Casting Shadows

This is the twenty-fourth day of #RPGaDAY2025 and today the prompt was leaked over a month ago now and has been impossible to keep out of the news ever since. Even on this very blog, where you might assume we might have total control over the content, the prompt was directly referred to. I guess the urge toward freedom by information is a true thing. If, however, your spoiler defense mechanisms are sufficiently trained to have missed all of this, then now you can safely discover today’s prompt. Are you ready?

Today’s prompt is…. reveal.

Day 24: Reveal

This is a very dangerous prompt for a GM with my preferences. It comes laden with nuance and some open and obvious aspects which can lead toward shaping the flow of events, of controlling the pace of discovery, and of influencing play toward a vision of a story.

Don’t get me wrong, unmasking Mr. Jenkins and revealing that he was the abominable snowmobiling yeti all along is a lot of fun. Revelations are a good thing. How we conceive of them, how we implement them, and what they deliver to the group, however, are important.

Let’s say, for example, that we identified all or most of the NPCs in the campaign who were vulnerable to conversion to the Cult of the Sleeper before play and we decided that it would be great for a certain number of them to be big betrayals with far-reaching effects on the characters. This series of revelations over the course of the campaign could be legendary if done right, right?

Right!

Right, but what is the right way to reveal those betrayals?

That lies in our understanding of the group and how they see play – consciously or unconsciously.

To use an extreme set of examples, let’s compare two different approaches to NPC creation.

We might make an NPC who was designed from the start to betray the characters. We cannot conceive of them any other way than in the context of this huge, future, betrayal. In play, they are loyal, they are beloved, and when the time is right, they reveal their duplicity.

We might make an NPC who was designed from the start to be a character with a hidden flaw. We see them as a person who is protecting their secret. Over time in the campaign, the cultists might or might not find out that flaw and might or might not be able to exploit it in the recruitment of the character. At some point in play, the characters might or might not be able to spot the stress of the NPC, or the influence of the cult, or the effects of a failed or successful recruitment effort, or… the pending betrayal.

There are many differences of conception, implementation, ease, and intention behind these two extreme variations – and this is part of the joy of learning and growing in this hobby.

It has so much to reveal in even the smallest details!

Quick Survey of Days 17-24

See you tomorrow for Day 25: Challenges