PSA: Powerplaying and Metagaming
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Public Service Announcement

Powerplaying and Metagaming

With the recent plot, we want to take a moment to go over powerplaying and metagaming with all members at 'Souls. We'd like to remind everyone to take care as to not dictate others' characters' feelings, perceptions, and actions. Since roleplaying is a collaborative effort, you need to be aware of your partner's rights!


Powerplaying

There are two types of powerplay. The first type occurs when one roleplayer writes an attempted action as fact, as follows:


Quote:Jackal ran after Dog, quickly outpacing him and bringing him to the ground. Jackal then quickly bites Dog's leg and holds it in his mouth with his teeth for a few seconds before releasing him.

Here, the roleplayer is assuming that their character will be able to bring Dog to the ground. This type of powerplay is written in such a way that the other roleplayer cannot refute the attack because it is already written that Jackal has not only run faster than Dog, and attacked Dog, but Jackal has also continued and bitten Dog's leg. Dog's roleplayer cannot have Dog escape because then Jackal's post won't make sense -- it will say Jackal bit Dog and Dog's post will say Dog got away.


The other type of powerplay occurs when a roleplayer assumes another player's character will act/react a certain way, or dictates actions for another character without its player's permission:


Quote:Wolf swaggered through the territory, knowing that Coyote would be okay with it as Coyote had told him before that he was allowed to do whatever he pleased. He passed by Jackal near the lake, spat at him, and Jackal cowered.

Here, if Wolf's player had not explicitly gotten both Coyote's player and Jackal's player's permission to dictate their characters actions, it is powerplay.


How to Avoid Powerplaying

To avoid the first type of powerplaying, don't write your post as fact. Instead, use words like 'attempt' and 'try' to express what your character is doing. To correct the above example:


Quote:Jackal ran after Dog, hoping to quickly outpace him and bring him to the ground.

Since the second sentence is contingent on Jackal bringing Dog to the ground, it would not be written until the next post if Jackal is successful.


Some roleplayers, however, try to fix powerplaying by giving their partner options to choose from. This does not really make chronological sense in the thread because it says "my character might do this or they might to that" when you should be really trying to just say what they are doing.


It is also still powerplaying because by giving the other roleplayer a select number of options, they can't actually have their character react the way they otherwise would. The following, below, is still incorrect:


Quote:Jackal ran after Dog, hoping to quickly outpace him and bring him to the ground. If Jackal was successful, Jackal would bite Dog's leg. If not, Jackal would keep chasing Dog.

In fight threads, most posts are just action. So this means your posts will likely be shorter because having your character speculate on things like the weather or the surroundings doesn't make as much sense. This is fine! Writing a lot of fluff in fight threads can be somewhat tiring for the other player, so try to accurately describe what it is exactly your character is doing.


For the second type of powerplay, the obvious solution is to make sure you have players' permission before dictating actions for their characters. Not doing so can lead to a lot of confusion when players find out that their characters supposed said or did something they were completely unaware of!


Metagaming

Metagaming is the act of using knowledge obtained OOCly in an IC situation. For example, Dog's player knows that Jackal is lying, but Dog the character has no real reason to suspect. If Dog's player uses his OOC knowledge to have Dog become suspicious -- despite there not being an IC reason for him to suspect anything -- that is metagaming. Please take care to separate your OOC knowledge from your character's IC knowledge; it ruins the fun!


For more information on both powerplaying, metagaming, and other "bad roleplay" concepts, see Tears, Bones, and Desire's Bad Roleplay Guide.

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