GM's NPCs and involvement

[Telarus_KSC]

[Harlequin]

Thank you all for posting your comments.

We're having our weekly session tonight and I'll be having a small discussion with the GM and sort a few things out with him.

I have to say though, I prefer the 3rd E over the 2nd E, I feel like the game is more balanced.

[j0hn]

[zayven]

Talking to a "run of the mill" NPC that you encounter and getting information from them that may or may not be accurate is one thing, but having the GM constantly feeding what might be untrustworthy information via a regular NPC who is a member of the party is an ENTIRELY different situation.

In order for everyone to get the most out of the gaming experience, there has to be a certain degree of trust between the GM and the players. If players begin to feel that the GM is abusing that trust, they will start to be resentful about it. If the GM is consistently using NPCs to mislead and misinform the players, then the players are either going to get frustrated or will adjust their approach so that they NEVER trust anyone or anything. Sure, you can say that you don't want the players to trust anyone, but this only sets up that "GOTCHA!" situation in which the GM reverses the tables and puts the characters in a bad situation because they didn't trust an NPC when they should have. At that point, the players will justifiably be angry because they were punished for playing the game the way the GM conditioned them to play it.

The fate of the party should never hinge on the players' simple decision to trust or not trust the GM in the absence of any other information. The players are in a very vulnerable situation because they are TOTALLY dependent upon the GM for all of their information. If an NPC is not truthful, then there has to be a way for the players to know or suspect this. If they suspect that something is not on the up and up, but the GM does not give players the tools to explore these suspicions, then that is a serious abuse of trust on the part of the GM and the players are going to feel like the GM has railroaded them into a situation that he wanted to create.

You simply can't have the players spending ALL of their time deciding whether or not to trust the GM. Having regular NPCs that serve as GM mouthpieces not only takes the spotlight away from the players, but if the players think that the GM is constantly trying to misdirect them, they're going to waste way too much energy picking apart everything that these NPCs say. It just sets up way too many mind games that can get in the way of everyone having a good time, which is the whole point of gaming.

For the record, I'm not against misleading players in principle. Used sparingly, misdirection is a valuable narrative tool. It's just that doing so is a delicate process and you need to be VERY careful about how you do it and how often you do it. Otherwise, you run the risk of turning into the M. Night Shyamalan of gaming.