2019-11-27 The Metagaming I encourage
People have been talking about Metagaming on the blogs! I think Iāll just list the things that Iām ok with at the table even though I used to think this was ābadā metagaming:
1. If players know a monster their characters also know the monster. The onus is on the referee to bring new monsters to the table or to make old monsters fresh, or to focus on other things. Conversely, if players ask me what their character would know about the monster they are facing, I will happily reply that if they donāt remember then their character does not remember either.
2. If some player characters arenāt āthereā when some other playerās character is struggling in a discussion with non-player characters, I tell them that theyāre free to discuss, give hints, look stuff up, browse the campaign wiki, or check their notes. The player character who is āthereā gets to say what they want to say, but the discussion of the players at the table, outside the game is part of play, too.
3. I will often talk about the game itself. What do players want to happen next session? Give them a choice about the future direction of the campaign linked to in-game decisions. For example, if they board that ship and sail south then weāre going on a piracy story-arc away from dungeoneering. I want players to make informed decisions and that sometimes requires talk outside the game, about the game.
4. Player concerns override character concerns. If their character wouldnāt go on the adventure then thatās fine. Make another character that would and lets continue playing the game. I donāt understand annoying fellow players (real people sitting at the table) for the sake of imaginary people that we summoned in order to entertain us all (and not just the characterās player). The characters were created to serve us, not the other way around. š
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Comments
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2,3 and 4 I wholly agree with.
1 not so much. As a player, I find it dull that meta gaming concerns should supercede my playing my character. I find it more interesting to play āas ifā my character didnāt know these things. Same way my low INT Barbarian is fun to play because heās not as smart as like to think I am and frequently makes very... Simplified decisions.
I get the incentive for DMs to get creative but players should want more from themselves.
ā Anders H 2019-12-03 08:25 UTC
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Sure. And I donāt mind players playing ignorant characters. But at the same time, I donāt make it a point to enforce this if the players arenāt up to it.
ā Alex Schroeder 2019-12-03 16:07 UTC