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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6809264" data-attributes="member: 85870">Meta-gaming and cheating share a common component, which is they are designed to manipulate an outcome within the game.Cheating manipulates the outcome by directly altering the "fortune" mechanics or the numbers being applied to the fortune mechanics --- Claiming to roll a 20 when you actually rolled an 11, using weighted dice to roll max damage all the time, or adding 5 additional feats and 25 extra skill points to your level 2 character that he or she shouldn't have. Meta-gaming manipulates the outcome by altering the fictional circumstances in which the "fortune" checks are made, or by eliminating the need to make fortune checks altogether to achieve the desired outcome. For example, reading an adventure and using that knowledge against the GM doesn't change the outcome of your dice rolls, it simply changes the circumstances in which you'll be called upon to make a roll in the first place. Meta-gaming most closely approximates "cheating" when the use of meta-game knowledge means players no longer have to expend other meta-game resources to achieve an outcome than if they hadn't used their meta-game knowledge. For example, the player's knowledge of the dungeon/adventure means the party completely avoids a set of traps or encounters, allowing the party to preserve healing potions, keep spell slots full, and so on.Ultimately though, both are a form of manipulation, and they're not mutually exclusive. Your "cheating" player with the 5 extra feats and 25 extra skill points who constantly claims he's rolling 20s can also "meta-game" by using his prior knowledge of the adventure to eliminate the need to make rolls entirely, or ensure he's only making rolls that give him overwhelming advantage. To me the definition of "meta-gaming" is, "The use of knowledge about the mechanical constructs of the game to manipulate outcomes in the game in such a way that the outcomes a) do not fall within a reasonable spectrum of in-fiction causality, or b) break the agreed-upon social contract of how outcomes should be resolved."Now, the real question is --- does anyone involved in your gaming group CARE if game circumstances are being manipulated through either mechanism? Because if no one cares if game outcomes are being manipulated through cheating or meta-gaming, then to quote the incisive wisdom of @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=6668292" target="_blank">JamesonCourage</a>, "Play what you like."(As a side note, I'm not even going to address the "Characters being played implausibly," because I think it's a totally orthogonal subject.)</blockquote>

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