Friendship is Dragons
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Page 482 - Tipping Your Hoof
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Kobold rogues deserve extra credit, because come on, they really have to go that extra mile for amusement, but almost all of them do.
One hilarious bit of Metagaming was in a Superhero campaign where I was The Great & Powerful Trixie. One of the other PCs would sometimes make little 4th-wall leaning remarks like 'Gee, you're more of a ham than a cartoon character!' :D
We once played a Survival game for Pathfinder, stuck on an island, in the middle of nowhere, and we weren't allowed to know what happened or how we got there... until one of us asked what we saw behind us.
"You can see a Colossal dead dragon with what appears to be a large carriage like box on it's back."
-cue rogue looting carriage thing.
-cue dragon slayer laughing triumphantly.
-and cue one of us asking if we were "lost".
It mostly broke down from there.
Heh. What was that in the cast list about Applejack's player playing poker?
Reminds me, not of a gaming event, but a true story. In the '50s, when planes were still unpressurized, a group of NASA employees regularly flew over the Rocky Mountains and played poker on the way. They all got altitude sickness -- which causes disorientation. One of the players would watch for blue fingernails on his opponents, indicating lack of oxygen, and would then start bluffing. His confused opponents invariably lost their money. Not a conventional tell, but a good one.
Any stories about gambling in-game? How do you manage it - is it all sensing motive and rolling dice, or are there other ways?
Reminds me, not of a gaming event, but a true story. In the '50s, when planes were still unpressurized, a group of NASA employees regularly flew over the Rocky Mountains and played poker on the way. They all got altitude sickness -- which causes disorientation. One of the players would watch for blue fingernails on his opponents, indicating lack of oxygen, and would then start bluffing. His confused opponents invariably lost their money. Not a conventional tell, but a good one.
Any stories about gambling in-game? How do you manage it - is it all sensing motive and rolling dice, or are there other ways?
Elusive, was very persuasive in her actions, having access to things like charm monster, suggestion, and Enthralling Voice. She would up and simply talk while playing to the dealers. And proceed to look like she was winning through good play, and luck.
Normally, well, casting spells requires all the odd gestures and words, except with warlock, where its purely willpower. She would sit, smile, and cast these through being kind, attentive, and talking to the dealers.
When it looked like there might be trouble, she would get the dragonwrought kobold partner of hers to approach (via telepathy spell she had the foresight to have him cast in a hidden moment) And put on the cute look with him and dragon, whom she'd give a few decent chips to, smile, and tell them to have fun. He'd scamper off, and it diverted folks with a masterful bluff.
They managed to cheat out three or four places this way, never having to use their backup plan of having the Hulk-like (He could intimidate that fellow too.) vouch for their integrity, because both of them had been amazing followers to his ethos and creed.
But it came down to some skill checks, will saves, and planning this out. with fun role play, and a nice in game paycheck at the end.
One GM I knew would deal out actual playing cards if we did any gambling. Usually it was something simple like Blackjack, but it was much more fun and immersive than just rolling a d20 and higher number won.
Usually, I like to make bets based on challenges that I'm sure I can win. For example, I would make a bet with another character that I could do something, say hit a target dead center. I'd keep the wording vague so that when they agreed, I could just walk over and stick a dagger in the target's center. I usually get some dark looks from the guy who lost, but the rest of the group laughs whenever my scams work.
Less of a gambling story and more of a story about a stupid gamble: I had a storm-oriented sorcerer in the middle of a local slave-lord's vault. On the door were 9 stone tiles with roman numerals indicating a password lock. Using some real world science as my reasoning, I created mist to see which of the tiles the mist adhered to (2, 3, 5, 9). After that, having blown my trap search role, I was left with 12 combination possibilities and a DM grinning as I told him I was going to try a combination. On a guess, I went with 2395 and was immediately rewarded with some choice curses from the DM because I'd got it on the first try. He later said that there was a 20d6 acid trap that would've gone off. In the end, I only grabbed like 500 gold and an item with stormy inscriptions on it. I left the remaining 50 to 100K for the impoverished townspeople because it was one of my really nice neutral good characters.
