My players have just defeated Aldern Foxglove. They haven't left for Magnimar yet.
One of my players came to me and admitted that he had just found the RotRL book at a comic shop and skimmed through it. He admitted that he now knows the plot hooks of each chapter, the bad guys encountered in each chapter, and the overall plot.
I'm kind of dumbfounded because this is one of my best players. His girlfriend plays as well and he told me he couldn't wait to gear up his girlfriend's character to be able to "mow through hordes of giants."
He told me he would try to forget what he read, but he doubt he could.
I was, and am, really angry about this. I told him I was upset but the more I think about it, the angrier I become.
My first thought was to kick him out of the group. I despise metagaming and see no way his knowledge will stay out of the game. If I do that, his girlfriend will definitely leave too, which will leave me with 2 players. It will effectively destroy the group.
My second thought was to scrap the campaign. Start something new. This hurts the other players who have devoted so much time to the story and their characters. It also punishes me, since I have put hours upon hours into this.
I could tell him that he's not allowed to be a proactive player. He has to just go with everyone else's decisions. But I know he's already talking to his girlfriend about what is to come. I won't go into it, but I know this player and know that he will do that.
So, I'm left with the idea that I need to just change as much as I can. Not just the monsters they encounter, but I need to tweak things so that he can't predict what is to come.
So, my question to you all is: What major changes have you made to the story that I might be able to borrow?
Oh that's such a bummer. And extremely disrespectful towards you as the GM, and to the other players as well. I know that's not the advice you're asking for, but I would throw him and his gf out of this game. I don't see why he would even want to play it himself, to be honest. No fun reading a book when you've started with the last chapter. Ask the other players if they know someone to replace them with, if you don't know anyone yourself.
As for our campaign, I changed lots of stuff - but I can't say I changed anything big really. Most of the set pieces where there, the villains as well, I just added or detracted things. My advice, if you want to continue this AP with this guy, is to mix in some other AP. Maybe Shattered Star. And change the mobs. Make the "hordes of giants" undead giants, awakened by the stirrings of the BBEG instead of gathered by big M, change his underbosses to succubi or something, and so on. But it will be a lot of work for you, and not necessarily more fun in the end.