Unmasked, Part 3/4
So there you are, hanging from the ceiling in your Spidey-pajamas, with your roommate looking slack-jawed up at you.
And there you are, tied to the chair yet again, your arch-nemesis reaching for your cowl.
Maybe it’s time to gain some trust from the super-team, obey a court order, invent a plot device to keep your cover, or just dispense with the trope entirely. But in all cases, if you’re going for the secret identity play, it pays to do a little pre-planning. How far will you go to preserve your secrets? How central will secret identities be to the game? And perhaps most importantly, are you on the same page as your GM?
I already told you guys the story of my indiscretions as an amateur goblin werewolf narc. It was decidedly uncool of me to out the resident lycanthrope, but that’s exactly the sort of situation that comes up when secret identities are in play. Therefore, when it comes to mild-mannered PCs and heroic alter egos, I suggest a few additions to the Session Zero checklist:
- Does anyone know your secret identity?
- Do you want your secret identity to remain secret at all costs?
- Does the GM have permission to put your secret identity in jeopardy? Do other players?
- What do you think will happen to the plot if anyone learns your true identity? What do you not want to happen?
That list is probably overkill, but I think you get the idea. There’s a lot of drama to be found in “Bruce Wayne Held Hostage” type scenarios, but the risk of losing the central shtick of a vigilante, superhero, or monster can be a major turnoff for some players. As with so many parts of this hobby, my advice is to talk that mess out ahead of time. If you think twice before threatening a player’s defining gimmick, you can make the ultimate reveal more satisfying for everyone.
Question of the day then! Have you ever had your cover blown in an RPG? What was your disguise, how were you discovered, and what was the fallout like? Sound off with your tales of unmasked heroes and exposed villains down in the comments!
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Sadly, I haven’t been able to play my one character (so far) that has a secret identity. I imagine that having it exposed would only be a big deal if the backstory she has is able to be used in game. I based her on a character of a novel I’m trying to write. In it, she’s a princess so the king finding out his only daughter is sneaking out to go adventuring would be a huge scandal. If I have to change the background so that she’s just a regular noble who doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of being recognized all the time, it would be less of a big deal.
I occurs to me that the truckload of superhero games on the market probably have advice on handling secret identities. I kind of wish I owned any. It would have made writing this blog post a little easier. In any case, I bring em up now because I bet they’d be helpful for a player in your situation too.
Probably. The dilemma of the superhero – do I have a secret identity so the people around me will be safe? Or do I let myself be known so I don’t have to go through the hassle of lying to everyone?
Wow wow wow, wait. Do you mean to tell me that Horsepower’s true identity is the mild mannered mount Lumberjack Explosion?!! But that means that the Fighter’s greatest nemesis and his second most trusted companion ( after Mr Stabby ) are one at the same! It means that Horsepower, despite his appearance of perfect virtue, was actually involved in the gravest of crimes: PvP! It means that Elf Princess… Oh dear…
BTW, shouldn’t Thief know the Horsepower’s true identity already, now that I think about it? She did make the relevant Perception check that one time, after all. Dear sir, it almost feels like the strips have little to no continuity! But surely that can’t be the case 🙂
Possibly her making that perception check is what caused her to go looking in Luberjacks saddlebags/utility belt for proof now that she is in a position where she wants to blackmail him into not foiling her crimes?
After all anyone could say they made a perception check and really it sounds like some sort of weird conspiracy theory, but hard evidence like that costume there isn’t as easy to dismiss.
I’m not saying this is the only possible interpretation of events, but I’m not saying I disagree either. 🙂
I think her Perception check just showed that he was equine in nature, rather than humanoid like the princess believed.
I only discovered the Faceless background for 5e last week… I haven’t had time to player a character yet!
I am wondering how I could keep my secret identity safe from other players, though. Parties tend to travel together, meaning my character would be spending a lot of time with the other players; either I have to stay in caped crusader full-time, or switch back into my civilian form, and pull a Yasha by happening to bump into the party every time Mr. Heroman left. The latter would gradually raise suspicions, which is good, but would take a lot of work; the either is more of a goblin situation, where it takes one good stealth check while the party is sleeping, and the mask is off.
