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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8569394" data-attributes="member: 42582">Some RPGers are hostile to out-of-character/metagame knowledge.But it seems to me that a lot of typical (what might even be called traditional) approaches to RPGing very strongly foreground such knowledge.What I've got in mind is any approach to RPGing where the players know that their PCs are engaged in an "adventure".In classic D&D, that sort of knowledge is the result of the GM describing the dungeon entrance, or dungeon outworks/surface works, to the players. The contrast with real life is obvious: sometimes archaeologists, treasure hunters and the like think they've found an interesting place, but it turns out to be a bit of a bust.In more post-DL D&D, it comes from the players seeing the GM pick up the module and narrate the opening scene. Here's an example from the 2nd ed AD&D module "Five Shall Be One" (p 6):The adventure opens with the PCs arriving the city of Rookroost . . . Read the text below to your players at the beginning of the adventure. . . . ". . . As you leave the temple, you see the half-elf mage striding down the steps before you. He falls scattering possessions and documents on the ground before him. He scrabbles desperately to retrieve them, looking anxiously about him."Even if the GM somehow manages to hide the fact that this is module text from the players, they will almost certainly realise this is an adventure hook, given that the GM has never before narrated NPCs tripping and dropping their files. The module provides information about what the PCs (and hence players) learn if they take and read any of the files.Here's an example from the 3E D&D module "Expedition to the Demon Web Pits" (pp 8-11):No matter which hook you've selected to involve the characters, get the action started quickly with the drow attack. . . . It's a few hours after dusk and the day has wound down, but the PCs are likely awake, preparing food or sharpening weapons and oiling armour. The drow and undead aren't very quiet as they approach the shelter. . . . Once the drow and zombies are defeated, the characters should notice that the drow's tracks came from the east.There's also an account of a clue-laden journal to be found on one of the dead drow.Again, I think it will be fairly evident to players that this is an adventure hook rather than a random encounter - the tracks and the journal signal that even if the players don't notice the GM is reading from a 200+ page hardback book.That knowledge that the players have, that they are being hooked into an adventure, is out-of-character/metagame knowledge - for the PCs, there is no reason to think that this clumsy file-dropping PC is anything special, or that this journal-carrying drow is any different from any randomly-encountered hostile NPC. And it plays an absolutely fundamental role in structuring and directing play.Getting rid of this particular sort of metagame knowledge requires fairly radical departure from these typical approaches to framing.</blockquote>

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