Foxtrek_64
Member
Metagaming is, as we all know, using or allowing OOC knowledge to influence in character decisions, actions, and motivations. Magic slots compel us to do exactly this.
Take the following scenario. I create my first character. They, in rp, find a teacher who is able to teach them magic and they successfully become a caster. Great, I've used my magic slot, all is well. Now I create a second character. Perhaps this second character is a scholar. They have a curiosity about magic and study it from a technical viewpoint, but have never had the opportunity to learn. They make a friend with a person who is able to teach them magic who offers to teach them magic. Learning magic has been a life long dream for this second character of yours, but oops! Your first character has occupied your one and only magic slot. So now, you are required to metagame. You are required to use OOC knowledge that you can only have one character with magic to influence your character's decision and action to decline learning, despite their strong, in character motivation to learn magic.
One might say this is a contrived scenario, but it's entirely possible that something like this may come up. And it's entirely possible it may not even be the player's intent. Perhaps the second character has no interest in magic when they're created, but after some time playing on the server with them, learning magic becomes necessary due to RP things happening around them, or perhaps their spouse really desires to teach them.
Being compelled to break server rules and tell people "hey guys, sorry, I can't learn magic because another character of mine has magic already" feels strange at best, but it's a natural consequence of a magic slot system. And I think nobody would bat an eye if someone killed their first character to let their second character have magic and it was called metagaming.
The easy solution to this is just do away with magic slots, but this blanket solution is a bit brutish and will likely introduce other issues that are intended to be solved by having a slot system.
This isn't really a "suggestion" per se, since I'm not entirely sure how to resolve this issue. I just wanted to make a post as a sort of thought experiment to see what comes of the dialog. It's a curious problem caused by a system that has good intent, but ultimately fails to comply with server rules.
Take the following scenario. I create my first character. They, in rp, find a teacher who is able to teach them magic and they successfully become a caster. Great, I've used my magic slot, all is well. Now I create a second character. Perhaps this second character is a scholar. They have a curiosity about magic and study it from a technical viewpoint, but have never had the opportunity to learn. They make a friend with a person who is able to teach them magic who offers to teach them magic. Learning magic has been a life long dream for this second character of yours, but oops! Your first character has occupied your one and only magic slot. So now, you are required to metagame. You are required to use OOC knowledge that you can only have one character with magic to influence your character's decision and action to decline learning, despite their strong, in character motivation to learn magic.
One might say this is a contrived scenario, but it's entirely possible that something like this may come up. And it's entirely possible it may not even be the player's intent. Perhaps the second character has no interest in magic when they're created, but after some time playing on the server with them, learning magic becomes necessary due to RP things happening around them, or perhaps their spouse really desires to teach them.
Being compelled to break server rules and tell people "hey guys, sorry, I can't learn magic because another character of mine has magic already" feels strange at best, but it's a natural consequence of a magic slot system. And I think nobody would bat an eye if someone killed their first character to let their second character have magic and it was called metagaming.
The easy solution to this is just do away with magic slots, but this blanket solution is a bit brutish and will likely introduce other issues that are intended to be solved by having a slot system.
This isn't really a "suggestion" per se, since I'm not entirely sure how to resolve this issue. I just wanted to make a post as a sort of thought experiment to see what comes of the dialog. It's a curious problem caused by a system that has good intent, but ultimately fails to comply with server rules.
