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« on: September 08, 2009, 10:24:39 PM »
For the record, I ran my game yesterday. I tried the whole anti-metagaming thing... It was amazing.
Let me rewind:
I'm running Ross' New World Primer in 3.5. For this session I (admittedly) focused on the previously mention "experienced gamers" funny thing is that one of them: Dorn [Nomadic Hexblade, blacksmith] is a slave to the merchant prince Jayden Price. Dorn's player is constantly attentive when we game and (I'm ashamed to say) has more notes than I do on this game. The other player Nogard [Human Dragon Shaman, Apothecary's Apprentice and obviously Dragon spelled backwards] is the total opposite of Dorn's Player in that he refuses to take notes and spends most of his time nose in PHB and not paying attention.
At the mention of banning metagaming for this session the players were intrigued. I hand Dorn's player an aged note, that no other player saw, stating that he must appear in the stead of Jayden in a legal dispute (Followers of the New World Actual Play should know what this means.) I was banking on Nogard's lack of attentiveness to lead him on a wild goose chase when he was told by the apothecary that he needed him to attend a legal dispute for him and that he would give him "partnership" in the shop.
As the first legal charter has not been taken into effect yet the dispute was to be dealt with in an arena. The funny thing was that I waited for a smoke break to tell Nogard of the legal matter with Jayden. So Nogard spends the week before the trial attempting to intimidate merchants for information regarding Jayden and making plans to kill him on his heavily guarded yacht. All the other players are practically red in the face with a mixture of laughter and frustration as once he asked the first merchant "Who is Jayden!?!" They all knew what I was doing.
Day of the "Trial"
Nogard never asked how legal proceedings were dealt with in the new world, and his player hated diplomatic situations. He sat in a dark room where he was briefed by the apothecary and the captain of the town. "Don't worry boy, we've got healers at bay... do your best" then the doors opened and the sun blinded him as he was pushed into a makeshift arena with the crowd roaring and an immense blurry figure in front of him. The player had Nogard charge into the ring throwing his trident at his opponent. I asked him to roll initiative and asked to borrow Dorn's players d20 (he rolled it onto the table to roll initiative, winking at me.) Nogard's ranged attack missed. I then say "Dorn, Nogard's trident clangs noisily to your side, what do you do?"
The look on their faces was priceless. I appreciate everyone's advice and admit that it takes a crucial aspect of gameplay out of the ring. One that I''m certain all the players now greatly appreciate.
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