Request to new players/PCs

[Ithildur]

Please keep certain IC information to yourself and secret unless there are very good reasons.

Examples: alignment, school of necromancy, classes like assassin, things like "my PC is a banite and plans to destroy Sundren as soon as he becomes powerful enough" etc

You post these info or put them on your character description, that's asking people to metagame and forcing players that do not wish to metagame into awkward positions. As one of the DMs recommended the other night to a few players, do not do this; you will likely make life nearly impossible for your PC sooner or later or make RPing very awkward for other players.

[pook]

I hope players aren't metagaming what a person writes about their char in the forum. Or did I misunderstand and is everyone supposed to know IC what they read in a chars BIO the forum?

I only told one player at all that my char was a necro and all I actually said was "I cast almost exclusively from that school", when he mentioned the spells I used.

Personally, I don't act as if I know anything that a char writes in their BIO on the forum. In game desc is something different, but I've only seen people write something like "Has a constant scowl on his face" or something that I could feasibly know just from looking at them.

I never meant my BIO to be mean "treat me as if you know this". I always saw BIO's as just a way for people to read up on others interesting story that they may never find out about in game.

[Ithildur]

You write that stuff on your ingame bio/description or forums you are inviting people to metagame, which they should not do obviously, but you are nevertheless putting out metagame information out there. The result will either be some people metagame, even by accident, or the ones that don't will be put into an awkward situation where they might be, say a necro hunter, and might have been suspicious IC towards a necro PC based on seeing their spells and behavior etc and would've investigated leading to discovery of the truth etc, but now that player is in a situation where if they do the same things it's hard to judge whether they are metagaming or not.

GodBeast explained this to several players recently and I completely agree. You put that info out there and this is what it leads to.

People need to realize this is an online setting not PnP, you don't if know the person that's logged in playing the PC across from you is a habitual metagamer or not, and DMs can't restrict/enforce certain things as readily as they can in a tabletop game.

[pook]

I see your point. I guess I never found it that difficult personally to separate the two, but I see how it could get to be a pretty fine line.
I suppose that's the end of Colav Colt, but there are always new characters to try.

[GodBeastX]

I will agree with Ilthildur on this.

Passing information out in an OOC fashion can lead to mistakes with metagaming. Mistakes. Let me give an example:

Player A has a description that says "Occupation: Necromancer".

Player B is employed to hunt necromancers.

Player A tends to cast a few more necromancy spells than most wizards but not obvious "Raise undead" ones.

Player B seeing that player A has put out that info is scared of accidentally metagaming so chooses to act ignorant to the questionable spellcasting that could also be circumstantial.

Player B has just metagamed, but doesn't realize it. Although it hurt no one, it is metagaming.

Another possible outcome.

Player B rp's out a confrontation asking Player A to come with him for inquiries.

Player A feels that his casting is being metagamed and says "(( You do realize I could also just be casting those few spells on a whim, and it doesn't make me a necromancer". Which has now gone OOC and makes Player B look like a metagamer even though he might not be for what he did.

So player B let's the character go instead of inquiring because he is worried about looking bad for doing so.

Now, if Player A never put that information out there, and Player B tried to take him in, it would be impossible to be metagaming or even make a mistake, since it is done completely on what his character knows.

This is only 2 small examples of the multitude of metagaming possibilities that can come out of small splurts of info. However, we also have to balance things with being for entertainment value. We read background stories of characters for entertainment, not for the purpose of metagaming, but needlessly telling people "OOC I worship bane" or "OOC My Elf loves Fat Chicks" is really not needed

That's the point I was trying to make to the players I was kicking back with in the OOC room.

[Ithildur]

I see your point. I guess I never found it that difficult personally to separate the two, but I see how it could get to be a pretty fine line.
I suppose that's the end of Colav Colt, but there are always new characters to try.

Maybe try keep playing him, and see how it goes for now. It is beta after all... it's something to keep in mind though in the future.

