I was inspired to post this partly because of the 'commonly made mistakes' thread, and party because I'm getting pissed at my current project at work. It's a technique that I've been thinking about trying out in some of my one-shots.

In movies, the viewer is sometimes given information that the protagonist is not. This is usually done by cutting to another scene, to show what the antagonist is doing. Plotting, planning, killing somebody, stealing something, waiting for something... whatever. This creates a certain type of irony (dramatic irony? I don't remember the specific term). As you may have gathered, I've been toying with the idea of using this sort of cut scene while running a game (Shadowrun or others).

The players would get an idea of what the villain is doing, but the characters would still have no idea. It would be interesting to see how the players react to this. Whether they have the self-control and roleplaying skill to stop themselves from using this knowledge, or their actions are heavily influenced by it. I'm guessing it would be somewhere in between (which, really, would be what I'm shooting for).

I think this would create interesting tension. The players know what the bad guy is doing, but there is little the characters can do to stop it (at least, in the short term).

What do you think?

Just don't give them anything they can use

"...and while you guys are fumbling around in Joe Fixer's garage looking for big guns, a dark and sinister shadow looms ominously over little Penelope's handcuffed, helpless body."

If integrated in as an in-play cutscene of something that juuust happened its one of my favorites devices.

EG:
'Free Sprite' using Information Sortilege [Tutor Sprite]
EGhost with memories damaged by a critically glitched Psychotropic BTL (so it acts like Alter Memory, or maybe it WAS ALter memory... he forgot who did it.)
Ritual sorcery and the Dream spell. [As a spotter consider possessing a focus bound to the target character and use something akin to Masking.)
Divination metamagic by an ultraparanoid person with an agenda
'Free Spirit' using Divination power [Guidance Spirit]
A handwaved critical hit result when a Mind Probe is used on someone (or some creature) that is insane/nonhuman/in a coma
...as well as the basic option of a file of some security camera footage or a flatvid/trideo news broadcast.

I'm sure there are other ideas out there for integration but as long as the info can be taken in play I see it as a wonderful device. When a player knows something the character doesn't the player is forced to decide between acting on player knowledge or excluding the cutscene from every action. the latter can cause the player to exclude logical conclusions they would have drawn anyway as they strive to only have in-play actions based on in-play intel.

I've used this a couple of different times. I ran a campaign around the events in Emergence. There was a group of Renraku operatives kidnapping suspected TMs, one of whom was a member of the players' gang. I would often start sessions by handing out the Renraku team's sheets out to the players, and giving them their orders. Not only would the players be aware of what was going on, they were to a large degree in control of it. Then we'd switch back to their regular characters, and they would go about reaching their goals as usual.

It worked really well. Ironically, knowing exactly what the bad guys had on their character sheets made the players more apprehensive about tangling with them.

Used sparingly but yes, they work very effectively to raise tension.

- J.

I've never done this, but given the various canon ways of transferring sensory information, such as ritual spellcasting of the dream spell, and of course Simsense recordings, it's definately a plot device you could use without veering off into silliness.

Perhaps the runners are hunting some-one down, and some physical legwork comes up empty. At the end of the day, the runners are winding down at their respective homes when they each get a package containing a simchip. If they slot it, it's a recording of the target watching the runners from the grassy knoll. This could be used for a whole lot of different things, such as a recording of the target torturing a kidnapping victim. Alternatively, maybe some-one who's been kidnapped manages to summon a watcher spirit as a spotter for a ritual casting, and they send you a message through your dreams.

I played in a game run by a fellow named Chris Avellone about a decade ago. As a GM, he loved using props and handouts for the players. One thing he did a lot of in these handouts was "Cutscenes." Sometimes, they'd be backstory on the upcoming game, other times they'd be foreshadowing events. Once in a while, they'd set up a mystery (the old viewing seeing a murder happen, without showing who the killer is.) And, many times, they'd be used at the beginning of a session to establish "mood." And sometimes, just sometimes, your handout might be subtly different from the one the other players were given (which, since he always read the cutscene aloud, you would notice because your text was different than what he was reading.)

Another thing he did was have each character have "Theme Music" -- we each picked a song and once per session could request it be played -- and we got bonuses while it was playing. Of course...some of the key enemies got Theme Songs as well, which made for some scary times.

I have used this technique in PbP games. It works really well in that context.

You can avoid ruining suspension of disbelief ( or boring your players) by having video feeds (either live or pre-recorded) journals, and so forth serve this purpose.