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One of the holes in all the answers thus far is that it takesthey take an adversarial approach to rules lawyers. It That will only antagonize him more. Which, which will only exasperateexacerbate the problem and build up to a "dude, leave our group you jerk-face" moment. Diffuse Defuse the hostility and you can go back to bebeing friends again!

Simply put, if you and I agree to play american football, a touchdown is worth 7 points (or 6 plus the extra point kick that most sandlot football does not do). If I score a touchdown and you all of a sudden decide that it's only 3 or 4 points, then I am going to cry foul. I have played in RPGs where as the new guy, I try to do something to be told "that's not possible", yet an established player character does something so similar a few rounds later that I could not tell a difference. "Hey, you said I couldn't do a Spinning Death Attack, but George can do a Twirling Kill Attack!" A player in this situation will do one of two things; either they will leave your group/the rpg community because "those guys screwed me over"; or they will learn that rulebook and everything in it so when they want to do a Twirling Kill Attack/Spinning Death Attack, and the DM says "nope", teythey can say "Actually, yep. I use [feat], [skill], and [action]".

One of the holes in all the answers thus far is that it takes an adversarial approach to rules lawyers. It will only antagonize him more. Which will only exasperate the problem and build up to a "dude, leave our group you jerk-face" moment. Diffuse the hostility and you can go back to be friends again!

Simply put, if you and I agree to play american football, a touchdown is worth 7 points (or 6 plus the extra point kick that most sandlot football does not do). If I score a touchdown and you all of a sudden decide that it's only 3 or 4 points, then I am going to cry foul. I have played in RPGs where as the new guy, I try to do something to be told "that's not possible", yet an established player character does something so similar a few rounds later that I could not tell a difference. "Hey, you said I couldn't do a Spinning Death Attack, but George can do a Twirling Kill Attack!" A player in this situation will do one of two things; either they will leave your group/the rpg community because "those guys screwed me over"; or they will learn that rulebook and everything in it so when they want to do a Twirling Kill Attack/Spinning Death Attack, and the DM says "nope", tey can say "Actually, yep. I use [feat], [skill], and [action]".

One of the holes in all the answers thus far is that they take an adversarial approach to rules lawyers. That will only antagonize him more, which will only exacerbate the problem and build up to a "dude, leave our group you jerk-face" moment. Defuse the hostility and you can go back to being friends again!

Simply put, if you and I agree to play american football, a touchdown is worth 7 points (or 6 plus the extra point kick that most sandlot football does not do). If I score a touchdown and you all of a sudden decide that it's only 3 or 4 points, then I am going to cry foul. I have played in RPGs where as the new guy, I try to do something to be told "that's not possible", yet an established player character does something so similar a few rounds later that I could not tell a difference. "Hey, you said I couldn't do a Spinning Death Attack, but George can do a Twirling Kill Attack!" A player in this situation will do one of two things; either they will leave your group/the rpg community because "those guys screwed me over"; or they will learn that rulebook and everything in it so when they want to do a Twirling Kill Attack/Spinning Death Attack, and the DM says "nope", they can say "Actually, yep. I use [feat], [skill], and [action]".

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One of the holes in all the answers thus far is that it takes an adversarial approach to rules lawyers. It will only antagonize him more. Which will only exasperate the problem and build up to a "dude, leave our group you jerk-face" moment. Diffuse the hostility and you can go back to be friends again!

What makes a rules lawyer?

Simply put, if you and I agree to play american football, a touchdown is worth 7 points (or 6 plus the extra point kick that most sandlot football does not do). If I score a touchdown and you all of a sudden decide that it's only 3 or 4 points, then I am going to cry foul. I have played in RPGs where as the new guy, I try to do something to be told "that's not possible", yet an established player character does something so similar a few rounds later that I could not tell a difference. "Hey, you said I couldn't do a Spinning Death Attack, but George can do a Twirling Kill Attack!" A player in this situation will do one of two things; either they will leave your group/the rpg community because "those guys screwed me over"; or they will learn that rulebook and everything in it so when they want to do a Twirling Kill Attack/Spinning Death Attack, and the DM says "nope", tey can say "Actually, yep. I use [feat], [skill], and [action]".

How to tame a rules lawyer

  1. Look in the mirror. Sometimes you have done the Spinning death is not OK, whereas Twirling Kill is within the rules. Sometimes you need to learn how a new player communicates, and the player's preferred way to communicate how they want to do something is to quote chapter and verse of the rulebook so you "can't" tell them no.
  2. Cut the rules lawyer a little slack. If you have a short-temper towards rules-lawyering, you may be burning his bacon as much as he is burning yours. A little patience, this will take a little time and work, but rules-lawyers can be reformed.
  3. Talk to him. It is creating strife in your group, and his chapter/verse quoting is killing your fun. Ask him to meet you for a coffee (or other appropriate beverage) outside of game. Buy his drink (which helps to communicate that this will be a friendly discussion, and not an adversarial one). Don't beat around the bush, don't talk about your feelings and such wishy-washiness. Use simple declarative statements of fact: "I am concerned that you are quoting rules in group and disrupting the story." "Second-guessing my every move is really killing my motivation to DM." And similar statements. Be very clear what you want. Ask him why he does the rules-lawyering. Then shut up. Seriously. Shut up and listen, REALLY LISTEN to what he says. It is entirely possible that he thinks he's doing things right.
  4. See things from his side. Some rules-lawyers are looking for ways to add to the game. Stay with me here... I don't "just want to smack him with my sword AGAIN." So I think up the whirly-death move. So I look up what ARE the rules for doing a whirly-death move. Then I will tell a DM "I want to [narratively describe a move], which I think would be [crunch description of the move]. Do you agree?" Now, I'm a mostly reformed rules-lawyer and getting me to this point took some work on both my part and the parts of a few DMs. It takes time, and I backslide, especially when I feel that I'm getting shafted/ignored. Sorry, it happens.
  5. Give him a little rope. If he knows the stats of the monsters better than you, change up the stats on monsters. Tell him he's not allowed to look at the monster's manual while at the table. Period. Yet let him have his player's guide(s) so he can look up rules as necessary. If there is something that you don't know, ask him to look up the rules. If the rules are unclear, then say something like "Well, to keep the game going I think we should do [ruling]. After your turn, can you look up how we should handle this next time, [lawyer]?"
  6. Wean him from rules-lawyering. If he's arguing with you on rules, give him a few challenges per session. Maybe start with 3. If he challenges something, give him a minute to make his case. Don't try to "run out the clock on him" or other chicanery. If he's right, go with the rules. Period. If he's wrong, he loses the challenge. Every month or two bump down his challenges until he has only 1 left. Now, instead of taking away his final challenge, give him some sort of small bonus the next session ONLY if he does not use his challenge this session. Something like a +5 on a d20 roll, or he can turn a "fumble" roll into a simple "miss". It is just one roll, and it expires at the end of next session.