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Tag Archives: metagame
How to Use the Players’ Metagaming to Mess With Their Heads (and Improve Your Game)
In the original Dungeon Master’s Guide, Dungeon & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax suggested speeding overcautious players by rolling “huge handfuls of dice” to raise fears of nearby monsters. Of course, the characters in the game world never hear the die … Continue reading →
Never split the party—except when it adds fun
Everyone who plays role-playing games learns the Dungeons & Dragons adage never split the party. In the hobby’s early days, when dungeon masters were referees and players chose difficulty by dungeon level, never splitting the party always made good strategy. … Continue reading →
Posted in Advice
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Tagged metagame, Paranoia, role playing, skill challenges, split party, tempo
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3 Comments
Secrecy, metagaming, and perception checks
When players roll their own perception checks, they learn something from the number on the die roll. Players with bad rolls know that their search may have missed something; players with great rolls may trust the game master’s report that … Continue reading →
Actions players always take and choices players never make, part 2
This post continues a list I started in part 1. Players will not mix and mingle. Adventure authors come from a secret coterie of role players who enter a tavern or a royal ball and then spend the evening mixing and … Continue reading →
Two totally fair ways to foil metagaming that I lack the nerve to try
At last week’s game, the characters searched a room. After the first searcher rolled low, another decided to redo the search. The searching and the low rolls continued until someone rolled high enough to prove that there was nothing to … Continue reading →
Using your players’ metagaming to mess with their heads
Way back in “The 11 Most Useful Types of Miniatures,” I confessed that whenever a battle map includes a statue, I always place a statue miniature on the map. The characters inevitably sidle around the statue, expecting it to animate … Continue reading →
Posted in Advice
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Tagged battle maps, metagame, miniatures, Monte Cook, Murder in Baldur's Gate, Psycho
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2 Comments
Two reasons D&D Next’s inspiration mechanic fails to inspire me (and why the designers don’t mind)
From what we have seem so far, the Dungeons & Dragons Next design sticks close the game’s tradition. This makes the inspiration mechanic the design’s biggest surprise so far. D&D’s top dog, Mike Mearls, revealed the mechanic in “Roleplaying in … Continue reading →
Posted in D&D fourth edition, Role-playing game design
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Tagged Champions, immersion, Living Forgotten Realms, metagame, Mike Mearls, role playing
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11 Comments
The Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 remakes the skill challenge
(Part 4 of a series, which begins with Evolution of the skill challenge.) Just a year after fourth edition’s debut, the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 upended the original skill challenge. The new material makes just one specific revision to the original rules: … Continue reading →
The 11 Most Useful Types of Miniatures
When the Harbinger set of pre-painted miniatures arrived in 2003, I mainly used tokens, cardboard heroes, and similar items to stand in for miniatures. Unpainted miniature barely tempted me. I lacked enough time for the pastimes I already had, so … Continue reading →
Immersive vs. Gamey in D&D Next, the score is 1-1
When I first started playing Dungeons & Dragons, people would tell me that the game interested them, but that felt intimidated by all the rules. No problem, I explained, you can play without knowing any of the rules. You play … Continue reading →
Posted in D&D fifth edition, Role-playing game design
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Tagged action points, D&D Essentials, dissociated mechanics, expertise dice, immersion, metagame, play style
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