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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5605200" data-attributes="member: 4937">Taking him aside privately when you get the oppurtunity and tell him that every time he cheats, you will.  Tell him that if he looks behind the DM screen, the monsters will increase, the traps will change, and you'll make a special effort to ensure foes single him out for damage.  Tell him that if he fudges his rolls, that you'll fudge the DC's and the monsters hit points and attack bonuses proportionately.  Ask him if that's what he really wants.  Ask him if he thinks somehow his cheating is more jusitfied and more in the spirit of the game than the DM fudging things?  Find out if he's doing it because you're doing it (or if he uses it as an excuse), and if so deescalate the war (even if you know he's lying, eat crow and try to be big about it).  And after you've reached an agreement, if it continues, either tell him he can find another DM (if he's not a close friend) or shut the book in front of everyone and say that since people can't stop themselves from cheating you think maybe you should watch a movie tonight or play Settlers of Cataan (if he is one).As for discouraging metagaming generally. 1) Don't fudge.  2) Throw important rolls in the open. 3) Roll for the players whenever possible - especially information gathering rolls like spot, listen, search, sense motive, and knowledge.  Make them under stand why you throw things behind the screen.  Oddly, I tend to roll the monsters attacks in the opinion, but the players rolls behind a screen.4) Be fair.  Don't meta your players either, especially to serve your own interests (like making your really cool villain seem more cool instead of getting one shotted).  If you get a reputation for fairness and balance, your players will trust you more and you'll have fewer of these problems.5) Be devious.  Roll dice alot.  6) Be transparent when you can be.  After the fight is over, occasionally let drop the stats of the defeated monster.  Help fill the player curiousity AFTER it stops mattering so much so that they won't be as tempted to look ahead of time.  Every once in a while I'll even block off a portion of my notes and let players read directly from what I prepared to prove that this had been planned weeks (and sometimes years) in advance.  This works particularly well with NPC strategems that they think you are just making up on the spur of the moment (nope, the villain has an 18 INT and he's one step ahead of you) or with long running NPCs where exactly at the time they find out he's a villain, he just happens to be of perfect level to challenge them.   By showing your successes like that and not being afraid of your failures, you can create the illusion of being made of almost all win.  Of course, you have to have the skills to back it up.Good players respect the screen.  It's your job as the DM to help players become good players.  Sadly, sometimes this means teaching good gamesmanship.</blockquote>

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