GM Advice - noob with a ?personal? problem

[Skillkoil]

In 2018, it will be very hard, if not impossible to find people who can't/haven't played a published adventure or flipped through it in a store or a PDF online.

Personally, similar things used to bother me, but, now all I ask for is if there's advance knowledge, the player not make it obvious (blatantly and painfully obvious...) in game.

It is pretty impossible to police what outside knowledge others have when connecting to your game; all you can really do is ask, I would suggest privately, that said knowledge out of character is not acted upon in game, and for the players to not make it obvious to everyone they know the adventure.

If you are really struck by coincidences that keep happening, then change up the stock encounters a bit, adding or modifying the situations. What you describe could also simply be the player playing his spellcaster PC well and strategically.

Ultimately it is your game though and you have to decide what you can accept and be comfortable with at your table. Just be mindful that your decision doesn't result in just you and your wife sitting at it, because that could be the outcome depending on how you end up handling this.

I think the original issue began was that he said he had already run the module/adventure and refused to help with the problem solving & story progression. The GM whispered him and asked for help in getting the players to proceed and the player just said, "My players ran in". So it may not be the advance knowledge that is specifically the problem but the fact that the player with the knowledge is now refusing to assist in group decisions because of it.

Like I said before this is difficult any way you slice it. You are going to just have to find some kind of compromise or decide how much this game is worth to you and the rest of the players. I really do hope it works out for you!

[damned]

I think the original issue began was that he said he had already run the module/adventure and refused to help with the problem solving & story progression. The GM whispered him and asked for help in getting the players to proceed and the player just said, "My players ran in". So it may not be the advance knowledge that is specifically the problem but the fact that the player with the knowledge is now refusing to assist in group decisions because of it.

Like I said before this is difficult any way you slice it. You are going to just have to find some kind of compromise or decide how much this game is worth to you and the rest of the players. I really do hope it works out for you!

That might be how it happened but the way I read it was the player did not want to make this particular decision for the group because he knew it could be an important one. He was acting in the interests of the game and group and not acting on his knowledge. The fact his groups just "ran in" and the games are still going means that even if the rest of the group make a poor decision here it probably wont matter in the overall scheme. Im thinking that the players revelation caught the GM offguard/by-surprise more than anything else. There wasnt a lot to suggest that prior to this one event that the group werent playing nicely together - possibly even the opposite - the party are doing well and progressing the story.

[Temmpest]

3: I barely have time to research and play/run properly, so I know he will not take improv as the adventure, but as I f**ked up. *I realize this is a big me issue, but it does take away from my enjoyment of running the game.

Don't be afraid to improv! It may even help with your dilemma since that player may realize that he doesn't know what to expect. I would recommend definitely changing things up. Don't end the campaign and ruin it for everyone else, especially if you've been playing for 8 months. I've improved on many campaigns, especially when I know one of the players has already run through it.

[Ardem]

I think the issue you have is two fold, he was not 100% forth coming to begin with, why he announced it now and not before who knows. I also think by him announcing it he also let the other know do not rush in, he was warning them. that was pretty shitty. Either was I think just ignore it and push on. Balance is not everything, some players just love to win and not the challenge so work out what make people happy if it not affecting the fun then I would just move on, and not even worry about it.


Going forward I would mix up the fights, have the fights where they are expected on the majority so not to change too much work for yourself. But enough to make it hard, have undead where there should be monsters, vary the levels, use hidden/invisible creature. Move the encounters a room or a hallway from where they are suppose to encounter. Crreate traps where ther should be treasure and vice versa. these small changes will be enough to make it difficult to meta, and when some thing you cannot change like a boss fight so be it.

Also if they have too much of an easy fight all the time, put some thing that magic item that helps heal the monsters in a zone or bring them back from the dead until they figure it out. Do these things on the fly.