This is why I’m saying to talk it out ahead of time. It’s a situation where note passing and player secrecy straight up does not work. In my opinion you’ve got no choice but to bring the other players in on the secret.
We’re not big on OOC secrets in my group, so if there are secret identities in play, the players all know them. That doesn’t mean that we all know everything about each other’s characters, but the important aspects are out in the open.
And besides, there’s a lot of fun to be had when you know a secret as a player, but have to play a character who doesn’t. And occasionally, even more fun when your character does know the secret, but has to pretend not to.
…that said, I don’t usually bother with secret identities myself… I find them a pain to roleplay, so my supers characters are generally open about who they are, and don’t wear masks.
That’s where I come down too. I’m beginning to wonder if there is a viable alternative. I mean, how could you possibly play a vigilant type without the other players catching on after one session?
Or a secret villain. Played a game some years back where one of the PCs was secretly an agent working for the big bad. Out of character, we all knew what was going on, and were present to witness all the scheming behind our backs — but none of our characters had even the slightest reason to suspect anything. We had a lot of fun with that, knowing that we’d all be betrayed at some point in the future, constantly wondering “is this the moment?”
Yeah. This is the “metagame PVP” I talked about way back when:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/intra-party-romance
I’m curious if you can have a superhero identity via the cloak and dagger method. The reality of playing the superhero when they show up to fight is really hard to pull off at a table. It seems to me like that could work better in a PbP game, but it would be all kinds of interesting to try to make it work at the table.
I haven’t yet been able to play a vigilante who got unmasked (which is half the fun of being a vigilante), but I will!
My character for next week’s new campaign isn’t actually a vigilante, but he does basically have two identities. First is the noble prince who recruits the party to help him reclaim the throne from his wicked uncle (I’m the experienced player who is basically playing the plot-NPC).
The second side of him isn’t going to be apparent at first, but it turns out he’s a revenge-obsessed madman wildly intent on murdering his wicked uncle at any cost, and wracked by serious survivor guilt, as he believes that the people his uncle killed to get to this point blame him for failing to stop the man. He’s utterly convinced that getting revenge on their behalf is the only way to silence the voices that haunt his every moment.
The DM is in on this with me. I look forward to getting the party used to the kind, princely side of him, hinting at a dark past, and then finally breaking the floodgates and going laughing-mad when he gets the chance to personally disembowel a significant enemy with his bare hands.
This is the second slumming noble in comments. I bet the vigilante class could be a good fit for the trope.
Of course, this makes perfect sense. I feel ashamed for ever doubting the internal consistency of the Handbook, and I shall atone for my sins forthwith! I wonder if Colin accepts sacrificial goats…
Bollocks. Of course this response didn’t get added where I intended. My Lord, The Internet, why hast thou forsaken me 🙁
I prefer my goats with curry.
Say what you like, but a worse person could have discovered Horsepower’s vigilante identity.
He and Thief are more like sitcom arch nemeses than full-blown enemies so far. Fighter would have been much worse… had he possessed the brainpower to make this discovery.
The bromance is in jeopardy!
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/the-handbook-of-heroes-05
Has been for some time, I think. ^_^
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/mild-mannered-unicorn
I think maybe I need to do some work explaining exactly why Fighter and Lumberjack Explosion are still friends. This might call for a return to the “Origin Stories” comics.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/origin-stories-the-anti-party
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/origin-stories-the-heroes
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/origin-stories-team-bounty-hunter
So it isn’t because of the free oats and board? 😉
But yeah, that’d be interesting to see! 🙂
I figure that right now, Lumberjack explosion is just hanging out with Fighter to inform Horsepower of Fighter’s dastardly exploits (such as when Fighter asked Lumberjack Explosion to stop off at the bank, for no reason whatsoever)
We had a changeling, who was pretending to be a drow, and while the players knew what race he was playing, the characters didn’t. Eventually, his character died, and was eventually resurrected, but during the interim, his death had caused him to revert to his natural form, for all to see. While this was fairly hefty proof, upon being raised the changeling was able to convince the players that a how could you be absolutely sure I’m a doppelgänger? I’m a completely normal dark elf; no, not normal in the cultural sense, out down that sword paladin.
