Metagaming – everything that happens outside of the game – is going to happen.  There is nothing you can do as a player or DM to stop it.  Whether it is simply the players discussing what roles they want their characters to play in the upcoming campaign (in order to build a well-rounded party), or running out and buying every pre-made module in order to know the DM’s next move – metagaming will happen.

So what do you do about it?

There are a lot of options, and a lot of opinions.  Some say embrace it.  Most say fight it and put a stop to it.

My recommendation is to direct it, as comfortably as possible in a direction that fits your interests and tastes.  What I am talking about here is being as open and honest with your gaming group about what you feel is an appropriate level and type of metagaming.

If, at the table you prefer that everything be said in character, then let people know.  Perhaps propose that a session or a portion of a session is run according to your style.  By opening the discussion you are enabling the other players to bring out their opinion and increasing the likelihood that they will support your opinion.

If you fight it – especially in a confrontational manner I can pretty much guarantee that you will get nowhere.  Most likely you will frustrate and alienate other players.  At best you will get them to abide by your rules just long enough for them to find another game.

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This is a problem for a number of players.  They believe that their DM is simply out to get them.

Real or imagined, this can be a huge problem for enjoying the game.  So what do you do?

Realistically, no matter the actual cause of the problem there is only one answer.  Talk about it.  Don’t be confrontational or a jerk.  Just bring up the problem and ask what is going on.

It is entirely probable that whatever the true source of the problem is has nothing to do with anything that you have considered to this point.  It is also highly probably that the problem can be easily resolved.

A lot of people make the mistake of whining about the problem instead of dealing with it and drag the baggage around for months or even years before quitting and finding a different game.  This is unnecessary.  Either the problem is easily resolved or it isn’t, but it will never be resolved until it is confronted.

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Sometimes more gold does not help a party much.  Sometimes even more experience points, magic items, and hordes of gems really aren’t worth very much to characters or to players.

Understanding the importance of these items in relation to the world that the characters live in is important to understanding how treasure and even experience can impact the game.

The easiest example is with magic items.  If an item has no use or very little use to the party then it really adds no value or power to the party.  An example would be a magic wand in a party with no one who can use a magic wand.  On paper the party appears to be at the appropriate power level, but in reality they are a magic item short.  This could be particularly devastating because it highlights a deficiency and exacerbates an existing weakness.

Gold can fall into a very similar situation very quickly if there is no place to spend the gold, or if the players are unwilling to spend the gold or if the characters are unable to haul the loot around.  A huge dragon horde at the bottom of a dungeon with a party that has no bag of holding or time in which to pack the loot out does nobody any good.  If, when they reach the top there is nothing waiting but a village with one general store selling only basic goods from the Player’s Handbook, then they will unlikely be able to find a good way to spend their money.

What about experience?  Can it really be of little or no value?  Most of the time experience is the single most valuable reward that can be given.  It is the only reward that inherently increases the character’s power – regardless of the campaign or situation.  However, in a vacuum it still is not the holy grail.  If there is not a corresponding increase in treasure – particularly useful magic items, then experience points alone can be a bit disappointing.  A wizard who does not have a powerful implement may struggle in situations where other high level wizards do not.

Until next time, have fun!

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Dungeons and Dragons can very quickly go from hobby to lifestyle.  The nature of the game very nearly demands it.

If you play on a weekly, or more often, basis, then you are committing as much or more time to the game as many people commit to the religion.  This means that it is a pretty strong commitment if you want to play and get to the full depths of the game.

Managing this kind of commitment can be very difficult, particularly for the more mature gamer.  If you are still in school, not working, not in a serious relationship (married, etc.), and have no children, then this is less of an issue.  If, however, you have a full time job, a spouse, and a few children; time, money, and the ability to justify the expenditure of said time and money to said spous and children can be in short supply.

Here are a few strategies for dealing with the problem.

1) Find gamers in similar circumstances.  This is not always possible, and you may have to travel a bit further, but really it is worth the effort.  These are people who will understand and possibly even tolerate your children.  In my group the kids all play together elsewhere while the adults role-play.

2) Don’t force the schedule.  Yes you do need to have a set time, but more importantly you need to be flexible.  Your group may want to play every week (or every day), but if you start treating it more importantly that your family they will quickly begin to resent it.

3) Keep the schedule you commit to.  Yes, a contradiction of the previous point, but not really.  What I mean here is that if you are committed, then explain that commitment to your family, and keep it.  Treat the game just as you would treat any other serious commitment.

4) Manage your budget.  This is important not just so that you have the extra cash for books and dice, but so that you can put the cost of playing in perspective for yourself and your significant other.  If you are shelling out $100 a month for D&D then your spouse may wonder where the diaper money went.  On the other hand, if you are paying attention to the money she (or he) may be a little more supportive.

5) Finally, include everyone.  Make time for the kids.  Explain the game to them in terms they can understand.  get them some cheap dice and let them play around.  They may not have your level of interest, but everyone wants to be included and feel like they are part of what you love.

