How do you deal with metagaming?

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cptcuddlepants
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How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by cptcuddlepants » Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:09 am

I know the procedure is to report the incident of metagaming to the DMs, but what about the aftermath of metagaming?

For example, someone uses tells and the website portal to find out that "Sir Paladin Triadist (Disguised)" is actually Stabby Murderface the infamous killer, and then goes around sharing that information with other characters.

Or let's say Stabby Murderface and another player are chatting OOCly about their characters, and then the other player goes about sharing Stabby Murderface's plans to other characters in roleplay, even though the information was gained through OOC communication.

How would Stabby's player be expected to handle such situations, in and out of RP?
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Tyrantos
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Re: How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by Tyrantos » Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:12 am

There is not much that can be done about it, I've come to learn. You've just hope that people are good fellows, and are open to listening to your arguments.. And uh, just avoid chatting about such things in an ooc settning. (I dont like doing that too much, but I.. can kinda do it myself sometimes.)

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susitsu
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Re: How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by susitsu » Sat Aug 19, 2017 2:24 am

The best choice is to go with the flow of roleplay, and despite what is lost to the metagaming BS, you can always, always turn it into an opportunity for more roleplay. Just fudge it, and make something new from the situation.

or drop it all and avoid everyone involved

Cerk Evermoore
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Re: How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by Cerk Evermoore » Sat Aug 19, 2017 5:32 am

Try to correct folks OOCly if they reveal your identity and msg people in the relative area. Sometimes OOC information about known leaks gets around from player to player and things can get effectively retconned if the circle is closed fast enough.

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Lorkas
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Re: How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by Lorkas » Sat Aug 19, 2017 5:54 am

Yea, IC you have to react ICly. Even if you know OOCly that they gained knowledge about your plans OOCly, in character, they seem to know the knowledge your character thought there was no way for them to know. This is a world where scrying, invisibility, amazing hiding skills, and the like exist, after all, and it's not totally out of the range of possibility that plans might have been uncovered without your character's knowledge.

You might react by saying "How did you find out my plans!?" or you might say "But you'll be powerless to stop my plans when you're dead!", or you might say "You're right, but who is going to believe a peasant like you?", or whatever fits the particular situation. I also send a /dm message immediately, and if there's no response, a Forum PM later.

The worst that has happened to me is when things happen like disguised people travelling through the wilderness notice "Your disguise has been broken!" in their chat logs and immediately cast True Seeing (or notice that their XP gain per monster has changed and cast true seeing--both of those examples are OOC information). I sent a forum PM, but in character telling the story later, I talked about how appropriately cautious the mage was when travelling through dangerous territory.

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Marsi
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Re: How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by Marsi » Sat Aug 19, 2017 8:54 am

Definitely don't contact people OOCly. Submit a report and the DMs will do that on your behalf. There is nothing more confusing and frightening than unsolicited tells from a manic stranger accusing you of metagaming and demanding explanations for everything little thing. I've been on the barrel end of this, through no fault of mine, for information my character gained rightfully in the game world. It was shady and disrespectful af and if anything made me want to press even harder with disseminating that information.

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Cuchilla
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Re: How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by Cuchilla » Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:25 am

Metagaming is a very delicate issue. In theory, and in general, I think that metagaming in order to bring your own char advantages over other chars, is a bad thing. But even sometimes wellintended metagaming can turn into bad things.

Say, "Come to X-place, there's an event going on", could be harmless. And you might even contribute to enrich the roleplay in said event. But let's say there's a battle going on, and you arriving there, turns the battle in favor of your party, what then?

So, yeah, like stated above, I'd say that even wellintended metagaming should be limited as much as possible. And only to cases where you are absolutely sure it will enrich something, not ruin it. And passing information from one player to the other by tells, and despite good intentions, can also in the end turn into something bad.

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Black Wendigo
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Re: How do you deal with metagaming?

Post by Black Wendigo » Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:21 am

I would be very disinclined to continue the rp line with someone who metagamed in order to "win" like that. I would not metagame back or anything, I just would bow out of the story. I play to have fun, not to compete with someone"'s desire to win,.

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