Less of a gambling story and more of a story about a stupid gamble: I had a storm-oriented sorcerer in the middle of a local slave-lord's vault. On the door were 9 stone tiles with roman numerals indicating a password lock. Using some real world science as my reasoning, I created mist to see which of the tiles the mist adhered to (2, 3, 5, 9). After that, having blown my trap search role, I was left with 12 combination possibilities and a DM grinning as I told him I was going to try a combination. On a guess, I went with 2395 and was immediately rewarded with some choice curses from the DM because I'd got it on the first try. He later said that there was a 20d6 acid trap that would've gone off. In the end, I only grabbed like 500 gold and an item with stormy inscriptions on it. I left the remaining 50 to 100K for the impoverished townspeople because it was one of my really nice neutral good characters.
"No, friends! We must not enter the mines! The gods are angry, for the dwarf lord has been blocked from seducing my mastergod's sister, and furthermore, my mastergod drank all the dew from the mountains, angering the god of heaven and earth. Rocks will surely fall, and we shall all die!"
From now until the end of time, I am going to play any insane characters I make exactly like that.
I am going to have to take Raxon's tips into account when I create my insane lich - necromancer.
One of the character classes in Space Munchkin (RPG version) is all over that. The Space Kniggits hold a religious belief that the universe is run by a gamemaster, and so use the Farce to metagame. They can take feats like "Bribe GM".
Best and worst meta game I have seen. Heroes gather together and try to steal from this one place. They get into a fight with the guards. Manague to subdue them and try to enter the building. Places blows up as fighter soaks most of the damage from the blast. Place is looted and before anyone can react the thief kills the guards. Everyone shouts why he did that? He smiles as he said "I didn't kill two hostages. I killed two potential witness. We were sent to rob this place. The place is already robbed before we got here and blew up."
They run away before the guards get there as no one saw what happened and avoided the trap before it even started.
They run away before the guards get there as no one saw what happened and avoided the trap before it even started.
My brother is a ginormous metagamer, which annoyed the crap out of me. But worse was when he always had a good explanation for it.
One time, I was playing a Gnome bard and I had been flirting with another character in gnomish. For absolutely no reason, my brother, a human wizard, knew what I was saying. When I called him on it, he reasoned that his wizard knew twelve different kinds of elvish (he did, actually) and used knowledge of the word roots and bases to extrapolate what I was saying. The bastard knows I'm a sucker for etymology, and I wanted to kill him for it.
One time, I was playing a Gnome bard and I had been flirting with another character in gnomish. For absolutely no reason, my brother, a human wizard, knew what I was saying. When I called him on it, he reasoned that his wizard knew twelve different kinds of elvish (he did, actually) and used knowledge of the word roots and bases to extrapolate what I was saying. The bastard knows I'm a sucker for etymology, and I wanted to kill him for it.
That said I wouldn't find it overly meta if a player came to a conclusion that was based on the DMs portrayal of a character or through roleplay, at least as long as that conclusion was drawn in-character.
There was one player that I used an old OotS joke on, the one where "She has the class ability to jump any distance, but only to conclusions."
This went from a one-time toke to a running gag where even that PC got in on it once, when she was figuring out a connection between two villains and asked if she can make a Jump Check.
This went from a one-time toke to a running gag where even that PC got in on it once, when she was figuring out a connection between two villains and asked if she can make a Jump Check.
Like Newbiespud said, it all depends on how good natured both the Meta-gaming and the group are.
Heh... I had a GM once accuse me of 'Witchcraft! Mind-reading wizardry!' after demonstrating to him just how easy he was to read.
I've only known the guy for twenty-five years, and he is practically transparent...
I've only known the guy for twenty-five years, and he is practically transparent...
My and one friend used to know a certain GM that well. We'd make bets on how he was going to move the story plot along (and we were usually right). It annoyed the GM a bit, but when he was stealing ideas from past campaigns I ran...
I have really only had one proper P&P game with my sister DMing along with her friends. I metagamed and I metagamed hard.
A house-ruled Int-based Jester, justified by his backstory (and frontstory) that he was supposed to have been a wizard, but he was so determined to be an entertainer that he used his vast intellect to simulate having charisma. The result is that while he is technically witty and hilarious, not a single character in the game ever laughs at his jokes.
It eventually gets to the point that Bifsa, in the future, would turn himself into a lich (I don't care if you're a true P&P gamer, no one pronounces it as "like" anymore) and put together a dungeon trap where adventurers become stuck as audience and can't leave until they laugh at his performance. But no one ever does, so the audience ends up getting littered with the bones of decomposed adventurers.
At the game itself, my sister was running a campaign based on the original Baldur's Gate PC game, and the other players had just managed to arrive at first Friendly Arm Inn, after having taken down an ogre who had been wearing two belts.
