Ah, the old Bait-and-Switch. In salesman terms it has a distinctly bad connotation. Its equally bad in politics. In both cases, it involves presenting one thing to elicit a positive reaction and then, unbeknownst to the shopper/voter, switching the product. While such dastardly tactics rightfully make shoppers and politicos the world-over quite peeves, it's not so bad when running a game. Indeed, with some preparation and a deft hand, a GM can turn a Bait-and-Switch campaign into something quite astounding and amazing for the players. However, like the economic and political terms, the GM must be very careful; otherwise a Bait-and-Switch campaign will alienate the players.
So, what exactly is a Bait-and-Switch campaign? You pitch one idea to the players, and walk them through preparation and character creation with that campaign model in mind. Then, at some point during the early part of the campaign, you introduce wildly unexpected elements to the story--usually setting or antagonists. The goal of a Bait-and-Switch campaign is to present the players with a legitimate mystery or conundrum that is harder for them to metagame with. If handled right, a Bait-and-Switch campaign offers a lot of room for discovery for both the PCs and players.
The first time I run a Bait-and-Switch game I was pretty ambitious. It was a homebrew about a victorious human fleet returning to an Earth now ravaged by magic (think the Forever War and Rifts mixed together). I presented the game to the players as a space opera game, with an emphasis on the technology. There was some psionics, but it was rare. The players all created members of a special marine boarding unit that was part of the returning human fleet. I was very vague about what they should expect, but prodded them into thinking it would be a semi-hard sci-fi game. The first session involved the fleet getting shot out under the PCs ... they crashed on to Earth, some of the few survivors. In the second session, they discovered Earth was not they way the fleet left it, that it was riddled with magical pockets and hostile city-states. They were special forces marines having to cope with engaging magical constructs. The game didn’t last very long due to real life issues, but the players loved it. Each session involved the PCs discovering some new aspect of Earth and learning to deal with it. It was a game of real, honest discovery and plot twists- largely because I was free from any specific campaign expectations or metagaming from the players.
There are a lot of pitfalls with a Bait-and-Switch campaign, and they all rest firmly on the players’ expectations. If they really want to play in a hard sci-fi game, and you thrown them into a pocket dimension that looks a lot like Arthurian England, then its likely the players are going to be very disappointed with the game. Players get excited about games, and presenting a radical change in campaign from what they are expecting will usually lead to player disenfranchisement. You, as the GM, have to tread a very thin line and present a campaign that the players are still going to be excited about despite not meeting their initial expectations.
If you want to run a Bait-and-Switch game, I have a few pieces of advice. First, keep key elements of your default setting despite the changes in campaign style. In my example above, they players expected to play with cool guns and neat sci-fi tech. Despite changing the campaign to heavily involve magic, I didn’t take the guns or the toys away. I let the PCs remain who they were and what made them special. Technology was still found on a magical Earth in the forms of remnant technology and some debris from the destroyed fleet. Keeping some basic options for technology helped the PCs stay special in the strange world they found themselves, while allowing me to keep a part of the unsaid contract with my players that they would get to play with neat toys. I made sure that this particular element was still effective throughout the game--guns still worked, recon drones still flew, etc. I gave the players what they wanted, even if I changed the setting in which they were used.
Listen to your players during character creation. Hear what they are excited about. If they really like certain aspects of their characters, the shock of a Bait-and-Switch will be easier to deal with if those aspects are still useful (maybe even more so). Follow your players’ leads and be willing to change the setting in subtle ways to ensure the players are still excited about their characters. One sure way to ensure the players don’t care about a game and kill a campaign is to disregard the characters and their role in the setting. Make sure the players still feel empowered and capable despite a setting change.
Words of caution as my next piece of advice--make sure your goals for a Bait-and-Switch are appropriate. If you are simply seeking to screw with the PCs and make life hard on the players--that’s no fun. If your goal is to present something special, then go for it. I can’t account for every reason for a Bait-and-Switch campaign to occur, but personally all of my Bait-and-Switch games have focused on discovery. In each case of successful Bait-and-Switch my goal was to provide the players with something new and out-of-the-ordinary and fun for them to explore. If your players like a good mystery or enjoy surprises that create challenges for their characters, Bait-and-Switch might be the right kind of game for them.
I once played with some very jaded players--people who can identify various Cthulhu-mythos creatures by smell. Surprising them was hard to do. So, I resorted to a Bait-and-Switch, telling them that we would run a standard Vampire: the Masquerade game that quickly involved some very Cthulhu-esque monsters from the outer realms of spiritual space. I wanted to run Call of Cthulhu with these guys for some time, but if they knew I was running Cthulhu, they couldn’t help but use outside knowledge in the game. So, to surprise them, I had them play another game and brought over many of the core elements of a good CoC game. The result was quite positive. Though the players never did play a “standard” V:tM game, they ended up getting to play an intriguing game in its own right. One of my players came up after the campaign and told me he hadn’t played a game like the Vampire game I ran since he first started with Call of Cthulhu in the mid-80s. I was flattered.
When planning to do a Bait-and-Switch game, I suggest plotting out at least the first handful of games so you can anticipate when best to do the setting switch. Transitions in a Bait-and-Switch game are especially important, allow your players to have some time in the default setting they were expecting. This does a couple things, it helps put the players at ease and explore their characters’ abilities in a semi-familiar setting. Playing in the default setting also helps set the players up for the shift--giving them a false sense of security. Let them think they are in the game they expect and get comfortable with their characters, so that when the change does occur, it is that much more of a surprise.
A final piece of advice, have an end-goal with a Bait-and-Switch game. If the players were expecting one thing but still have a chance to get back to it during the campaign, all the better for everyone. This helps provide a clear goal for the PCs and a way out for you as a GM. If the players are good sports, they should give the new setting or antagonists a shot, but make sure you have a plausible situation to get them back into the default campaign. For example, with the crashed Special Forces unit, I always expected to get them back to the remainders of the fleet--and possibly back on track for the default sci-fi playstyle. In the Vampire game where they encountered pseudo-Mythos creatures, I was always ready to set the Mythos aside as antagonists and go with a more traditional political game. Luckily, in both cases I didn’t have to go to the fall-back plan, but I am glad it was there. The fall-back plan also helped me keep sight of what the players originally signed up for and avoid getting too crazy with the plotlines or antagonists.
Like all advanced gamemastering techniques, you need to evaluate your players and your goals if you want to use a Bait-and-Switch game. If you decide to go for it, enjoy the surprises and mysteries you can present your players- when done right, a Bait-and-Switch game is an absolute blast for both the GM and players.
In Summary:
- Bait-and-Switch games are tricky, spend some time outlining the plot.
- Keep some core elements of the default setting.
- Be ready to return to the default setting if your players are unhappy.
- Ease into the switch, give the campaign a few games in the default setting.
- Keep your goals clear, avoid making life hard for the PCs just to do so.
