When you know the meta

[Sajiri]

In my current game we finally made it to a new continent, one based off Japan. My most definitely good character had already discovered she can seal and summon Yokai, and is currently (somewhat unwillingly) partnered with an evil yokai that gets great entertainment out of pushing her around, coercing her into very one-sided deals and just in general giving her a difficult time.

Easiest way to get the party freedom to travel in this new continent is to seek out the temples where Yokai practitioners go to start some sort of pilgrimage. We go to the gates, reveal my status, they send me on my way to the temple saying that I have to take the 'Yokai-kekkon'. Out of game I go and google 'Kekkon'. It means marriage. Of course my character has no idea of this.

So I just realised my character is about to walk into a place to essentially marry the worst member of the group and it's equal parts 'oh damn' and 'this will be hilarious'.

Im curious if anyone else has had situations like this, where you know what's going to happen but you walk right into it because you don't want to make use of out of game knowledge.

[JohanOfKitten]

I got plenty in a specific type of games I do with some friends.
We do a lot of Word of Darkness or customized SmallvilleRPG and the campaigns are mainly narrative.
We got used to build the big frame together and build character with specific relationships/connexions, flaws and a thing we call "dark secret".

It gives a bunch of meta knowledge and we're fine with that. Most of the time, like you said, it gives a whole states of "oh damn", "it's hilarious", "Oh my god, my character is so gonna suffer !"


Some examples :
During the creation of a specific campaign, we draw a pathway (a diagram showing relationships and major elements of the background). It's huge on meta informations. In it, there were few things that could lead to dangerous things for me : the Sire of one player was my ancester (and we learn later that his bloodline, so mine, was a good tool for a deadly ritual) and my soon-to-become girlfriend was a new-born vampire (beware the icky !).

Other campaign, a player's dark secret was link to her mental projection power. Once, when she went away, an evil witch possessed her body and killed someone, leading her to flex the state and move somewhere else. The player knew who the witch was and the grudge against her she had. The character was just stressed to have her body possessed again by one or another being, and took risks that lead the witch to take advantage and possess completly the body at some point.

Recently, we've started a vampire campaign, with each player being an influent vampire of a district of Los Angeles. But before the main plot start, we played our embraces. So the main player was playing his character, still human, and the others were having one-shot characters. The main player knew that, before midnight, he would become a vampire. The questions were how, by who, and at what cost.



Lot of fun

[Sajiri]

I got plenty in a specific type of games I do with some friends.
We do a lot of Word of Darkness or customized SmallvilleRPG and the campaigns are mainly narrative.
We got used to build the big frame together and build character with specific relationships/connexions, flaws and a thing we call "dark secret".

It gives a bunch of meta knowledge and we're fine with that. Most of the time, like you said, it gives a whole states of "oh damn", "it's hilarious", "Oh my god, my character is so gonna suffer !"


Some examples :
During the creation of a specific campaign, we draw a pathway (a diagram showing relationships and major elements of the background). It's huge on meta informations. In it, there were few things that could lead to dangerous things for me : the Sire of one player was my ancester (and we learn later that his bloodline, so mine, was a good tool for a deadly ritual) and my soon-to-become girlfriend was a new-born vampire (beware the icky !).

Other campaign, a player's dark secret was link to her mental projection power. Once, when she went away, an evil witch possessed her body and killed someone, leading her to flex the state and move somewhere else. The player knew who the witch was and the grudge against her she had. The character was just stressed to have her body possessed again by one or another being, and took risks that lead the witch to take advantage and possess completly the body at some point.

Recently, we've started a vampire campaign, with each player being an influent vampire of a district of Los Angeles. But before the main plot start, we played our embraces. So the main player was playing his character, still human, and the others were having one-shot characters. The main player knew that, before midnight, he would become a vampire. The questions were how, by who, and at what cost.



Lot of fun

Ah yeah we do a lot of stuff like that too where we talk about some stuff we'd like to have or think will happen, but dont always know the how or why. I think it's a great way to play and get everyone to enjoy the plots while still having surprise. The one I gave in my original post though was just something I didn't know would be coming until today, so now I'm eagerly awaiting the next session just so I can play out the shock horror 'gdit' moment she'll have to go through

[jojo]

We go to the gates, reveal my status, they send me on my way to the temple saying that I have to take the 'Yokai-kekkon'. Out of game I go and google 'Kekkon'. It means marriage. Of course my character has no idea of this.