Having ridiculous dexterity on top of everything else, Bifsa went meta in order to pickpocket one of the belts off of the crew and don it. Only to "unwittingly" find himself wearing a cursed belt of Genderswap.
At that point, one of the guys of the group, who hadn't actually been in the area to witness the switch in gender, began to hit on Bifsa, only to find all of his various innuendos shut down through sheer obliviousness and literal reinterpretations.
When questioned about his actual sexual preferences, he justified his in-game actions as saying that his character would have no way of knowing that Bifsa was originally a guy. At which point I blurted out, in the falsetto I had been using for Bifsa-ette; "Oh, btw, I used to be a guy!"
At which point another member of the party did a spit take all over her character sheet.
And that is how you Meta-murder an Player Character with comedy. Never doubt the power of the 4th wall.
A house-ruled Int-based Jester, justified by his backstory (and frontstory) that he was supposed to have been a wizard, but he was so determined to be an entertainer that he used his vast intellect to simulate having charisma. The result is that while he is technically witty and hilarious, not a single character in the game ever laughs at his jokes.
It eventually gets to the point that Bifsa, in the future, would turn himself into a lich (I don't care if you're a true P&P gamer, no one pronounces it as "like" anymore) and put together a dungeon trap where adventurers become stuck as audience and can't leave until they laugh at his performance. But no one ever does, so the audience ends up getting littered with the bones of decomposed adventurers.
At the game itself, my sister was running a campaign based on the original Baldur's Gate PC game, and the other players had just managed to arrive at first Friendly Arm Inn, after having taken down an ogre who had been wearing two belts.
Having ridiculous dexterity on top of everything else, Bifsa went meta in order to pickpocket one of the belts off of the crew and don it. Only to "unwittingly" find himself wearing a cursed belt of Genderswap.
At that point, one of the guys of the group, who hadn't actually been in the area to witness the switch in gender, began to hit on Bifsa, only to find all of his various innuendos shut down through sheer obliviousness and literal reinterpretations.
When questioned about his actual sexual preferences, he justified his in-game actions as saying that his character would have no way of knowing that Bifsa was originally a guy. At which point I blurted out, in the falsetto I had been using for Bifsa-ette; "Oh, btw, I used to be a guy!"
At which point another member of the party did a spit take all over her character sheet.
And that is how you Meta-murder an Player Character with comedy. Never doubt the power of the 4th wall.
I would like to point out that it was NEVER pronounced "like". Please entertain and educate your self with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJmHuNPclMQ
As far as non-literal gambling... Well, PCs are renowned for getting away with stupid plans.
Mechanicus are weird. They worship their Ctarl machine god instead of the Emperor.
We all managed to refrain from linking Guren no Yumiya, though.
DAMN. I wish we had easy-to-read and uninventive GMs like y'alls. The GM we had IS easy to read as hell, but if we ever metagamed like that, it would be as if we never metagamed...
Once, after we ended a session after having pretty much metagamed out a sure-fire victory (which our chars wouldn't have figured out), he literally went back and listened to all the previous games (all our games are recorded), and, making sure to stay accurate to everything revealed in in-game-canon, made that plan a guaranteed failure...
We learned to stop metagaming after that (or if we did, to either pluck the fruits of our metagaming in the same session or not to gloat about it in his face...
Once, after we ended a session after having pretty much metagamed out a sure-fire victory (which our chars wouldn't have figured out), he literally went back and listened to all the previous games (all our games are recorded), and, making sure to stay accurate to everything revealed in in-game-canon, made that plan a guaranteed failure...
We learned to stop metagaming after that (or if we did, to either pluck the fruits of our metagaming in the same session or not to gloat about it in his face...
Now THAT is dedication. Maybe I should try that with my players, they are super meta-gamey as well... If only I had recordings of all our campaigns from the last four years :p
On the other hand, the party consists of
- a drow monk
- a high elf wizard
- a half-elf wizard (related to the high elf)
- a half-elf ranger
- a half-elf ranger (no relation)
- a dwarf rogue
So there's that...
If you have an effective way to beat metagaming, keep doing it. If you don't, or are unsure how to get around it, HERE YOU GO!
Im surprised Twilight didnt have some roleplay with her BBBFF before returning to Ponyville... and a bit disappointed lol
Cant wait for that arc... and great work as always. :)
Have you seen the SDCC season 5 spoilers? It looks like a lot of great source for this comic are to come.
What point on that spectrum the FiD group occupies is left as an exercise for the reader.