That’s why I roll to call bullshit on the DM. And fail.
I had a session where I had the highest perception, entered a room, and rolled a nat 1, so I said, “Everything looks clear.” The rest of the party, including the rogue, proceeded to fail their perception checks. And that’s how we got ambushed by a colony of jellyfish-like creatures.
It’s also fun to pass a “nothing interesting” note privately to the rogue (especially if they’re playing some variety of an untrustworthy scoundrel).
The party jumping at shadows tend to make the rogue’s player grin smugly, which sometimes makes the party jump even harder at shadows.
Also a classic for a failed perception check, particularly when there is no trap: “You don’t see the trap”.
It’s not sadism. It’s protecting the players from themselves. If you don’t keep players from treating RPGs like a game they can win, they will drain out all the fun and blame you.
My mom’s favorite is the phrase “nothing discernable happens.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.
I played with a DM that asked every time “which hand did you open the door with?”
Gave us a complex in the best way 😛
This is where it’s fun to be playing a character who is oblivious or dumb. You can confidently do things that the metagamer in you says not to.
If your players are doing meta playing to get an advantage, the problem is the players.
You’re trying to make a story for everyone to have fun, they’re trying to “win” the story by ruining the fun of it.
Either they fix their behaviour, or they fuck off. Having to create measures and countermeasures against your friends because their oversized ego doesn’t let others enjoy a game is a bit pathetic.
I just like to fuck with my friends!
It’s not always that simple. Sometimes metagaming can be subconscious, or just hard to avoid. It’s not always “to get an advantage” in such plain terms, and kicking players off the table for doing this on occasion… well, you do you, as always, but I won’t be surprised if you have difficulties keeping a table full when you DM.
I’m a big fan of the door trick
It does make sense if it’s like, an ancient booby-trapped, kobold infested dungeon to open doors a silly way. I like to trot it out occasionally in a tavern to see if the players take the bait. It usually ends with the bartender making fun of them.
My two things:
- “What’s the order when you go through the door?” writing on notepad, then stopping “So the wizard is in the middle? Okay…”
- We play with maps on a TV and I usually add numbers to the bad guys for clarity in a battle. They were going into a dungeon and ran into six small shrubberies that ate their lunch. Came close to a TPK ‘cause they were cocky. Lesson learned, two rooms later they go into a room they can only see half of. In that half are four of the shrubberies numbered 1, 2, 24, 25. The bard: “Holy shit! There are TWENTY FIVE of them in here?” They were quite surprised that they couldn’t find the other 17 since there were only 8 of them.
In regards to curbing the meta, PF2e has secret rolls, in which the player does not know the result.
For example, Seek is secret, so when someone is checking for traps they don’t know if the GM saying “you don’t see anything suspicious” is the result of a success or failure.
“You don’t see any visible wyverns.”
“You don’t notice any secret passageways”
Player: “Guys, this is where the assassin is supposed to be hiding out. I’ll bet he has it trapped with poison darts.”
GM, feverishly scribbling notes: “Anything is possible”
