What metagaming is and why it is harmful to a roleplay for all parties.

First off you might be confused if you've never heard the term “Metagaming” before! It’s a term that mostly refers to tabletop rpgs but it translates equally for the written style of roleplay as well, it means when a character knows knowledge that is merely thought by another player or in the case of tabletop rpgs being aware of the Dungeon masters plans.

For example if your character is suddenly very huffy and angry because another pony thought in his head that your character is a giant bunny lover, and you react like your character heard it. That is what megagaming basically is, it’s acting sort of like a mind reader.

Like in the part of the post that’s not dialog, a character smirks in the knowledge that they have you surrounded by an ambush, and your character suddenly is aware that they are surrounded and proclaims this information without any real method of knowing this information; This is metagaming at it’s finest, and it breaks the story and makes your character come off as “Psychic” Which in a game no no unless ya know your character is actually psychic (not something really allowed in CC or WOE for future reference )

It not only is doing harm to the other players, but it does harm to you as well, it takes away the opportunity for your character to develop, grow and learn from a experience they know nothing about at all! It takes away the unknown, the surprise, and fun of role playing in the first place, if you can see everything before it’s done and stop the adventure from even starting then what’s the point?

Remember that this is a collaboration, and it’s not fun to go over your partners head and ruin their plans Think of how you would feel if you had this awesome idea planned and then somebody metagamed so that your plot was instantly bunked and useless?

Remember to be considerate, and courteous to those that play around you, a good way to stop your character from doing this is to think

“Is this something I know and my character doesn’t? is there any real reason they would know this knowledge?”

Also having feelings of uncertainty and being worried about a plan, idea, or other pony is just fine! It’s when you know exactly why you feel this way when they've just said hello and otherwise look perfectly fine that it’s metagaming!

Remember be fair, talk to your partners you are rping with, and be sure to do things for the enjoyment of everyone, not just yourself!

Queen of Ravens signing off!