Cut off it's head!, It's the only way to be sure... Options

[J. Packer]

Okay, a question for all you GMs out there. I have been involved in RP for years and years, and once I got out of my adolescence, I've run into tons of players who metagame like crazy. They min max and they know things that their characters wouldn't and the list goes on and on.

But the thing that I just can't get people past is the desire to always be as prepared as possible. I had a friend in college who brought the subject and tag of this post into every game we played. He could be playing a freaking schoolmarm in a gingham dress, and he'd have uttered the phrase "Cut off it's head, it's the only way to be sure" at least once per session.

For total transparency, I'm pretty sure Craig never played a school marm in any of our games.

So, you're setting the scene, and on a whim you toss out something that's utterly meaningless, it's total fluff. But your players latch onto it like it's the scraping claws of the Boogieman. How do you get them back on track?