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Building a village for your Dungeons and Dragons campaign is relatively simple.  The key components of a village (despite what the Dungeon Master’s Guide may have told you) are:

·    A purpose
·    A place
·    A face

Lets start with the purpose.  Why is the village there?  Why do the players care?  Is it just a rest stop on the way to the next adventure?  Does it hold a vital clue to solving some mystery?  Understanding the purpose will tell you not only what elements to include in your village, but also give you some ideas about how to describe it and how much effort you need to put into it.  A watering hole on the way to the big city (because the players just need a place to rest for the night) will require significantly less effort than a collection of undead farmers attempting to hide their nefarious secret from the world.

Once you understand the purpose of the village you need to give the players a place to be and someone to interact with.  These are the place and the face respectively.

The place is simply the stage where most of the action is expected to happen.  This can be a tavern, a farmhouse, a store, or the village square (or any of dozens of other locations).  The whole idea here is that you put some amount of though into at least one location and give the players clues that this is where they need to be and who they need to talk to.  If you are building the village on the fly then understanding the place is vital – not only to keeping your sanity but to directing your players so they don’t get bored or confused.

Finally, the face is the one character that you want them to remember or care about.  This could be the innkeeper or the shadowy figure in the corner.  It is the person that you as a DM will draw attention to and focus the players attention on.

Now, if you are using stock NPC’s to go with your campaign, here is a handy trick that I use.  It is a version of the magician’s force, but it works well.  A force (in case you are wondering) is simply the art of offering a choice without really offering a choice.  The idea is simple.  Have one set of stats – anything that fits the power level of your part.  Then offer two or three physical descriptions to the players of people they encounter in the village.  Now, whoever they choose to talk to or interact with gets those stats.

90% of the time (or more) they will ignore the other characters that you created anyway and there will be no need for them to have stats – not even a name.  It gets confusing to keep track of too many characters, and most players just want to find the important ones.  Make it easy on them (and yourself) by simply having the one they talk to be the important one.  They will never know the difference and you will save yourself a few headaches.

If you are afraid of metagaming, then mix it up a little.  Make them get past a few red herrings first.

Either way, be sure to have fun with it!

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What is a stock NPC?  Put simply it is that guy that shows up in nearly every town, village, bar or other place the players visit often.

The judicious use of stock NPC’s can make many elements of your D&D campaign run much more smoothly, especially if you are running a campaign that involves a lot of city or town travel and is a bit lighter on the dungeons.

The monster manual, handily enough, provides us with a number of stock NPC’s ready for use, i.e. the various “monster” versions of the races in the Player’s Handbook.  These are very useful and should not be overlooked.  If you expect to use a new town or village in the next session it may be a good idea to keep the stat cards around for the humans at the very least, but you may want to consider having a few elves or tieflings as well, depending on your setting.

These statistics are useful for when the party decides to do the totally unexpected such as rob the local merchants of their winter grain storage or recruit the farmer’s daughter into the party.  Having the stats handy (rather than buried somewhere in a book) makes it a lot easier to say “yes” to the crazy ideas.

Combine the stat cards with a name generator and you are set.  If you can find a name generator that does many names at once then just print a list of 20 or 30 names and you are set.

The key to remember when using stock NPC’s is that the players will remember how you play the character rather than where he was found or what her name was.  The stats on the card are there only for reference should anything involving rules come up.  The rest of it is up to how you decide to play that particular character and what sort of feel you want to bring to the session.

Until next time have fun!

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As a DM I’m generally opposed to metagaming – that is all of the game stuff that goes on outside of the game.  As a player the same generally holds true.  However there is one specific instance when I think it is not only okay, but can be very valuable.

When metagaming prevents the game from coming to a complete and total standstill.

When a designer sits down and builds a dungeon they generally have a concept in their head of how the dungeon is going to play out.  For less experienced designers, such as new DM’s, this can lead to some very severe problems such as unsolvable puzzles or overwhelming (or underwhelming) monsters.

In particular this can lead to the problem of where the dungeon itself causes the game to come to a halt.  The party lacks a critical resource to solve some aspect or the dungeon.

In these cases metagaming – i.e. using clues about the designer of the dungeon to figure out the dungeon can be helpful – not only because it generally will lead to loot and experience but because it can take a gaming session from frustrating and boring to interesting and exciting.

One example from my own play experience would be a rather long and uninteresting maze-like dungeon with roughly 2 encounters in it.  Rather than slog our way through it, continuing a session that was going from boring to more boring, my compadres and I decided that the DM in all likelihood based on her personal tastes had very little in the way of serious campaign related material hidden in the dungeon.  We therefore decided to stop searching every little nook and cranny and just looked for the way out which it turns out wasn’t that hard to find.  A short time later we were back down the path of interactive fun.

It took some metagaming and us stepping outside of what we as players and what our characters would normally do, but if we hadn’t we would literally have spent hours doing activities that no one at the table would have enjoyed.

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