When it comes to enacting a roleplay scenario, and revealing something about a character, the build-up is the best part. You gotta drag it out and incentivise people to discover the hints, and make guesses on what is happening. If your hints are boring, and you don't incentivise fellow roleplayers to disobey your instructions, you'll confuse people.

But if you're extra smart, you can use this to not only treat other characters like lab rats, but you could get it down so precise to an art, you could be a scientist, and use your twists as a way to gauge others' reactions, reel them into your reveal, and even get an idea of what kind of roleplayers your friends and fellow players are!

While you could technically also apply this to Dungeons & Dragons and other forms of it... I speak as somebody who is not in those spaces, so please keep that in mind!!

Now let me explain.

The art of overly analyzing people through their thinking

Something I never realized until recently, is that I technically can overanalyze people's roleplay styles and behaviors just by offering them a non-linear moment. I've been doing this for years, mainly as a kinda linear thing to encourage others to get closer to what my character is going to be revealed to be, although now that I've had years to look back on it, I realized it can be a really good tool for analyzing and treating people (metaphorically) like rats. And you can do this too, which might even make your experience even more fun.

Let's say that you have a character. Maybe a male, and he used to be part of a controversial company that worked to cover up natural disasters as the supernatural. This twist can be anything you can think of, but for "let's not say something stupid" sake, you covered up landslides with aliens.

A good roleplayer will make their character mysterious about it. A great roleplayer will let hints slip and leaves other to guess. And you can watch others from a distance (as in from a narration perspective), and quite literally get an idea of how good they are at roleplayer, or putting hints together from this.

Setting the trap: Give people a reason to suspect

Firstly, you need to make people WANT to investigate you. If you're not acting like you're armed with a switchblade, you won't be a very interesting character, and the reveal will feel more like reaction bait, rather than something confirming everybody else's fears.

Start with small traps. Bring up events that you know about, showing people that you like natural disasters. Something simple, like "Did you hear about that Alien invasion in Tokyo? It was almost like King Kong sent them!". You could slip up and accidently reveal something ("Wasn't the Tornado in Wyoming so weird?"), then immediately cover it up afterwards ("...A tornado of falling cats, I mean! Haha!").

You could also dress fancy, and suggest you work a nice job. Put yourself in a suit with a smudged company logo, and when asked where you work, you could make something up. ("I work for Evantech, great IT company!.")

And if they actually look it up and find it doesn't exist, you could always try again! ("Oh sorry, I meant Evansmith.")

You can come up with your own ideas, I'm sure, but these are just small ideas of how you could motivate people to look at you funny. Little speech slipups, suspicious appearances and behaviors can do it too. Sometimes you just need to be simple: appear in places you said you weren't going to be. Then make up a reason why you're there. ("Oh, my friend Betty was going to be here. I'm waiting for her now. I thought she wasn't coming, but she ended up going anyway.")

Oops, I slipped: Placing hints and setpieces

Have you given others a reason to look at you funny? Got personal followers looking for the right moment for you to mess up? Sweating bullets because they think that incident in Wyoming was your fault? Great, then we're on the right track!

But what would be any fun for a reveal, if we didn't offer others a chance to guess? By this point, you want to lead people somewhere. Whether that's towards the truth (redacted documents on incidents you were involved in) or towards a misleading place as a troll (unredacted documents about cease & desists towards news channels), that is your choice!

But you need to slip up somewhere. No good human is perfect, after all.

So why not try slipping up? Leave the door to your office unlocked, and step away. Forget about something that lets others snoop through your stuff, then walk away. Drag somebody away from your office, say you need to go to the bathroom, and just leave!

This is where the fun analysis part comes in. Remember in the title when I said you could treat this like a science? Yeah, non-linear segments like this is how.

Let's say for now, that it's a locked office door. A roleplayer who is new or otherwise a little new or unfamiliar, might walk away from a locked door. They might assume the story is linear, that "oh, this is probably a place I can't go through, I'll just mind my business".

But great roleplayers take notes, and remember things. So let's say we have somebody named Michael, and he is played by another roleplayer. Mike might recall some bobby pins from scenes prior, and leave to grab them. Then he'll take it back to the door to lockpick it, to whatever results you two decide. Maybe he's a shitty lockpicker and breaks the lock, maybe he'll barge in and you let him. Ideally, do discuss the outcome OOC so there are no surprises. Good roleplayers will discuss this together.

Okay, cool, you're in an office. Good roleplays look through everything and make a mess of everything, sure. But a great roleplayer will note that down. They might take things from your office that you wouldn't normally notice. They might place an AirTag on one of your utentils to see if you notice. Maybe they'll write down some notes onto a pen and paper, and take it to you for confrontation later.

