I'm starting a new game tomorrow and I'd like to throw something unusual at my players. The setting is a typical Tolkien-esque setting and the players are aware of that..but I'd like to introduce clockwork and steam as an unknown and mysterious thing they would discover.
I don't want to ask them: "Hey, you guys are cool if the campaign leads to a clockworks and steam-powered soldier invasion?". I want this to be a surprise and also I want to avoid metagaming.
The plan is to make them visit a very old dungeon in which there would be clockwork soldiers. I would make them pass as strange armors standing in rows.
I don't want to ask them if clockwork soldiers themed campaign is ok with them for the following reasons:
- They would be expecting the "armors" to be clockwork soldiers and prep for it.
- It wouldn't be strange or mysterious when they find about it
- They could prepare for it or get paranoid about every piece of metal in the dungeon.
The thing is..I know from experience that having a certain genre or setting imposed on me as a surprise often turned out to be bad. I don't like playing a game when suddenly the GM hints that we actually are in The Matrix…or that the game will be about an undead invasion and I didn't want to play "that kind of game". I don't know if clockwork and steampunk will pass as interesting plot twist or uninteresting attempt to spice up a setting.
So my question is: How can I introduce twists to the setting without asking them in advance if what I plan fits in their liking and taste.
Best Answer
Run that dungeon with the weird clockwork. If the players like it, treat that dungeon as foreshadowing and continue with your clockwork invasion theme plans. If they don't like it, relegate that dungeon to a one-time "weird old place" and throw that theme away.
Trying subtle things and observing how the players react is a valuable skill for a GM who wants to tailor the game to the players without asking straight-out for their collaboration.