I am planning a set piece that involves some NPCs deceiving my players. The short version is that my players will meet some simple farmers trying to bring their crops to market, only to find that they’re actually smugglers in a Hatfields and McCoy’s type feud, which the party then gets messily swept up into. I generally don’t trick my players; I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it but I imagine some tables would take to it more than others. Do you trick your players? Are there some tricks you find acceptable and others that are unacceptable? For me, I have no qualm getting my players swept up into the seedy underworld of drug or artifacts smuggling, but I don’t think I would run a plotline on human trafficking. That I think would be difficult in an unpleasant way for everyone involved.
I trick and scam my players pretty much constantly. The enemies, the neutrals, and even people on the side of good are always pulling something. But then, my campaign is more of a mystery campaign masquerading as a fantasy adventure campaign. My players have come to expect it.
In essence, I think this is the line I take: if you’re going to pull a trick, you can’t fake it. The trick HAS to be fair. The pieces should all be there for the players to put together, a bit of logic can be necessary but ideally no leaps of logic required, and if you hand the players all the pieces and they STILL fall for it, that’s on them. You can’t blatantly lie with the DM voice or conveniently leave out information any reasonable person would notice. That’s unfair. As I tell my players, the DM voice will never lie to you, it will always tell you exactly what you can sense. The NPCs can lie to you, and many will. It has served them well so far once they got the hang of it.
I think that’s a good take. The puzzle can be fiendish, but it should be solvable.