[Ethereal Edge]

One skill I try to cultivate is my ability to ignore metagaming and simply forget facts I read in character bios whilst still finding them entertaining. Despite this, it doesn't matter. You can only get so good at it. GodBeast's examples describes repeated situations I ran into playing a paladin in Neverwinter Nights I. The damage isn't horrible, but we should avoid facts that aren't obvious about the character.

[Ichbin]

Metagaming is a horrible thing, trust me, I know, I've played LARPs.

Even though you act stupid, because said info hasn't reached your "in-game" ears yet. However, you find yourself hanging around the person you want to kill, or ally w/, based on what you've heard OOC.
I've learned to never tell anyone anything, things tend to work out bette that way.
In NWN, however, I tend not to care, since I've never really been much into the whole PVP thing, and I usually dont make contraversal chars.

[Priest of Asmodeus]

I all ways see character bios as their persona as they tell it. If it on a forum then is valid in game material. you tell people what you want them to know. I dont know how many times i've seen Im alister Bloodbow and i killed 100 orc before i was 10 im a bow prodigy. I look at you with a scared eye telling you hey dont mess with this bow guy cuz he killed 100 orc before he was 10. he actually a drow but he doesnt look it blah blah blah right in his examine window...you put it there even though it has no place or reason to be there for ooc info. if you dont want people to know stuff then write your forum bio as how your character would tell it

[Forlorn]

Once I encountered a priestess of bane who wrote in her description: "A pendant of BANE can be seen upon her armor"...and when I saw her I called her a banite and she said I was metagaming. How absolutely absurd can you get? This wasn't on this server btw.

[Scarlett]

Will do. If anything, people need to be more sneaky with their evilness/intentions...

[SteeleButterfly]

I usually post a general description of the character, so that when someone Examines, they can see what their PC would see and know. Height, weight, general looks and mannerisms -- something any PC would pick up unless they were totally not paying attention. I wouldn't consider using that information IC as metagaming. What the PC looks like on the screen doesn't tell everything.

From some of the things I've read on this thread, I'm now hesitant to post any kind of background or story about my PCs. I would have considered anything of the sort to be OoC, and just things my fellow players might like to read, but if some take it as IC, I'll just not bother.

SteeleButterfly

[undeadsteak]

and that is the reason sylivias bio does not include everything, and is cut off for about 3 years. only Etheral Edge knows about it, seeing as i can trust him not to meta game, and im pretty sure no one is ever going to suspect. On the frontier, i had somone telling me ooc in tells that his char was a necromancer, and a wizard of thay, and all this stuff i didnt know. Then he puts up a post like this, about people not to reveal information to him ooc, because he doesnt want to meta game. I was like wth!? why did you send me all those damn tells then?

[Ethereal Edge]

One needs the be selective about their background information they post. For example, I would post about Dan:

Alignment: Lawful Good
Patron: Lathander

Why? Because it's obvious, he'd tell you it in a moment, you'd most likely see something bearing Lathander's symbol on him, etc. However, if I was playing a secretive follower of some evil deity, I wouldn't put:

Alignment: Lawful Evil
Patron: Bane

It's too obvious a tip off. Just as if I was roleplaying someone good pretending to be evil to evil folks, I wouldn't post a bio stating they hug trees, kiss babies, and smite evil.

[Ithildur]

I all ways see character bios as their persona as they tell it. If it on a forum then is valid in game material. you tell people what you want them to know. I dont know how many times i've seen Im alister Bloodbow and i killed 100 orc before i was 10 im a bow prodigy. I look at you with a scared eye telling you hey dont mess with this bow guy cuz he killed 100 orc before he was 10. he actually a drow but he doesnt look it blah blah blah right in his examine window...you put it there even though it has no place or reason to be there for ooc info. if you dont want people to know stuff then write your forum bio as how your character would tell it

Can someone translate this for me? Seriously, I want to know what he's saying.