Con Game

[KillWatch]

What does one look like? I've only ever done open ended games where it might take a game or several games to solve. But nothing that will certianly only take 4 hours to run through.

[Killer Cyborg]

What does one look like? I've only ever done open ended games where it might take a game or several games to solve. But nothing that will certianly only take 4 hours to run through.

Send me $25 cash, and I'll show you exactly what a con game looks like.

[CyCo]

What does one look like? I've only ever done open ended games where it might take a game or several games to solve. But nothing that will certianly only take 4 hours to run through.

Send me $25 cash, and I'll show you exactly what a con game looks like.

Don't listen to him, he doesn't know anything. But for just $15, I can get you headed in the right direction.

;)

[The Beast]

What does one look like? I've only ever done open ended games where it might take a game or several games to solve. But nothing that will certianly only take 4 hours to run through.

Send me $25 cash, and I'll show you exactly what a con game looks like.

Don't listen to him, he doesn't know anything. But for just $15, I can get you headed in the right direction.

Both of them are rank amatures. I however, can provide you with exactly what you need, for only 3 monthly installments of $3.99!
That's more than 20% savings vs the leading competitor! Just PM me with your credit card number and everything will be taken care of.

[Noon]

Back on topic...

What does one look like? I've only ever done open ended games where it might take a game or several games to solve. But nothing that will certianly only take 4 hours to run through.

Well, you can use the same model except in hours - so you play games where it takes a game or several games to solve. Here it might take an hour or several hours to solve. Switch 'session' with 'hour'.

But in regards to hitting the four hour mark with no solution - do all games have to be solved?

[KillWatch]

I was thinking that but a con game seems to me by nature a railroad game. I mean they HAVE to do X or X HAS to happen so we can ge tot the next segment. If I let the players do whatever they want as in normal I have to bring the game to sudden stop revealing the villain or mystery etc without cause. I guess I just ahve to more subtle and take the hourly method.
But as for my sessions I write up things that I expect to happen within the game but soem things I touch on others don't even get close for weeks , becaseu the players just don't get close enough

[Killer Cyborg]

I was thinking that but a con game seems to me by nature a railroad game. I mean they HAVE to do X or X HAS to happen so we can ge tot the next segment.

One of the main rules of good GMing:
Have the story progress whether or not the characters do anything.
Just like real life.

[Noon]

Hi Killwatch,

I don't think you have to reveal the mystery - you just have to reveal something.

For example, lets say the villain is going up nearby mount darkness to perform a ritual at the top to summon a big nasty beast.

Okay - and the players do nothing but sit in the nearby town. Do they need to be railroaded, cause otherwise they'll miss the big reveal?

No - because there's other stuff you can reveal instead. You just have to figure out what it is. Okay, so from the start, the villain and his minions must be traveling to the mountain, and running into other travelers and farmsteads. So the inn that the PC's are all sitting around in gets all these victims pouring in (well, the ones that made it to town).

Okay, the villain and minions start to climb the mountain. So the townsfolk would see them climbing the mountain even at a distance, cause of all the torches and big pack beasts. So the townsfolk start running around like crazy in town, perhaps some buildings catch on fire purely by accident. Including a building next to the inn the PC's are sitting around in.

Then the villain begins the summons - and lets say it has side effects - it doesn't just summon the big thing, it summons other smaller stuff in all sorts of spots. Many of which are in town. So all these imps and things start poping into existance in town.

There, there's three reveals - a story, and something to fight at the end, and the players didn't even need to go near the villain.

Now if the PC's just went hunting in the forrest, or shopping, figure out side effects of the villains plan that would be revealed to them at those locations.

You don't have to reveal the big plot. You just have to reveal something. And if the main plot is interesting, what you reveal will be too.

[KillWatch]

Wouldn't work for me at my home table, but it does seem to be the way to design a con game

[bigbobsr6000]

Bait and Switch: The Villain, being the GM, leaves clues leading to what the Heroes, the PCs, believe to be the actual case-solver. EX: The Bait = In town a person bumps into a PC. The PC later discovers a note in his pocket, backpack, holster, sheath, whatever. The note states: "I have evidence, proof, map, whatever for you at a price. Meet at ___________ at the time of Midnight." 2 options at the meet (of course there's more but I will just give 2). First, ambushed at site, big fight, yadda, yadda, yadda. PCs if victorious, find another clue. (Yeah!) Second, they meet said dude give him his price, choke it out of him, charm, whatever and get clue (Yeah!). Then the dude could be assassinated. The chase is on, minion gets away.
The Switch = In either case the clue is NOT leading them to the actual case-solver and big finish with the Villain. It will lead them to another false clue or a "red herring". [From the practice of drawing a red herring across a trail to confuse hunting dogs. Something that distracts attention from the real issue.] Eventually they should figure out it is the wrong trail. Maybe with a little nudge from the GM’s NPCs.


Shell Game: PCs are given/shone the case-solver clue(s). But, it is mixed in with two false ones. Three paths to choose only one is correct. The GM is “the Carney” sliding the “shells” around so only he knows where the “true path lies, grasshopper.” (Place your bets, please.) And of course, any Carney worth his salt, always makes sure the first 2 shells picked by the “Patsy”, the PCs, are not correct. The real trick of this game, the Carney ensures the ball is not even under any of them. There is a Fourth path that can only be found after the Patsy has looked under all 3 shells. And the chase is on. Some nudge maybe needed, again.

Does this help?

[KillWatch]

Yes thank you. Going to be working on something

[csbioborg]

I know this might be bad form but hear is probaly the most famous con game ever played on a group on player so famous that while it started off as just a regular game it was entered into D&D canon


full story here http://www.blindpanic.com/humor/vecna.htm

Head of Vecna
The Head of Vecna was a hoax that one adventuring party played on another in a campaign run by game master Mark Steuer. One of the groups tricked the other into going on a quest for the Head of Vecna, a hoax artifact that was supposedly similar to his Hand and Eye (powerful artifacts that you have to replace the appopiate limb to use with it), but was simply an ordinary severed head. The hoax takes advantage of the fact that the Eye and Hand require a person to remove their own eye or hand and replace it with the artifact to function. The characters involved in the story reasoned that they needed to decapitate themselves to gain the powers of the Head of Vecna, and several of the group actually fought to determine whose head should be cut off. After the third character died, the joke was revealed.