Usually we Gnomes are the ones dishing up the advice, but some of the best tips come from our readers in the comments section.  Well today we want to take advantage of our greatest asset (our fans) and hear how you would handle the following scenario:

After a week of prep work you have your adventure ready.  It is dastardly!  It is challenging!  It is fun!  The PCs will need to navigate a dangerous and winding maze of traps and creatures in order to reach their goal.  You can barely contain your glee as you wait for the mayhem to begin.

The players arrive, the adventure begins.  In game the PCs are at the entrance to the maze and you hear those dreaded words.

“Hey!  We don’t have to go through this maze.  My PC has the MacGuffin!  Plus remember what the GM told us about the hidden ruins having secret passages that were lined with trace particles of radium?  Why we can bypass this maze completely by simply…”

In mere minutes the players devise a brilliant way to side step all of your challenges.  Now what do you do?

Before commenting keep in mind that answers like “I would have made sure that the PCs would not have been able to…” or “I do not plan my adventures like that, so this would not happen because…” are not what we are looking for here.  The hypothetical scenario described above is what happens, so how do you use your GMing noggin to save the session and still have a good time?

Do you know how you would handle this scenario?  Have you found yourself in this type of situation before?  If so, what did you do?  I look forward to reading your solutions!