How To Avoid Giving Away Meta Game Information To Your Players

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Players are always looking for an edge when playing D&D, and that includes watching the behavior and listening to the words of the GM to gain meta game information. While GM's sometimes have fun with this tendency by mimicking classic meta game tell behaviors: rolling dice behind the screen, looking through notes, or asking leading questions about what players are doing. But most often I think it's best to avoid tells in D&D, because it lowers the immersive quality of the game that makes it so fun.

I point to several classic sources of meta game information and give tips on how to reduce them. When the GM stops talking and rolls dice behind their screen (or stops the action in an online game) players suspect that something is about to happen and alter the in-game behavior. I suggest eliminating this practice by preparing random encounters and having a good sense of how placed NPC's and monsters would react to unsuspecting players.

I also mention the importance of knowing exactly where the players are in regards to each other and the world when moving through your world, and give tips on establishing a marching order and knowing when to enforce that order and when to use your better judgement.

Here are some of the products you can use to start playing D&D and create your own homebrewed campaign.

Player's Handbook 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:

Monster Manual 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:

Dungeon Master's Guide 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse 5e

Fizban's Treasury of Dragons 5e

Xanathar's Guide To Everything 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:

Volo's Guide To Monsters 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:

Dungeons and Dragons 5e Core Rulebooks Gift Set, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:

Sword Coast Adventuring Guide, Amazon Affiliate Website Link:
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Hello Kevin, this what I was saying last week in the comments. Never thought of it as Meta gaming before. Those giant wasp need goblin riders, lol. Haven't ran an outdoor campaign in a very long time. When I finally get back to DMing it will be a challenge. Feeling Old & Rusty!

Thanks Kevin you have a wonderful day!

mattnerdy
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It's always a challenge to not broadcast something is up while still getting the info you need from the players. Great tips!

FlutesLoot
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​ @D&D Homebrew This is something I’ve given some thought to over the years. Ideally, I’d like to roll all dice but I understand the players like to roll dice. It is part of the fun of game for some. In third edition, I rolled spot, sense motive, search, listen, move silently, hide, and appraise checks (there might have been some more). I just copied those values from the character sheets and rolled them behind the screen. It wasn’t hated but it wasn’t incredibly popular. As the group matured they didn’t let metagame information influence their actions as much. I got lucky and had players that liked when interesting things happened when they leaned into their characters’ shortcomings.
In between those times I usually prepared some information if they failed a check. Particularly spot checks. If they rolled a twelve but the difficulty check was fifteen, then I told them they spotted a bug, game animal, a single coin, or something not too important. The players didn’t catch on that this was a cover for masking the call for the roll for a long time. They still felt like they won the roll.
In the past I was very interested in preserving the separation between character and player knowledge but that was a lot of work and, as the DM, I had to be very diligent about providing enough information to act on. As we’ve grown, we like to put ourselves more in the mind of our players. I may have told you this story already but I think it demonstrates what I’m talking about.
One of the other guys was running the game and I was playing Sigfus, a nineteen-year-old fighter with an eight in wisdom and intelligence. We are out in the remote and cursed woods and come across a maybe eight-year-old girl pale from cold. She beseeches us to help her find her home. Out of character we all know she is bad news but Sigfus sees the restraint and caution of the others and he isn’t afraid of a little girl. No child has ever, or could ever, cause him hard. He beckons her to climb on his back and guide them to her home.
The DM tells me Sigfus takes one point of cold damage. To a level seven fighter this isn’t too terrifying. “Get your frozen feet off my back, brat.” Then we go. We find her neighborhood, a field of mounds. “Is your family’s hut behind one of these little hills?” Sigfus asks.
“It is that one over there. Please hurry.” She grows restless on Sigfus’s back.
“Behind that little hill right over there? Got it.” The party approaches the spot and as we near it the DM informs me that Sigfus starts losing base movement speed the closer I get as the girl seems to grow heavier.
“I don’t know how parents do it. I’ve been carrying this child for less than twenty minutes and this burden is greater than I expected.” Sigfus quips.
A troll skeleton erupts from the ground about forty feet away and the party moves to intercept. Sigfus decides to carry the girl the remaining fifteen feet so she’ll feel safer while we battle the troll. With a base movement speed of five feet by this time I have to spend one turn dashing for ten feet and the next turn taking the last few steps.
As soon as Sigfus reaches the target destination the girl says, “Thank you. Now I never have to be alone again.” Hands reach up from the ground and secure Sigfus’s legs and pull him into the soft soil. He fails his strength check to break free and the party is distracted with the troll skeleton and cannot get to him on the same turn. The next turn Sigfus is completely underground and has one chance to liberate himself. He failed the strength save. I think the DC was 15. So, I have him action surge (forgot to do it on the previous turn because I am not very good at playing the game. Got many more hours running; you know, when I get to make up the rules) to get another shot at it and he fails again. At least my party saw my descent. One of the party members breaks off to start digging while the others finish the troll skeleton.
Sigfus catches his breath on the surface and walks over to the troll skeleton. He removes its head and brings it over to the hole. “I’m sure this fella won’t be as conversationally engaging as I am but I hope he keeps you company… I’ll… ugh keep my eyes out for anyone more suitable and willing to take up the post.”
I reflected on that encounter and realized that would likely have never happened when I was a teen unless the DM forced it but because I leaned into Sigfus’s low INT and WIS it led to a memorable story.
Today I do roll random encounters in advance so I can try to more seamlessly work them into the story, have the treasure, role-playing bits, and tactics figured out. Playing remotely on Roll20 is great for always knowing the formation. Normally, my players keep their tokens in formation but occasionally things happen out of sequence and a token or two are out of position. If I spot this the player and I decide the most logical location for the character based on the situation and character disposition.

stephencollie
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Some good points
Metagaming is tough to explain sometimes
I always ask what the players where they are and they know it’s not always bad but often needed.
Have a good game.

RIVERSRPGChannel
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Also, if you use average HP for random monsters you don't have to roll them. Personally I just keep a spreadsheet with appropriate stat blocks for possible encounters handy so I can throw whatever I like at them without looking stuff up or making rolls.

emdotambient
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You can make as many rolls as you like without giving anything away...just use a dice rolling app on your phone behind the GM screen. Turn off the sound the app has that. But they'll never know you are even making a roll

emdotambient