meta punishment

[ARandomGod]

It seems the crux of the problem is that the player says something along the lines of You didn't tell me something you should have, since you didn't it is only fair that I get to do something different

I actually think this is a pretty fair complaint. However, if it's not true then the guy is being a twerp because you are telling him what he needs to know and he's causing a scene for five seconds of make-believe glory.

I'd solve it with random Spot and Listen checks and using a battlemat if you aren't already. If the player compains you can tell him that he didn't roll well enough on the check so he'll have to deal with it. The battlemat will assist in combat. Visualizing the combat is very cool and hip role-play but metagaming, do-overs, and twerps is why 3e is more miniatures intensive.

Hope this helps

Interesting point. And such a complaint would be occasionally fair, and might even warrant a do over. I suppose I found this interesting because I've never even seen such a thing allowed, or concieved of it. We'll instead allow a flagrantly wrong thing to happen "because it did", and then do it better next time, to help game flow.

On the other hand, a character who thinks things weren't adequately explained to him and that he should therefore get a do over could gently have it explained to him that he didn't notice because the character simply failed his wisdom check. Which you made for him, as the GM.

"You didn't explain that scene well enough to me" ~player
"Sure I did. You just didn't everything, and hence I didn't tell you about them."

 

[Henry]

Since he is a friend, and you have already tried to sit down as a group and talk to him, I'd say the only other recourse is to indeed subtract XP for it.

Better yet, just flat out refuse the meta-gaming and still subtract the XP.

 

[Gundark]

"no, your character would not know or notice that". With the group you discribed it may be best to take private discussions to a different room.

This is the best way to deal with this...and tell them that if they can't improve then they might want to find a new group. As well somebody else mentioned this...but I have this as a house rule too, no rewinding. If you make a mistake you make a mistake...if you forget a class ability too bad, if you forgot about this bonus to your saving throw...too bad, if your character would have noticed this too bad... your games will run a lot more smoothly

 

[hong]

Since he is a friend, and you have already tried to sit down as a group and talk to him, I'd say the only other recourse is to indeed subtract XP for it.

Better yet, just flat out refuse the meta-gaming and still subtract the XP.

Better yet, ask him to leave the group.

 

[Zappo]

Better yet, ask him to leave the group.

Better yet, kill him and take his stuff.

 

[hong]

Better yet, kill him and take his stuff.

It's true that I never meta punishment I didn't like, but that's a bit harsh, mang.