Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8569601" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Metagaming is part of the game.&nbsp; It has been from the very beginning, when adventures would call on players to use their own problem solving abilities to solve puzzles.&nbsp; No system for &quot;monster knowledge&quot; existed, so being able to recognize how to deal with trolls and other threats was a reward for gaining player experience.When people started to take umbrage at this sort of thing, by saying &quot;you don't know what a troll is&quot;, I pointed out a lot of the classic &quot;trap monsters&quot; are going to kill you unless you have some knowledge about them in game.&nbsp; If your wet behind the ears adventurer doesn't know how to recognize that a treasure chest isn't always a treasure chest, or that you shouldn't put on cloaks you find in dungeons, or that ghouls can paralyze you with a touch, you're not going to survive long.And when your next character will be forced to die the same way because there is no way for you to know that some creatures are to be avoided (or that you should always carry wine around in case of mimics), that just feels like an exercise in futility.There are degrees of metagaming, of course.&nbsp; I'm told there's a layer of the Abyss set aside for players who read adventures ahead of time or dare to peek at the DM's notes.&nbsp; And groups should hammer out a social contract on what level of metagaming they are ok with before Session 1 begins.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8569601, member: 6877472"] Metagaming is part of the game. It has been from the very beginning, when adventures would call on players to use their own problem solving abilities to solve puzzles. No system for "monster knowledge" existed, so being able to recognize how to deal with trolls and other threats was a reward for gaining player experience. When people started to take umbrage at this sort of thing, by saying "you don't know what a troll is", I pointed out a lot of the classic "trap monsters" are going to kill you unless you have some knowledge about them in game. If your wet behind the ears adventurer doesn't know how to recognize that a treasure chest isn't always a treasure chest, or that you shouldn't put on cloaks you find in dungeons, or that ghouls can paralyze you with a touch, you're not going to survive long. And when your next character will be forced to die the same way because there is no way for you to know that some creatures are to be avoided (or that you should always carry wine around in case of mimics), that just feels like an exercise in futility. There are degrees of metagaming, of course. I'm told there's a layer of the Abyss set aside for players who read adventures ahead of time or dare to peek at the DM's notes. And groups should hammer out a social contract on what level of metagaming they are ok with before Session 1 begins. [/QUOTE]

Verification