Sometimes it can be a lot of fun to keep your players guessing, particularly if they’re veterans of the game you’re playing.
If this sounds like your group, bring a couple of extra books (for the same game) to every session — and choose them more or less at random.
Between those random choices (“The Big Book of Doom and Gloom? What’s that doing here?”) and the extras you bring with a purpose (as in, “Hmmm, they might take the right fork and head to Mordor”), your players won’t know what to expect.
And best of all? It’s fairly subtle until they catch on — and once they catch on, that still won’t help.
(TT is in GenCon mode from August 9th-13th. I won’t be able to respond to comments or email, but there will be a new post every day, just like always.)
An excellent idea, and one I’ve used a bunch of itmes. In the olden days, the book of terror was the original Fiend Folio; now its the Book of Vile Darkness (which the group has had a healthy respect for ever since a shadow demon used one of the spells in it to rip of a party member’s hand, turn it into a wight, and then attack him with his own undead hand…)
I like to have my books in view, labels facing the players. I always put at least one ringer into it. Sometimes I’ll pick one up and look at it while the players are talking.
But since I actually write down all the stats of creatures and encounters the party will be facing, I don’t often actually use the books apart from intimidation.
I love to be thumbing through the Villain Design Handbook when my players arrive.
Similar idea: Perhaps you could put identical book covers on each book? Of course, that would make it a pain to find a particular one.
Generally I have everything written down in a little black binder of death with all of my stats and creatures in there. I try to use reference pictures to give my players some idea to spark of their imaginations. Like a picture of a behemoth or a dark corridor. Something that they can look at, internalize and garner a theme for the game from. Then build it from there with words and descriptions, moods and tones.
If I used more books at the table, (i’m a big fan of tools and charts on laptops or in binders so it’s one stop shopping) having a decoy book to get their wheels turning would be a great idea.
Of course it could also be fun to bring some books from a different game as decoys. “Yeah, I know we’re playing DND but that zombie game book has a great chart for damage effects from zombie bites. “
I actually used a table for insanity from Call of Cthulhu during a shadowrun game a few weeks beck. Of course, I didn’t want to be juggling books during game, so I gave the CoC book to my wife (who was acting as a sort of “Lovely ^GM^ Assistant”© and said “Get me a photocopy of page (I think it was 76) would you please? She came back with it rather nervous. “The Insanity table?” she asked.
I think I mentioned earlier how all it takes is the Ravenloft book on the table for my players to either go catatonic, gain a phobia of anything resembling fog, or start commiting attrocities with reckless abandon.
I get more of a “oh shit” effect from the Book of Vile Darkness.
I do the same thing when pulling minitures out of the box for the encounter.
Fun pulling out the beholder along with the orcs and just setting him behind them ready to go.
Every so often, when your players are talking and you’re writing, randomly say, “Wait — what’s its CR/stats/etc?”, open up your game-specific book o’ baddies, and whistle.
Quite fun the first few times.
T
I had no idea how universal this was. 🙂
Along the lines of the ringer mini, I’ve used the screen from Call of Cthulhu in this way before. It’s also a great four-panel screen, so I’m not even giving up that much in the process. 😉