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Do NPCs in your game have PHB classes?
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<blockquote data-quote="AaronOfBarbaria" data-source="post: 6890335" data-attributes="member: 6701872"><p>The real kicker there is that most of the time someone is being told "You can't do that, it is meta-gaming!" they are being forced to use information the character doesn't have to decide on doing something else, rather than be allowed to actually have the character guess at something without the player's knowledge being brought into the matter.</p><p></p><p>And, in a general sense: Meta-gaming is an illusion. There is only playing the game (including treating the characters encounter as if they are characters, using the game information as representation of things the character would know but the player can't otherwise see, and most other things to which people use the phrase "meta-game" to refer to), and cheating at the game (a very rare and specific set of things which people commonly refer to as "meta-gaming" that are actually not just playing the game, including but not limited to having characters do things which actually do require information that not only does the character not have, but cannot possibly guess at - which is so rare a thing I can't even think of an example at the moment).</p><p></p><p>As for why this illusion was created, one need look no further than the contemporary idea at the time that the players are always trying to get one over on the DM or find some unfair advantage so the DM must act as stern adversary and keep them in their proper place - an idea which even the originators of the game didn't fully embrace, judging by other portions of text which coached DMs on not being overly harsh toward their players for fear they would cease playing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AaronOfBarbaria, post: 6890335, member: 6701872"] The real kicker there is that most of the time someone is being told "You can't do that, it is meta-gaming!" they are being forced to use information the character doesn't have to decide on doing something else, rather than be allowed to actually have the character guess at something without the player's knowledge being brought into the matter. And, in a general sense: Meta-gaming is an illusion. There is only playing the game (including treating the characters encounter as if they are characters, using the game information as representation of things the character would know but the player can't otherwise see, and most other things to which people use the phrase "meta-game" to refer to), and cheating at the game (a very rare and specific set of things which people commonly refer to as "meta-gaming" that are actually not just playing the game, including but not limited to having characters do things which actually do require information that not only does the character not have, but cannot possibly guess at - which is so rare a thing I can't even think of an example at the moment). As for why this illusion was created, one need look no further than the contemporary idea at the time that the players are always trying to get one over on the DM or find some unfair advantage so the DM must act as stern adversary and keep them in their proper place - an idea which even the originators of the game didn't fully embrace, judging by other portions of text which coached DMs on not being overly harsh toward their players for fear they would cease playing. [/QUOTE]
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