Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 192 - Monster Series - Doppelgangers

Episode Date: September 17, 2023

Doppelgangers are terrifying shapeshifters that are in the game solely to make an already paranoid group of players even more so.  After all, how can you trust anyone if anyone could be lying about who and what they are?  In this episode, I give you some common motivations for these monsters and tips for introducing them into your game.   #dmtips #doppelgangers #dnd #pathfinder #pathfinder2e   Resources: The Monsters Know What They’re Doing:  Doppelgangers:  https://www.themonstersknow.com/doppelganger-tactics/ Doppelganger Origin:  https://www.britannica.com/art/doppelganger Psychology of the Doppelganger:  https://annarchive.com/files/Drmg080.pdf

This week on the Taking 20 Podcast. Maintaining a disguise requires zero effort on the doppelganger's part, and it causes them no pain to maintain other forms, nor do they get any pleasure by reverting back to their natural state. The forms that they take, they're not like formal dress clothes that we immediately strip off when we get home to change into shorts and a t-shirt. get home to change into shorts and a t-shirt. Thank you for listening to the Taking 20 podcast, episode 192, continuing the Monster Series, this time focusing on the sneakiest of the sneaky,

doppelgangers. I want to thank this week's sponsor, Trash Cans. I had a great antique trash can that finally broke and I can't get parts for it anymore. I guess it's just become a has-been. Okay, that one was bad. I'm running out of one-liners. I received a very generous donation of $50 to the podcast from a listener who had some very kind words to say about the podcast. I asked if I could thank them by name, but I haven't heard back from them yet, so to that generous listener, thank you so very much from every corner of my cold, pun-filled heart. Contest details, by the way, are solidifying, and I think I'll have an announcement probably next week, so get ready for that. There will be a prize and everything, and I am super excited. These final details should fall into place soon and then we will be off to the races. Ah, doppelgangers. The source of paranoia for PCs all over the world.

Doppelgangers date all the way back to D&D first edition and have appeared in the Greyhawk supplement in 1975 and they have been clandestinely terrorizing settlements and PCs ever since. On Earth, the term doppelganger comes from the German folklore that was a kind of a spirit double. Usually invisible, but it's said that meeting one's doppelganger while they were visible was a sure sign that your death was imminent. Doppelgangers are devious shapeshifters capable of taking the almost exact appearance of other humanoids. In their natural forms, they appear to be creatures that lack fine details, as if they're unfinished by their maker. As masters of mimicry, they use their abilities to impersonate others in devious ways,

often infiltrating settlements and residing within them for sometimes even years without being detected. Few creatures can spread fear, suspicion, and deceit better than doppelgangers, and DMs have been using these creatures repeatedly to sow discord and mistrust in their games. But is that all they're good for? In D&D and Pathfinder, doppelgangers have been known to kill individuals and take their shape for any period of time until accomplishing whatever their goal is or furthering their own ends before they disappear into a sea of humanoid races in your world. Yep, they've even been known to surprise the person they want to imitate,

kill them, dispose of the body, take their place, and pose as that individual until they can strike and kill another foe, or maybe escape discreetly into the wilderness or other towns in your world. What, Jeremy, are you talking like Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Well, that's a very dated reference, but yes, exactly like that. Interestingly, doppelgangers don't reproduce in their natural form. When they want to reproduce, or maybe they're just down to f**k, they'll take on the shape of a humanoid. In their natural shape, they have no genitalia, but when they take on a humanoid form, they can choose to have male or female traits. When they want to reproduce, they exclusively become males because they don't want to hold

the same shape for nine months and try to carry a baby. No, no, no. They would much rather donate their genetic material and then move on. Because as males, it's possible for them to get humanoids pregnant in order to have little doppelgangers running around. Make no mistake, they have no interest in sticking around and raising the little aberration. No, no, no. The child will not know they're a doppelganger until they hit puberty, when they'll discover what they are and learn how to use their doppelganger powers. It's not uncommon for these kids to run away at that point, to search for something different, maybe other doppelgangers to try to find someone to relate to, or look for a way to carve their niche in the world.

Maybe just live a hedonistic lifestyle posing as the trusted servant of a rich noble. Which brings up the fact that most doppelgangers are alone and aren't working as part of a group. That doesn't mean that you couldn't have one that belongs to something bigger, like acting as an assassin or spy. Occasionally, by the way, doppelgangers will find each other and group up and work together to make their collective lives easy and lucrative. Rarely a doppelganger will temporarily ally with a group who is willing to pay them a sum of money to use their skills to further the group's ends. And sometimes, even though the average doppelganger is neutral, there are examples of the extremes, doppelgangers who serve the greater good, and those that will murder their way across a continent,

changing forms after every death or taking the form of the one they just killed. doppelgangers who serve the greater good, and those that will murder their way across a continent, changing forms after every death or taking the form of the one they just killed. In both Pathfinder 2e and 5e, doppelgangers are not strong combatants. They're a third-level encounter in both game systems, and can easily be overwhelmed by a prepared party that knows what they are, and they're prepared to deal with them. However, doppelgangers make sure they aren't in that position very often. They survive by subterfuge, stealth, and deception. They know they aren't built for a straight-up fight against four

