Metagaming: Hunting Assassins

[Lun]

I think that assassins have enough issues keeping their cover without people metagaming that an assassin is about to come around.

There's no way that you, in your regular day to day encounters, will stop when you see two people sitting on the road and think, 'Those guys sure look like they're going to get attacked by an assassin. I better stand here for the next hour and make sure they come to no harm.'

If you're unsure if it's someone's task, or if it's just a regular NPC, or if it's a GM event, you can stop temporarily and ask to make sure, but please don't stand there and essentially grief someone of their guild task.

I don't know about absolute secrecy maintained 24/7 being an assassin thing, but I certainly think that it's metagaming when someone (who knows it's an assassin guild task because they've been playing for years) decides to stand there when they have obvious other things to do, such as other players calling for them, only for them to stop whatever they're doing to stand there, watching over the task NPC.

Thoughts? Concerns?

[Dakhal]

It's always been both a concern and annoyance when I've been playing my Claw, but after some time passed and people continued to do it- I'd just kill them as well. If they wanted to play that game, they were more than welcome to become a corpse.

Disregarding that, though, yes. This is a real concern. There are travelers all along the roads at all times despite what you actually see in-game, it should be of no surprise that there's a group or two that have set up camp to rest. If you're actively sticking around a place to "make sure they aren't attacked", please don't.

I was at one point told to report anything like that to the GMs (by a GM) if it continued to happen, but I eventually just gave up and.. well.. see above.

[Tamsin]

It's kind of fun to get to kill an extra

[Zahrah]

I've always felt bad for assassin and thief characters because it seems like this sort of metagaming inevitably occurs, no matter what MUD we're talking about. I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask people to keep in mind that just because YOU realize an event or skill might pertain to a certain guild that that doesn't mean that your character should suddenly become suspicious.

I think it's sometimes easy to forget that the game world goes on around our characters as it normally would even if certain things aren't coded in. NPCs wandering the towns and markets (beyond the coded in trainers), travelers on the road, bison being attacked by natural predators because of course they would have natural predators even if those aren't coded in so maybe we should stop pretending like just because a bison is injured that means someone went up and tried to whack it with something sharp, bandits listening in to the esp network through a pendant of their own that they've either bought or gotten off someone else so maybe it wouldn't be smart to keep broadcasting your exact location as you travel the various roads of the Lost Lands (I would really love to see a GM react with a bandit attack sometime because of this but maybe that's just me being diabolical).

But I digress with my purely hypothetical-and-not-based-off-personal-experience examples.

Thank you for the timely reminder that OOC information shouldn't be used IC and that metagaming is a no-no!

[Jaster]

bandits listening in to the esp network through a pendant of their own that they've either bought or gotten off someone else so maybe it wouldn't be smart to keep broadcasting your exact location as you travel the various roads of the Lost Lands

Funny you mention it. That's the exact way I find most of my marks when I'm playing. :D It's a rather spread out world, so sitting in one town in one spot just isn't that effective.

[Jirato]

That is indeed pretty lousy behavior. If it continues to happen, please email me the details so I can have a talk with the person involved. Though do keep in mind we have a lot of new faces around too, and not many people know about these tasks. They see a merchant and a guard out on the road somewhere and could think there is some sort of event going on or something. Not saying this is what happened in your case, but do keep that in mind.

[artus]

Despite being on clok for two years, admit I did it last time without knowing it was actually a thing. Now I know!
And by "thing", I mean the noble/merchant/blah blah blah, as assassin task targets. Sorry guys.

[Mirazia]

Bumping this up because it seems we need a reminder.

Don't do this. If we catch you doing this, we will be pulling you for a chat.

[Rokal]

I’ve been playing clok on and off sparsely over the last 3 or so years and one of the things that caused me to take extended breaks was this sort of thing. But metagaming and camping tasks isn’t the only thing that happens. People will call out someone for being x or y if they wear equipment that, despite being pretty normal seeming, is known oocly to be unique to a guild, or using an ability that is hidden even on the wiki, unique to a various guilds automatically makes someone figure out that person is x or y guild. I just thought i’d point out that the lost lands are full of a diverse group of people and even if one thibg is unique to a guild, it doesn’t mean a character qould know that, or if that character had picked up sonethung like that in their backstory - just because our chara start as basically blank slates with no skills mechanically does not mean they dont have a past or history. I have seen metagame personally ruin intriguing storylines on a variety of roleplaying platforms. Just thought i’d add this! so people, please consider the variety of factors involved in identifying someone as part of a certain guild in-character! Apolgies for typos, i wrote this on my phone!

[Jirato]

I think this post needs a bump. People seem to forget over the years. Don't do this, seriously. Don't.

[Jirato]

And I will add, it is perfectly acceptable for a Claw to kill someone, PC or NPC, who comes between them and their mark, that is expected behavior of them and within acceptable boundaries for CvC conflict.

Though, if the only reason you're coming between them and their mark is because you know it's an assassin task mob so there must be an assassin around, you're the one breaking policy.