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<blockquote data-quote="robertliguori" data-source="post: 4525441" data-attributes="member: 47776">Add me to the 'genius' pile.&nbsp; As noted, it was a brilliant way to make tactical use of your last remaining hit point.As for those of you who consider it metagamey: consider things from the character's perspective.&nbsp; The character has by now doubtless seen many pieces of evidence that the multiverse is run capriciously and malolevently, by what appears to be a being of limited intelligence that uses parts of the universe to actively thwart and harry beings that take actions the intelligence disapproves of.&nbsp; Knowingly taking such an action at the brink of death hoping to provoke such a response that one's party can take advantage of is a noble and heroic thing to do.Yes, it doesn't match many of your opinions on what heroes should do.&nbsp; That's fine.&nbsp; You are welcome to complain to any players of yours that take such actions. (&quot;No, you are not allowed to bombard the slum quarter with alchemist's fire in response to getting rolled by a hooker.&quot;) But metagamey?&nbsp; In order for something to be metagame, it needs to be based on information outside of the rules of the game.&nbsp; In this case, the rules specified the results and likely response of the vrock; it would be metagaming to assume anything else would happen.&nbsp; What happened here was a result of one person playing D&amp;D as written, and others playing a version of D&amp;D that exists inside their heads.Now, a lot of us do that.&nbsp; However, if we're going to make a point of doing so, we should write up a list of the differences as house rules and present them ahead of time.&nbsp; If you don't like that characters can beat themselves to unconsciousness trivially, feel free to rewrite the rules so they can't; until you do so, 'metagamey' is not a meaninful criticism choosing to do so.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="robertliguori, post: 4525441, member: 47776"] Add me to the 'genius' pile. As noted, it was a brilliant way to make tactical use of your last remaining hit point. As for those of you who consider it metagamey: consider things from the character's perspective. The character has by now doubtless seen many pieces of evidence that the multiverse is run capriciously and malolevently, by what appears to be a being of limited intelligence that uses parts of the universe to actively thwart and harry beings that take actions the intelligence disapproves of. Knowingly taking such an action at the brink of death hoping to provoke such a response that one's party can take advantage of is a noble and heroic thing to do. Yes, it doesn't match many of your opinions on what heroes should do. That's fine. You are welcome to complain to any players of yours that take such actions. ("No, you are not allowed to bombard the slum quarter with alchemist's fire in response to getting rolled by a hooker.") But metagamey? In order for something to be metagame, it needs to be based on information outside of the rules of the game. In this case, the rules specified the results and likely response of the vrock; it would be metagaming to assume anything else would happen. What happened here was a result of one person playing D&D as written, and others playing a version of D&D that exists inside their heads. Now, a lot of us do that. However, if we're going to make a point of doing so, we should write up a list of the differences as house rules and present them ahead of time. If you don't like that characters can beat themselves to unconsciousness trivially, feel free to rewrite the rules so they can't; until you do so, 'metagamey' is not a meaninful criticism choosing to do so. [/QUOTE]

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