D&D General "When I DM I do my Best to Curb Players Meta-Gaming or Using Out-of-Character Knowledge." (a poll)

[HammerMan]

If that metagaming is in the purpose of helping the table have a good time (like understanding how a system shares spotlight time, and using it to share spotlight), then I feel no need to stop it.

I strongly prefer that players not use, say, monster stat information without first establishing the character knows it first. But I rarely need to enforce that - my players seek to establish it themselves before I have to act on that.

Yeah this is a hard one for me… like Umbra said I am 100% cool with meta gaming to help the gun at the table flow and 100% against it if it stops the fun.

 

[Deset Gled]

Yeah this is a hard one for me… like Umbra said I am 100% cool with meta gaming to help the gun at the table flow and 100% against it if it stops the fun.

If it makes a difference, the definition of "curb" is to restrain or keep in check, not to prohibit.

 

[overgeeked]

True. Character choices should be made based on character knowledge, not player knowledge. Though I agree, meta-gaming to keep the game flowing is fine, but meta-gaming to gain advantages is not.

 

[Reynard]

I don't actually care. if the players want to go full metagame, then I will too.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

meta-gaming to gain advantages is not

It's also rarely a real problem, though, in my experience, and I don't really fault the player who remembers that X monster is weak to fire from a previous campaign, even though, if we micro-analyzed their PC, their PC probably wouldn't know that. I have met DMs who would try to insist on that micro-analysis though (in such campaigns you better believe I'm going to play some kind of loremaster Bard and justify the hell out of knowing stuff though!).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If it makes a difference, the definition of "curb" is to restrain or keep in check, not to prohibit.

But "do my best" being attached to it rather than a different qualifier makes it sound like it's at the extreme end of "curb"ing.

 

[CleverNickName]

Oh yeah, all the time.

I'll change the names of the monsters (or just change the tilename to 'Monster1,' 'Monster2,' etc. in Roll20) so that they have to rely on my descriptions to figure out what they're fighting. I create my own magic items, and heavily embellish others (a common longsword +1 is described as the Blade of Ballenroe, a steel longsword with the crest of the Ballenroe family in the pommel.) In my game world, the dead are embalmed before burial, so most corporeal undead look identical to mummies. My dragons are all gray, and have the chameleon-like ability to change the color of their scales--no way to tell what it's breath weapon is going to be from appearance. And so forth.

Basically, I want to eliminate the 'gamist' attitudes and behaviors at the table as much as possible, so that we can focus on immersion. In a perfect gaming session, my players forget they are even playing a game at least once.

 

[payn]

Depends on the metagaming. The monster manual stuff isn't the end of the world for me. Jumping off a building because you know the character will survive it, when there are other more reasonable actions to take, bugs me. Multi-classing and/or dipping doesn't bother me, those are mechanics that are under hood. Choosing a path because you think it will net more XP, or avoiding one because it doesn't have enough XP, instead of the interesting narrative choice, bugs me.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Ballenroe

Total aside but I instinctively know my main group players are too keen on sniggering and being juvenile to really take anything called "Ballenroe" seriously lol. I guess we all probably know stuff which just wouldn't fly for our groups.

One of my great annoyances was coming up with what I thought was an awesome name for a major NPC, safety-Googling it, and finding oh yeah it's also a name of a city in Morocco, but I've never heard of it, and neither will the players, and of course, the week before the session introducing the NPC, turns out the tube (subway) was filled with billboards to "Come visit beautiful [NPC name]!", and it's nothing but smirking when he's introduced. So much for his majesty and respect!

 

[CleverNickName]

Total aside but I instinctively know my main group players are too keen on sniggering and being juvenile to really take anything called "Ballenroe" seriously lol. I guess we all probably know stuff which just wouldn't fly for our groups.

Hey, cut me some slack! I hadn't had my coffee yet. Give me ten seconds on FantasyNameGenerator.com and I'll be ready.