Experiences Metagaming and Powerplaying Horror Stories?

[MysticFaerieQueen]

I'm sorry if a similar thread has been made. I made this because I thought about the time where someone I used to roleplay with powerplayed and metagamed so much it was annoying. He had this gang that was supposedly a crime fighting gang but it was the complete opposite. He had the gang kill all the campus police and took over the college (We were roleplaying at a university setting.) He roleplayed a campus doctor that acted creepily towards one of my characters who was a female student. One of my other characters was dating someone in this supposedly "good" gang. And he got mad when I had her wanting to break up with his character because she was afraid of the gang. The relationship wasn't even planned. The rper forced the relationship. What was also annoying about this gang was that I had a local police officer who was investigating a case. For plot purposes my friend made him a girlfriend who is the culprit of this case and in the end he was going to arrest her even if it was hard. The roleplayer with the gang made it nearly impossible because they had a member who kept destroying evidence, burned my character's apartment, had drugged and kidnapped him, and he also had a member kill the girlfriend before the case got solved. Another thing that got me mad was my character had a secret that I was planning to reveal later in the rp. The roleplayer had a gang member reveal the secret early. When there was absolutely no way they could have known about it. Then he wanted to say that the gang was a secret government organization. My friend and I were so annoyed with him that we banned him from the rp. He did say he was sorry but we never allowed him back into the rp.

Did anyone else have metagaming or powerplaying horror stories? This isn't a call out thread. Be respectful please.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I did have someone who basically had her character be a unreasonable bitch to my character from jump. The premise of the roleplay is that students were put into teams to complete spy esque training missions during the year.

They were graded partially on mission completions but also on teamwork.

My character deliberately failed the previous year so he could remain at the school to keep his sister company. So his previous team definately thought he was a slacker and a jerk.

My partners character had literally never met him prior to the start of the year and had no reason to know his backstory. But she made snide comments about his backstory and essentially ignored him. Finally I had my character confront her for being a rude uncooperative person and fucking with the team dynamic.

The player immediately left the roleplay.

 

[GojiBean]

I'm sorry if a similar thread has been made. I made this because I thought about the time where someone I used to roleplay with powerplayed and metagamed so much it was annoying. He had this gang that was supposedly a crime fighting gang but it was the complete opposite. They had the gang kill all the campus police and took over the college (We were roleplaying at a university setting.) Had a campus doctor that acted creepily towards one of my female student oc. One of my other ocs was dating someone in this supposedly "good" gang. And he got mad when I had her wanting to break up with him because she was afraid of him. The relationship wasn't even planned. The rper forced the relationship. What was also annoying about this gang was that I had a cop who was investigating a case. For plot purposes another person who I was rping with made him a girlfriend who is the culprit of this case and in the end he was going to arrest her even if it was hard. The person with the gang made it nearly impossible because they had a member who kept destroying evidence, burned his apartment, had also drugged and kidnapped him, and he also had a member kill the girlfriend before the case got solved. Another thing that got me mad was my oc had a secret that I was planning to reveal later in the rp. He had a gang member reveal the secret early. When there was absolutely no way they could have known about it. Then he wanted to say that the gang was a secret government organization. My friend and I were so annoyed with him that we banned him from the rp. He did say he was sorry but we never allowed him back into the rp.

Did anyone else have metagaming or powerplaying horror stories?

I've been role-playing for over 20 years now, and I've encountered more than my fair share of power playing and metagaming. And I don't think it's possible to argue that power playing and metagaming are toxic, rule-breaking behaviors.

For those unaware:

- Power playing involves taking control of another player's character, without their permission, to accomplish a specific goal. This breaks both an unspoken rule, and often times an overtly stated rule of role-playing that you do not control anyone's character except your own.

- Metagaming is imparting real world (aka OOC) knowledge onto your character that they otherwise have no method of obtaining. This breaks a secondary unspoken, and often overtly stated rule that your character can only use what knowledge they realistically have access to in the context of the RP world that was gleaned either through their profession, life experience, or imparted by another character (either NPC or player-controlled).

