As generations of gamers blend and the OSR movement seems strong, there seem to be more and more occasions where someone wants to run or play in an old classic. But someone else at the table is near certain to have played in many of the old TSR classic modules. This seems inevitable as some of us who have been gaming for years introduce a new, younger generation to the hobby.

This often presents a problem as someone at the table has to pretend they do not know anything about the module. At least that is how we have tackled it in groups I have played in. The person that has played the module before simply bows out of any major decision making point. They don’t reveal a particular trap or help choose the right path. This lends itself to a tremendous amount of meta knowledge bleeding into actual play.

Sometimes this makes people shy away from certain modules. We all know it isn’t a lot of fun to not participate in solving puzzles, choosing passages, or delicately investigating that fearsome looking door bearing the face of a grinning demon. So the easiest way to handle that is to simply play adventures no one at the table has played before.

A Different Way

I recently started listening to the actual play podcasts over at the The Delvers. The podcast is on a bit of a hiatus at the moment due to various issues, but the past episodes are of course available. I started listening because of the Barrowmaze actual play under the Labyrinth Lord rules. The shows are well done, sort of like an old radio show with generous edits to keep things moving and interesting in easily listened to nuggets.

I noticed there was also a Tomb of Horrors actual play episode that was one big show. Intrigued I listened to that one as well. In this case one of the players had run the module at least once, maybe more, and possibly played it in the past as well. He found an interesting way to not have to sit on the sidelines with his meta-knowledge.

His magic-user’s backstory included him spending many years in his wizard tower studying the tomb of Acererak. This course of study over ancient tomes helped the wizard in-character know more about the Tomb of Horrors than normal. The player was able to blend their meta knowledge into why their character would know more detail about the Tomb.

I thought this was an interesting way to tackle this issue as the generations of gamers blend and we replay the older classics. Listening to the podcast the early parts, the more familiar parts, of the tomb were quickly explored as this meta knowledge showed as in character research. The further into the tomb though, things became uncertain as the meta knowledge was less precise. By the midway point of the module decisions were needing to be made as part of the whole party, with no clear answer.

I think this tactic could work for other scenarios as well. In my own games if I happen to run something someone else has played or run, we can chalk up some of that character’s research in some dusty library that happened during downtime earlier in the campaign. This will help allow the character to fully participate without having to keep quiet all of the time.

Now this might not work for all modules, where they are less puzzle or trap oriented and more “big twist” at the end oriented. But it does provide yet another tool to the GM to help run something that might have been played before. I will certainly add this tool to my arsenal of GM tricks.

A Unique Issue

Have other GMs run into this issue of trying to run a module another player in the group has run or played? Do you avoid such adventures? Have you developed work around for that situation? If so I want to hear about them!