He was successful into turning certainty into suspicion; however, eventually the players forgot that they didn’t know, and over time just started acting like they were friends with a shape-shifter. (The player wasn’t too annoyed, though; in order to keep up the disguise, he’d even been casting disguise self when ever the party needed an infiltrator. It was good to finally be able to swap that spell out)
How did he convince them that transforming into a natural shape upon death didn’t mean he was a shapeshifter? I don’t get how the lie worked. Unless of course it was an “RPG Lie”:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/charm-anything
He’s a bard who specialises in deceptions and charms. I don’t recall exactly what was said, but it was enough to turn certainty into suspicion.
I’m just glad that the bard didn’t go further. With at-will shapechanging, +18 to deception and persuasion, and enough charm spells to get me to eat a black jellybean, that guy could’ve convinced that party that he was the king in disguise, acting as a vigilante. The bard could’ve actually convinced the king of that, in fact!
Ah. I think perhaps we have different takes on this rule: “Some lies are so improbable that it is impossible to convince anyone that they are true (subject to GM discretion).”
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/bluff/
This seems like a judgement call, and your table definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt from an outside observer like me. 🙂
I got the chance to turn my Rogue/Brawler into a Vigilante during a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign when a certain costumed hero chose her to be his successor, but I didn’t go for it. And I don’t regret it; my build is pretty fun and offers me plenty of advantages that als benefit the party.
Some day, though, it might be fun to play a Vigilante. ^_^ Heck, even without the actual class, playing that legendary Korvosan hero, seeing the way people reacted, was like playing Batman without the emotional trauma and insanity.
When it became narratively appropriate, I gave a buddy of mine access to the Vigilante’s dual identity as… I can’t remember if it was a feat or a magus arcana. But insofar as it’s basically an anti-scrying ability stapled onto a cool RP hook, I don’t think it broke the game too hard.
I might make another call if there was an actual vigilante in the party (stepping on conceptual toes, etc.), but I think it worked well for the purpose.
But yeah man. The “cut scene” with Black Jack at the end of Book 1 one is so on-point for superhero moments I got goosebumps.
I got a huge kick out of walking up to Pilts’ thugs in the middle of the street in Blackjack’s kit, rolling Intimidate and asking them questions like: “What are you boys doing out here, carrying weapons? You’re here to help preserve civil order now the queen isn’t doing her job, AREN’T YOU? You’re being good neighbours, AREN’T YOU?”
I may have slyly suggested one of my players roll up a vigilante for this one.
“I just think it could be fun. Ya know… In a city campaign.” >_>
That cut scene reminded me of Zorro. ^_^
So cool…
I just wanted to ask: Is Horsepower a Magical Child archetype-style Vigilante?
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/waiting-your-turn
Because that sure looks like a Magical Child’s transformation sequence! ^_^
Not sure. I just hope he hasn’t been a Agathiel this whole time.
What does a hero when his secret identity is know by someone? Well, if people know who he is, villains may try to hurt his loved ones, just ask Kyle Rayner’s girlfriends. So the obvious thing to do is quite clear. If a hero secret identity is uncovered he must kill the knowing person is the most painless way to prevent for them to be killed in a painful way… or maybe the hero can try to not blow up the masquerade 😛
But i am realizing several themes that we don’t treat/play on our table. Like superheroes with secret identities and that. Like the song goes ” Superman nunca viene por acá” 🙂
Are you suggesting that I do a comic in which the unicorn Lumberjack Explosion murders Thief?
Not at all, i wasn’t suggesting anything like that 🙁
…
But now that you say it, yes please 😀
ಠ_ಠ
I did have an In Nomine game back in college where a mixed angel/demon investigation squad was tracking a potential apocalypse. The GM was expecting some backstabbing at some point. All the players knew the characters but it wasn’t until halfway through the adventure a situation came where the cards were on the table. That was also basically the point where events were sort of bigger than us and the railroad took over so a ton didn’t come of it.
Aw, that’s too bad. It’s always a little disappointing when these “big reveal” moments wind up getting glossed over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-0cF13Vm8U
That’s his privilege!
