Help me, fellow gamers! You're my only hope!

[Shade]

Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt (through metagaming, of course).

Once I realized I'd become "that guy", I simply try to make decisions as my character would, even if it means running head first into the creature I know is going to sunder my armor on the first strike or sticking around the frost worm as it approaches death knowing full well she's gonna blow. If my character had the Knowledge skills to support my metagame knowledge, I'd play into that, but as a guy who put almost all his skill points into Jump and Tumble, I can't do that.

 

[ruemere]

I have a confession to make.[...]
How do you train yourselves to look past the numbers?

Ari,

D20 is not a fair, equal-chances-for-everyone, type of a game. If you don't do the necessary crunch, you may end up as party equivalent of a village idiot.

That said, when your game becomes an encounter-hopping experience (meaning, you time your play by going from one encounter to another), you need to ask your GM if it wouldn't be a good idea to introduce a few sessions where metagaming does not impact your gaming performance.

Sample themes for encounterless sessions:
- trading and marketing session (where you hold charity auctions, visit friendly NPCs and so on - basically, working a bit on a social aspects of character's life),
- multilayered combat (example: you need to use environment to your advantage to win against impossible odds, hostage situation where you are the hostages),
- murder mystery,
- administration, diplomacy and slave trade,
- smugglers, cops and internal affairs (yes, I know it's d20 ).

Of course, my ideas may seem a bit trivial, after all, you're seasoned gamer, yet, sometimes, it's easy to forget about such basics.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Particle_Man]

If my character had the Knowledge skills to support my metagame knowledge, I'd play into that, but as a guy who put almost all his skill points into Jump and Tumble, I can't do that.

Now there is an idea. Have the DM say that anyone who metagames certain knowledge is *required* to put X amount of skill points into the relevant knowledge skill (cross class or not) the next time (or the next Y times) they level up. I wonder if the stick might cause metagamers to metagame metagaming and thus stop metagaming in play.

 

[Jhaelen]

Now there is an idea. Have the DM say that anyone who metagames certain knowledge is *required* [...]

Knowledge (metagaming) ?

Sure, why not