ThatMeanSheep

By That Mean Sheep

• November 22, 2025
Rules: Yes
Referral: Through a Friend
In your own words, what is powergaming, and why should it be avoided in roleplay?: To avoid powergaming, one must stop to think about the action being done. An elf is physically weaker than a human, so does it make sense for a High Elf to beat a Highlander in an arm-wrestling match? Not really. The player must determine whether the action is plausible for their character, else they risk powergaming. For example, if you want your character to jump to the top of a 3-story building, well, too bad--that's not possible for anyone, and if you do that, you are powergaming. Also, leave your (or my, I suppose is what the question wants) emotes open-ended, and don't force a result on another player, like this: 'Paul swings his greatsword forcefully and relieves Matthias of his head'. Instead, try simply 'Grunting with exertion, Paul swings his greatsword towards Matthias' head'. This leaves the player of Matthias free to dodge, block, or possibly be relieved of his head.
In your own words, what is metagaming, and why should it be avoided in roleplay?: True roleplay is built upon accurate possession of knowledge and chain-of-information. A character should not know that King Bob is going to attack their hometown unless they find that out through valid roleplay. If they found that out via metagaming, they would have the information earlier than they should and could amass an army to deal with King Bob. This, of course, is not fair for King Bob, because his element of surprise was ruined by the character just suddenly knowing that he planned to attack, because the player metagamed.
Status: Accepted