D&D 5E How to deal with Metagaming as a player?

ccs · Feb 15, 2017

iserith said:
The DM is right that he can't do much about it. The DM has no more social power than any of the rest of you. His or her power exists only in the game world. It's on you to communicate how you want to play and, if you're finding no satisfaction in that regard, to find people who do share your interests and play with them instead.

Both you and that DM are incorrect.
The other players may well be _______'s, but the problems are occurring because of in-game actions that the DM is allowing (or causing) to happen.
The shouting about "Have you killed the old man yet?" Nobody seems to hear you....
Contracting leprosy from the dead old guy? Didn't need to happen.
Allowing the other pcs to murder everyone in the bar? Didn't need to happen.

At any point when the crap is escalating the DM can just stop the game.
Won't solve whatever other social issues are running, but it will prevent the game from being the delivery system.

AaronOfBarbaria · Feb 15, 2017

cbwjm said:
Then the only metagaming is that they couldn't have known it was an old man as you said. It's minor metagaming, they knew they were talking to someone, I suppose they somehow guessed it was an old man.

That's still not what metagaming means, and it still isn't relevant what the player knows, just whether the character could do what the character did or if it was impossible (and if it was impossible, that's still not metagaming - it's cheating).

There is a definition of metagaming provided in the book - it's thinking of the game as a game, and the examples provided are nothing at all like scenario described here.

You are getting caught up in the typical pitfall of worrying about metagaming - getting distracted by your knowledge of what the player knows, and missing that the knowledge is irrelevant (or, at least in my opinion, should be irrelevant) because the declared action for the character would be totally fine if the player didn't know.

And that is forcing the thing you claim to be trying to avoid - the player's knowledge, rather than the character's, determining the character's course of action - to happen.

Caliban · Feb 15, 2017

AaronOfBarbaria said:
I am shocked by how it seems that the longer a user has been a part of this forum, the less familiar they are with this forum's rules.

What on earth are you going on about?

iserith · Feb 15, 2017

ccs said:
Both you and that DM are incorrect.

No, you just missed my point. The game is not the problem and so it's not the DM's problem alone to solve.

ad_hoc · Feb 15, 2017

The red flag here is that you took up a lot of game time by yourself. That is not fun for the other players.

Lanliss · Feb 15, 2017

ad_hoc said:
The red flag here is that you took up a lot of game time by yourself. That is not fun for the other players.

It might be purely subjective, but I see a much larger red flag. Immature people.

Darkness · Feb 15, 2017

Caliban said:
This has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read.

AaronOfBarbaria said:
I am shocked by how it seems that the longer a user has been a part of this forum, the less familiar they are with this forum's rules.

Please keep it civil, folks. This should be a friendly, helpful forum. Hostile language and aiming for the person behind the post are neither.

robus · Feb 15, 2017

iserith said:
No, you just missed my point. The game is not the problem and so it's not the DM's problem alone to solve.

I do think it is the DMs responsibility to ensure that everyone is having fun at their table. It sounds like the OP has been suffering for a while and the DM doesn't care. That's bad DMing in my book. The DM should take the OP aside and suggest that perhaps this is not the right group. Or they should tell the others to knock it off. But to just sit there and act as if this is OK at their table? That's fully the DMs problem.

iserith · Feb 15, 2017

robus said:
I do think it is the DMs responsibility to ensure that everyone is having fun at their table. It sounds like the OP has been suffering for a while and the DM doesn't care. That's bad DMing in my book. The DM should take the OP aside and suggest that perhaps this is not the right group. Or they should tell the others to knock it off. But to just sit there and act as if this is OK at their table? That's fully the DMs problem.

I don't think it's the DM's responsibility to deal with social problems at the table. The OP is the one with the problem and thus should be the one to address it.

I had something like this come up in my current campaign (essentially). Basically, one of the players didn't like how another player did things. They put their big-boy pants on and figured it out themselves by not playing in the game group. That was not my responsibility to solve. Got a problem with the game - too easy, too hard, not fantastical enough, questionable rulings, pacing off, incoherent plot, lacking in desired content, etc.? Yeah, that's my problem as DM (if I had such problems). But social issues between players is for them to work out. I have no authority over that as DM. I would think it rather creepy if a DM thought their authority in the game world translated to authority over social issues at the table.

robus · Feb 15, 2017

iserith said:
I don't think it's the DM's responsibility to deal with social problems at the table. The OP is the one with the problem and thus should be the one to address it.

I had something like this come up in my current campaign (essentially). Basically, one of the players didn't like how another player did things. They put their big-boy pants on and figured it out themselves by not playing in the game group. That was not my responsibility to solve. Got a problem with the game - too easy, too hard, not fantastical enough, questionable rulings, pacing off, incoherent plot, lacking in desired content, etc.? Yeah, that's my problem as DM (if I had such problems). But social issues between players is for them to work out. I have no authority over that as DM. I would think it rather creepy if a DM thought their authority in the game world translated to authority over social issues at the table.

But those social issues are being acted out in the game world. It's not like the OP is complaining that the other players drink all his beer. Their characters are messing with his character in the game world and the DM doesn't seem to give a crap. That's bad DMing IMHO. The DM should not be oblivious to players enjoyment of the game.

D&D 5E How to deal with Metagaming as a player?

ccs

41st lv DM

AaronOfBarbaria

Adventurer

Caliban

Rules Monkey

iserith

Magic Wordsmith

ad_hoc

(they/them)

Lanliss

Explorer

Darkness

Hand and Eye of Piratecat [Moderator]

robus

Lowcountry Low Roller

iserith

Magic Wordsmith

robus

Lowcountry Low Roller

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