Arguably the most obvious and irritating example that I have personally encountered for both offenses was in a Dragonball Z RP about 10 years ago on another website. The RP was set up for all characters to have a chance to shine and use their originally created techniques to help win the first major "boss" fight. What was the result? The GM's character magically "learned" all of our unique techniques by watching us use them one time each, and used them himself to finish the boss in a single post while having the Boss smack us around (without our permission) before puling off the amazing win.

Needless to say, I took major issue with this and confronted the GM about it in the OOC where everyone could see the conversation. They asked to take it to PM's, and I declined, continuing to post in the OOC demanding an explanation. They finally said "it's because my character is a prodigy and learned your techniques while watching them earlier in the fight."

I had taken a screenshot of their CS before this conversation, as I knew what was about to happen. I confronted them saying "your CS doesn't mention you being a prodigy." They said "look again," and sure enough there was that little "edited on: (insert date/time)" at the bottom, marked for a few minutes before they replied to my accusation. I shared my screenshot of the original CS, and pointed out the "edited" mark in my reply, and they kicked me from the RP for exposing them.

The RP died immediately as the other participants weren't stupid, and they agreed with me that the GM was in the wrong.

So, we all left and did another RP between ourselves (that GM tried to join, and we all said "f*** off"). That RP lasted for a few months before life and work got in the way and we all parted on amicable terms. I still talk to one of them today as a friend on FB.

Anywhoosle, both power playing and metagaming are instant ban-worthy offenses to me if I'm the GM. If I'm not the GM, I either demand the GM take action against it, or I leave the RP.

I will not tolerate those behaviors from anyone for any reason, and I advise everyone else adopt the same philosophy. Letting these kinds of behaviors continue is always a mistake, and will not do anything good for you or the RP's you're involved in. Call it out, demand the GM do something about it, or leave the RP if they won't.

You won't miss the RP. Trust me.

Cheers!

 

[Onmyoji]

Power playing is one of the reasons I strongly dislike Group rp. Had bad experiences with it.
One of the examples that ticked me off was when a player who joined the rp later with "dark edgy serial killer" character in a fight killed my character and a few others without asking anyone. The GM didn't address the issue so I left the rp and after that I barely ever joined group rp unless they were with my friends.
It wasn't the only reason why I don't like groups but definitely one of my pet peeves.

 

[nerdy tangents]

See I’m petty about the killing characters without permission thing. I just straight up pretend it didn’t happen.

Both as a GM or a player. Like no if you don’t ask permission then the other characters aren’t dead. Your character just had a weirdly realistic dream/hallucination.

If the person throws a fit well no great loss. But it does get the point across “this is not your story, you don’t get to decide what happens without other peoples consent.”

Now if the premise is “some characters are gonna die for plot” then that’s different. You joined with the expectation your character was gonna die so I don’t want to hear any whining when it happens.

(( that did happen with a battle Royale style roleplay I was in and it was like. My friend the plot literally states our characters are all gonna die. It’s the entire premise. So I mean it sucks that yours was the first to go but I don’t know what to tell you. ))

 

[Inno]

Power playing is one of the reasons I strongly dislike Group rp. Had bad experiences with it.
One of the examples that ticked me off was when a player who joined the rp later with "dark edgy serial killer" character in a fight killed my character and a few others without asking anyone. The GM didn't address the issue so I left the rp and after that I barely ever joined group rp unless they were with my friends.
It wasn't the only reason why I don't like groups but definitely one of my pet peeves.

That's rough, I'm sorry it happened. The GM should have definitely intervened promptly. I mean, I would have as soon as I saw that dark edgy serial killer type. Nine times out of ten, that road leads to nothing good. This is one reason why I also don't really join groups but if I did it would be with people I know and trust. Back then, no one killed off anyone's character not even the GM. If someone tried it was not tolerated but players had enough respect not to do it.