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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mouseferatu" data-source="post: 3695719" data-attributes="member: 1288">I have a confession to make.I don't know exactly when it happened. I don't know exactly why it happened, though I have theories. But at some point, over the last five years, I've become that guy.You know, that guy? The one who can't help but metagame, even when people--including himself--are trying to get into the scene. The one who, even though he trusts the DM and knows the DM knows the rules and is trying to provide a good time, can't help make a snide comment like "Uh, you do know what level we are, right?" when he sees minis on the board that might appear to be an unusually high EL. The guy who, when the DM gives a real cool description of the monster's blood flowing backwards, and its wounds closing, doesn't say, "Cool!" or even utter an in-character "Oh, crap!" but instead says "Wow, I hope that's fast healing, not regeneration."That guy. I hate that guy. And yet, somehow, I've become that guy.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> I don't do it deliberately, and sometimes I catch myself. But more often than not, I blurt it out without even realizing I'm doing it, and only then recognize the fact that I've totally broken character and mood--not just for me, but for everyone, since not everyone else in the group thinks mechanics-first.It's not what I want out of a gaming experience, and it's the sort of thing that drives me nuts when I'm DMing. I want to get into character. I want to react to the monsters as my character would. I want to make decisions based on my character's personality, not based on what my meta-knowledge says is the wisest/most tactically sound option. I want to describe combat at least somewhat cinematically, rather than boiling everything down to the numbers before I even pick up the D20.And I used to. Not 100%, of course. I'm not an amateur thespian. I don't RP to explore deep-seated personality issues. It's a game, and I treat it as such. But it's a game where character and story are major parts, where the numbers are supposed to be the means, not the ends. And somewhere in the last few years, I've forgotten how to do that (at least as a player, as opposed to a DM).Maybe it's because I'm so used to dealing with the rules, since I work in the industry, that that's all I think about now? I don't know. But I don't want to play this way. It bugs my friends, and it bugs me.I'm hoping the fact that I've become aware of this will help me fight it, but I'd like advice from others. Those of you know really, really know the rules well... How do you keep from thinking almost purely on a meta level? How do you make yourself see the monsters your character is facing, rather than the CR and SR and DR?How do you train yourselves to look past the numbers?</blockquote>

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