Everything is going great, all the pieces are where they should be, what you see is what you get; that is until the facade crumbles away. Pulling the rug out from under a group can be a devastating way to end, with a bang, or begin, to set the mood, of a campaign. Any number of other terms can describe such a device but the most recognizable is from movies and called The Twist. The Ring, The Six Sense, Psycho, Identity all pull the rug out from under the viewer in the last moments, thus changing the way the viewer understands the previous 90 minutes. The Sixth Sense is movie about ghosts and a boy who can see them. The twist happens when the character, and the audience, finds out that he is a ghost. The rug goes tight and viewers end up on the ground. Let us examine how to achieve this using our dear departed Grandmother Mrs. Brown.
The Façade
This is the set up and prep work; you have to have a rug before you can pull it out from under someone. This part can be tricky because the GM has to feed information to the players without it seeming forced or important. Take Grandma Brown; the needed façade is one of a charitable, down to earth, and sweet woman who loves her family especially her grandkids. To dump the former sentence into the players lap is a mistake. Show rather than tell about her qualities. If Charitable, the players see her volunteering at a local soup kitchen for the poor. Down to earth, then every Christmas she sends all her family members hand knit items like scarves, sweaters, and socks. A sweet woman, for as long as the player can remember he has received a call and a cake delivered on his birthday. The point is, do not let the players know that there is anything special about Grandma; she is just another NPC providing flavor to the constructed world. If the players think something is up about Grandma, find a way to deflect their inquiry or distract them with a red herring. If the situation gets too close to revealing Grandma she can offer them some homemade cookies, her specialty, with a secret nasty surprise.
The Tragedy or Climax
The next step is to put the capstone on the Grandma facade. This is some dramatic scene or set of scenes that plays to strengthen the ongoing deception, the grab of the rug before the pull. A tragedy works well for this. For Grandma this is a sudden death. On her way to the corner store a masked man approached and shot her nineteen times with a fully Automatic Ak-47. The police ask one of the players to identify the body. It is Grandma, and she is dead, what a senseless tragedy. Let the gunman be the straw man villain. As the Players look left offer them up something from the right. One of the players finds a small key, somewhere campaign appropriate, to a safe deposit box at the local bank. This lead in has to be innocuous and devoid of any malice. Eventually they will check the box, and inside is a key ring, lots of ornate strange jewelry, and a deed to a building somewhere in town. This building is where the players will have their world upended.
The Quick Yank
The last phase is the reveal of what is actually true and the demolishing of the entire façade. Rapid unveiling of the truth works best. The Information pushed upon the Players in rapid succession causes a disorienting effect. They should at a gut level feel unnerved before the logical side of their brains can put all the pieces together. For Grandma this is the basement room of her mysterious building. It is good to occasionally give the Players a small taste right before the big reveal. They will sense something is not right but will not be able to figure out what, before it is too late. The building itself is easy enough to enter, simple lock on the front door, but the door to the basement has seven different high quality locks. Seven Locks will seem a bit excessive, or is it? Once the Players descend, it is time to pull, and pull hard. Down in the basement the Players find a multitude of insanity, violence, and depravity: “A stone altar in the middle of the room with a freshly sacrificed young boy, the grooves on the altar run down to thirteen cups that lie at its base, there are 13 stone chairs surrounding the altar, the body is fresh, and Grandmas name is carved into one of the chairs.” What the players had believed turned out to be wrong, and they are now left to pick up the pieces and deal with what they have seen. Things will never be the same again.
The Aftermath
The Players should react, if done well, with open mouths and the inability to form a proper course of action for a least a couple of minutes. A good Twist though asks more questions than it answers. It is obvious that Grandma was into some sick despicable stuff, but what about all that other information:
- What about that guy who shot her, was he really a hero?
- Grandma’s name was on one of the chairs, but what about the other 12?
- Who was the victim on the Altar?
- How long has she been doing this?
- What about all those ornate jewels we found?
The nostalgia I have for my Grandmother has just been questioned thoroughly.
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