heavily armed foes, so they use misdirection and sow doubt and use that as their weapon. If forced into such a fight, they are more likely to flee than stand toe-to-toe. They'll use their shapeshift ability to take advantage by dashing into a crowd, taking the form of someone that the doppelganger just passed. Sure, someone really paying attention might get suspicious when they see an exact duplicate running for its life, but doppelgangers will take that chance if they're on the run, and will take another form

after that if required, and another form after that, and another form after that, and another form after that, and you see where this is going. Generally, doppelgangers are neutral, meaning they aren't malicious or cruel by nature. They have certain goals to accomplish for their own ends to serve, and if that means they have to pose as a washerperson to do it, well, they can't have that washerperson running around, can they? They'll find someone trusted in the household, like the washerperson, and take their place. The most often quoted motivation for doppelgangers is hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure and self-indulgence. They want to eat fine food, drink fine wine, hang out with fine people that will do less than refined things to each other. There are key differences between the 5e and Pathfinder 2e versions of

doppelgangers. The 5e version can read surface thoughts by concentrating on the mind of the victim, whereas the Pathfinder 2e version can't. Now you may be asking, why does this matter? Because just because the doppelganger can assume the form of Dolan the Barkeep, that doesn't automatically give the doppelganger all of the memories and experiences of Dolan. For Pathfinder 2e, the doppelganger just has to fast-talk its way around not remembering something that happened last week. But the 5e version could be a little more sadistic and malicious. They could keep Dolan alive somewhere nearby

and probe his mind for thoughts, for answers to questions, sometimes doing this for days or even weeks at a time. Oh, and 5e's description of doppelgangers states they tend to be kinda lazy. But to be honest, if you had few attachments to the world, could look like anyone you wanted to, either take over someone's life or just move on, change shape, and be someone completely different in the next town, there wouldn't be a lot of motivation to put the extra work in. Why work hard to become a master of your craft and open a shop of your own when you can take over a shop that's already been set up

and take over the body of the person running it? And if you're in 5e, maybe be able to peel skills out of that creature's mind in order to operate said shop. GMs, let's talk about how you can use doppelgangers in your world. I want to start with a word of warning, though, that is a variant of what you'll find in the Pathfinder 2e bestiary when it comes to doppelgangers. While incorporating a doppelganger who infiltrates the adventuring party into your game can lead to many, many exciting narrative possibilities, in practice, it's really not advisable to try to pull off unless you know your players very well and they trust you about the type of game you want to run and, lastly, that they all buy in. If you do want to explore replacing a character as a narrative possibility, you will need to take that player aside and ask them if they would mind secretly playing a doppelganger

for a time. But if you do this, you cannot remove player agency from the game for too long. Otherwise, that player will probably find another game. I want you to keep that warning in mind. Don't jump right into replacing PCs with doppelgangers to introduce them to your game. I want you to keep that warning in mind. Don't jump right into replacing PCs with doppelgangers to introduce them to your game. Doing so can cause hurt feelings and possibly loss of interest in the game by one or more players or maybe even loss of a player. So let's start about the baby steps of introducing doppelgangers to your world. If you really want to introduce them to your game, try replacing a random NPC with a doppelganger. Have the players be around this NPC, possibly even interact with them a little bit,

completely oblivious to the fact that they are an aberration shape-changer. Keep the interaction brief and make sure you give no indication that this creature is anything other than what it seems. Candy the cobbler, Josiah the bartender, Maria the gate guard. Remember, doppelgangers are absolute masters of deception and shapeshifting. They don't accidentally look like their gray featureless selves when they sneeze, and they don't wander around their house in their natural form. Maintaining a disguise requires zero effort on the doppelganger's part, and it causes them no pain to maintain other forms, nor do they get any pleasure by reverting back to their natural state. The forms that they take,

they're not like formal dress clothes that we immediately strip off when we get home to change into shorts and a t-shirt. They will keep their assumed form for days, weeks, months, even years, even though they're not being observed at the time. That is one of the reasons doppelgangers are so difficult to detect. Doppelgangers do want to live a comfortable life, so another way you can introduce them to the world is to have the doppelganger replace a powerful NPC. Think like a major noble person, or even a king or queen. Those around the doppelganger have no idea that the real king was tied to an anchor and dropped off a boat off a deep crevasse. And the air quotes king has been a body double for the last four years.

