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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6633681" data-attributes="member: 42582">Like  [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION], I'm having trouble applying this distinction to actual episodes of play (either actual ones I've taken part in, or imagined ones).For instance, if I'm playing D&D, and I want my PC to kill a monster, then I will be aiming at reducing that enemies hit point pool to zero, by rolling successful to hit rolls for my PC, and then maximising my damage. Or another example: I'm playing a cleric, and (as my PC) I want to help my comrades make it through the magically warded dungeon. So I look through my spell list to see which spells grant a bonus to saving throws. Then I have my PC memorise one of those spells, and cast it on the other PCs.Both these examples look to me like the use of rules to affect other rules (eg the use of attack and damage rules to affect rules about hit point tallies; the use of spell memorisation and casting rules to affect rules about saving throws), but both are also pretty typical instances of what playing D&D involves.I don't really see how this relates to metagaming at all. It's about damage resistance rules, isn't it?Whether bone dragons, or non-earth elementals, should be immune to all or some weapon attacks is a recurrent issue of system design. In AD&D non-earth elementals can be damaged by magic weapons (from memory, with a minimum +2 bonus) but no fiction explaining this possibility is offered. In Rolemaster, there is explanatory text that describes how elementals have a "spirit core" that can be disrupted by weapon blows (even non-magical ones). Presumably one could equally posit a "spirit core" to a bone dragon that can be disrupted by a charging lance.The fiction of the game can be more or less complete or "pre-packaged" in these various ways, but I don't see any connection to metagaming. The player who thinks "I'll attack the air elemental with my sword, because its +2 to hit and so I know it'll do damage" isn't metagaming, just because s/he can't explain what, in the fiction, is happening when a sword blow reduces an air elemental to zero hit points.</blockquote>

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