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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Samir" data-source="post: 5223566" data-attributes="member: 84965">The easiest way to deal with this is say "do you actually say that to him?" (say it with a slight smirk or grin, so it's playfully threatening) when he makes a ridiculous remark, and if he responds "yes" then have the NPCs act accordingly. Maybe they think he's weird, maybe he gets minuses to his diplomacy check, maybe the town guard come and carry him away (adventure hook!). After a few times he might answer "no" when you ask him that question.He's under no obligation to tell anybody else in the party what he knows, so him actually saying it is both affirming that he lets everybody else in on it and also probably a cheap play for laughs. If nobody's laughing, then it's not particularly disruptive, and he'll get bored of it eventually; if everybody's laughing, then your other players are enjoying it, and this problem player may not be the only problem at all. (See below.)This is where consequences need to come into play. If he does something seriously strange in-game (and confirms that that is what he really wants to do) then NPCs should respond realistically. (See below.)Intimidate usually makes a target hostile, so if he actually does that he might not get any money at all for anything else, either. The bolded part is important, and I'll get to that in a bit.To me, it sounds like the problem isn't only this one particular player. It sounds like the tone you're striving for isn't the tone your players are striving for. Your "unproductive" player is poking fun at the game, but the other players are going along with it and enjoying his antics: they're having fun, it seems.The problem is that you want the players to move along your storyline, and you want the tone of the campaign to be more serious.IMO, the best way to achieve this is two steps.1) In-game: Actions yield consequences, good or bad. You mentioned this solution before and this is something I'm sure the other posters will elaborate on. If a PC in your campaign intimidates a merchant in a well-traveled city, that's probably going to land him in jail. Have the merchant call on the town guard. Turn it into an adventure. Don't think of it as derailing your story, think of it as expanding your story. Make it up as you go.2) Out of game: Tell him to tone it down a little. Speak to him one-on-one. Let him know in a friendly way that your campaign is about to get more serious and you'd appreciate it if he just toned his character down a little with the wise-cracks. He should take the hint.</blockquote>

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