I know that "metagaming" is an issue that has come up a lot recently in these discussions. I have also noted that (in ARB p. 22) it mentions the idea of "reverse metagaming" - using metagame knowledge to improve the experience for other players. Thus, in an attempt to try to spark more of a discussion about what is metagaming and what is not, I'm interested in what peoples' thoughts are on some of these types of scenarios (Note that most of these scenarios are hypothetical)
1. A character comes into the tavern who I have not seen before. I think that this is an NPC and may have some sort of work available, so I try to steer the conversation along these lines. When I ask him if he wants to buy some healing potions, he takes out a brown envelope of the type used at Logistics and takes 12 copper pieces out of it. At this point I realize he is actually a new PC, and instead just give him a handful of healing potions free of charge to help him on his journey.
2. I am just finished with lunch and am thinking about going back to my cabin when I see over a dozen out-of-game NPCs setting up behind the tavern. I realize that a field battle is about to start and so I decide instead to stay in the tavern so I can participate in the fight. I also go tell my friend a little bit away, who I know likes to participate in field battles, that a battle is about to start.
3. In a "wave" or "popcorn" battle, I have successfully Webbed an enemy. I avoid giving a killing blow even if I could do it easily and safely, for the purpose of delaying the NPC from coming back into game as another monster (and thus reducing the number of monsters we have to fight at once).
4. I am a melee fighter, and am killed by a death knight and have Create Undead cast on me. I am ordered to attack a group of PCs. I am presumably required to fight to the best of my ability, but even the concept of "to the best of my ability" is ambiguous, since while fighting, there is a trade-off between fighting more aggressively (such as by getting closer to the PCs and swinging more, thus doing more damage to the PCs, but opening myself up more) and fighting more defensively (such as by keeping range from the PCs and spending more time blocking, thus doing less damage to the PCs, but taking less damage myself). Conceptually, one can think of this as similar to the "production possibility frontier" in economics, where one axis is "amount of damage done to PCs" and the other axis is "amount of damage blocked." Anything that is on the edge of the frontier is reasonably considered "fighting to the best of my ability". Of course, as a PC, I have a vested interest in being taken down quickly so that someone can give me a Life spell in time. Thus I will have an incentive to fight more aggressively. Is it metagaming to fight more aggressively, then? Does it matter whether I'm fighting more aggressively because I (OOG) want to get killed quicker, or whether I'm fighting more aggressively since I think that's what an undead would do?
5. I get into PVP combat with another PC far from any witnesses, am taken out, fed an Amnesia elixir, and killed. After resurrecting I launch an investigation into the events leading up to the death and who killed me. Of course, OOG I know who killed me, but IG I don't. So when deciding how suspicious to be of each possible suspect, I have to ignore that I actually know the answer. This is extremely difficult to do; this issue has been studied in the context of real-life criminal trials (where the judge may tell the jury to disregard certain evidence if it is deemed inadmissible) and it has been found that it is very difficult for the jury to actually do this. So there is a question of what I am supposed to do here - do I need to "pre-train" myself to get better at disregarding information so I can handle this situation if it occurs in-game? (And if so, does anyone have advice on how to do this?) Also note that even in the absence of Amnesia or similar in-game effects, a similar thing can happen if, e.g., you hear something happening while under the effect of a Sleep spell.
1. A character comes into the tavern who I have not seen before. I think that this is an NPC and may have some sort of work available, so I try to steer the conversation along these lines. When I ask him if he wants to buy some healing potions, he takes out a brown envelope of the type used at Logistics and takes 12 copper pieces out of it. At this point I realize he is actually a new PC, and instead just give him a handful of healing potions free of charge to help him on his journey.
2. I am just finished with lunch and am thinking about going back to my cabin when I see over a dozen out-of-game NPCs setting up behind the tavern. I realize that a field battle is about to start and so I decide instead to stay in the tavern so I can participate in the fight. I also go tell my friend a little bit away, who I know likes to participate in field battles, that a battle is about to start.
3. In a "wave" or "popcorn" battle, I have successfully Webbed an enemy. I avoid giving a killing blow even if I could do it easily and safely, for the purpose of delaying the NPC from coming back into game as another monster (and thus reducing the number of monsters we have to fight at once).
4. I am a melee fighter, and am killed by a death knight and have Create Undead cast on me. I am ordered to attack a group of PCs. I am presumably required to fight to the best of my ability, but even the concept of "to the best of my ability" is ambiguous, since while fighting, there is a trade-off between fighting more aggressively (such as by getting closer to the PCs and swinging more, thus doing more damage to the PCs, but opening myself up more) and fighting more defensively (such as by keeping range from the PCs and spending more time blocking, thus doing less damage to the PCs, but taking less damage myself). Conceptually, one can think of this as similar to the "production possibility frontier" in economics, where one axis is "amount of damage done to PCs" and the other axis is "amount of damage blocked." Anything that is on the edge of the frontier is reasonably considered "fighting to the best of my ability". Of course, as a PC, I have a vested interest in being taken down quickly so that someone can give me a Life spell in time. Thus I will have an incentive to fight more aggressively. Is it metagaming to fight more aggressively, then? Does it matter whether I'm fighting more aggressively because I (OOG) want to get killed quicker, or whether I'm fighting more aggressively since I think that's what an undead would do?
5. I get into PVP combat with another PC far from any witnesses, am taken out, fed an Amnesia elixir, and killed. After resurrecting I launch an investigation into the events leading up to the death and who killed me. Of course, OOG I know who killed me, but IG I don't. So when deciding how suspicious to be of each possible suspect, I have to ignore that I actually know the answer. This is extremely difficult to do; this issue has been studied in the context of real-life criminal trials (where the judge may tell the jury to disregard certain evidence if it is deemed inadmissible) and it has been found that it is very difficult for the jury to actually do this. So there is a question of what I am supposed to do here - do I need to "pre-train" myself to get better at disregarding information so I can handle this situation if it occurs in-game? (And if so, does anyone have advice on how to do this?) Also note that even in the absence of Amnesia or similar in-game effects, a similar thing can happen if, e.g., you hear something happening while under the effect of a Sleep spell.
) As a Templar, I shift exactly how I fight a lot depending on the target. If I were raised as a monster and told to attack the town, I would fight them as I would fight any other foe that probably outclasses me. (i.e. I would stay back casting as long as I could, while hiding behind the real fighters, then step forward with my blade when that ran out or to fill gaps in the monster line.) Changing my fighting style to try and die faster (and thus get a life) would not be the right thing to do.
