I more or less do this for stealth or deception checks. I get the players to tell me their modifier, and then roll behind the screen. And then I’ll give them a description like “try as you might, you can’t seem to make your armor stop squeaking” or “to the best of your knowledge, you are quiet and unseen” or whatever. But I don’t actually tell them what they rolled, and let the scenario play out.
My players seem to actually prefer this, since it allows them to blissfully ignore the metagaming elements.
My favorite response is a consistent “you believe you are hidden” for every stealth check.
Gotta work on your poker face with that one, as DM. Sometimes I can’t help but laugh, so I deliver…
(They roll a 2) you believe you are hidden but are in fact betraying your position – you’re the equivalent of clown shoes sticking out from under the barrel. How would you describe this?
A good roleplayer leans into this and hijinx abound.
I think this is a totally fine method tbh.
This is one of those things I love about PF2. There is the Secret trait on quite a few different checks, which means the GM rolls in secret.
We play virtually so players initiate the roll but the result is blindly sent to the GM. Great example of this is stealth checks - there’s no “oh, I rolled poorly so just kidding I actually only barely move”.
Isn’t the secret trait on most skill checks for knowledge? I love that critical fails on those have the GM give plausible but wrong information.
Fortunately Metagaming Bob isn’t at my table, but we are going to try this out with death saves
The only time I experienced meta gaming that was shitty was when, due to everyone else asking me to, I played my evil cleric character. The one guy who absolutely loves my character more than even I do made a paladin and spent the entire campaign trying to prove my character was evil.
He didn’t succeed, which made it hilarious, but it was still kinda annoying that every time I did anything I had to beat his fucking sense motive checks, and he would often try to claim he snuck around to watch me recast my daily rituals (because I basically kept Undetectable Alignment on 24/7) to try and glipse my aura.
You know what’s fun? If you have perception and stealth related stats for the PCs on your GM screen, you don’t even need to inform them that they’re making checks. And when they hear the dice roll, they’ll reflexively assume you’re rolling for other, unseen creatures in the area.
Gets em good and paranoid.
My potentially controversial take is that metagaming is neither good nor bad. A metagaming problem is really just some other problem that rears its head through metagaming.
You can metagame and be a good player. It’s like doing improv with dramatic irony. If you’re prioritizing the gameplay and everyone’s enjoyment, it’s a useful tool.
If you’re using it for the personal advantage of your character, though… that can also be fine. Some old-school games, especially dungeon crawls, are like strategy games testing the players as well as their characters.
It’s when there’s a disconnect between how people are playing the game that you get problems. If someone wants to play a strategy game while others want to play improv, and they’re not thinking about what kind of approach is appropriate and when, that you get issues.
All RPG player archetypes are valid when they fit with the overall play style of the group.
Whole group is meta gaming together? Positive collective experience. Whole group is hardcore RP? Awesomesauce.
One jackass is meta gaming in an RP group and pissing them off? Trade off that player ASAP.
This is a good take* and I agree 100%. It’s more complex than it seems at first, as you detail.
There are no good ticks
I have to respectfully disagree with you there.