NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 6412751" data-attributes="member: 5143">No it isn't.  People keep abusing the word metagaming.  The definition as per both the 3e and 4e DMGs is using the knowledge that you are playing a game in order to come up with information that your character would not know.The example given in the 3e DMG was coming across a door that didn't have a way to open it but thinking "The DM wouldn't put a door here without giving us a way to open it.  He wants us to get further into the dungeon.  So, there must be a secret lever or switch somewhere around here to open it.  I'm going to search for it."That is metagaming.  Though it's a horrible example of metagaming given that a PC could think "There has to be a way through this door, the builders of this dungeon would want to be able to get back and forth through the door and would have built a way to do that." and suddenly it is no longer metagaming.In fact, most metagaming is fairly easily explained through non-metagaming thinking.  So, it's nearly impossible to spot ACTUAL metagaming.Other examples of metagaming are things like:"I know the DMG specifies an XP budget and I've calculated the value of all the monsters we've fought so far.  If the DM is following it, then it should be safe to open this door because it's unlikely to have any monsters behind it.""That guy fell 50 feet.  No one can survive a fall from that height, he's dead...let's go."  "Actually, I'm fairly certain he did survive it, he likely had over 80 hps.  A fall from 50 feet only does 5d6 points of damage, which even if you rolled max on it wouldn't kill them.""Our DM likes to give out XP at the end of the session, so I should know fireball by the time we have to fight the boss at the end of this adventure.  Don't worry guys, I'll have a fire spell before we run into him."It has to be using knowledge of the rules/DM/the fact that you are playing a game in a way that your character would not have or knowledge of.Acting smarter than your character is, is at worst, poor roleplaying.  And given nothing in the rules specifies what a person with Int 8 can or can't be smart enough to do, at best it is a guessing game and at worst a game of mother-may-I to determine what your character is smart enough to accomplish based on the opinions of the DM in question.</blockquote>

Verification