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My Adventures as a New GM: What You Don't Know...
M. J. Young has offered a lot of good gaming advice. One bit of that advice is that the player should never know more about the world or the scenario than the referee. It's certainly logical; how is a GM supposed to surprise the players when they already know what to expect. In the Multiverser game I'm currently running, though, I have a player in the Star Wars universe. Had I been thinking clearly, I would've put him on the Starship Enterprise instead. I'm very familiar with Star Trek, while Star Wars is the one he knows quite a bit about. I've learned, however, that having a player know more about the universe than you do, while it's generally something to be avoided, can work with the right player and a few tricks from the GM.
First, I like to make it clear to my players that you may not be playing in the version of the world that you know from fiction. This is both a way to give myself creative license to mess with the plot and a method of keeping anybody from nitpicking. (But, you had that figher pilot in a red shirt rather than a blue one.....) So, say you've got a player in Star Wars, toward the end of Episode 6. He comes up with the great idea of warning the rebellion that they're about to walk straight into a trap on Endor, since the Death Star's weapons are actually operational. If you want to be cruel, you can decide that, in your universe, there was no trap, and the rebels have all sorts of other problems never mentioned in the movie, not least of which for the character is that he's no longer seen as a reliable source of information. Of course, you don't have to be cruel, nor should you all the time, but shaking things up a bit keeps players on their toes. The changes don't have to be earth-shattering either. In the Princess Bride scenario that I'm running one character through, his comments to Westley got him missing Buttercup, his love, so much that he sent her a letter, subtly altering the course of the plot in ways that weren't readily apparent. I also chose to make Buttercup a bit more intelligent and a bit less annoying, partly to keep the player guessing and partly to make her more fun to run as an NPC.
Secondly, you should never ever get yourself into the situation where a player knows more about the world than you do unless it's a player who won't take advantage of that. I'm fortunate in that I can ask questions of the player, knowing that he'll be good about separating in-character knowledge from what he knows out of character. For players who would try to manipulate that situation to their advantage, I'd steer clear of any scenarios where they have the upper hand.
The type of game you're playing in also matters. Obviously, in a game where it's the GM "versus" the characters, you want to keep every bit of information about the game a closely guarded secret. If you and your group are more interested in telling a good story, however, having them know things they "shouldn't" doesn't hurt nearly as much.
Another component that makes this work is getting along well with your players. In one sense, that should go without saying. If you don't like these folks, or they don't like you, what are you doing gaming together? However, sometimes friction does arise between gamers and GMs for whatever reason, in game or out. If that's the case in your game, giving a player the upper hand in this way is probably a bad idea, unless, of course, it's a peace offering of some sort. Say, you put them in a familiar world after sticking them in a situation that you later realized was a bit unfair. I'm fortunate in that my gaming group is made up of my boyfriend and my closest friends. I realize that dating the player isn't exactly a solution that other GMs can replicate, and it really only works with *one* player anyway.
My final suggestion, assuming you've got a player that this will work for, is to ask the player for information about the world. You can do this in a way that doesn't give anything away, by asking for information on several topics, a couple of which are red herrings. Not only does this help you know what you're talking about, it's also a nice gesture of trust that you're willing to let the player be a source of information in his or her own game. Again, though, some players will take horrible advantage of this.
In most games, you might run into this situation if players have read the scenario books or some of the GM materials, maybe because they run their own games. In that case, if it becomes a problem, change the scenario up. Make the villain actually a good guy who's a double agent working within the evil empire. Or, switch maps around so that things aren't where they thought they were. The nice thing about Multiverser in particular, though, is that if you end up knowing less about a world than your player does, either intentionally or accidentally, and the situation gets ugly, you can always find a way to kill them off and put them somewhere else.
First, I like to make it clear to my players that you may not be playing in the version of the world that you know from fiction. This is both a way to give myself creative license to mess with the plot and a method of keeping anybody from nitpicking. (But, you had that figher pilot in a red shirt rather than a blue one.....) So, say you've got a player in Star Wars, toward the end of Episode 6. He comes up with the great idea of warning the rebellion that they're about to walk straight into a trap on Endor, since the Death Star's weapons are actually operational. If you want to be cruel, you can decide that, in your universe, there was no trap, and the rebels have all sorts of other problems never mentioned in the movie, not least of which for the character is that he's no longer seen as a reliable source of information. Of course, you don't have to be cruel, nor should you all the time, but shaking things up a bit keeps players on their toes. The changes don't have to be earth-shattering either. In the Princess Bride scenario that I'm running one character through, his comments to Westley got him missing Buttercup, his love, so much that he sent her a letter, subtly altering the course of the plot in ways that weren't readily apparent. I also chose to make Buttercup a bit more intelligent and a bit less annoying, partly to keep the player guessing and partly to make her more fun to run as an NPC.
Secondly, you should never ever get yourself into the situation where a player knows more about the world than you do unless it's a player who won't take advantage of that. I'm fortunate in that I can ask questions of the player, knowing that he'll be good about separating in-character knowledge from what he knows out of character. For players who would try to manipulate that situation to their advantage, I'd steer clear of any scenarios where they have the upper hand.
The type of game you're playing in also matters. Obviously, in a game where it's the GM "versus" the characters, you want to keep every bit of information about the game a closely guarded secret. If you and your group are more interested in telling a good story, however, having them know things they "shouldn't" doesn't hurt nearly as much.
Another component that makes this work is getting along well with your players. In one sense, that should go without saying. If you don't like these folks, or they don't like you, what are you doing gaming together? However, sometimes friction does arise between gamers and GMs for whatever reason, in game or out. If that's the case in your game, giving a player the upper hand in this way is probably a bad idea, unless, of course, it's a peace offering of some sort. Say, you put them in a familiar world after sticking them in a situation that you later realized was a bit unfair. I'm fortunate in that my gaming group is made up of my boyfriend and my closest friends. I realize that dating the player isn't exactly a solution that other GMs can replicate, and it really only works with *one* player anyway.
My final suggestion, assuming you've got a player that this will work for, is to ask the player for information about the world. You can do this in a way that doesn't give anything away, by asking for information on several topics, a couple of which are red herrings. Not only does this help you know what you're talking about, it's also a nice gesture of trust that you're willing to let the player be a source of information in his or her own game. Again, though, some players will take horrible advantage of this.
In most games, you might run into this situation if players have read the scenario books or some of the GM materials, maybe because they run their own games. In that case, if it becomes a problem, change the scenario up. Make the villain actually a good guy who's a double agent working within the evil empire. Or, switch maps around so that things aren't where they thought they were. The nice thing about Multiverser in particular, though, is that if you end up knowing less about a world than your player does, either intentionally or accidentally, and the situation gets ugly, you can always find a way to kill them off and put them somewhere else.
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