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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chzbro" data-source="post: 5428853" data-attributes="member: 83964">All of this is good advice, but I do want to interject a hypothetical into the discussion. It's possible for us, as DMs, to get a little rigid in the way we think about our own worlds (again, I'm not saying this is the case here, just that I think it's common). If a player wants to hack a hole in a roof rather than climb down a wall...is it really a big deal?In action movies, crazy stuff like that happens all the time for a comedic break in tension. The hero falls through the roof, a surprised old man in the room below drops his dentures, and we move on.I understand in a very real way the desire to impose consequences on character actions, but if you even look at the word "consequence" it's a bit negative. It's very liberating as a DM to sometimes just "go with it." At the end of a tense combat, there's nothing wrong with an occasional laugh over something we'd normally call absurd. In fact, those are often the moments we remember best and talk about most years later.I don't know this particular player or situation, so I won't speak to that directly; if he's a problem a one-on-one discussion is best. But, we as DMs have to remember that it takes two to tango. The DM can't tell the story alone; the players have to be able to contribute too. And if a player antagonizes a DM and the DM responds by "punishing" the player...well, things are almost guaranteed to continuing to escalate in a negative direction.I feel strongly that the DM should not try to run the game like a disciplinarian. The dynamic shouldn't be boss to subordinate because ultimately we're all equally necessary and all friends. It's frustrating as a player to play in a game with a DM who only wants to tell *his* story in the same way that it's frustrating as a DM to judge a game with a player who tries to sabotage everything.However, it is possible for players to contribute to the narrative, even in dumb ways, without it being sabotage. What if, in this situation, the half-orc hacked through the roof, fell through having weakened it, then punched a hole through the floor below landing on the ground floor and taking 2d10 damage? He's still the center of attention, it's funny, you make your point with the damage, but he still feels like he stole the show.Maybe none of that would help in this instance, but there are other options besides having him arrested and jailed. In fact, in this case, jailing the character ended up making his small distraction (hole in the roof) a huge derail of the story all focused on him. Take advantage of it. He wants to kill the sheriff, so make the sheriff a bad guy. Don't think of it as encouraging him to behave badly, think of it as channeling his shoddy RP in a direction you want....My hypothetical got kind of specific, but hopefully the larger point is clear...to someone.</blockquote>

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