The only character arc I’ve ever completed was one of concealed identity. I revealed myself once I hit the monk level in 5e that lets you communicate in any language and could explain myself. Then I unveiled that the screeching mass of limbs under the floating bedsheet this whole time had been me, a hive-mind of twenty owls and errant prince of his people, who were also hiveminds of animals. Like 20 bears, or 20 snakes.
I feel like I’ve just read the web comic comment equivalent of performance art.
Thanks!
Relevant question is relevant. Just cause I know you’ve mentioned it in an earlier comment, Mutants and Masterminds treats Secret identities as a Complication. When a situation comes up that endangers your secret identity or causes problems for your hero (like when your bratty little sister starts snooping around), you gain a Hero Point, a form of narrative currency you can use to buff your die rolls, ignore fatigue, activate certain powerful traits or modify the scene. If you don’t want the trouble of the complication, you as a player can instead Spend a Hero point to say it doesn’t happen. Example: You’re in your room working on your webslingers and Aunt May walks in. She has the potential to recognize your webslingers as spider-man’s gear, and thus the GM dangles a Hero Point. If he accepts, he has to go through a few scenes of keeping Aunt May from figuring out his secret with actual effort. Instead, Peter’s player spends a Hero Point and says Aunt May completely buys his hasty lie that it’s really just his science project. The Gm nods, and makes new plans for the session. Note that a M&M character can have a secret Identity without the Complication. That just means that it isn’t part of your character’s story that people find out. It’s a narrative No-go.
Now, in my gaming History, i’ve done a few secret identities, though oddly rarely on super heroes. Played a Changeling who was prone to changing identities fairly often, though kept one specific one to travel with the party as. I had a lot of fun running “side plots” with the GM where I would pretend to be someone or occasionally actually set up hooks where I “hired” the party to do a thing and then their mysterious benefactor skipped town. It was Eberron though, so most people assumed it was one of the Lanterns or another secretive organization which just made it harder to convince them to do things next time. It was fun. She was eventually found out in a return game where the GM decided to shunt us from Eberron to Starjammer without warning or player consent.
Dealing with this very issue in my current game, which as I have mentioned is Hero High Mutants and Masterminds. I have several characters who have started their hero career as “random teenager with powers doing X on the street” and have worked into having a secret identity cause “I have to protect my girlfriend!” (That’s a fun story in itself.) I’ve got another player who is so stuck on being a smug genius that he hasn’t realized him not having a secret identity endangers all his friends’ secret identities. Going to play with that next session. My players literally didn’t think about it until they raided a government prison that turned out to be a Blacksite operated by an illegal and officially closed branch of the military who believe that aliens are infilitrating the Earth. (Spoiler alert, they aren’t wrong. )
I feel like you skipped over an important point. It seems too obvious to mention, but it’s crazy important for our discussion.
How did this physically work at the table? Did the GM play as your PC for that scene? Was it all done via PbP?
i played my character, but the players were less aware of what was going on because me and the guy who was running the game sometimes do “pass the hat” where we both have a PC in the party and they pass the Torch of stupidity around depending on who is running the game. It was subterfuge both in and out of game, that when revealed at the end made people annoyed but feel properly hoodwinked instead of cheated.
What’s the difference between “annoyed” and “properly hoodwinked?” Like… How could this exercise have tipped into a negative version of “unexpected surprise?”
I think it’s that moment of “Oh god, it all adds up” they get when they look at it in hindsight. Take my Mutants and Masterminds game as an example, One of my players is playing a character who follows the “martial legacy” of Beowulf. I started his intro to the game with him finding a destroyed Shadow (legally not Hydra) lab with a computer monitor displaying a strange looking arm and the words “Regeneration Complete.” A few weeks later, and one of my players suggested a costume party and handed all the planning on to the Headmaster. The headmaster, agreeing that the student body needed a fun activity after a dark wizard literally disintegrated a wall and kidnapped one of the students, rented a coastal venue and started setting things up. The players spend the next week wrestling with who is taking who to the dance and getting dates. Then, when they show up to the party, the Atlantean DJ is playing really loud techno and dubstep. Toward the end of the party, two of the girls come running into the room, being chased by a huge inhuman monster that two players immedately recognize as Grendel. One of my players even looked at me and said “Oh, god, it’s all here. We’re on the coast, we’re at a party, we’ve got sword boy here!” and the one who had suggested the party then looked at me and shouted “how long have you planned this?” At which point I just smiled. That’s “annoyed” and “properly hoodwinked”.
