I am growing very suspecious about one of my players. She seems to have a lot of knowledge about upcoming events. I am not sure if she is reading ahead or if she has gathered info from this or other related sites. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions on how to handle it?
Thanks
When your players are in town about to embark upon a journey to a mysterious ruin five days away that only you, the DM know is inhabited by a medusa, the last thing you want to hear is, "How much do mirrors cost in this town?"
Work from the published material but change some of the scenarios so bringing the wrong strategy to the fight might be disastrous. Perhaps substitute a published monster bearing a weakness to cold steel with a rust monster and substitute an expensive onyx statue with a mimic that loves to look like one. You're looking to see surprise and indignity on the face of the cheater, especially if they're a spellcaster who has already chosen spells according to the monsters they thought they'd face. If they're expecting to encounter a creature susceptible to fire damage they'll prepare incendiery spells... now pull back door number three and reveal to them a fire elemental with blue balls and rabies.
They now know you know because you changed things up. Can you taste their fear? Savor this... this is the most intimidating you might ever be to these people. What you choose to do from that moment on depends on your personal alignment.
Oh, and cheater lady... if you're reading this... you suck the the spots off a dire leopard. If you're not reading this well then I didn't just insult you because you didn't see it. Cat in the box principle or some such.
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TheJade... I was already having strange mental images of a fire elemental with blue balls(I admit, I paused for a second and thought, wouldn't they still be red?) but then you threw out a Schrodinger's cat reference. I am broken.
Back on the topic of the original post, I've found that most players don't really want to know what is coming up simply because part of the fun is finding out what is coming up. But there will always be those people who want to read the last page of a novel to see what is going to happen.
If this is something that is really bothering you, or if it is causing gameplay issues because they are always a bit more prepared then ICly they should be, change things up a bit. I totally agree with the above poster, and honestly while this campaign has so much going on within it still lends itself to customization really well.
This is my second time running the campaign. The first time resulted in essentially a TPK right at the beginning of chapter 3, and the game was put on hold for a time. When we came back we decided to start with a smaller group of players but most of whom had been in the original group. Rather then run them through the same adventure again I essentially completely rewrote almost all of the first three chapters. I was prepared for a pretty daunting task but I was suprised how easily everything together.
The SCAP is a great source of information and is wonderful in its overarching plot and spacing of information(my new group is just finishing chapter 4 right now and is frothing at the mouth to follow up some various leads but they don't want to leave the city in the hand of half-orcs either...) but the way that players come by such things can be up to you. Shift around a few monsters, have a trap or two that isn't expected and remove some that are. If you really want to be devious just swap out a few feats or abilities listed in the statblocks for other ones.
Really what you do depends on whether you are more worried about this player cheating hurting the game mechanically or plot wise. Whatever you decide to do just don't lose focus on your other players too. Remember, its a game. Have fun.
TheJade... I was already having strange mental images of a fire elemental with blue balls(I admit, I paused for a second and thought, wouldn't they still be red?) but then you threw out a Schrodinger's cat reference. I am broken.
You know, I bore that same pause but figured the contrast would stir the mind to wonder and at least make a kind of sense. I must be honest here and say I've never seen a real world case of a rutting fire elemental bowled over and clutching flamily at his nethers begging, "please, baby, please..."
I'd feel the need to steer this player right. Not because cheating is wrong, per se; rather, their special knowledge of coming events easily affects the spontineity of the entire group. They'll learn to trust that she knows best, and in doing so, will likely hand over their decision making power to her stale, by-the-numbers interpretation of actions needing to be taken to prepare for the coming path. Then their ability to adapt to the unexpected and cope with the worst won't be exercised and might atrophy.
Not wanting to die in the game, I understand--as well as wanting every last gp and bit of hoard. It's just that D&D isn't designed to be a D&D videogame with a cheat book you can buy at Babbages. It's a group dynamic game. Well, except for my own campaign which I play all by myself while chained in solitary confinement. Kill six inmates with garlic breath and everyone makes SUCH a big deal.
No real game issues, she hasnt suggested anything that I cant deal with in logical non meta-gaming terms. The party sits atop the shaft leading down into Oblivion, and the player in question asks about traveling to sasserine to purchase 5 scrolls of teleport circle incase the volcano blows. I dont know I am not going to loose my gamers or my game over this. I will just roll with the punches.
Thanks
Walt
No real game issues, she hasnt suggested anything that I cant deal with in logical non meta-gaming terms. The party sits atop the shaft leading down into Oblivion, and the player in question asks about traveling to sasserine to purchase 5 scrolls of teleport circle incase the volcano blows. I dont know I am not going to loose my gamers or my game over this. I will just roll with the punches.
Thanks
Walt
Ahem... well, that move on her part just seems like good contingency thinking. Time will tell. Good luck, Walt.
In my group, strange circumstances led to one player being a bit spoiled on plot events, but it didn't really harm the game at all.
It started with my decision to run the Shackled City, from the Hardcover. At the same time, however, the other player started prepping his Age of Worms campaign. I warned him to be wary of potential spoilers, but didn't expect it to give TOO much away...
Save to say, he came back to me a few weeks later saying that he stumbled upon a passage making mention of an eruption in Cauldron. This right when we were about to start Shackled City. I debated what to do, and decided to let it be... I trusted that the player in question would not use this information inappropriately, and wouldn't spoil any of the other players either. Also, the eruption in question was not likely to be as bad as he imagined it being, anyway (most of Cauldron would remain intact).
And in the end, things went great. As a sign of his willingness to not play unfairly, he went on to spend most of his character's money building up a mage tower in Cauldron. When the eruption came, his tower was spared. And the player went on to become the mayor of Cauldron by campaign's end.
It's nice to know that some people are more interested in having fun, than in using whatever means possible to "cheat" their way through a campaign.
My players called the eventual eruption the first night of the campaign, so that's not entirely uncalled-for.
On a small scale, you can move the traps to the other side of the room or switch elements on major spellcasters or traps--have the wizard using cold spells rather than fire, have the undead dragon be blue rather than green, etc.
On a large scale, have somebody they've been trusting all along be a Cagewright (Skie, for example), and have some of the people they've been suspicious of all along be totally innocent. Since they're heading down into Oblivion, it's probably too late to have the beholder be Jenya instead of the Lord Mayor.
The player may also be reading one of the many Story hours on the ENboards about the campaign.
I know I have, as they are a good read. As a DM it has helped me see how it plays in advance for my players. But if you are a player it can definately spoil a few things for you :\
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I have to agree with the rest on this matter. If its just the volcano thing that she has predicted then you probably aren't dealing with anything too bad. My players have hit a number of major plot points throughout the book simply through having more then their share of paranoia(something I think this story helps breed).
For example, they too have realized the the volcano is likely to erupt. None of them have stated this ICly of course, but pretty much as soon as they realized the town was in a volcano they figured that was coming, surabars assurances that it is dormant be damned.
As a second example of this, the group planned from the very beginning to establish a true adventuring company in Cauldron. They went to see about purchasing some cheap property, and what I told them was available was basically a shack on the waterfront, as I wanted to make flood season that much more urgent for them. They put their heads together for a second and decided that they would build outside of town.