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I'm new to the Paizo community and I'm unfamiliar with all of the forum gaming etiquette.
If someone writes a spoiler for the DM, telling the DM they are leaving the forum, are you supposed to ignore it if you aren't the DM? I commented on it and the owner of the spoiler told me they felt flattered I took the time to read it. I feel as if they player should have private messaged the DM if they wanted to keep it a secret.
So what is the general ruling for Pathfinder forum games? Ignore Spoilers if they don't apply to you? Read the Spoilers but keep your mouth shut? Let it be a free-for-all? (And yes, I understand the purpose of a spoiler for a language your player doesn't know or extra information your player may not be privy to. I'm mainly asking about people leaving games or feeling frustrated and leaving a spoiler.)
Any other forum gaming etiquette I should know about? Thanks in advance!
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Hi Ventiine! I believe you'll get few answers here, since you posted this on the general Advice session. When asking something about online games, try to post HERE.
IMO, you don't need to really worry about this. If someone wants to say something to the GM and he wants no one to read it, he'd send a personal message. Normally, spoilers are there simply to make a post shorter, or hide something for those who wish not to see it.
As it happens, I saw the episode that triggered this post... don't worry about that player. He was just mad that his PC wasn't great compared to the others and was blaming the other players for not interacting with him when he was doing nothing to help. Don't lose your sleep about him.
When in a game, when a GM posts something in a spoiler, it really depends on the game and on your ability to ignore the information within if you was not meant to read it in the first place. As an example, if the GM posts a spoiler with Perception DC 20 with the information that if you make the check you'd have spotted a trap, if you read it but did not make the check, you should act as if you had saw nothing, possibly walking towards your death... I usually prefer not to see them, but it is just me.
I prefer it if people only read the spoilers it says they're suppose to read when I pbp as GM or as as player.
If it's material that's clearly not meant for you to access, reading it is bad form.
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Well, it depends on the campaign and the DM.
Some DMs are very hostile to that material being read. Others less so. Check with your campaign to see what the standards are.
In my campaigns, I don't really care what folks read, as long as they act only in character and not based on what they may have learned. Some players hate out-of-character knowledge and so don't read it. Others like to feel the richness of the campaign and read everything, even things not destined for them.
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I say you have to check with the folks you're playing with, it's a group consensus thing.
I use spoilers for things like knowledge checks with a DC to read, and I use them as a "DM screen". I'd be very disappointed to know people were looking in there when they should;t but how would I know? How would I stop them?
The situation you're talking about sounds totally different though. I guess some people use them just to avoid cluttering the thread. Personally though, that is what the OOC discussion thread is for.
New to pbp, but in table top I've always separated character knowledge/player meta-knowledge and will play a character to its death regardless of what I know or not.
Having said that, I typically will see the encounter or description and immediately make a character decision based on what my character would do. Therefore, if I choose to open a spoiler after reading through the situation then it wouldn't affect my character's decision. I know the question is really about spoilers between GM and another player but the same principle applies. If that player is asking the GM if their character can poison me, my character is still eating that delicious apple because they wanted to as soon as they saw those apples.
What I find myself doing in pbp is ignoring the spoilers that aren't for me until after the encounter (or appropriate time has passed) and just check them out of curiosity. My GM's funny so I like to see what he wrote. Not obsessive about it though.
Edit: Oh, and super-personal info, it just makes sense to send a private message like everyone said.
I just want to say that I have become convinced that addressing a spoiler to the GM will pretty much guarantee that all players will read it! If you want true privacy, PM the information.
Hmm