Need a way to global edit/replace on an Adventure

[DeDiceManCometh]

I love the convenience of using published adventures, but for the second time I have found a player that sought out and read the adventure in advance (to "win" or get a cool item). Two different gaming groups, two different players, so it seems to be a thing, not a single problematic individual.

It would help me immensely to be able to change character/place names (global edit/replace) to deter Googling the cheats.

Is there such a tool/method to do this relatively easily? ("Relatively" meaning as compared to the effort involved in homebrewing adventures from whole cloth.) If not, can such a tool be created?

[Zacchaeus]

How unfortunate.

There's no such tool available, nor is there a method that you could globally replace things in a module; and I'm not even sure what such a tool would look like. You can, as you are probably aware, edit any part of an adventure since everything is unlocked and editable. The problem would be, I suppose, what exactly would you edit if a player has read the adventure since it would depend on what the players motives were. Changing magic items would probably be a good place to start, and changing up the stats of boss monsters. However if the adventure contained puzzles and the like then that would require a lot more work especially if they ere graphical. I'm not at all sure there's an easy solution to this one.

[deer_buster]

this problem isn't unique to VTTRPG. What would you do in a live table setting? And to be honest, they may have previously run/played the adventure, so it may just be unfortunate meta knowlege that they can't separate from fun game play. Best option is to take them aside and talk to them about it.

[BaneTBC]

And if you find that player(s) are using meta-knowledge (previous play or just looking crap up), then there's nothing to say you can't just change something. Move mobs between rooms, move treasure or remove it, don't let the secret door be in X, et al. You aren't wanting to punish the other players (by like removing the treasure completely or throwing really hard encounters against them that you didn't intend). But I find if I do that a few times, the players start to stop with the Meta and just start playing. If they don't, then have a chat with them during a break or between sessions.

[DeDiceManCometh]

this problem isn't unique to VTTRPG.Yes, true, but... VTT may have the ability to create tools to address the issue that ftf gaming does not. Technology is great.

[DeDiceManCometh]

You bring up a good point vis a vis the graphical components. A lot of the maps in published adventures have the name of the adventure and/or location embedded in the art. A lot of work to mask. Guess I won't be running "Boss Mines of Fundilver" anytime soon. ;)

[Zacchaeus]

You bring up a good point vis a vis the graphical components. A lot of the maps in published adventures have the name of the adventure and/or location embedded in the art. A lot of work to mask. Guess I won't be running "Boss Mines of Fundilver" anytime soon. ;)

In most cases where there is line of sight the players won't see any embedded name on the map. Where it's possible the map name will have been removed by the developer of the module from the player map.

[Mytherus]

I address this in ever session zero . Of course it’s honor system and they could just lie in their conversation but my philosophy is it’s a game for fun I’m not going to stress much about but at least I put it in their head I’m not naive to the point of how easy it is to “cheat” in a vtt game.

But it’s also why I ALWAYS change things in any published adventure I run. Could be minor or major changes I won’t say to my players if they played the game before it’ll hit them “hmm this story line didn’t exist when that other dm ran this”

I have a mostly regular group of players for a few years now so they are used to how I do things and they seem to enjoy it.