New Era: Sol 366 Edition

• Introduction
• New Era vs. D&D 5e

Classes

• Delver
• Mercenary
• Ranger
• Researcher
• Chanter
• Magus
• Guardian
• Investigator
• Scholar
• Artificer
• Sage
• Witch

Characters

• Character Creation Guide
• Ability Scores
• Skills
• Knowledges
• Specialties

Feats

• General Feats
• Skill Feats
• Backgrounds
• Career Backgrounds
• Flaws

Ver. 1.3.1

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Metagaming

In any roleplaying game, you take on the persona of the character you create and control them as they move through the world fashioned by the GM. The character you're roleplaying as can (and often does) have a completely different background, knowledge base, physical and mental attributes from you (the player.)

In roleplaying settings, it's important to always remember that your character may know things you don't, and vice-versa. It can be quite difficult, and indeed impossible in some circumstances, to fully separate your character's knowledge and actions from your own, but you should do your best to have your character act only on the information they have. Metagaming is the act of a player making decisions as their character based on something the player knows but the character doesn't necessarily know. This could be information within the game world that the character just hasn't learned, or it could be information based on game mechanics outside of the game entirely that no character in the fictional world would be able to know, such as character points. Metagaming is generally considered bad form in roleplaying games and should be avoided wherever possible.

The following examples usually constitute metagaming and should be avoided:

• A character avoids using a necrotic attack against an undead foe in combat when the character has never encountered undead before and wouldn't know that necrotic damage heals them.
• A character knowing the behaviors and/or weaknesses of a specific creature despite having never encountered one before, or a player looking up the creature in the rulebook during combat and using that information to guide their combat strategy.
• A character leaving a room in a dungeon after a low roll on a perception check. Although the player knows there's a strong possibility the room contains a trap they haven't spotted, the character would have no way to know this.
• Discussing combat strategy out-of-character at a time when the characters themselves wouldn't be able to communicate easily, or making in-character combat decisions based on out-of-character communications; for example, choosing not to heal an ally because the player stated out-of-character that they plan to heal themselves.
• Discussing the mechanical aspects of the game in-character. For example, announcing your character's total hit points during a combat encounter, or members of the party sharing their respective athletics modifiers when deciding who should attempt a dangerous climbing task.
• "Backseat gaming", or telling other players what to do out-of-character. While such advice is usually well-intentioned, it can detract from the gameplay experience.

The following are NOT examples of metagaming:

• Sharing a general description of your character's appearance and how hurt they appear to be, based on their current hit point total, but without announcing the exact numerical value
• Using knowledge that a character would have a legitimate reason to know in advance based on their background, even if it has never come up in the game; for example, a character with the Firefighter background should be expected to know the optimal way to break down a door with an axe.