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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Swarmkeeper" data-source="post: 7637174" data-attributes="member: 6921763">Good stuff.As a DM, I'm in @<a href="https://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=97077" target="_blank">iserith</a>'s camp of not caring what the players know.  If they bring in prior knowledge of the MM from their playing experience or even from reading it, that's fine.  The challenge I lay out should not be strictly based on the "hidden" info in the MM.  When I introduce a monster at the table, however, I'll use paper to block out all but the image when I show they what they are up against.  The name and stats remain hidden, just to give the illusion of a sense of mystery.  Players, in general, seem to like this and I haven't had anyone bust open a physical copy of the MM at the table to "solve" a monster.  Maybe they've done it on their phones, but it seems that would be against the spirit of play that we're implicitly agreeing to.  Either way, I don't really worry about it.I've mentioned this anecdote before on the forums here, but I think it is worth repeating because it's an example where player knowledge of the MM created an awesome scene in our game:In our Curse of Strahd campaign, the PCs encountered the Death Slaad in the Amber Temple.  My son, 11 at the time, had basically memorized the Monster Manual by reading it at night.  After a tense, crazy battle, his Half-Orc Assassin decided to knock out the foul aberration rather than kill it outright and then excitedly announced that he wanted to operate to extract the Control Gem.  My brother-in-law, not to be shown up by his nephew, had his Diviner challenge the Assassin to a contest of capability to determine who would conduct the surgery and claim the Gem!  That's right, a WIS(Medicine) contested roll between PCs.  The Diviner won fair and square, not even using his Portent to sway the result. After one failed attempt at a DC 20 WIS (Medicine) check that brought the Slaad closer to death, the Diviner successfully extracted the Gem and now had a follower to help the group.  That's a long way of saying that my son's player knowledge of the MM created a gruesomely hilarious series of events at our table that will long be remembered in our shared D&D experience.As a player, between sessions I have refrained from looking up any particular monsters I know we'll be encountering so I can enjoy some extra challenge and discovery at the table.  If I know something about a monster already, I won't necessarily announce it, but might have my character mention his familiarity should that be pertinent to the scene.  The DM that I play with doesn't care either way.  Our shared goal is to have fun at the table and that can suffer when a DM gets bent out of shape over the occasional player knowledge being used at the table.</blockquote>

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