How to punish a metagamer?

[Nytmare]

I'm getting to this late, but just to play devil's advocate:

For example, we had some party discord about loot essentially the fighter (metagamer) wanted to hold on to a magical item that was meant for a caster.

Did he want to hold on to it to punish or upset you as a player, or was he/his character being greedy, and wanted to hold onto the item so that he could sell it?

The oracle (me) wanted the item.

Did you want it cause you knew that it was put into the loot pile for you, or because your character would have wanted it?

All too often I hear the term "meta-gamer" getting throw around as an insult that boils down to "person X, who isn't playing the game how I want them to play the game."

From that point on, everything can be fixed by the players agreeing ahead of time to make characters who know and like each other and who aren't itching for opportunities to screw each other over.

 

[prosfilaes]

what was a pretty innocuous move

Innocuous? It was the equivalent of dumping rohypnol in his drink and robbing him when it took effect. Armed robbery can get you decades in jail.

 

[Greg K]

And indeed, the very players who stress role-playing over hack-and-slash seem to have the hardest time handling the distinct personalities that show up at a gaming table.

Really? I have seen just as many threads on message boards where optimizers, power gamers, and hack and slashers complain about people that stress roleplaying whom they call "drama queens".

Personally, I have seen both ruin games, because they were too extreme towards their style for the groups that they were in.

Despite the Kool-Aid WOTC has been pushing since 3e that there is a place for everyone at the table, there are times when play styles are too divergent and people are better off finding a group more suitable or removing the disruptive element.

Then again, I live in an area where gamers are easy to find so I can afford to be selective about the people with whom I game.

 

[Gazra]

Innocuous? It was the equivalent of dumping rohypnol in his drink and robbing him when it took effect. Armed robbery can get you decades in jail.

We can make analogies all we want, but at no point did the Wizard even threaten the Fighter's life. The caster certainly overstepped some boundaries, but, given that they're adventuring together, this really merited an ego-check in the form of some retaliation that shows the Fighter will not tolerate this behavior, but not to the extent that it would disrupt the game as much as it did.

 

[Matt James]

I'm sorry if this was covered already, but I have no intention of reading this entire thread.

Did anyone suggest talking to the player and letting them know that meta-gaming has become a problem? If the problem continues, after you have spoken to then about it, maybe it's time for a new player?

I admit I never like using the word punish when talking about a game with friends. And wouldn't punishing their actions in-game just be furthering the meta-game, propagated by the DM?