How much metagaming is too much?

[Jasede]

This is something I've been wondering about for a longer time now.
What "mild" meta-gaming is too much?

I know it is "technically" OOC, but if you -really- want to RP with character X, and character X has not much to do, is it meta-gaming if he sends you an invite, after you've checked his usual hang-outs with no luck?

What about quest levels? This seems like very useful meta-gaming to me. I always feel like letting the group down if I unwittingly follow them into some sort of level 7-12 consumable-fest because OOCly I didn't know that my level 4 wasn't allowed, and they also forgot.

What about sending people tells such as "Hey mate; I'd really like to ask your character a few things, and I've been looking for you for a while now, would you mind if we accidentally stumbled across each other in the Secret Targosian Blood Bathhouse?"

Now a more dangerous one - what about "You up for troglodytes?" when you're party'd with an IC buddy and ICly wondering what quest to do. I always think of it as a kind of courtesy- it avoids everyone going "I've already helped this sailor today; and I've seen enough of orcs for the tenday...". Of course you'd still roleplay ICly making the suggestion.


I will freely admit I do all these things, but I was wondering if others do, look down upon them, or are ambivalent. What kind of meta-gaming do you do, and if a DM would like to chime in, are these things terribly frowned upon?

[Letsplayforfun]

That post should probably be in the DM Q&As, because you'll get all sorts of opinions here.

[TheImpossibleDream]

That post should probably be in the DM Q&As, because you'll get all sorts of opinions here.

This

[KjetilofNorway]

It sounds like a good discussion for the whole of EFU;A to me.
 
I will submit that if you want EFU;A to also cater to casual players, you must accept all of the above. I, for one, don't have the time to not have fun with high efficiency, and I do stuff like that all the time.
 
I will also argue that EFU;A conveys accept for this kind of "mild" metagaming by its module design; seeing as quests have party size and level restrictions.

[The Beggar]

"metagame" is my middle name *in crappy british accent*

[Vlaid]

I think some mild metagaming is fine (from my perspective) as long as it's not in relation to PVP, or plots. And you show some restraint.

Stuff I hate seeing:

"Gee we really need a wizard. Hey guys, I'll be right back"

*Takes off running, transitions four times to Bob The Wizard who happens to be in the party, in a back room of an inn resting, studying spells and asks him if he wants to come*

What is "acceptable" is hard to put into precise words, and in all honesty, if you can avoid doing it at ALL somehow, it's much better.

[Sternhund]

I think the above is OK. Use your judgment, and always make roleplay your first priority in order to maintain immersion. We absolutely want to keep the board fair for everyone, especially in circumstances of PVP, so avoid using tells to communicate PVP information entirely. As long as roleplaying is indeed your priority, I am personally OK with you using tells to hook up with other people who have nothing to do, in order to facilitate more roleplay and fun!

[Jayde Moon]

Metagaming to bring people together should be fine, so long as doing so does not impinge on other people's fun or give the metagaming side an advantage in PvP.

"I'm being ganked on the Foothill Path, come help!" is cheating, outright.

"I think I'm about to be ganked on Foothill Path, come on a patrol to Wyldwater and hook up with me so I can get back to the Zig" is also cheating.

Being at Starwood Village when Joey logs on at the Zig and saying, "Oh, before we go deeper, there are some things I need to get from my room at the Ziggurat" and off you go and HEY! you bump into Joey and bring him along!  That's fine, unless the rest of your party doesn't want to wait, in which case you should respect that.

I think it's even fine (imo, maybe the DMs will say F no) to say, "Arrgh, I got beat down by some wild orcs in the Falls area... think you can find a reason to head that way and clear my corpse so I can respawn?"  This one I base on the knowledge that if a DM is around and has time, they will gladly clear your corpse for you, I can't see them frowning on you getting a buddy to do it if they are unavailable.

This all involves metagaming to find your buddies.  Any other metagaming (metagaming knowledge about a person, place, or thing) should always be avoided.

[Howlando]

I generally agree with what Jayde said, except...

I think it's even fine (imo, maybe the DMs will say F no) to say, "Arrgh, I got beat down by some wild orcs in the Falls area... think you can find a reason to head that way and clear my corpse so I can respawn?" This one I base on the knowledge that if a DM is around and has time, they will gladly clear your corpse for you, I can't see them frowning on you getting a buddy to do it if they are unavailable.

I'd be very wary about that. I'd much prefer you respawn to the town, and get someone in town to go out with you to rescue your stuff.

I also would like to add some systems to make some of the other metagaming easier to avoid, since I definitely don't like it, just acknowledge it's better for the server to allow that rather than have players wandering around unable to find interaction.

[Jayde Moon]

:o Live and learn!