they do not initially mention it, but they were recently the victim of a ghoul attack.

[CitizenJoe]

I have found that if you don't have the right players or the players aren't in the right mindset that they don't pick up on subtlety in the least.  This gets worse when you're doing it online and they can't pick up visual cues. In those cases, putting in those clues is either a complete waste of time (they never get revealed) or you reveal it and the players feel like you're picking on them or worse. 

[jonathanc]

I have found that if you don't have the right players or the players aren't in the right mindset that they don't pick up on subtlety in the least.  This gets worse when you're doing it online and they can't pick up visual cues. In those cases, putting in those clues is either a complete waste of time (they never get revealed) or you reveal it and the players feel like you're picking on them or worse.

Neither of those things happened - they had fun trying to guess once I told them that there was a cipher, and when I finally pointed it out to them, everyone had a laugh. I think the players would only feel picked on if you punished them for not guessing correctly, which seems entirely appropriate: that would be a total dick move.

Anyway, I seldom use props in my game, for both practical (it eats up my limited prep time) and stylistic (it seems kind of LARP-y for my tastes) reasons. I was coming off of two lackluster sessions though, and I needed something to punch things up. This worked nicely, and I'd definitely encourage other GMs to give something similar a try. Occasional use of props can really add to immersion, so it can be especially useful if you have a lot of metagaming going on.

[Zilfer]

I have found that if you don't have the right players or the players aren't in the right mindset that they don't pick up on subtlety in the least.  This gets worse when you're doing it online and they can't pick up visual cues. In those cases, putting in those clues is either a complete waste of time (they never get revealed) or you reveal it and the players feel like you're picking on them or worse.

Neither of those things happened - they had fun trying to guess once I told them that there was a cipher, and when I finally pointed it out to them, everyone had a laugh. I think the players would only feel picked on if you punished them for not guessing correctly, which seems entirely appropriate: that would be a total dick move.

Anyway, I seldom use props in my game, for both practical (it eats up my limited prep time) and stylistic (it seems kind of LARP-y for my tastes) reasons. I was coming off of two lackluster sessions though, and I needed something to punch things up. This worked nicely, and I'd definitely encourage other GMs to give something similar a try. Occasional use of props can really add to immersion, so it can be especially useful if you have a lot of metagaming going on.

Nothing like freezing your hand in an Ice Pack, so you gave give the PC's that Vampire's Cold "Handshake". one of the few times I have tried to add a bit of immersion.

[Xzylvador]

Awesome message and post! +1

I have to say that this is one of the things that I struggle with myself: I personally would have probably missed the message, but I do believe that if/when I'm playing a character like Farothel described (hyper-intelligent person or a gifted cryptographer) that my character shouldn't have to "suffer" from the fact that I'm not as good at this than it is. -- Same goes for all kinds of skills, most often noticeable, Social skills: it's simply impossible to talk in the same way as a character with 20 dice on Con. --
So personally I would let them have fun and try it for themselves for a while, but if they don't guess it at least allow the character(s) who are better at this than your average person to roll some dice to see if their characters spotted what they missed. (And explain the reason why this is so, to encourage the taking of 'flavorful' but often sub-optimal character options.)