When Metagaming Pays Off

[brother_dour]

So, here's a quick topic that might inject a little life into the community for a bit.  As a player, have you ever had a moment when what you knew in real life was reasonably what your character would also know, much to your delight and the GM's chagrin?  How about as a GM- has a player ever argued that metagame information really wasn't, and they

Comments

[dracothrope]

That's a pretty wonderful moment! I don't know that I have a moment that's like that... I don't often participate in tabletop gaming and when I do, I usually stick with the meat-punch characters because I find their simplicity more enjoyable when I'm trying to figure out a new rules structure and improvise character banter. (For some reason my bajillion years of writing-style RP does not translate well to games that need me to be in person!) I haven't gotten to a point where I'm comfortable enough with the system to game it based off of research I've done or knowledge I've scrounged in my notebook from hints the DM drops, alas.

Really, if I had the opportunity to do so I would make some bizarre Charisma-Meatshield hybrid character because I think I'd have more moments like the one you mentioned if I could drop them into a situation that called for some manipulation of NPC/villain trivia. Usually the Charisma-types also come loaded with a lot of spells or other secondary frameworks that I forget when they're needed, though!

[brother_dour]

I usually stick with the meat-punch characters because I find their simplicity more enjoyable when I'm trying to figure out a new rules structure

That's exactly why my first GW2 character was a guardian. They're rather newbie-friendly, unlike some of the other classes like engineer and necromancer that seem to require a bit more finesse.

There were, of course, many ways discussed on how to disable the vehicle. Doing anything under the hood was out of the question since the vehicle was parked along the curb in front of the bad guys' hideout- we probably would have been spotted, and nothing ruins a sting operation like being spotted! Letting air out of the tires was also a possibility, but a car can drive quite a ways fairly fast with even two flat tires. And we were unsure if the potato in the exhaust pipe really works or not. So the tie rod it was, since my character could get to one side from the street with less chance of being spotted- and tie rods are conveniently located just behind the front wheels.

[terrycloth]

I'd say that sort of thing is fine as long as you're not directly contradicting your character sheet. That is, if your character had any sabotage OR mechanical OR automotive skill you're fine, or alternatively if the system didn't use skills at all you'd also be fine, but if there were skills that represented that knowledge and your character had none of them -- no.

[brother_dour]

He had a few points in whatever the mechanics skill was in 3.5, I forget now. Being a Smart hero with an 18 INT, he had skill points to burn. But even then I wouldn't necessarily tell a character no even without the skill- if their Untrained roll was high enough. After all, I'm no mechanic, either, but I did pick up a bit just from years of having to drive POS junkers due to finances. Nothing says PCs couldn't pick up an odd bit of knowledge through happenstance either.

[terrycloth]

Well, that's what an untrained roll is -- if you're still making them roll, which wasn't clear.

And if it fails, they remember some happenstance bit of knowledge which is wrong, because god knows everybody's got plenty of those.

[kyn_elwynn]

I can't recall if it was an actual element of Nobilis or just how my friend felt running the game. If it's something you, the player know, then it's something the character likely knows as well.

As for myself when I GM? I often do not like realism getting in the way of things when setting up stories. Now I will concede at times when given a logical or reasonable explanation for how a character might know something, but if it's just the player interjecting some real world trivia or study that they feel contradicts what I've presented, I'm inclined to shut that down.