There are many ways people can take notes and prepare to stumble you later. Sometimes they might take angles you NEVER expect, sometimes you'll do it together knowing it makes the story feel more grounded.

These things, while simple and small, adds a little conflict and make the story feel super good to be in together. Great roleplayers can appreciate detail, while others might just take it in and forget later. Everybody is different, with varying specialities. Some are made to steal, some are made to interrogate, and everybody will be something new!

But remember to watch what they do, and take notes for yourself. It can give you hints into somebody's character (paranoid/criminal characters will steal or track instead of just writing information down), or it might even give you an idea of how much detail somebody catch onto unprompted.

Everybody will be different, and sometimes it will be hard to read people, so don't do this with EVERY session if its not your thing. But open paths and opening the door to more than one outcome will feel rewarding in the long run, and while obvious, will amaze people and leave an impression. So do whatever you think would be nice for you.

Now, we know how you can "scientifically" study people while you do this, but what would this stage look like? I'm bad at improvision, does that mean I'm doomed?

No!!! Improvision is the fun part of roleplay, and sometimes you need to think fast! If you struggle with that, it is always a good idea to establish some objects of interest FAR before you enter the roleplay, but if you're a quick thinker, you could just make up some bullshit on the fly, then write it right into your writing later down the line.

Interlude: Great roleplayers will try to bring these up before your reveal. Troll to your hearts desire in this stage, but don't lie too hard!

Before we can get to revealing your character's true reveal, let's quickly address a problem you might run into later down the line.

By this point, you've tempted people a lot. Acted weird, left doors unlocked, gave people access to information they really do not need access to. You've tripped a lot of people up, and they've caught onto you. Naturally so!

But sometimes, people might come up to you and ask you a lot of questions early. While you could technically silence the concerns and be cold, what's the fun in that? Improvision is a fun part of roleplay.

So, you can do whatever you want here. You could troll, and lead them on a goose chase. You could subtly, kinda answer the question but also allude to something else. Just don't lie too much: Don't forget that you're supposed to reel somebody in with a plot, not shut down the suspense.

If somebody is walking up to you, asking what that piece of paper they found is, make something up! Say it's your wife's paperwork or something. Explain that weird, cease & desist was a company breaking copyright law, or something. Then point to a thing they did that was around the same time, but completely unrelated to the truth. Say, them copying artists instead of suing you for covering up the flood in Ohio.

Generally, you don't want to say something that will make the person believe that you actually aren't the thing they're thinking. But you also don't want to be too obvious too. Say enough to please, not to mislead. You're getting somebody off your back, not trying to lie them into gaslighting.

Because don't forget, the reveal should come as a surprise, not as something that feels unrelated!

Speaking of,

The Reveal: A great roleplayer will up-play the reveal, then freak out later privately

Welcome to the final stage. This is where your brainstorming pays off. This is where you can reveal all the good ideas.

By this point, you are passing the light to the other person, so try not to hijack the stage too much, and let it play out. But if you are in further need of ideas, you could always throw in some last minute tibits in the last converastion.

For example, you could go from either direction in terms of how you feel about where you worked. You could be against it ("I HATED working there, Alice. They threatened my family, threatened my livelihood, and somebody needs to fight back. Next time somebody tells YOU that an alien landed in colorado, It was a god damn earthquake!"), or you could play further into it, if you want to reveal that they are still in the work space. ("Point that gun anywhere near me, and your family will think a wolf attacked here. I'd be wise.")

By this point, you know exactly how the person will react. If you took good notes, then you just get to sit and watch, and try to complement their behavior (or go against it, if you want to be mean). Annoy them if they get easily worked up. Offer some advice and answer some questions if they're anxiously curious. Explain details and answer questions that characters tried to confront you about a few hours back.

And remember, an especially fun person will also exaggerate their reaction, that's how acting works! While the character might freak out and maybe get scared, the person might have a different opinion.

Side note: Awesome people will comment on your acting later

Oh, and this.

Don't be afraid to offer some insight after if people notice how fun your twist was. Take any complements with pride, but do also spend this time to talk about why it was fun, and if the other person wants more or less like that. Talk about if you could do anything better to share the spotlight more. You know, human stuff.

Conclusion

You might want to get creative and make up your own examples of course, but this is what I like to do!

Sometimes if your ideas are good enough, it reels people in. And being able to use parts of your plot to gauge and actively take notes on the people around you, you'll have far much more fun. Pay attention to how people react. Remember what they don't touch to use against them later. Remember what they DO touch so you can make it clear their actions were noticed, but they were not sniffed out yet.

The sky is limitless, and there is many ways you can trick people. And there's even more ways to use it as a tool to gauge others' interest and get an idea of how smart they are at piecing hints together!

But please also remember to think about your fellow players. They deserve the light as much as you do, especially now.