In role play, you may hear any one of these three words often: Godmod (Godmodding), Powerplay (or Powerplaying), and metagaame (metagaming). They are sometimes used interchangeably, but the truth is that each of these words has a different meaning.
I'm going to begin by explaining the first of these words, since it is the most commonly used, and it is used incorrectly by the vast majority of people. "Godmod" is an incorrect term. The expression is Godmode, which refers to the god mode in video games that allows the player to not suffer damage or death and to therefore be able to complete the game without the usual obstacles.
Many role players (and administrators) use this term to refer to moving another person's character as well as your own. This is an incorrect definition of godmode, which actually refers to making your character invincible. In "God Mode," your character never takes a hit.
To use an example in age play, let's say that an adult is wrestling with a naughty child who is fighting the sound spanking that they richly deserve. The child is thrashing and struggling and kicking and flailing. In order to avoid taking a fist to the face or a foot to the chin, the adult enters "god mode" in order to not take any damage.
In traditional literate roleplay, this is verboten. "Godmodding" is to be avoided at all costs. In ageplay, however, god mode is sometimes necessary in order to prevent the child/innerkid/little/bottom from overpowering the adult and ruining the thread.
Power playing is the next term that I'd like to address.
This term is, once again, often mis-used or over used. Power playing refers to your character making contact with another person's character without giving them the opportunity to block that contact.
Power Play is harder to explain than God Mode, but allow me to give you an example from ageplay again: You are playing a child character playing with another child character, and a fight breaks out between them. Your character is upset, and being young and out of control, reaches out and smacks the other child. This is power playing, because your character successfully hit the other character without giving that player the chance to have her character dodge the blow.
In ageplay, adults (guardians and parents, otherwise "spankers") must rely on power playing in order to accomplish the simplest of desired tasks, such as spanking an errant child. Without the privilege of power playing under these circumstances, a spanking thread would go something like this.
John (Daddy)
John attempts to smack Jamie's bottom with the palm of his hand.
Jamie (Son)
Jamie squeals as Daddy smacks his bottom!
John (Daddy)
John attempts to smack Jamie's bottom again.
There are people who role play like this, but it's not desirable. A good spanking post (in brief) could look more like this:
John raises his hand and brings it down crisply on Jamie's bottom, reddening it where his hand fell. He pins his son down and continues to spank hard, finding his rhythm and ignoring his son's protests.
In the second case, John (appropriately) power played Jamie's character by saying that the spanking actually made contact with Jamie's body.
The third term that we're addressing is the most complicated: Meta-Gaming.
As to its roots, this term cannot be broken down into the sum of its parts, so bear with me as I attempt to explain both definitions.
Some people use the term "meta-gaming" to mean a character reading the mind of another character through narration.
For example, if Peggy says (but does not say) that she is thirsty, Donny is "meta gaming" if he mentions her thirst in his post.
At Birchwood Isle, we use the term "meta-gaming" to describe one player moving another player's character.
For example, Donny metagames Peggy by saying that she takes a drink of water because she's thirsty.
At Birchwood Isle, we allow limited power playing in order to facilitate spanking.
Metagaming and God Mode are strongly discouraged on Birchwood Isle.
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