Acting on OOC information

Split off from Everybody always rolling for checks since it seems to be a distinct issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bren (Post 827157) * Players fall into several somewhat overlapping categories. A) Those players who intentionally use OOC knowledge. They aren't actually interested in separating IC and OOC knowledge. B) Those players who are interested in separating IC and OOC knowledge but who, for one reason or another, end up more or less unintentionally using OOC knowledge. C) Those players who are interested in separating IC and OOC knowledge and who are willing and able to separate the two. D) Those players who separate IC and OOC knowledge, but go too far and have their PC do IC stupid actions just so they won't be perceived to be using OOC knowledge. Most people I game with fall into types B) and C). Category B) players will sometimes ask not to be told things their characters don't know. Some players who really want to act from a deep in character perspective will also not want to know OOC stuff. As another side note, in over 40 years of gaming on two continents and many states I've never encountered a player who in my judgment was able to fully separate all OOC knowledge.

On the one hand, I agree that players can't fully separate OOC knowledge. An important corollary to this, however, is that I cannot recall ever encountering a GM who really *wanted* the players to act only on IC information.

Most importantly, GMs almost always give out a host of out-of-character cues that they expect to be acted on. Things like "Are you sure you want to do that?" along with "There is rumor of strange hauntings in the ruined castle" and other "the adventure is here" cues. In a lot of games, there are a ton of IC options that I avoid because they wouldn't be fun OOC for the players.

Of course, there are still players who will blatantly act on completely OOC information - which I am annoyed at. My point is that fixing this should be focused on communicating norms rather than pretending that there is a hard-line "No OOC" stance.

Acting on OOC information