What if metagaming is part of the setting?

In many ways metagaming is just the players letting you know that they love the setting and know everything about it. The bad news, of course, is when that behavior disrupts the game. There are tons of ways to deal with metagaming and you can find excellent advice online (the best one still is: “Don’t play with jerks”). Some RPGs in my opinion actually reward metagaming: take for example some approaches to OSR/Old School where what counts is player skill, not character skill. Following that premise, it makes sense that a player can use everything that he knows to beat the adversary.

I think one of the best metagaming examples in D&D (and F20 in general) is the troll. When PCs see a troll they all run to find fire or acid so that the creature can’t regenerate, even if they never saw a troll before. It became common knowledge. How to deal with that? (That is, if metagaming is a problem to you)

From where do you think Fire Trolls came from?
From the Metagaming Hell!

Modern F20 games like Pathfinder try to restrict monster knowledge to certain skills. I personally don’t enjoy that approach, I believe instead that “monster lore” should give some concrete mechanic benefit. Things like lore or pure information should be a result of the game and the interaction at the table, not just a mere skill roll.

Most tables that I know simply link “monster knowledge” with encounter experience (i.e. if you faced a troll and discovered its weakness, you can use it in future encounters). The bad news is that D&D (especially the latest editions) is all about beating monsters, so facing a monster like a troll, where you know you can use fire, but being denied it because it would be considered “metagaming” just doesn’t feel right. The players can feel that they’re being punished for being prepared.

In the end I believe that common sense is the best option: talk with your players and see what they think about this. In most of my tables I like to let them know that it is OK to use a certain degree of metagaming if they check first to see if they characters would know that. Now, if I find a player that wants to abuse that trust “to win the adventure”, disregarding the table and the fun, I don’t punish him. No sir, I do something worse: I change the critter. Trolls are my favorite example because in one of my Forgotten Realms campaigns I decided that they weren’t vulnerable to fire. That was actually a rumor. Trolls there were actually flammable! Setting them on fire leaves them in a crazy berserker state. If you can survive a flaming and berserker troll long enough until it “burns out” and becomes fatigued, then you can chop him to pieces but it is a crazy tactic (and one that professional troll slayers only use in desperation, when facing packs of trolls, because while berserker they will attack anything on sight, including other trolls). If, after that funny (for me) lesson, the player still wanted to abuse metagaming knowledge, I would just invite them to leave the table.

However, I found a new option recently that I really like. I believe it came from John Wick, from Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea fame. For someone who doesn’t like d20 games, John certainly has a lot of cool ideas for it (check Santa Vaca, his latest bundle of rules for F20).

Basically: make the metagaming a part of the setting (OSR/Old School make it a part of the game, but not the setting). Give adventurer parties a social place in the society.

I really like campaign settings where “adventurers” are integrated into the culture. It is not only a clever twist but it actually makes sense (besides giving the PCs a stronger link to the world). After all, adventurers are powerful and resourceful, so why not use it? That was one of the benchmarks of my campaign setting - Chronicles of the 7th Moon. If you like it, check the excellent OSR-inspired hack for 13th Age - The King of Dungeons. It follows the same idea and it has some cool mechanics for that.

OK, adventurers in this approach could be the young sons and daughters of nobility. They can’t inherit land or power, but they have the right education, resources and training. Instead of staying in civilization, these Scions are sent out to destroy monsters that threaten the borders of the “World of Light”.

The “World of Light” is how “civilized” races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves… your choice) call their realms. The rest of the entire setting is “The Dark” or the “World of the Dark”, where disorder, beasts and Chaos reign. Scions have the job of getting rid of the Dark. That is the excuse for adventuring here: to purge the “monsters” and the “Chaos” worshiper.

The Scions of Light ride to destroy the Dark!

 

That is where the metagaming comes in. While they were trained, the Scions had access to tomes of lore regarding the Dark, all the accumulated knowledge of the civilized races against “the Enemy”. In other words, the PCs through their Scions basically have access to the Monster Manual. They KNOW that trolls can be wounded by fire and acid, and that they must burn and kill ALL trolls!

Now the catch: did you notice all the “ ” above? That is because the World of Light is not a black-and-white setting, there are shades of gray here. The civilized realms label anything they don’t like as belonging to the Dark. So, while PCs have metagame knowledge, some of those tomes might be wrong. Usually, it is not about the mechanics (i.e. trolls are still vulnerable to fire and acid, but maybe there some mistaken information, DM’s call), but about the lore (maybe trolls are actually a race of giant curse by the Elves after they killed the original troll gods, maybe trolls actually were once more beautiful than Elves). The idea is that after a few sessions slaying monsters, the Scions (the PCs) will start to see that not all monsters are actually monsters. Maybe the “true” monsters are the haughty and unbending rulers of the World of Light (the Scions’ own families). What will the PCs do with that information? That is the true question for this campaign.

While I’m having a blast running my current DCC RPG campaign, where the PCs are a bunch of raiders and Chaos worshippers in the most classic Warhammer Fantasy fashion, I still want to try the World of Light with them in the future.

World of Light