Avoiding game breaking spoilers in public letters.
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I think we should consider sending more letters via PMs, especially if they contain game breaking spoilers revealing some people as traitors, killers etc.
It can be extremely hard not to metagame such knowledge in SOME way, involuntarily. Am i saying too little near this person even if i only know ooc they are a rat, am i not saying enough because my character is not aware of it ic. My character might suspect it, but as long as i know too much ooc, it is always harder to act upon with without it seeming a bit borderline.
-MY- opinion is that game breaking spoilers should be sent more via PMs then IC forums.
Your thoughts?
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Agreed, It is extremely hard not to send such spoilers on an IC forum.
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there is a few problems i see with this, there are people who do not allow others to pm them, there are constantly new, returning, or just people trying to find out what the heck is going on, without the constant letters to such and such, its much harder to get any idea of what is going on, except finding out ingame, which is even more difficult, from just your pc's race, to whom they work with, to anything else to find out what the heck you want, and there will be metagaming to some level allways, weather intentionally or not, and the only thing you can really do is trust people to keep it ooc, because if you dont, then such freedoms would be removed, and then part of the fun would be removed bit by bit.
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there is a few problems i see with this, there are people who do not allow others to pm them, there are constantly new, returning, or just people trying to find out what the heck is going on, without the constant letters to such and such, its much harder to get any idea of what is going on, except finding out ingame, which is even more difficult, from just your pc's race, to whom they work with, to anything else to find out what the heck you want, and there will be metagaming to some level allways, weather intentionally or not, and the only thing you can really do is trust people to keep it ooc, because if you dont, then such freedoms would be removed, and then part of the fun would be removed bit by bit.
The IC Forums are fine for that. But I think what Citizen Bane is talking about is referring to extremely important spoiler details, like X being Super-Villain Y or whatnot, that could make people unintentionally start treating people differently with metagame'd knowledge and whatnot. I personally agree with CB about putting those into IC letters.. Maybe CC or BCC'ing a DM to overlook it or whatnot.
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Personally, I love reading about player vs player intrigue. Never seen a problem in keeping it from affecting IC, though I practice that a lot while playing NPCish roles in LARPs and troubleshooting stuff for people who design scenarios.
If you want to entertain; post in IC forums. If you want to have secrecy, use PM's. I do both.
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I am only referring to game breaking spoilers. Not day to day stuff :)
And what i mean by involuntary metagaming is that whether you intend to or not, you MIGHT act different in some way, you might give away too much because you're afraid of metagaming, or you might withhold something you otherwise might not have.
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Yes, I got your meaning. In both cases. Still don't see a problem, but then again this topic is totally IMHO stuff in any case :)
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Also, do note that new forum accounts, say from new players pulled into intrigue plots, are unable to send PM's. And sometimes it is necessary to send a via the forum, to make it possible for others who have access to the location the message is sent to to grab it…
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Also, do note that new forum accounts, say from new players pulled into intrigue plots, are unable to send PM's. And sometimes it is necessary to send a via the forum, to make it possible for others who have access to the location the message is sent to to grab it…
Those new accounts can just make some random posts to be honest.. and they can always removed them again.
That said I totally agree. Knowing something crucial about a mole in your faction etc. through IC letters that your pc doesn't know of really sux and ruins your rp-fun (at least it does for me) I scarcely read any IC letters due to that reason since I find it much more fun knowing as little as my pc does. When first you know something ooc it'll affect your rp, willing it or not.
I myself use pm's alot since IC letters have a tendency of making "everyone" know what your pc is doing instead of trying to know it through ic-means = less rp IG.
When I use the IC forum it's for boring letters or something else that won't have a real consequence of being read by everyone and I think I'm not alone in that department :) -
You can also contact a DM to post things anonymously, or even contact Mellie to have her help you set up your own 'secret' account which you can use to send IC letters to other players without anyone knowing who it is. Or yeah, you can use a forum PM. Generally, if it's a brand new account, it's unlikely to be a huge gamebreaking spoiler like someone being a spy, joining the other side, murdered someone, treasonous plot, because the brand new account players are less likely to be heavily involved in such things, but it certainly does happen which is awesome by the way. I'm not 100% sure why we have the 'must post a few things first' thing for PMs, maybe its to stop spammers or something, but it seems rather easy to get round if your a spammer.
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EDIT: Sorry, sounded a little too aggressive here. Was perhaps not in a best mood at the posting time, for unrelated reasons. :)
Another way to avoid spoiling things for yourself is to not read the IC-forum mails that are not for your character, or that your character would not have access to.
Keeping IC information and OOC information separate is very important in our honor-bound system.
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Wow, relax. I enjoy reading stuff on the forums and i am not implying i am a raging metagaming moron.
I just think that in some cases containing extreme spoilers, PMs are more appropriate than public posts.
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I actually think it might be a bit much to ask of someone, for you to be able to post 'Me and Bob and jim are going to kill Benny tonight, haha!' On the public open forums, and then expect people not to read it, and information not to disseminate between players, and then for those players to 'not metagame' this information. I think it's a two way thing, try not to post it, and others can try not to read/act on it.
Also, it would be much more conducive to communication if the capital letters and borderline insults were left out of the posts in future.
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I know some ppl make new accounts on this forum whenever they start up a new concept for the anonymity because I see a lot of new accounts whole the time with only 1-4 posts..
What do you mean with Mellie helping setting up a "secret" account, Zool?
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FinWolven ; keep it calm, mate.
CB ; no one is claiming that you are raging metagaming moron. It is just a difference of views how to play this game.
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DM Melancholia after we chatted about this, offered to help anyone wishing to set up a secret account for posting such IC letters/posters on the forums, to get the account set up for them. That's what I mean.
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I actually think it might be a bit much to ask of someone, for you to be able to post 'Me and Bob and jim are going to kill Benny tonight, haha!' On the public open forums, and then expect people not to read it, and information not to disseminate between players, and then for those players to 'not metagame' this information. I think it's a two way thing, try not to post it, and others can try not to read/act on it.
Okay, this is where I would meta myself. I would be online for them to do it (if I was Benny).
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I personally prefer doing my business ingame unless a forum post or pm is absolutely necessary because of the chance of a real information leak happening if someone happens to overhear. I just think that involving other players with RP and giving people a chance to get discover or get into your plots by discussing them more ingame than on the forums is more fun than just writing up a forum post.
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I mainly use forums because limited gaming times (and less limited office hours used for forumwarrioring)
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Yeah, ideally it would all be in game, in practice, that just doesn't quite work out as well as it should. The forums have their uses.