Manipulating Players' Emotions

[RPGPundit]

The classic example of this in Amber is when the GM subtly tries to encourage competition between PCs.  But surely, you have also done other dirty GM tricks in Amber... tell us about them!

RPGPundit

[gabriel_ss4u]

Meee? Manipulate players?
Neverrrrr.

I'm empathic and tend read my players well enough to use NPCs I created to tug a player emotionally one way or the other.

Like the characters in the novels, I tend to have my NPCs lie when it suits them as well.
However I tend to let players do what they want, my campaign has no overbearingly heavy GM hand.

[SunBoy]

I've found that is pretty easy to frustrate or encourage players with a few casual remarks from their parents, way more so than with any other "figure of authority". Actually, the fact that I'm aware of this doesn't prevent it from happening to me, so I'm doubly convinced. There's something about that bloke being your dad that a good player finds hard to ignore (for bad or good). I once had a girl (she was playing a boy, son of Bleys) sulking the whole night (IC, of course) just having Bleys, as an afterthought, tell her character to "Please, Phillipe, do wear something nice". And I've achieved comparable effects with Benedict and Gerard, too. Benedict's easy, just a "Take care" or a nod and a short smile go a long way, and so does Gerard looking "a little sad". In short, having players develop emotional bonds with NPCs (positive bonds, that is), is a sure way to be able to shake them, should need arise. This requires a bit of work as a GM, but totally worth it IMO.

[SunBoy]

However I tend to let players do what they want, my campaign has no overbearingly heavy GM hand.

Actually, managing to achieve "emotional investment" from players is a good way to... make things happen... without having to steer characters directly.

[RPGPundit]

Yeah, well, Gerard is like a huge puppy, so having him be sad or disappointed in you can be a really classical manipulation.  You can manipulate the fuck out of players with Gerard because he's the one really nice guy and just a little bit of a thickie so it really takes a lot for him to end up feeling truly disappointed.

RPGPundit

[jibbajibba]

Isn't this like um.. what GMs do all the time?
It's my bread and butter, my go to move. I even do it as a player to other players and the GM

My favourite was when I had one of the NPCs Ariel (aka The Dark Siren) encounter the player who decided they wanted a background out of Amber, a bastard son. I had her lay in wait at a pool and then pose as that kind of spunky, tomgirl nextdoor kind of character. She attacked Gideon, the character, out of misplaced pride becuase he had seen her bathe naked. He being rank 1 in warfare defeated her easily. Then she told him of her mission to track down the City of Amber and the evil Oberon who was apparentrly her father as he had raped her mother, etc etc. This set Gideon up nicely as the main anti-Amber antagonist and he was keen to help her. I pitched her psuedo personality just at the point I knew the player would find appealing and added a few quirks, the way she chewed her top lip when she was concentrating, the way she blushed when his henchman made a colourful joke, etc etc. She sedeuced him , her own half broither. Eventually she faked a rape by one of the other PCs and Gideon was out for blood. He raised an army of Angels from Shadow and marched on Amber nearly won as well and it took all the other Pccs to defeat them.
Anyway needless to say the real Ariel was a totally different creature as revealed at the denoument. She had been exiled from Amber for establishing the cult of the Rended Unicorn and sacrificing a bunch of local Amber kids in teh Grove of the Unicorn.
The look on the player's face as he lay dying (he had a mamoth sword fight with the 2nd rank warefare guy who he slew but then the third ranked guy backed by a couple of sorcerous siblings took him down) and rather than comfort him in his last moments she went into full harriden mode and told him how he had ruined her plans and how she had been setting it up for years etc etc... priceless.

[SunBoy]

Isn't this like um.. what GMs do all the time?
It's my bread and butter, my go to move. I even do it as a player to other players and the GM

No one said it wasn't. We were just trading tips and stories, here. Yours was nice, BTW.

[gabriel_ss4u]

yup, I got one... I think I mentioned before how IMC I had one NPC, (a vampire who was actually a Chaosian's named & #ed creature, part of a dozen vampires from 'Lady Razell du Vertix', Assassin & Vampire Queen of Chaos, ), that had actually gotten a PC, (my co-GM/player actually), to fall for her, try to protect her, and ended up eventually seduced & allowed Nina to bite him... and drink some Pattern blood. Hmmmm, this opened up a whole can of worms for long term plot device. Nina then had the will & strength to resist her mistress, ended up aligning with a middle faction (Merlin & the Topaz Society) between Amber & Chaos, and eventually became a very strong antagonist who aligned in the end with the Abyss and it's armies of undead that were starting to infest Shadow, soon to be a huge threat to all of existence.

"Well I feel sheeeepish"
He tried for the longest time to keep the secret of his mistake, but eventually it was found out, had plenty of elders were clearing their schedule to teach him a  lesson that, in their minds, Prince Caspien (the PC) needed to learn.
"She was a little thirsty" doesn't cut it...

I love it when the players have that stunned, gasping, look of awe and amazement on their face... repetitively.

(now before ya jump on the Pattern blood thing... she was a vampire of Chaos, and had the ability to incorporate other's blood to her power. Besides, it would have been no fun if she just burst into flames at first nip. Yes... she did come back for 2nds.)