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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cor_Malek" data-source="post: 5221443" data-attributes="member: 91608">Uh, oh - we need a comic relief./me does a silly dance.What he does can be a good stimuli to yourself - it's good that you second guess the plot you designed, it makes you a better GM. Also, consider the fact that if he's very genre savvy, he sees certain plot hooks miles ahead, and challenging you might be the only way for him to have some fun. So he killed your boss easier than suspected. That's something he should be rewarded for, not punished.Believe me, between sheepish players that just look for a railroad to follow, and the ones that shake their fist at the sky - the latter are way more fun to lead in long run. He'll be frustrating for a while, yeah. But you learn much faster, you have to overcome some obstacles yourself - so you don't end up as the only one not surprised all evening, and more importantly - it won't get boring for a looong time.OK, that's enough of buzzwords, time for more specific advice:Monster Quest. He's genre savvy and knows it? Hah! Then just plan with this fact in mind. For example, he probably knows that werewolf did it. It's always the werewolf, and it's almost always the guard captain, this kind of plot will not fly.Note: if you don't get the werewolf thing, look at the bottom of this post.*But what if it wasn't, really? It is the kind of mystery so painfully obvious, and reoccurring that he might not be the only one who noticed it.What really happened is that the captain disappeared, that kind of person has enemies all around. All other clues were fabricated by X, who wanted to shut some mouths eternally, for better or worse reasons. He knew that he could plant some evidence to be found, hell - he might even give some more important ones to PC's himself (ie hunter, "nay, these are not wolf tracks, they're far too big!")!When they have enough clues to suspect it's the captain, introduce him. He enters the village in rugged clothing, with wounds all around. In reality, he was captured when was wandering in forest (your PC's might know this, at least that he disappeared while in wild), and managed to escape. He sure as hell will not get along with PC's, and will concentrate on getting to barracks to gather strike force and lead it to the cave/shack where he was being held. They might kill him, they might try to "save him", meh. What matters, is that our imposter doesn't know about it, and another crime will be committed while your PC's are captains alibi.Ta daah.Be warned though - this must all fit nicely, and ultimate goal is that the party learns true murderers identity (even if they kill the captain), there's no point of planning all this if they never learn that it was no werewolf.Also - he might have seen this trick already, but if he questions your abilities, I think he'll rather throw himself at the bait and the hook, swallowing even the bobber in the process. Because it's always the werewolf.Monster quests can involve many more instances where basically it's not the monster. Note, that those are very popular as well, and players will generally expect this. So they have to be hidden behind even more obvious classic. Don't overdo it though, or else they'll just switch and always assume it's not the monster.*As to why:X disappears, and then there's a wave of violence. You look for a murderer, but look! Those are not sword slashes, those look like bites! And there's a trail of wolf tracks (though slightly larger)! And the crimes were always commited at midnight...It's fantasy version of "the husband did it". Used as a classic example when explaining <a href="http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/three-clue-rule.html" target="_blank">usage of clues</a>, repeatedly used in video games (Baldurs Gate, and The Witcher for example), in terms of fantasy cliche second only to "you all sit in a tavern...".</blockquote>

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