Unexpected surprises are those that even when it happens and you look at everything in retrospect, nothing makes sense. I guess it comes down to a lack of foreshadowing.
Also, good call on M&M hero points. Embarrassingly, I think my hero has that exact complication. It’s been two years since I’ve played though, and I straight up forgot.
Happily, the GM just started writing up recaps of “the story so far,” so I think we might get back into it in the foreseeable future. 😀
I just hit a weird point where one of my players is considering switching characters and another just asked to completely refactor his build. Inbetween Session ten and eleven. We’re like 9 weeks into the school year and the lee side of a Pokemon battle for the fate of the universe, a resurrection of a dark horror from beyond time, and a trip to Dark Side’s Dimension on group trust building.
When switch player told me, I wanted to rip the roughly four pages of notes about the character and his plotlines out of a notebook, ball them up in front of him, throw the paper ball so that it hits him in the face, then calmly ask “So what’s this new character?” But Rule Zero is have fun, and I’m pretty sure “don’t throw things at your players physically” is in the rules somewhere. x.x
Oh I dunno. I used to have a guy listen to headphones during session. I’d throw a plush d6 at him to get his attention when it was his turn initiative. I’m not sure if it was fun for him, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.
I could not. I seriously could not. I had a guy fall asleep at one of my games and had to be talked out of kicking him out of the game for it. I put a lot of effort into “GM as entertainer.” I try to make the whole experience engaging an fun for everyone. I write little plots that center around particular character’s stories, I tie villains to people, i keep track of NPC reactions and put a lot of work in. When I’m running a game, I’m constantly working on it the entire time inbetween sessions, running over scenes in my head, coming up with different ways to play out plot points, attacking character stories to understand the themes and styles at play. I take it very poorly when someone does something like that.
Changing a character because you decided you “wanted to come at the game from a different angle” is annoying and narratively complicated, but if it will increase your enjoyment I’ll work with it. Coming to my game to sleep or listen to music? You can do that at home, don’t bother. It really pushes my buttons.
Good on you for not having my reaction.
I had a Tibbit character once but the party assumed I was a halfling, never used cat form in front of them. One other player found out after he became my in game boyfriend, and he kept my secret. I had always assumed we would get captured or something and I could use my shapeshift to get out of bonds and free the party and then make some quip about it when everyone went WHUUUUUT?! So I planned to keep this part of my identity a secret for as long as it lasted but I was expecting it to come up at some point. But my actual reveal was more fun I think.
I had a……pretty unique character build. Some of it was house rules with my GM working with me to get a character concept to fit a prestige class. One of the side effects was being pretty damn speedy on foot despite being smol size. We got into a battle and a message needed to be relayed back to a commander at base form the frontlines, and FAST. So I said “I got this guys”, let the fightery folks take their turns, and my initiative came with quizzical expectant looks.
I cast swift expeditious retreat, shift into cat form, and sprint! big eyes from players You….shift into a CAT?!
GM- ok, whats your movement total for the round?
Uhm…lemme math…. cat form base move 40, quick trait so thats 50,celerity domain gives me another 10 so 60, spell gave me another 20 so thats 80, and I have the run feat so x5 and this class trait lets me ignore the difficult terrain. 350 ft
whole room is more agape that I ran 80 grid squares in one turn than that I am a shapeshifter
I don’t know why, but there’s something inherently hilarious about sudden bursts of speed.
I’ve always liked urban grace…
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/u/urban-grace/
…Plus cheeta’s sprint…
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/cheetah-s-sprint/
Leaping rooftop to rooftop like Spider-Man out of nowhere is usually good for a laugh.
that DOES sound delicious
I remember a particular player not even getting her character into the game with a big secret. She was a pixie/shape changer who was going to be the entire Thieves’ Guild leadership in the guise of different personalities and looks; meanwhile, a different player added True Seeing to his character’s list of attributes…kind of pointless at that point to implement a good idea.
Laurel: “I’m still sad about that! It was such a good plan.”