6 Ways to Handle Metagaming in D&D

Every D&D player is guilty of metagaming. As is every D&D dungeon master. Metagaming cannot be avoided in Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, some types of metagaming is good and desirable and the game would probably be unplayable without it. However, there are certainly other types of D&D metagaming that is decidedly bad and can even ruin gameplay. In this video, we discuss how dungeon masters should handle metagaming in D&D.

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#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #metagaming

[Coatschii]

How to avoid Monster-metagaming: Describe a monster and give it a new name, so your players don't know what monster it is. Turn an Owlbear into a Giant Hawkwolf or something like that.

[scarecrow]

I’m not afraid to drop the “All right, that’s enough metagaming” to my players. They’re a pretty good group… just get a bit ahead of themselves.

[tehd]

In old school videogames, the designers wanted you to lose to some BS, then they would tempt you to put another quarter in to give that BS another go. The second time around you'd see the BS coming and avoided it. The entire business profits from metagaming. That was intentional. I think earlier versions of D&D achieved a similar effect, but inadvertently. Antagonistic DMs would pose ridiculous challenges, then mock the players for losing, and the frustrated players would roll up new characters and come prepared the next time around. At some point the game was all about having encyclopedic knowledge of dungeons and monsters. I have a couple of old school players at my table and you can see their eyes light up when they finally identify the monster, and therefore recall its weakness.

[mikestephan]

I keep waiting for Dungeon Coach to show up in chat.

Great points about the metagaming. I DM for 8th/9th graders - metagaming is just something they do at the moment but they are already grabbing the concept of their characters not knowing things. When they started talking about that I knew that I had finally reached them and the role-playing has gone up a notch since then.

[StilltheApllyon]

One important way to negate metagaming is this: Adventurers are PROFESSIONALS. Adventurers have been prepared to fight and survive in a world full of monsters. They are not aliens dropped in a world with no idea of how to deal with the challenges they will face. They possess a certain level of knowledge through their training in addition to what they would know through life experience. They would have lessons like, "If a creature regenerates, try fire or acid", "Probably don't bother trying to charm undead or constructs", "Don't stand too close to the guy that's checking for traps or opening the mysterious chest", "NEVER STEAL FROM A DRAGON THAT ISN'T DEAD", "Beware of incredibly life-like statues out in the wilderness", and so forth. If you need to decide how much they would know about a particular monster or place, roll for it.

[mcnastysc]

As a DM, I have a House Rule where I roll all Death Saves. This stops the PC's when metagaming. Think about it, when a player goes down, they roll a DS on their turn. Other players hear the pass or fail results. They in turn adjust their action accordingly. But because I roll the DS and don't tell them the results, they are unsure how many turns they can go before they heal the player. It makes character death more surreal.

[torva]

The phrase "you're not there" comes up in every session I run haha

The party usually does some minor splitting, and a player or two will often try to comment or add to an event they're not present for. Still, at least it shows they're engaged.

[MorningDusk]

HP, AC, Saves, Resistances, and spell lists are the first things to look at modifying even if your players aren't metagaming. Sometimes a monster works perfectly thematically but would wipe your party. So, you lower the AC, lower the damage dealt, and change that Circle of Death to a Chill Touch.

[MrFleem]

The villain's lair is collapsing around you and you are nowhere near the exit with one round remaining. The DM declares Extra Time.

[tylerdurden]

As a long term D&D player and DM. I realized very early that playing in a game where the DM is playing an adversarial role is one that I have no interest in playing.
If the rules as written break the game, then I ensure that a discussion about the rule is scheduled for discussion after the game.
If my players and myself are having fun, then I'm doing my job right. I have enough creativity to come up with things that should challenge the players.
So far I have been able to keep things within reason. The easiest solution to metagaming is to remind the players that what they do can be done to them as well.

[cordanus]

I once had a DM that justified a TPK because we (the players) should have figured out that a Medusa was responsible for what was going on and we should have known that we could not win. We were level three and this was AD&D. He thought we were supposed to metagame and alert the authorities instead of engaging.

[fyredust]

The real metagame here was knowing this entire video was a Dungeon Coach parody LOL had a goofy smile on my face the whole time

[eros]

I tweak my monsters stats. Its not a chore to bump an AC up or down a point. Adjust the hit die a creature has, their speed, etc. I let my players know this. One protested but I told him it stops metagaming (which this player was starting to do) but is more for allowing me to set up better battles. They agreed and metagaming stopped.

Also should note, people new to the game might not know what metagaming is so explain it to them and be patient. Some people truly dont mean to.

[Boss-_]

Number 1, I don't even see those examples as a gray area. Creatures are assumed to be aware of their surroundings and other creatures unless they are hiding successfully. So if a DM placed some bandits around the corner where I don't have direct line of sight, I'm gonna assume I know where they are. And knowledge about a lot of "popular" monsters should be common in a DnD world, I'm getting a bit tired of the assumption my character doesn't know anything that we haven't directly heard or seen during the game, despite living in this world for 20-700 years.

While I don't do it, I also don't see much of a big deal about public DC or AC or stuff like that. Half the time it gets figured out during that fight anyway, when 15 fails but 17 succeeds. You also tend to know the minimum. If you're fighting a caster as a 5th level party, and he doesn't die in one hit, chances are his DC isn't lower than 14 at minimum. If an enemy is wearing armor, especially medium or heavy, it's pretty easy to guess the AC.

But what I absolutely wouldn't tolerate is reading the freaking book right then and there as we're playing. When you know the game, either because you know the system or you're experienced or read the books a lot as a DM, you can't really help knowing stuff, but going out of your way to find the monster we're fighting and read the statblock, or find the dungeon so you know where all the traps are, that's crossing a lot of lines.

[Ambiguous_Syntax]

We all know that *Intelligence* is the most commonly dumped stat, but if you're committed to not metagaming, *Int* is probably the most useful stat of them all.

Want to identify a creature, or to know trolls are weak to fire? Roll one of the relevant knowledge stats. This stays true even if the GM has homebrewed their monsters.

[cameronpowell]

If you took a time out every time you interjected your own monologue, it would be mostly time outs lol. Love the bit!

[goliathcleric]

Hehe DC is gonna enjoy this. All the sports references are going right over my head, but I'm sure he'll get them XD

[danielpayne]

As a player, I recognize optimal plays while treading lightly. I'll typically ask the DM, "What would my character know about X? Because I think X is because Y, but I don't know if my character would know that. Should I roll?" The DM can decide if it's fair and there's no argument or foul play involved.

After all, it's ridiculous to expect players to conveniently forget a spell DC of an enemy caster. I wouldn't punish players for using their brains. Maybe describe a level of magical energy the PC feels as they shrug off the effect and they recognize, "hey, that was kinda weak." Now we have a rp justification for not bothering to pop abilities to counter that weak spellcaster.

[zmishiymishi]

I kind of do metagame. By choosing best classes/classes combinations, because we have only 3 players and as much as i love playing weird characters, i often let 2 other players play what they want and not worry about how we are going to survive. Also when we were going to play curse of strahd and i knew about setting, i choose character who tottaly not benefited from it and guess what. I DIDNT had fun because my char was tottaly out of place

[BloodDracolich]

Watching this has made me realize that I'm probably in a very weird position when it comes to possible metagaming considering that I enjoy reading adventure modules and monster manuals for fun.