Not even the queen knows. If this doppelganger is in a group, then the king's staff are gradually maybe replaced by other doppelgangers. And they get to live the high life just by committing a very slight case of murder. Leaders have lackeys around to do their bidding, so the emperor and his retinue, they can order or bribe others to do what they want, like, for example, the PCs, thereby living their best life. Another possible way to introduce doppelgangers is by replacing a quest giver or shopkeeper, someone the PCs

interact with, or even better if it's multiple times in the campaign. They've spoken to Reggie, the tavern owner, for months, and he's been good to the PCs, giving them discounts when they take care of rough customers, sending them on quests, referring them to employers, being good sources of information, etc, etc. And then suddenly, they find out Reggie was a doppelganger. Oh crap, how long has he been one? Was all the information he provided good and valid, or were we working for him the entire time? Have we been helping the baddies? A regular NPC that the players like turns out to be a doppelganger can be a shocking moment for your game,

and should only be revealed if your table can handle it. You know your table, their maturity level, what they enjoy, the types of players they are. If they would enjoy a reveal like this, then by all means throw it in because it is a ton of fun. But my advice, if you have younger players, less experienced players, or players who may have body horror phobias or something similar, that shocking moment can quickly become a traumatizing one. So proceed with caution only after considering the ramifications. The problem is that doppelgangers introduce a concept of the unreliable narrator to your world, and there could be an entire episode on unreliable narration. It introduces duplicitousness, misdirection, and there could be an entire episode on unreliable narration. It introduces

duplicitousness, misdirection, and some players just simply don't enjoy that type of game. They don't want to feel like they're being lied to by the DM. They prefer games where whatever the DM describes as true can be relied on to be absolutely true. However, if you think that's potentially shocking to an adventuring party, imagine replacing someone close to the PCs, like a hireling, or someone who works at the PC's home base, like a cook, a butler, maintenance staff, etc., with a doppelganger. These are truly shocking moments that strike the PCs in a very sensitive place, where they live and who they trust and when they are the most vulnerable.

It can really rock the PC's world when they realize that the place that they feel most relaxed, most comfortable, most protected, the home where they cannot worry about potential threats, suddenly they have to and the whole thing could be their undoing. That is a terror-filled moment for your players, and expect them to go pretty paranoid if you do this in your game.

However, the real terror for PCs is the thought that a doppelganger has infiltrated the party and is posing as one of the team. Oh boy! This is every adventurer's nightmare that the rogue or bard or whomever isn't who they claim to be. What does that mean for the future? What did they do while they were lying to us? Remember that doppelgangers can keep the same shape for years, so this could be a very long con. That being said, GMs, be very careful before you even consider this type of subterfuge,

because you are removing a PC and replacing them with a monster. Most players won't be keen on this, and if you even suggest it to them, it's too easy to make them feel like you're robbing them of agency and railroading the game in a particular direction. They're going to ask, what happened to my character? Are they still alive? Can they come back to the game? The wrong answers here can alienate players, maybe even permanently. So, you're sitting there thinking, I like the thought of doppelgangers. How do I even introduce the fact that doppelgangers exist in my game? Easiest way, with a corpse. Someone the party doesn't know very well, or maybe are passingly familiar with,

dies, and the corpse instantly reverts back to the gray, featureless skin of a skin changer or changeling. The sheriff calls the PCs in and asks them, y'all ever seen anything like this? Is that the only doppelganger in town? How do you even find out who they are without high-powered magic items? I mean, who can we even trust? And the adventure is on. Lastly, I want to tell you about a one-shot that I had involving a doppelganger. I ran it for a group of my friends that were all DMs and all of them wanted to play a game. They all together said that they wanted to play something different than a standard dungeon crawl one-shot, so I told them, I have an idea, and you're going to be in for a night of murder and mystery solving. The game started, and all the characters immediately pooled their resources to hire someone to cast Speak With Dead on the corpse that was lying on the table.

They confirmed that they were killed by a gray, featureless creature. One of the characters made their check, hey, that's a doppelganger, alright, and the hunt was on. At the beginning of the night, I had secretly handed a note to each of them. All but one of the notes were from their various bosses, indicating that they suspected someone in the investigation group was a doppelganger, but they didn't know who it was. I coordinated with one of them a week ahead of time before the game to ask them if they'd be

willing to play a doppelganger. Their goal was to survive until midnight without being discovered. There were skill checks for clues, a few combats with some rowdy locals, wild accusations being thrown around, and everyone keeping their eye on everyone else. They all insisted people investigate in pairs, and the doppelganger did the best he could to very subtly sabotage the investigation without anyone else catching on. It was a fun night, and the reveal at the end was glorious. But the reason it was so fun is because everyone bought in and said that's the

type of game they wanted to run. Make sure you verify that as a DM before you ever try to do anything where one character is replaced by a doppelganger. Doppelgangers generally aren't random killers. They're patient, meticulous planners that survive by subterfuge and deception. Most of them primarily seek the most comfortable life they can secure for themselves while expending the least amount of effort to do so. Introduce them with care, generally saving them for experienced gaming groups. Maybe introduce them via a corpse, and I bet you and your players would have fun doing it. Do you like the podcast? If so, please consider telling your gaming friends about it.

Tune in next week when we're going to talk about tips for running contracts and bargains with devils and other powerful entities. But before I go, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Trash Cans. Someone stole my trash can a few weeks ago, but luckily the city replaced it with a new one, just in time for me to find my old can and bring it back. Now, I have two cans at my disposal. Ugh, that joke was garbage. This has been episode 192, continuing the monster series all about doppelgangers. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game.

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