Hey there, Ay here!
This isnât a tutorial, but more of an explanation as to what God-Modding and Meta-Gaming are. There has been a lot of confusion in the Tumblr RPC with this and I just want to really make these two things clear.
They are NOT the same!
You will see a lot of groups and even indie RP blogs tell you that you shouldnât god-mod/meta-game. Please be very mindful of this because not everyone knows that these are actual huge ânoâsâ in the RP community.Â
Let me explain God-Modding first since thatâs a doozy of a problem still and I have no idea why it is.
God-Modding is making someone elseâs character do something without the playerâs permission. Think of it like this: if you were talking to someone and all of a sudden they made you do something you wouldnât normally do, how would you feel? Miserable, right? Thatâs God-Modding. Sure, there are players who donât mind it...but they want you to talk to them first before itâs posted. This isnât forums where you have to go back and forth in an inbox for days on end to get through a post. People like to be asked about these things. Back on IMVU, it drove me crazy when Iâd have friends invite me into group rooms and sit there and read through T1 posts (those are considered several multiple-paragraphs/pages in Tumblr/Tabletop standards) just to make sure someone wasnât god-modding. I once spent eight hours reading and refereeing the entire interaction. In Tumblr, this would bring concern to the Admins and it could mean several consequences for you and your character. If you say youâve been RPing for years, then you know this is a huge nopeity-nope on practically everyoneâs rules. So, please, God-Modding is a NOÂ unless you get the okie-dokie from the other player(s).
Now, as for meta-gaming. This gets confused for god-modding so often and they are slightly similar but not the same thing. Let me explain.
Meta-Gaming is knowing something OOC (out of character), like information about a character that was given to another player, but then used IC (in character) without the other playerâs permission. Letâs say a character has a secret that no one knows, but you have your character knowing it and talking about it to the other character. That, there, is meta-gaming. Or another great example is a character knowing the weakness of another character. For instance, letâs say youâre playing a person who just met someone whoâs super rude. You and the other player are friends and they disclose their characterâs greatest fear. You use that fear IC to gain the advantage. That is Meta-Gaming. You canât use OOC information in the game. You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT do that. Imagine if you were that player, the one who trusted you with that information and it was just all blown away because it was used IC. Youâd feel pretty crappy, right? Imagine how the other player feels when you do that.
Neither of these are fair, and I get it...life isnât fair. But, really, this isnât life. Itâs a game. You play fair in sports, you play fair with boardgames and card games. Itâs why itâs called a Roleplaying Game, not life.
So, in conclusion: be respectful, always ask for permission, and donât assume anything is IC unless stated otherwise. Are we clear? Good.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!










