Faerie Conversations & Lying

[Kennifus Prime]

As many of you know it's a bit difficult to plan out conversations within the campaigns of the DFRPG as your players can [for the most part] do and say whatever they'd like. For those of you who have put faeries in your campaigns how do you handle social interactions in regards to lying by omission. As an example let's say your player characters get into a conversation with Maeve (circa Summer Knight). They want information on something and she doesn't want to give it outright, but she can't lie. Does anyone have any tips on roleplaying her conversation so that she can lie indirectly by things such as omission? (A common tactic of the fae from what I remember.) This may seem simple to some, but I'm having a hard time thinking of ways to do it. I haven't worked any form of fae into my campaign as of yet simply for this reason, but I would love to do so. Any input anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Mr. Death]

While you can't predict exactly what the players will say and do, once you play with them for a while, you'll get a feel for how they approach such things and can plan accordingly. Before the conversation starts, consider what Maeve does want instead of what she doesn't want to reveal. Then come up with a way for her to say the literal truth that leads the players in the direction Maeve wants them to go. Have Maeve steer the conversation, like Aurora does in that book, to lead the players and their characters away from the topic Maeve wants to avoid.

[dragoonbuster]

While you can't predict exactly what the players will say and do, once you play with them for a while, you'll get a feel for how they approach such things and can plan accordingly. Before the conversation starts, consider what Maeve does want instead of what she doesn't want to reveal. Then come up with a way for her to say the literal truth that leads the players in the direction Maeve wants them to go. Have Maeve steer the conversation, like Aurora does in that book, to lead the players and their characters away from the topic Maeve wants to avoid.

Pretty much this. Figure out your Fae's objectives/motivations before the conversation.

Also, a lie by omission can be rolled with Deceit and then can trigger an Empathy defense. They won't know what she's lying about, but the players will know she's not saying something.

[Haru]

They're tough to do, true.

However, if you know where you want to go, you can take a more mechanical approach to get it right. So before trying yourself at a social conflict as a fae, maybe go for a single roll first. If you know if you are going to provide information or not, you can get your conversation on track much more easily. Or even make it a compel. Sorry guys, the fae are so good at lying, you don't get a straight answer out of her, so you don't get an answer here. Fate point granted and you know what not to say during that conversation.

You could train a bit. Think up a situation that could come up and write a short script for the dialog. This won't give you a script you can use, but it will give you a training ground to get into the Sidhe mindset for a conversation. You can try out different styles and prepare some phrases that will help you in your actual play.

[Taran]

I think this is exactly what social conflicts are for.  Not everyone can rp a character who has a +5 deceit, with the 'honest lies' stunt.  That's why you roll dice.

The party's goal is 'x', the fairy's goal is 'y'.

Everyone rolls combat and whoever wins gets what they want.  Concessions can work out that one party gives some but not all the information.  They have to justify maneuvers and attacks, like normal but The actual conversation is fluff.

In fact, you could do a series of opposed rolls (cat n' mouse) or something.  Figure out who wins, then let the winner narrate the result.

I'm not suggesting this be the only way or the 'go to' way but it is another approach.  Taking out the RP factor will probably take out a lot of unexpected occurrences and opportunities for compels, unfortunately.

[jftravis]

Pretty much what everyone else has put in, so far: know what the fae wants, then tell the players every true thing that gets them going that way, without giving them any of the drawbacks. Not being able to lie doesn't mean having to speak the truth, when saying nothing useful is an option. Enigmatic silence isn't a lie.

If you want to go even deeper into it, it's possible that the fae CAN'T tell them certain things, thanks to bargains THEY have made. This can render them physically incapable of answering, even if they wanted to. From there you may want to figure out who that is and what THEY want (because you can certainly deepen the plot, that way), but it's not necessary.

I'm amusedly reminded of two things. One was a quote from an NPC in my old L5R game: "There is nothing so devastating as an artfully told truth." The other is the nature of the standard Microsoft Error Message - technically accurate, utterly worthless.

[Shaft]

When in doubt, speak like the Magic 8 Ball

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8-Ball

[Sanctaphrax]

If you're playing by post, you can try grammatical tricks. Suppose a player asks, "Why did an ogre throw a car at my house yesterday?"

The faerie says,

"One of your recent actions upset someone high up in the Summer Court."

(Looks like an answer to the question, but might just be a random comment about something unrelated.)

"It appears that the ogre was trying to hit a veiled fae of the opposing Court."

('It appears' makes the sentence almost tautological.)

"Your general obnoxiousness."

(Sentence fragment, no actual meaning.)

This would be inappropriate in spoken speech, but in text I think it's fair. As long as you and your players have the same understanding of what "not lying" means that I do.

[Kennifus Prime]

Thanks for all the tips everyone! I think this will help a lot. I especially like approaching the conversations from the angle of "What does the fae want to accomplish?" and just saying things that steer the conversation and PC's in that direction rather than "What does the fae not want the PC's to discover?" and trying to figure out roundabout ways of "lying" the whole time.

[Mr. Death]

It's almost always easier to be proactive (leading the conversation in a direction you want it to go) than reactive (leading the conversation away from a direction you don't want it to go) in cases like this. Players will surprisingly often fall into the trap of, "Okay, the NPC said this, that must be relevant and useful," and that gives you a lot of power over where the conversation goes. By contrast, being noticeably obstructive is just going to make them want to dig out what the fae's hiding even more.

And always remember that your NPCs are not just there just to serve the PCs -- I mean, okay, they kind of are, nature of the game and all that, but bear with me -- but they're people with their own agendas and goals as well that will sometimes align, sometimes fall against the PCs'. And the fae always want something and are up to something.

[jftravis]

It also occurs to me that, depending on how flexibly you run your games, you could potentially let ANYTHING AT ALL come out of the faerie's mouth, and just adjust the scenario to MAKE it (some possibly incredibly convoluted variant of) the "truth."

[Remi]

If the players have read the books or have any experience with fae in the past, they expect that everything the fae say will be misleading at best, and a lie by omission at worst. Managing expectations before the conversation may head off unwanted questions before they are asked.

If you're personally not that good at making misleading and opaque statements, answering a question with a question is frequently a good tactic. If the PC asks a straight-up question, you might respond with, "Why do you want to know that?" or "What good can come of this course of action?" A non-sequitur or change of subject is always good. A simple smile or frown or scowl may also do. Or they can simply up and leave.

If the PC demands answers, the response can become hostile, threatening or seductive, the flavor of which will depend on the personality of the fae: "How rude of a mortal to make such demands on your betters." Or, "This will not end well for you." Or, "Perhaps our time would be better spent in conjugation rather than conversation."

If you always keep conversations with fae vague and evasive, and never offer definitive answers or statements, players will soon expect they will lead nowhere. Which means that they will always suspect anything they're told, even when it's the bald-faced truth.

Which is exactly what you want.

[Kennifus Prime]

Thanks again for all your help everyone! This is going to be worlds of help when I work the Faerie Courts into the mix.