GM Exercise - Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
With thanks to mindstormpress for suggesting this one!
This is the situation:
A shapeshifter hides in a small community, pretending to be one of their number while preying upon them; the community needs to find this shapeshifter.
As always: consider if and how you’d run this situation in your games. The exercise poses several questions, but you don’t have to give a thought out answer to each one if you don’t feel like it - just consider the possibilities, and their implications.
Start with these questions:
- Would the stakes of this situation be at all meaningful for the game?
- Would it be worth it to include such a situation in the game?
- What would it take to introduce a situation of this kind to the game?
- What more would I need to know about the situation to adjudicate it?
- What mechanics, if any, would I employ to resolve the situation?
- What information would a player need in order to make good tactical decisions in this situation, and how can they get it?
- What aspects of this situation do I feel capable of improvising?
- How much time would I want to spend resolving this situation in this game?
- Which roles would it be fun for the player characters to assume in the situation?
- Would this situation be engaging to all players at the table, or would it leave some bored on the sidelines?
Now here are some questions specific to this situation:
- Are the players hunting the shapeshifter? If so, are they part of the community, or a third party that comes from outside? How does the community view them at first?
- Are any or all of them playing as the shapeshifter? If so, what is their goal in infiltrating the community?
- Could the players be put on opposite sides of this situation? Would that be fun? Does it risk creating hurt feelings between players?
- How fast can the shapeshifter assume a new identity? How good is its disguise? Does it leave any tell-tale marks that would let someone see through it, and if so, how easy is it to hide? Could the mark be placed upon others as a form of misdirection?
- Why must the shapeshifter prey on the community? How exactly does it bring harm or damage to them? How long can it lie in wait before striking again?
- How big is the community, and how long have they been together? Does everyone in it know each other, or are some still strangers? How easy is it to enter or leave the place where this community is?
- What evidence of its crimes is the shapeshifter leaving behind? Are they capable of trying to hide it? How long does it take for folks to find the evidence, or notice that something or someone is missing?
- How does the community react as the shapeshifter’s crimes progress? As paranoia takes hold, who bands together, who splits apart? Are either of these options safer than the other? Does anyone try to lead? Does anyone try to run? Does anyone have secret agendas to push in the middle of the chaos?