Players Plotting against PCs

[Lisa Padol]

Beth runs a campaign based on the works of James H. Schmidt (which I've never read). My PC, Marius Lecks, is an empath. Stephen's PC, Ell Thorndike, is a Screamer. What this means is that if she's probed by a psychic, the psychic gets caught in a very nasty feedback loop.

Last session, Stephen said that Ell would open a small hole in her thought shield, so that if any of the bad guys were tracking her group psychically, they'd be in for a nasty surprise. I said that Marius would use his empathy to locate everyone on his side, and then scan for unfriendlies.

Beth said that the trick was for Ell to time the hole in her shield just right. Stephen and I both pointed out that Ell and Marius were completely unaware of each others' abilities. Matters proceeded as we knew they inevitably -- at some point, anyway -- had to -- Marius fried himself when he tried to locate Ell mentally, and passed out. And was out of commission for the fight, but that's okay.

After the fight, Marius came around, and he and Ell had a hilarious conversation where both genuinely believed there was a hostile psychic around, but neither learned about each ohers' powers. And Ell didn't learn about a sentient AI, believing that Jealousy, Josh's PC, simply had very good anti-kidnapping protection.

Eventually, explanations were made all around in character, but we had a ton of fun conspiring against our PCs first. Beth noted that she didn't have to do anything, just sit back and watch.

-Lisa