Mishihari Lord
First Post
In general I dislike metagame. Setting expectations before play "please try to act according to your PC's knowledge" seems to avoid most problems. Roughly half of the monsters I use are custom, which helps. Some knowledge is going to be common, and a lot is available via lore check, and even more is available if the PCs have a chance to stop and scout the monster and actually do it.
All this said, I want to let the players play. Jumping into a sphere of annihilation because your PC didn't know what it was isn't fun. Neither is losing an easy fight because of knowledge that should be common. In the latter case I will give increasingly obvious clues as to what the PCs should be doing.
Differing from other posters above, I don't mind counting squares. Since a wizard's life depends on placing spell effects where he wants them, I expect he's put in a lot of practice in correct placement. I don't mind intra-round player conferences either, since they seem to add to everyone's fun.
All this said, I want to let the players play. Jumping into a sphere of annihilation because your PC didn't know what it was isn't fun. Neither is losing an easy fight because of knowledge that should be common. In the latter case I will give increasingly obvious clues as to what the PCs should be doing.
Differing from other posters above, I don't mind counting squares. Since a wizard's life depends on placing spell effects where he wants them, I expect he's put in a lot of practice in correct placement. I don't mind intra-round player conferences either, since they seem to add to everyone's fun.