Player Hooks

Rob Donague has a post up this morning about lateral hooks between players.

I thought it was interesting, especially the last few paragraphs which could be summarized simply as "niche protection creates bonds of need between characters". However, I think there is a more effective way to create these connections.

First, I want to acknowledge this is a problem. All to often we have a tendency to adopt a chaotic neutral alignment as a PLAYER, viewing everything in terms of how it benefits our character. This drive is what creates a lot of the problems people have with min/maxing.

So while I agree with Rob's proposed solutions to this problem, I think the best way to create party cohesion is to pass a certain kind of note to players in secret. A lot of times, passing secret notes reduces party cohesion because it is information that gives the player an advantage. However, if you pass notes that represent perceptual impressions of a conversation, it creates a reason for players to cooperate together and thus form these lateral connections.

Based on his body language, you think this guy is lying

You remember that last time you talked, she said something different about that issue

He seems to be digging for information on the stone

You feel like there is something she is not telling you

These kind of things create doubt about the truth of conversational outcomes and thus encourages characters to talk amongst themselves about conversations after they occur. This collaborative search for the truth creates real friendships between characters. Andy Dufresne and Red kinda friendships. Real bonds.

So give it a try with your group and see what happens.