If you know they’re coming, it sort of ruins the surprise. If the GM asks if it’s okay to have party betrayal (or if someone else asks and the GM says yes) then you’re constantly on the lookout for it - because why would they ask if it was irrelevant? Of course, nothing says the GM can’t ask an irrelevant question in the same manner they keep irrelevant minis next to their screen, but it’s something that’s usually frowned upon (what amounts to non-consensual PVP), so if it’s known to be ok, you’ll be looking out for it and then the twist won’t stick.
Of course, if you don’t know it’s coming, then it’s never a place your brain will go. You aren’t just going to accuse a character (and thus player) of working against the party because that’s a heavy accusation. It carries a lot of weight behind it since you’re only a few steps down from calling someone a problem player. Players often don’t have a good enough grasp on other players’ characters to notice behavioral shifts, and players often don’t have good enough acting skills to roleplay them correctly.
I’ve yet to hear a story where someone figured this kind of twist out before the reveal, and that doesn’t surprise me at all.
You could privately talk to your GM and say your character wants to cover all of their bases, so just like batman, spends time strategizing about how to defeat the other party members and making preparations in case they betray the group or him. Like a ring of concentration that also has an anti-magic curse activated when the correct word is spoken in its vicinity for the mage, secretly planted on the body of a mob that your character manages to get to before the party loots.
And then, of course, you’re in a position where you could betray the party and surprise even the GM.
Though a counter argument to what you’re saying is that deception games are a thing and the players knowing that there are enemies in the group doesn’t make those games trivial to figure out. A deception RPG could be interesting to play.
The big problem with twists like these…
If you know they’re coming, it sort of ruins the surprise. If the GM asks if it’s okay to have party betrayal (or if someone else asks and the GM says yes) then you’re constantly on the lookout for it - because why would they ask if it was irrelevant? Of course, nothing says the GM can’t ask an irrelevant question in the same manner they keep irrelevant minis next to their screen, but it’s something that’s usually frowned upon (what amounts to non-consensual PVP), so if it’s known to be ok, you’ll be looking out for it and then the twist won’t stick.
Of course, if you don’t know it’s coming, then it’s never a place your brain will go. You aren’t just going to accuse a character (and thus player) of working against the party because that’s a heavy accusation. It carries a lot of weight behind it since you’re only a few steps down from calling someone a problem player. Players often don’t have a good enough grasp on other players’ characters to notice behavioral shifts, and players often don’t have good enough acting skills to roleplay them correctly.
I’ve yet to hear a story where someone figured this kind of twist out before the reveal, and that doesn’t surprise me at all.
You could privately talk to your GM and say your character wants to cover all of their bases, so just like batman, spends time strategizing about how to defeat the other party members and making preparations in case they betray the group or him. Like a ring of concentration that also has an anti-magic curse activated when the correct word is spoken in its vicinity for the mage, secretly planted on the body of a mob that your character manages to get to before the party loots.
And then, of course, you’re in a position where you could betray the party and surprise even the GM.
Though a counter argument to what you’re saying is that deception games are a thing and the players knowing that there are enemies in the group doesn’t make those games trivial to figure out. A deception RPG could be interesting to play.