Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Define Core Only for your game
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 3090252" data-attributes="member: 5868"><p>True core only: PHB, DMG, and MM for everyone.</p><p></p><p>Players core only: Players PHB, DM anything goes as appropriate.</p><p></p><p>The last campaign I played in was essentially a Player-core only, and was just fine.</p><p></p><p>The last game I DM'd was player core only, plus FRCS, though admittedly it wasn't strictly core only. Players could use non-core elements, but they had to be submitted and approved in advance, individually -- i.e., they could get an individual feat, spell, or PrC approved if it fit the campaign, but I wouldn't approve Complete *book as a blanket.</p><p></p><p>I really felt the last gave me the best of both worlds. New players could join with a baseline expectation that they could use the core rules as is. You didn't have to "buy in" -- there was no "splatbook escalation" going on where everyone felt they had to buy the newest splatbooks to be competitive. [Aside -- I've seen this sort of splatbook escalation be a real problem in other games, and it intimidates new players. I was quite proud of the fact that our group introduced some players to 3E, and one player to D&D altogether, and their only requirement was a PHB and dice -- and the new-to-D&D player bought Masters of the Wild for his druid character and it was all he needed to be happy.] Players could still use elements from new material they bought, but as the DM I retained control of what fit the flavor of the campaign, what was balanced, and in manageable chunks.</p><p></p><p>Most of my players were fine with it, and used the approval process for new material judiciously , and only for things that really fir their character, and most of what they got approved they used a lot of.</p><p></p><p>There was one guy who, after being told "core rules to start" submitted his first character as a savage species, non-core base class with strange prestige class character. He grumbled when I enforced the rules, but he did abide by them -- though he stopped showing up after a couple of sessions, which bothered me not in the least, since we apparently weren't his type of game.</p><p></p><p>As a player, I find I personally have plenty of options with "core only", plus I like coming to a new game knowing that I can rely on a fixed set of assumptions (ie, the PHB is good to go as is). I've been burned by too many games with wonky and unpublished house rules, unfortunately.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Olgar Shiverstone, post: 3090252, member: 5868"] True core only: PHB, DMG, and MM for everyone. Players core only: Players PHB, DM anything goes as appropriate. The last campaign I played in was essentially a Player-core only, and was just fine. The last game I DM'd was player core only, plus FRCS, though admittedly it wasn't strictly core only. Players could use non-core elements, but they had to be submitted and approved in advance, individually -- i.e., they could get an individual feat, spell, or PrC approved if it fit the campaign, but I wouldn't approve Complete *book as a blanket. I really felt the last gave me the best of both worlds. New players could join with a baseline expectation that they could use the core rules as is. You didn't have to "buy in" -- there was no "splatbook escalation" going on where everyone felt they had to buy the newest splatbooks to be competitive. [Aside -- I've seen this sort of splatbook escalation be a real problem in other games, and it intimidates new players. I was quite proud of the fact that our group introduced some players to 3E, and one player to D&D altogether, and their only requirement was a PHB and dice -- and the new-to-D&D player bought Masters of the Wild for his druid character and it was all he needed to be happy.] Players could still use elements from new material they bought, but as the DM I retained control of what fit the flavor of the campaign, what was balanced, and in manageable chunks. Most of my players were fine with it, and used the approval process for new material judiciously , and only for things that really fir their character, and most of what they got approved they used a lot of. There was one guy who, after being told "core rules to start" submitted his first character as a savage species, non-core base class with strange prestige class character. He grumbled when I enforced the rules, but he did abide by them -- though he stopped showing up after a couple of sessions, which bothered me not in the least, since we apparently weren't his type of game. As a player, I find I personally have plenty of options with "core only", plus I like coming to a new game knowing that I can rely on a fixed set of assumptions (ie, the PHB is good to go as is). I've been burned by too many games with wonky and unpublished house rules, unfortunately. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Define Core Only for your game
Top