A quirky perspective on metagaming
Metagaming in D&D can sometimes be treated like witchcraft. Accusations get thrown around until someone gets hurt, and the situation actually becomes worse for everyone after the metagamer/witch is dealt with. The view presented in this article is a perspective on metagaming with a more positive twist than necessary. Witchcraft has its uses. So has metagaming. Let’s stop the witch hunt.
Metagame Thinking in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
The 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide describes metagaming as follows in chapter 8:
Metagame thinking means thinking about the game as a game. It’s like when a character in a movie knows it’s a movie and acts accordingly. For example, a player might say, “The DM wouldn’t throw such a powerful monster at us!” or you might hear, “The read-aloud text spent a lot of time describing that door — let’s search it again!”
Discourage metagame thinking by giving players a gentle reminder: “What do your characters think?” You can curb metagame thinking by setting up situations that will be difficult for the characters and that might require negotiation or retreat to survive.
Chapter 8, Dungeon Master’s Guide, 2014
As we can see, metagaming describes the behavior of players who use knowledge about the game which their character wouldn’t have. The 2014 DMG asks dungeon masters to actively work against such thinking. The only remedy the section above provides is related to combat: make the fight more difficult or force the PCs to negotiate or retreat.
The witch hunt
Unfounded accusations
The first parallel between a witch hunt and the criticism in the DMG hints at is that they’re often based on unfounded accusations. We accuse a player of metagaming without truly knowing what their character knows. Characters actually live in the game world. They are competent, talented people who spend every minute of their waking lives immersed in the fictional world. It’s clear that they know more about this world than a bunch of modern-day humans sitting around a dinner table, making it all up.
The classic example is metagame knowledge about trolls. Trolls regenerate if they don’t take fire or radiant damage. We learn this by looking at the stat block. But characters who live in a world with trolls must hear about them already in childhood. Children’s rhymes might tell of burning the troll to stop its self-healing.
Characters often know more than we give them credit for. Unfoundedly accusing players of metagaming can seem like perpetrating a witch hunt.
Blind to the benefits
The fanaticism of a witch hunt makes the witch hunters blind to the consequences of their actions. Hunting for instances of metagaming does the same: it blinds us to its positive effects.
One of the main critiques of metagaming is also its biggest potential: it creates distance between player and character. Sometimes that distance hinders roleplay and immersion. But often, having a distanced view on the story, can improve the game. Players who can look at their character from an outsider’s perspective can consciously drive the narrative towards drama. Characters are interested in survival and success. Players can be interested in telling a dramatic story together with the other people at the table.
Metagaming allows a D&D player to accept failure, embrace danger and drama, and take the more interesting option where their characters would take the optimal way forward.
A climate of fear
A D&D group in which everyone is constantly on the lookout for instances of metagaming is a group in which I don’t want to play. We generally oppose policing of our players, so why do we accept it with metagaming? In extreme cases this can lead to unfounded accusations and conflicts, fewer player choices being made for the benefit of the story, and an unwelcoming climate of fear.
A change of perspective on metagaming
To be clear, there are instances of metagaming which can diminish the fun of a D&D game. But reading the conversations online, it can seem like using knowledge that a player character would not have is witchcraft to be subjected to a strict inquisition. Maybe the provocative perspective of this article can lead you, as DM and/or player, to reconsider the metagaming witch hunt. Metagaming has its uses. Don’t banish it blindly from your game.
