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<blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 6234666" data-attributes="member: 5143">I maintain that &quot;No metagaming&quot; is one of the tenants of D&amp;D.&nbsp; That there will always be rules that are not a 1 to 1 correlation with what is happening in the game world because there is always some abstraction.&nbsp; I think &quot;no metagaming&quot; kind of means &quot;Please don't poke or pay attention to the parts of the rules that are abstract.&nbsp; Some of the information YOU as a player have is not shared with your character.&nbsp; Don't have your character make decisions based on this information.&quot;That's actually part of the article's point.&nbsp; Some abstraction is necessary and that finding the right balance where the mechanic is &quot;close enough&quot; while still being fast and easy enough is hard.I'd argue that hitpoints are a major one of those mechanics.&nbsp; They have the &quot;feel&quot; of taking wounds while not actually being wounds or following all the rules of wounds.&nbsp; The less hp you have, the closer you are to death.&nbsp; The more wounds you suffer the closer you are to death.&nbsp; However, the player knows the EXACT number of hitpoints they have and often knows the EXACT amount of damage things do.&nbsp; The character does not.&nbsp; This means that for the most part, your thought process is the same as your characters: Avoid taking damage because I don't want to die.&nbsp; Sometimes I have to take some damage, but try to minimize the risk by taking as little as possible.It's only when the player uses the metagame information that the thinking gets out of sync.&nbsp; As long as a DM enforces the &quot;no metagaming&quot; rule, the problem goes away.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Majoru Oakheart, post: 6234666, member: 5143"] I maintain that "No metagaming" is one of the tenants of D&D. That there will always be rules that are not a 1 to 1 correlation with what is happening in the game world because there is always some abstraction. I think "no metagaming" kind of means "Please don't poke or pay attention to the parts of the rules that are abstract. Some of the information YOU as a player have is not shared with your character. Don't have your character make decisions based on this information." That's actually part of the article's point. Some abstraction is necessary and that finding the right balance where the mechanic is "close enough" while still being fast and easy enough is hard. I'd argue that hitpoints are a major one of those mechanics. They have the "feel" of taking wounds while not actually being wounds or following all the rules of wounds. The less hp you have, the closer you are to death. The more wounds you suffer the closer you are to death. However, the player knows the EXACT number of hitpoints they have and often knows the EXACT amount of damage things do. The character does not. This means that for the most part, your thought process is the same as your characters: Avoid taking damage because I don't want to die. Sometimes I have to take some damage, but try to minimize the risk by taking as little as possible. It's only when the player uses the metagame information that the thinking gets out of sync. As long as a DM enforces the "no metagaming" rule, the problem goes away. [/QUOTE]

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