I'm playing D&D with a group of friends. Since some of us are new we picked a module that would be easy play. This is a module that I have never played before.
While playing through the module, my character and by extension myself, managed to guess the motives and actions of the NPCs and the enemy we were dealing with, and therefore acted accordingly. The DM and one of the other players are angry about me guessing because they hate metagaming.
Is it really metagaming when I am just getting lucky with what happens next because I am playing my character smart and clever?
Should I tone it down with the lucky guesses or is this a sign that I should probably stop playing with them cause it might lead to blows or a fight with the group?
Details
We are playing the 'Hoard of the Dragon Queen' module and I am playing as a Paladin with the criminal background. I wanted to play as a paladin that was once a criminal and is now reformed, and apparently a few times know when I used that criminal knowledge to find out where the dragon cultists are going or may do, the DM and even one of the players had to message me aside and tell me that I am metagaming.
I didn't even know that using the knowledge that a criminal might know was considered metagaming.
I know that as a criminal what they would do such as hiding cargo in hidden compartments, be paying off the guards to try and get by without getting inspected, taking different routes or even using an underground tunnel to haul their ill-gotten loot through a swamp while everyone waited for the cargo to be moved from the surface back to a wagon.
My paladin has an intelligence of 12, I don't know if this would matter but that is what I think of how he would use his prior-jobs knowledge when confronting these people.
More Details
My Group consists of me, the Neutral Good Oath of Vengeance Paladin with the criminal background, a half-elf Inquisitive Rogue with what I think is the cloistered scholar background, a goliath berserker barbarian with maybe the outlander background, a firbolg cleric of life with maybe the hermit background, a dragonborn sorcerer with the guild artisan background, a loxodon ranger with maybe the outlander background, and a recent addition to the group some sort of shifter with an unknown background.
I have been playing D&D for quite a few years, most of it with homebrewed campaigns with the exception of a Saltmarsh module and Ravenloft, the people playing the firbolg, goliath and rogue have also played D&D before with varying experience between them, the DM, the loxodon, dragonborn and the shifter-esqe have little or no experience playing. We all have tried to help the DM be a better DM by giving advice, some homebrewed rules that made sense cause some of the basic rules of D&D are a little odd or didn't make some sense.
Anyways, I am confused that even with my 'Criminal Background' that I presented to the group cause at a point in the campaign we had a few sitdowns at taverns, campfires and other places of rest to talk about ourselves and they thoroughly know that I was a criminal at some point cause I told them that I was once one and that they can see the resulting punishments of branding and torture one would probably get for being a criminal. They know that I am a criminal yet they seem to forget that seeing how I was once a criminal that I would know the criminal thing to do to avoid getting caught or hide things from being noticed, hell, the barbarian in the group doesn't fully trust my character because I was a criminal and has even threatened me ingame that if I were to harm the group or try to steal from someone that they would cut off the hand that did the stealing.
I am not sure if I am in the wrong or if its the group and that they sometimes forget about my background choice that led up to this point.
Best Answer
It is not metagaming and you should say so.
Metagaming is using outside (metagame) knowledge of yours to inform your character's decisions. If you don't know the module you do not a priori have any relevant outside knowledge on that module that the others do not so you cannot metagame the way you are accused of any more than the others can. If you had read the module, you would be metagaming. The information that causes problems in this case might be more of the type which is general knowledge to you but not be that for the average character in the Forgotten Realms (vide supra). Since the information you leverage is based on the background of your character (smuggling for an ex-criminal) your character has good in-game reasons to have knowledge on the subject that you have from your modern education.
It is almost impossible to exclude metagame knowledge.
Most people playing TTRPGs have had a very different life from the average character. First of all they have gone to school. Therefore, they know how a steam engine works, how to mix black powder or a thermite reaction, have the basic notions of quantum mechanics, know the basics of transmission of diseases, as well as that they should wash their hands when there is a risk of infection and that you cannot drink mercury to cure things. Much of this constitutes knowledge which is not reasonably available in the Forgotten Realms. The same might be true of information from other fantasy media. Most players have played multiple TTRPGs as well as video games, have watched movies and read books. They therefore know the principles that get rehashed in every other instance.
It is very difficult to pretend to not know something. Usually you can either use the knowledge to your advantage, or say that if you hadn't known you had done the exact opposite and done that. Both is metagaming, i.e. doing the exact opposite of what would be reasonable given some info is still using that info.
Usually, the vast player knowledge is not a problem. The moment it becomes obvious that outside knowledge is relevant and that it makes a big difference, there is a problem and a quandary because people need to decide between doing the one thing or the opposite.
There are some cases where such a thing might often happen, like separating groups when all players still talk together or give a challenge which has a solution that is obvious with metagame knowledge but unknown to the characters. The best is to avoid such situations in the game from arising. I will always use problems in my game where the players do not know an obvious solution either unless they acquired information in the game. By doing that I could avoid those problems which has worked well.
For further reading, refer to this article [Warning: long and contains some strong language]:
https://theangrygm.com/dear-gms-metagaming-is-your-fault/
What you should do.
What problematic metagaming is, might be a matter of opinion. Being on the same page on this is probably important to have everyone enjoy the game. You should tell the others that you do not know the module at all and hence do not have knowledge that the others have not. If they disagree, it is likely that they want you to do what I designated the opposite above. If you understand that that is expected of you and you cannot convince them otherwise, you should either do what they want or leave. Having a friendly discussion first without accusations might solve the problem before it comes to that. If they want you to do to the opposite of what your metagame knowledge suggests (when there is) and you do not want to do that and they do not want to avoid problematic situations (vide infra), you have a problem of divergent expectations. If the divergence is too big, you probably have to look for another group since everyone's expectations can never be met. For the moment you should assume, however that you are not metagaming any more than anyonr else.