Hey guys, I'm hoping you won't take this the wrong way.
And perhaps I'm completely wrong, as I've done very little PBEM or PBP before. But I've read through lots of it, and my understanding is that it should work similarly to tabletop gameplay.
And at the table, if my players talk about "meta" stuff like this, either at the table (or if I caught them talking like that in the other room or via email), then they'd probably face some sort of penalty. I don't even know, because I've rarely seen it occur, to be honest. We (somewhat jokingly) always go by the rule that - if somebody else suggests doing something (out of character) - then that action
can't be done! And we usualy stick to that (so it's really not a joke, though we keep it lighthearted and aren't always super strict with it).
So if somebody goes "Ooh, you should grab him and swing him around and throw him into that light tower", then the
one thing that character
can't do is just that. He can do pretty much
anything else he can think of. Just not grabbing the villain, swining him around, and then hurling him into the light tower. That might seem a bit strict, but it's just the way our group has evolved to keep 'out of character' talk to a minimum.
Our logic is that (to use this PBP as an example), if the other characters don't know what Ghost can do (offensively), then how are they suddenly going to be able to alter their tactics to accomodate knowledge that their
characters don't have? It's really a role-playing issue. If Iron Man and Captain America suddenly meet each other for the first time, Cap doesn't get to instantly know all about Iron Man and everything regarding how his armor works! Nor does he (tactically) know everything about what he does and what maneuvers would work best between the two of them.
Now don't get me wrong, we do a
LOT of out of character talking, joking, etc. during a session. And I think that is all a big part of the fun of an RPG. But we keep that OOC talk to stuff that has nothing to do with the game itself. If somebody starts talking about stuff that is OOC regarding the game (like in the middle of a battle), it's viewed (more or less) as cheating. They get immediately reminded by the other players, so it puts a stop to it.
Not trying to be a stick in the mud or Mr. Grumpypants here, but I think that (especially) newer characters - that
don't know each other - shouldn't be able to work out tactics with each other in the middle of a battle. In an after-action report or evaluation? Absolutely. Once they've drilled and practiced together? That makes sense. But right now, when most are fairly unfamiliar with each other? I think they should be played that way (as Ranger said earlier), with very little communication or understanding of what each other can do.
Hopefully you guys get where I'm coming from. And if it's the norm for this type of game and all of the players and the GM are cool with it, then that's fine (and I'll adapt). But if we're trying to roleplay these characters, then some of the fun of introducing a new character (like how Ghost showed up), is the fun of finding everything out. There was some mistrust. Will Ghost join in with the heroes during the fight? Or perhaps he was sent by the same people that sent the robots, and will launch an offensive assault on the other PCs! Only time will tell.