Hidden traitor games are great fun as board games. The safe space to lie outrageously to your friends is very appealing. In TTRPGs, I'm not a huge fan of any PvP, so having a hidden traitor is something I generally avoid. For me, RPGs are about telling a shared story, in which collaboration between players and the GM is vital, so having …
Hidden traitor games are great fun as board games. The safe space to lie outrageously to your friends is very appealing. In TTRPGs, I'm not a huge fan of any PvP, so having a hidden traitor is something I generally avoid. For me, RPGs are about telling a shared story, in which collaboration between players and the GM is vital, so having players (rather than just their characters) at cross-purposes is going to make that process difficult. And I think that's a reason why hidden traitor mechanics are limited in TTRPGs - the players end up motivated to win the game rather than have fun role-playing. It's hard to avoid metagaming or stay in character when that will mean you lose.
That's why focusing on individual hidden objectives is perhaps the better approach. Instead of it being a situation where some players win and the others lose, each player has the opportunity to "win". You could have objectives conflict: "destroy the generator" vs. "protect the generator", but the players are unaware that someone else has that conflicting objective.
Really interesting article on a fascinating topic!
Hidden traitor games are great fun as board games. The safe space to lie outrageously to your friends is very appealing. In TTRPGs, I'm not a huge fan of any PvP, so having a hidden traitor is something I generally avoid. For me, RPGs are about telling a shared story, in which collaboration between players and the GM is vital, so having players (rather than just their characters) at cross-purposes is going to make that process difficult. And I think that's a reason why hidden traitor mechanics are limited in TTRPGs - the players end up motivated to win the game rather than have fun role-playing. It's hard to avoid metagaming or stay in character when that will mean you lose.
That's why focusing on individual hidden objectives is perhaps the better approach. Instead of it being a situation where some players win and the others lose, each player has the opportunity to "win". You could have objectives conflict: "destroy the generator" vs. "protect the generator", but the players are unaware that someone else has that conflicting objective.
Really interesting article on a fascinating topic!
Thank you so much!