I've not struggled with it either, but that's chiefly because I don't make it my business to judge why a character does a thing. As DM, I only need to know what they are trying to accomplish and how so I can decide whether it succeeds or fails or there's a roll. As a player, I only need to know if I can do something to help my teammate succeed in their goal.
I think @Incenjucar gave a pretty good example of what I'd consider meta-gaming. But I think its also fair to say that in some cases a players character may or could know some obscure bit of information of the game world but in some cases theres just no way that a character would have that knowledge. I suppose it comes down to the DM and what they deem appropriate. I cant remember any specific incidents but I do try and give the players the benefit of the doubt but other times I have succinctly told my players, outright NO, there is no way your character would have that kind of information.
As a DM, I establish the ground rules that players will keep their meta knowledge as far from the game as they are able to do, and they comply. It's worked extremely well. My players will even do knowledge checks to see if they know about fire/acid vs. trolls.
Everyone will handle this differently. I can't be given to care about why someone makes particular decisions for their characters. If they want to limit themselves based on establishing some kind of baseline of knowledge, that's fine. Or not, also fine. What was seemingly asserted, however, was that it's more apt to come up in dungeon environments, perhaps as a reason to avoid them as adventure locations. My question is why.As a DM, I establish the ground rules that players will keep their meta knowledge as far from the game as they are able to do, and they comply. It's worked extremely well. My players will even do knowledge checks to see if they know about fire/acid vs. trolls.
It's a result of the tradition of insta-kill death trap dungeons like the Tomb of Annihilation. Less common in modern times, but back in older editions players wouldn't even bother making back stories for their characters because official adventures would pile up the bodies too quickly to risk growing attached to them. It really put the "crawl" into dungeon crawl.
I don't make "insta-kill death trap dungeons" and I still don't encourage players to create backstories for their characters before play. I prefer they do only as much as is necessary to define their concept, then add to it when inspired to do so during play.
That's fine, but unless you worked for TSR your dungeons aren't where this came from.
My point being I still don't think this is "meta play." It's not a default position that one should create a backstory beyond what the rules describe, nor be attached to the character, nor is carefully exploring necessarily "meta play." It's just play, and reasonable play in a dangerous environment, wouldn't you say? What does it matter if said careful exploration is the result of a player having had a previous experience with a mimic or a piercer? The outcome is the same - careful exploration.That's fine, but unless you worked for TSR your dungeons aren't where this came from.
