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<blockquote data-quote="Ralif Redhammer" data-source="post: 8404454" data-attributes="member: 30438">Way back in 2010, I was running a 4e game for some folks that had all been gaming since 2e, and in one case, my brother, who had been gaming with me since BECMI. They fought a bunch of trolls, knew they were trolls, and when they &quot;killed&quot; them, none of them knew to use fire or acid. I was shocked, and the fight continued with the trolls just insulting them more and more as they tried to figure out how to kill them, eventually stumbling across something that worked.In my campaigns, I generally don't call knowing stuff like that metagaming. It's no stretch to say that people just hear stories about how you kill trolls, much like I know that bats navigate by echolocation, despite not being a chiropterologist. Adventurers will just have picked up some knowledge of monsters. Now, stuff that they don't know, they don't know. I'm not a big fan of &quot;monster knowledge&quot; checks. It's one thing to assume that in this world everyone knows that beholders have an eye ray that nullifies magic, or that a dragon I describe as gargantuan is above their pay grade, but another thing that a cleric of trickery from the desert would be able to know that a Sea Spawn has an AC of 11 with an intelligence check.I'm also okay with PCs strategizing (I've had players ask &quot;are we metagaming?&quot; when doing so). Even if they're all presumably bound and gagged with sacks on their heads, I'm okay with them discussing how they're going to get out of that situation. Because D&amp;D is a group activity, and I want them to work together to solve problems.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ralif Redhammer, post: 8404454, member: 30438"] Way back in 2010, I was running a 4e game for some folks that had all been gaming since 2e, and in one case, my brother, who had been gaming with me since BECMI. They fought a bunch of trolls, knew they were trolls, and when they "killed" them, none of them knew to use fire or acid. I was shocked, and the fight continued with the trolls just insulting them more and more as they tried to figure out how to kill them, eventually stumbling across something that worked. In my campaigns, I generally don't call knowing stuff like that metagaming. It's no stretch to say that people just hear stories about how you kill trolls, much like I know that bats navigate by echolocation, despite not being a chiropterologist. Adventurers will just have picked up some knowledge of monsters. Now, stuff that they don't know, they don't know. I'm not a big fan of "monster knowledge" checks. It's one thing to assume that in this world everyone knows that beholders have an eye ray that nullifies magic, or that a dragon I describe as gargantuan is above their pay grade, but another thing that a cleric of trickery from the desert would be able to know that a Sea Spawn has an AC of 11 with an intelligence check. I'm also okay with PCs strategizing (I've had players ask "are we metagaming?" when doing so). Even if they're all presumably bound and gagged with sacks on their heads, I'm okay with them discussing how they're going to get out of that situation. Because D&D is a group activity, and I want them to work together to solve problems. [/QUOTE]

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