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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GameDoc" data-source="post: 5432409" data-attributes="member: 53915">If you'd rather seek a solution that keeps this player in the group, having an honest discussion with him, as so many have suggested, is a good idea. If for some reason that isn't the best solution and you want something you can do "in game" that applies consequences to the character's actions,  I would suggest using old school behaviroal psychology. If he is the sort of guy who craves attention, only reinforce (i.e., give attention) with the behaviors you want.   Ignore attempts to get attention by acting out.  Let him kill the guard and get away with it.  Just say "okay, he's dead." and never return to the subject.  No big reaction, no interesting consequences, it's as though the univers just doesn't care that it happened.  It's insignificant. By contrast, let something really cool happen when he approximates what you'd like to see.  If he role-plays, even just a little, make it have meaningful effects.  If he gets more attention for this, he will eventually gravitate towards those actions. You may be thinking "the other players will think it's unfair if they see this playing out."  But it really doesn't hurt to do this for everyone.  The other players get their moment to shine. If you do this, you also have to be mindful of the "extinction burst."  He will keep pushing and pushing and the problem behavior may become more frequent for a time until he realizes it's not going to get him anywhere.  It's important to hold fast.  Ignore the undersired behavior and attend to anything else, no matter how little at first.  He'll come around.  Or if his escaltion crosses a line, you can go back to another strategy. Now, if this is more work than you want, then you're only left with having the talk mentioned above, or removing him from the group.  That's up to you.  If have done this with problem players who I thought were really decent folks, just a little rough around the edges.  On the other hand, I have foregone the effort and simply not invited a player back for future session when I felt he was just an @$$hole and not work the effort.</blockquote>

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