As a GM, you’ll eventually run into a player with more metagame knowledge than is normally the default for a campaign. Whether it’s the guy who can identify a Rust Monster by it’s description, is aware of what the hell an Elder Sign is and can explain the entire Charm Trees of any one of the Exalts.
The biggest problem that this poses for GMs is the fact that it’s hardly a challenge if they already know how a threat behaves. And it’s this knowledge that allows them to cruise through an encounter without having to think so hard. The result? They have less fun, the other players don’t get the same impact as they usually do when going up against an unknown monster / villain, and the GM is left feeling just a little bit less able to entertain the players.
So, what’s a GM to do? At risk of sounding like a writer from a Relationships Advice Article, it’s time to spice up your routine, bring a little back of excitement back into your games, and leave even the most hardened veteran of a system second-guessing.
- Complicate Matters – Any encounter becomes more interesting the moment the situation switches unexpectedly. They might know the weaknesses of a certain type of creature, but what if they have to worry about the fact that they’re in danger of drowning in a few rounds from a trap triggered by the monster?
- Play Smarter – Not harder. Sure there are implied tactics for certain monsters and villains, but what if the villains start playing differently? Striking at resources, cutting out contacts and then setting up ambushes are particularly scary, giving the players less of an opportunity to recover from shock.
- Give Them Something New – Something not in the books. This ventures into the homebrew territory, but as long as you keep an eye out to balance and don’t end up with a monster race of Mary Sues then you should be fine.
A word of warning of course, remember that you’re here to give them a challenge, to make it so that they don’t get bored of seeing the same monsters using the same tactics all the time. Most new players to a setting won’t have this level of know-how so I wouldn’t advise throwing too many complications in one go until they’ve found their legs in the setting.
Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer 
Just want to point out that you need to be really careful and really scrupulous about what the villains know and base their plans on if you use the “Play Smarter” option. Otherwise you can end up with players feeling they need to hide all their plans from the GM and prevent their characters from having any attachments that the GM can use against them. You should probably take deliberate steps to point up the limited nature of the villain’s “intel” sometimes by having the villains screw up: kidnap the wrong old lady thinking it’s dear Aunt Petunia, have the PCs get word that somebody’s been nosing about the bar they go to trying to find out about them, and generally make sure that it’s not just the player’s plans that never survive contact with the enemy.
Joshua,
Once again you come to provide the word of caution that I’ve missed. You’re absolutely right. It’s imperative for a GM to practice the same kind of care to not end up Metagaming against his players.
Whenever planning a villain’s next move, always remember to remain completely within the sphere of possibilities limited by the Villain’s intel.
Always remember that your players trust you to make fair rules calls, and to play fair when it comes to the Villains.
Good suggestions. Sometimes I play my enemies smarter by having said complications caused by them.
Human opponents are the best ones; you can never know what are up to and capable of.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo