Recently, an event happened in one of my games that brought the term “metagaming” up in discussion, prompting one of my players who is fairly new to tabletop to ask what it is. Here’s a quick definition, along with a few thoughts.
What is “Metagaming”?
Metegaming refers to a player in a role playing game who uses their knowledge as a player to guide their actions rather than their character’s knowledge and perspective.
There are a lot of things that can be considered metagaming, but here’s a few:
– Reading source content (creature stat blocks, campaigns, etc.)
– Looking up creature stats during combat
– Tracking damage done to a creature
– Reading forum posts (i.e. Reddit) regarding your current campaign
– Learning from someone’s D&D story and applying it
Realistically, in the 21st century, it’s hard to avoid picking up at least a few of those things. So the question becomes, “What are the right and wrong ways to apply (or not) what I know?”
A Couple Examples (The Wrong Way):
Dave is playing a fighter who normally uses his greatsword in combat. When his character encounters an ochre jelly (which splits when it takes slashing damage), he uses a warhammer instead, despite his character having a low intelligence and having never encountered an ochre jelly before.
Sally’s ranger makes her way down the hallway of a dungeon. At just the right spot, she stops to investigate a section of wall that conceals a secret door. This is the first and only place that Sally has done this.
What Makes This Metagaming?
In the first example, it’s Dave, not his fighter, who knows that hitting the ooze with a sword is a bad idea. His character could very well learn that, and quickly, but Dave is letting his personal knowledge guide his character, rather than playing the role of (presumably) a physically powerful but not very well read fighter.
In the second example, Sally is showing personal knowledge of the module, most likely indicating that she has read the module or at least looked at a map.
What’s Wrong With it?
The answer to that is that it depends on the game, the style the players are looking for, and the DM.
I tend towards role play over wargaming, and that means that I like to see people playing their characters consistently. While it does tend to happen that players will have at least some knowledge of different creatures, there’s better ways to try and apply that knowledge, and I’ll deal with that below.
Personally, I (and most DMs I know) find it insulting when a player shows evidence of reading a campaign module and applying that information. It not only invalidates the efforts of the DM by removing a challenge, obstacle, or secret, but it also diminishes the challenge and takes opportunity away from other players.
I could easily rant on each of these separately, but I won’t (at least right now).
Instead, I want to focus on how to move forward and avoid the problem in the future.
Applying Knowledge Without Breaking Character (The Right Way)
The point of role playing is to be someone other than yourself. That said, how do you forget something that you already know?
Dave, playing as his fighter could ask the question, “Does my character know anything about ochre jellies?” To which the DM could have either asked him to make a skill check (such as arcana or history) to see if he had heard stories about these before; or simply told him yes or no based on the character’s background and experience, as well as the prevalence of ochre jellies where he comes from.
Sally, playing a ranger (typically fairly observant), could have made it a habit to make perception checks as she traveled, so that her character might have noticed something odd about the section of wall, thus giving her a reason to investigate it more closely.
RP Over MG
Some people are amazing at ignoring everything and just running with what their character knows. They can move past their personal knowledge and just go do what their character would do. This is a sign of good role playing, by the way.
Not everyone can do that, and there may be times where you simply need to back up and let someone who doesn’t know what you know make the decisions. I have been in that position myself as a player. It’s not always easy, but it’s better than ruining the experience for everyone else.
Honestly, as a DM, I would rather someone come to me and tell me that they have played a module before, or that they struggle with knowing a lot about creatures and lore and trying to avoid metagaming. That way we can both be looking for ways to work around it.
The goal is to role play consistent characters so that everyone can enjoy the game, complete with its dangers, challenges, and mysteries.
Go play and have fun!