On the other hand, the D&D system doesn't model certain details that strongly, and metagame knowledge may be a reflection of ingame knowledge. On the one hand, much metagame behavior is pure gamist theory, similar to playing monopoly or chess and knowing the options available to you. Certain characters then may decide not to attack, as they know that short of a natural 20, they won't successfully hit, potentially wasting the action (when they could aid to attack or something else). It is quite simply impossible not to.the question is where the line is drawn for such behavior.įor example: if my players attack a monster, and hit it when they hit an AC of 35 but miss it when they hit an AC of 37, they're going to use metagame knowledge to reason out the AC of the creature. In essence, meta-gaming is the idea of viewing the game from outside the game, the 'meta-game', which is where the player resides, not the character. Snowy's definition is pretty much spot-oin, though. Meta-gaming means different things to different people, and more importantly, the line where it becomes odious or a problem is specific to the individual. That's metagaming, but it takes a better person than me to calmly watch his first roleplaying character for 10 years bleed to death because one of the other players doesn't know his character's abilities properly! That was an out of character conversation where one player tries to get another to do something he otherwise wouldn't have. This was our characters' first adventure together, my level 1 sorcerer probably didn't know good clerics could convert prepared spells into healing, and in any event he was unconscious so couldn't have told him.

I explained that he could spontaneously convert one of his 0 level spells into a cure minor wounds. The player then responded that he was out of healing spells. That's an out of character hint fom the DM to an inexperienced player, which to my mind is to be encouraged. In another game, the DM suggested to the player of the good cleric that he might want to heal my sorcerer (given that he was unconscious and bleeding to death). What sort of stuff does he do? It can be a grey area (but it normally isn't!).įor example, in a 1 shot game I was in one of the other players advised everyone to charge the dragon as he saw the DM had rolled a 1 for the dragon's initiative, so 'we could kill it before it gets a chance to act'.

Meta in gaming definition