So I just realised my character is about to walk into a place to essentially marry the worst member of the group and it's equal parts 'oh damn' and 'this will be hilarious'.

Slap your DM, continue doing so until he or she desists and removes their robe and wizard hat allowing you to escape from their magical realm.

In game you can just demand whoever is watching the gate offer you some sort of explanation of whatever this ritual is. When they say "derp-derp-derp it's marriage" just turn around and walk away.

[Guizonde]

Slap your DM, continue doing so until he or she desists and removes their robe and wizard hat allowing you to escape from their magical realm.

In game you can just demand whoever is watching the gate offer you some sort of explanation of whatever this ritual is. When they say "derp-derp-derp it's marriage" just turn around and walk away.

why though? it's an arranged marriage. not exactly "magical realm" boundaries. the classic fairy tales abound with those and i'm pretty sure op's dm will have a nice twist to it (i mean, it's clearly not going to end well just with alignments alone).

i've had my players' characters unwillingly get significant others in different games just as flavoring during downtime. one player turned that little humorous event into a heart-moving bit of rp just before the boss battle by writing his npc gf a moving letter. another actually started a family just to keep her family business of repairing things going.

to the op: there's metagaming and metagaming. i lean heavily on the fourth wall as a player. my characters do so only with the approval of the dm (including one that was so bug-eyed crazy she actually had knowledge: 4th wall). i'd say it depends on your group of players. if your team is fine with predicting the plot, it's hilarious to mst3k the plot but go on ahead with it. my current pf game is full of it, between a bard, an oracle specced in timey-wimey trickery, and my inquisitor's sense of humor. what we don't do however is use the meta to powergame. that's not cool with the group, and i don't think i've ever been part of a group that metagames to win.

my current rogue trader campaign? the closest we've come to metagame is saying "i'm pretty sure the ordo xenos won't be happy about us having a necron in our team". nothing has come of it yet. our closest to using metagame knowledge was saying "an autocannon should be sufficient to frag the boarding party that's attacking us" (spoiler: it was). we can't guess the plot, we can't guess oddball advantages, and neither the team or dm feel inclined to do so.

were i in your shoes, i'd totally bask in the sensation and remember the best quips to post in the campaign quotes thread. enjoy the feeling, it's like playing an adventure and reading the novel simultaneously. double-win, in my book.

[PersonMan]

Slap your DM, continue doing so until he or she desists and removes their robe and wizard hat allowing you to escape from their magical realm.

In game you can just demand whoever is watching the gate offer you some sort of explanation of whatever this ritual is. When they say "derp-derp-derp it's marriage" just turn around and walk away.

Did you miss the part where she said she's looking forward to it? This seems like weird advice to give someone who's looking forward to something.

---

As for myself - I've had a couple of those moments. Generally, it's related to playing published material which I've read at some point in the past, and vaguely remembering a few scenes or interesting moments that I then tweak my character to have more interesting interactions with. I'm not sure it entirely counts, because half the time I forget until it comes up again...

[Sajiri]

Slap your DM, continue doing so until he or she desists and removes their robe and wizard hat allowing you to escape from their magical realm.

In game you can just demand whoever is watching the gate offer you some sort of explanation of whatever this ritual is. When they say "derp-derp-derp it's marriage" just turn around and walk away.

Yeah Im not actually against the idea. The DM tends to consult me first if he wants to include some kind of plot or something affecting my character if he thinks I will be against it and tries to gauge my comfort levels for what I am and am not okay with while still keeping it a surprise. I think it's an interesting and amusing twist considering the complicated relationship between the two characters already. I could have easily asked IC what does the term mean but I also think it will be highly entertaining if they find out what it means after the fact. Also I should clarify the DM explained to me it's not the typical husband and wife sort of marriage. Best way I understand it is it's a binding contract where they are devoted to each other, they are considered lovers but don't have to actually take part in any lover-like activities or reproduce or anything like that.

They already have a soul bound contract with each other so I find it most likely their relationship will continue as it always has been, aside from some specific social situations the dm teased about.