Has your experience/knowledge ever been a problem?

[Space Coyote]

Here's something I've been curious about for a long time, but I haven't seen it anywhere on the forums. The Gamemaster forum is as good a place as any, I guess.

While Star Wars D6 is alive and well here on The Pit, there have been no new, official, D6 materials for ten years or so. This has given everyone lots of extra time to become familiar with the original materials. Has this ever been a problem for you (as a player or GM) or your players?

In other words, has anything ever felt "spoiled" for you because you already knew about it? Has a player known exactly how to solve a supposed-to-be-difficult problem because he read about it years ago? Have you played in a game and the GM introduced an NPC from the books, to which you immediately thought something like "I know this guy's story" or "I know what to watch out for with him"? Have surprises been ruined or games lessened because the materials have been available for so long?

I imagine this hasn't been a big problem, since most GMs enjoy creating their own material and every game is different, but I wanted to know if it's ever come up. Thanks.

[Orgaloth]

I sort of had that problem. I'm the more knowledgable of my group, and so the GM would ask me questions. What planet is this species from? When did this happen? Is this person still alive? Etc

It also makes it hard when he's trying to surprise/scare us and I work out the plot, just from a description or name. Its just a matter of playing what your character would know and reacting approprietly.
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[vong]

I have not had that problem as i have the curse to never play a table top star wars game. I am usually the instigator and most knowledgeable star wars buff. On occasion i have dropped clues that no one has noticed as I forget the often dont have the same depth of star wars knowledge that I have.


So for the most part my knowledge comes in handy as the gm
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[Ankhanu]

I'm not really seeing how that could be an issue, unless you're only playing games that directly follow pre-generated Star Wars campaigns or novels or what have you. I've only ever played one game where we've really had any kind of interaction with published characters/plot lines.

If the GM is creative, it should never be a problem.
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[Sabre]

Even if I'm following a module, I'll make it my own by mixing things up. Like you say, the material has been around for a long time and most of the people who still play D6 have already seen it.

If you find yourself in this position, try introducing some of your original NPCs into the story. Even one or two can drastically alter the way events play out (if you let them).

[garhkal]

I have hda it happen twice in the past... Both were as a player. Thankfully i have yet to have it happen as the gm, where the player knew what was coming..
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[Space Coyote]

That's about what I figured. I haven't played enough myself to have it happen from either side of the GM screen.

Of the few adventures I've designed, it's really only been recently that I've given myself the "permission" to use NPCs from the books. It's been really time-saving for minor characters, and for major NPCs I still make up my own. Even if the players had all the books, I don't think it would compromise the story.

Thanks for your responses.

[cheshire]

Usually the people I've played with were pretty good at pretending like they didn't know the backstory.

Of course one time when I was a player (during the early Rebellion era) I suggested that we should all go to Alderaan and lay low for a while. Funny how the other characters rejected the idea.
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[FightingCorsair]

I've had problems in other games. Players reading the D&D Monster Manual cover to cover for example.

I always figured the SW universe is a reasonably educated place. The system is designed for for everyone to at least have a shot at performing a skill by just rolling the attribute dice after all. If players have knowledge of a race or droid type I'm usually not worried.

I've never really used any of the published adventures. I've used adventure ideas from published material (Platt's Starport Guide for example) but it usually serves as a sub plot item.

I'm running for a group that's new to the D6 system (but not to gaming) and it is nice to see their surprise as everything is still new.

[Grimace]

I'm actually playing in a group where the GM introduced High Inquisitor Tremayne. The other players didn't really grasp the potential threat of the particular NPC, and admittedly the GM was a little sparse on his description of Tremayne's potential threat, but his description was enough that I could identify the character. Though I know the stats of Tremayne, and know a lot about him, I simply expressed enough "ooh! and whoa!" that the other players realized that the NPC that they were trying to square off against was a pretty bad mamma jamma. So while it wasn't the case of me spoiling anything, per se, I would say my knowledge kind of helped add a little bit of tension building to the game, so it wasn't just the other players fighting some no-name NPC who "magically" kicks their butts.

Most of the time, though, I'm a GM so my knowledge isn't a hinderance at all. And if one of my players would happen to say "that's not how it is" I'd simply say "It is in this Star Wars universe." If people want to play with all of the rules of Lucas or other authors of books, they can hunt down those people and play in their groups. My Star Wars universe changes some things, so nothing is ever set in stone from movies or books.

[enderandrew]

I always intentionally muddle canon. This serves multiple purposes.

1 - One player will eventually know more about canon than others. They will know things their characters shouldn't know, and try to abuse this situation. If they use this meta-knowledge, or attempt to abuse it, it may blow up when the player's assumptions prove false.

2 - Players will sometimes argue with a GM about canon. This never improves the experience in a game. The purpose of a game is to have fun. Instead of worrying that I'm going to screw up a detail and have an argument, I just lay down the law from day 1. My canon is not Star Wars canon. You can't argue that my interpretation of my own canon is wrong, so don't bother arguing.
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[mastereji]

My situation is similar to many others in that I am usually the GM for all of our sessions and am also the most knowledgable of our whole group so not much comes up for spoiling things for the PCs. Lately thought many of my players have gotten a "bug" or urge to try and run their own sessions (which i am eternally grateful since i get to actually play now) which is tremendous but the problem is that they are now constantly asking me for the facts, data, call it whatever for their own agendas because they are afraid that their facts will differ from mine. So I have had to lend out lots of my books and just let them know that it is ok for them to come up with their own stuff. All of them have seen the movies but only a handful have read some of the novels and the sourcebooks and i have read all but a small handful so it will be interesting to see how i (and them too) handle things when they throw something at our group that i know the stats for, the background for, etc. So my experience and knowledge is a factor somewhat but I think it will all turn out to be great experiences. The thing im shocked about are all the fresh ideas that they have seemed to come up with so far but we made it easier for them in that we are currently playing a spec force team that goes on all sorts of different missions.
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[ggmoridin]

ive seen all the movies but have not read any of the book, as a player i have a problem where i NEED to have the character, otherwise its just a piece of paper with writing on it which just isnt fun. when i play characters i try and think like my character would and try to ignore what i know.

if there is something that i know that my character would more than likely know i ask my gm if it is concievable if my character would know about it, (ie. i knew about HRD's when we ran into some and they got shut down which made my character curious, so he went over his sensor data when he had a chance and realised that he and his group were the only "living" things there, after going over this data thoroughly i then asked the gm (after a high sensors roll) would it be logical for my character to come to the conclusion that they were HRD's, the gm then confirmed that yes it would be due to the fact that my character has heard rumors about them but no confirming facts.

[garhkal]

Some of the stuff i see struggling with info wise, is things like people wantnig to know about Ysilmari (before thrawns era), Berskergam (mando iron), cortis ore, and other things to do with other force traditions before the general population got made aware. Like one game someone wanted to be a dathimiran force witch during a rise of the empire game...
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[Chandra Mindarass]

One thing that helped me to prevent meta-gaming was that I stopped using most Expanded Universe sources as the unshakable truth. I was never a big fan of the comics or most EU-novels (although some are really brilliant), and planning adventures with Wookiepedia on the other tab, just to make sure I'm d'accord with Canon gave me headaches, too. Now the original trilogy is the only thing that really happened as we've seen it. The prequels are "the way the legend is told." The players can't be sure what happens between, before or after the original episodes and this also clears a lot more space for me shape the galaxy as it fits my campaign, to remove logical errors and make the Yuuzhan Vong a cocktail with walker-scale damage. I guess the official term is Infinities or something.
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