Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="kkoie" data-source="post: 66428" data-attributes="member: 1160">I can appreciate your problem.  It's real easy for some people to suggest to 'know the rules' but sometimes you can miss a rule and thats understandable.  If your rules lawyer brings it up once, thats fine, if you accept the rule he mentioned then theirs nothing to worry about, if you do not accept the rule and he wants to argue then you can handle the situation like this.Basically tell him that you are the DM and you decide which rules are implimented.  This rules lawyer is forgetting that the DM has the first, and last say on what rules are accetable in a game!As a matter of a fact, at the begining of your next session, inform everyone that from now on, there is no problem with bringing up a rules discrepancy once.  You and the player will have a brief discussion about the rule, and you will then say either yes or no as to whether or not the rule is acceptable.  If it is not, then thats the end of the discussion, if the player starts to argue then he has this statement as an advance warning that arguing with the DM can and probably will be detremental to his characters survival.  Tell everyone that its rude to waste time arguing about rules while everyone else is sitting on their butts.  This may sound harsh, but lets be honest, the evil rules lawyer deserves it, he's being a butthead by constantly harranging you.  I imagine the first time he takes a bolt of lightening from the sky that deals out 50 points of damage (or how ever much you think is appropriate) will get him to hush up really fast.  Thats exactly what I did when I had a player who was being a total goof-ball by argueing with me insessantly.  I out and told him, while it wasn't even the monsters turn in combat yet, that he takes 10 points of damage.  I said it will get worse if this keeps up.  His argueing immediately ceased.  The 10 points really didn't make a big differnce in the combat either.DM: You are standing in the middle of a vast plain with no tree's or rocks or anything.  In the distance you see a large red dragon approaching you.evilruleslawyerplayer: I hide in plain sight.DM: Hide in plain sight?  Their are no trees, bushes, rocks, what exactly are you going to hide behind?evilruleslawyerplayer: Look, the rules state I can hide anywhere, so I hide in plain sight.DM: Well you need some sort of shadow to hide behind, their are no big objects to give you cover so unless you give me some idea where you are going to find a shadow, your butt is in plain sight of this dragon.evilruleslawyerplayer: No way let me get the book and I'll show you where it specifically states...DM: The sky immediately darkens into a thundercloud, and lightening is flashing, you gonna continue to waste time and risk getting hit by a bolt or are you going to have your character do something?</blockquote>

Verification