Good Metagaming

This is an interesting topic that I don't talk about much, especially since I am more partial to numbers and rules than roleplay. We always talk about the evils of metagaming, but we never hear about how much it can enhance roleplay.

NOTE: I DO NOT CONDONE USING METAGAMING TO CHEAT AT GAMES. THAT IS UNCOOL.

Anyways, think of Metagaming as if you were a person reading a book, but also playing the character in the book. Literature is often filled with dramatic irony, which means that the reader knows more than the character, particularly regarding what's to come.

Now, as players we can react to metagame information in one of two ways - Good and Bad.

The more common, cheating kind of metagaming would use this information to get the character out of a jam. Information is exchanged between the player and the character, irony is eliminated and we're all cheated out of a story.

However, the good kind of metagaming would allow the player to shape his responses based on how his character would react, but ignore the information until the dramatic/tragic event has happened.

Usually when we're confronted with events and have to act quickly, we let the player take control, and if you are very different than your character, this can hinder the rich roleplaying experience. However, if you can form your character's response beforehand, then it's much easier to play as your character in situations like this.

Here's an example of good metagaming improving my experience at Exiles:

One of the guys was playing a skeleton, but was successfully able to hide it for a long time (long story). I knew OOG that he was a skeleton, which let determine how I was going to react when the truth came out well before it happened.

The best part about that is that the skeleton character had saved me from imminent death a number of times, but I already had my plan for when the truth came out. So we had some what of a showdown (where he annihilated us, as Skeletons are combat monsters) while basically everyone looked on.

Now, if I were confronted with that situation without knowing, I personally probably would have chosen a less PvP intensive path, just to prevent it from not being fun for that player to be outcast. As it turns out, we both really enjoyed the experience despite negative relationship between our characters.

So next time you find something out that you shouldn't know, take some time to ask yourself how your character would react to something like that, but continue playing ignorant until it comes up. It can really improve the experience.