GandalfMithrandir
First Post
I need some guidance on handling a new player in my campaign, he wants to play a new race of his own creation, should I let him or should I ask he play something else,
Any help is great!
Any help is great!
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Looking for help handling PCs
- Thread starter GandalfMithrandir
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Noumenon
First Post
My instinct would be to say yes -- I would build that race into my campaign for him and make plot points off of it.
My concern would be that he was trying to make something broken like a race with a +4 Strength adjustment, but for all we know right now he just wants to play as a Smurf. I say work with him, develop the race together as "shared campaign creation" so he doesn't end up with a race that doesn't work in your campaign. But players who will world build like that are taking work off your hands, right?
My concern would be that he was trying to make something broken like a race with a +4 Strength adjustment, but for all we know right now he just wants to play as a Smurf. I say work with him, develop the race together as "shared campaign creation" so he doesn't end up with a race that doesn't work in your campaign. But players who will world build like that are taking work off your hands, right?
It's hard to give an answer without knowing more details.
Introducing a new race like this has several points of potential problems.
1) Unbalanced mechanics. The statistics of the race may be too powerful, too weak or too strange to work properly within a standard D&D game.
The two solutions are to get someone who knows the system well (yourself, another player or the enworld house rules forum) to take a look over it and see if they think there'll be any problems.
Or alternatively offer to take the ideas and themes of the race they want, but to construct the mechanics yourself (possibly with the help of the enworld house rules forum again).
2) Disruptive for the setting. If you're running a very detailed setting already, either homebrewed or published, then it may disrupt the setting to suddenly add an island of demonic gorillas.
3) Extra work. Let's face it, you're already giving up a lot of your time and effort to make a game everyone can enjoy. If it will take up more work than you're happy to contribute to include this in the game, it's quite fair to say you can't afford the extra time to make this work.
4) Make the other players unhappy. If the players feel cheated 'Why should he get to play something special', then they may get annoyed by this player getting a special race. Or alternatively they may want to do the same thing too. Maybe that's fine, but four people doing this can compound the above three problems and make things worse than just one person.
So if those 4 problem can be solved, or don't apply, then sure. Why not. But if you think those may create problems, you're well within your rights to say "No, not this time".
Introducing a new race like this has several points of potential problems.
1) Unbalanced mechanics. The statistics of the race may be too powerful, too weak or too strange to work properly within a standard D&D game.
The two solutions are to get someone who knows the system well (yourself, another player or the enworld house rules forum) to take a look over it and see if they think there'll be any problems.
Or alternatively offer to take the ideas and themes of the race they want, but to construct the mechanics yourself (possibly with the help of the enworld house rules forum again).
2) Disruptive for the setting. If you're running a very detailed setting already, either homebrewed or published, then it may disrupt the setting to suddenly add an island of demonic gorillas.
3) Extra work. Let's face it, you're already giving up a lot of your time and effort to make a game everyone can enjoy. If it will take up more work than you're happy to contribute to include this in the game, it's quite fair to say you can't afford the extra time to make this work.
4) Make the other players unhappy. If the players feel cheated 'Why should he get to play something special', then they may get annoyed by this player getting a special race. Or alternatively they may want to do the same thing too. Maybe that's fine, but four people doing this can compound the above three problems and make things worse than just one person.
So if those 4 problem can be solved, or don't apply, then sure. Why not. But if you think those may create problems, you're well within your rights to say "No, not this time".
Noumenon
First Post
Here's a blog post by someone explaining why they like to play a race the DM hasn't fleshed out yet.
There's really not enough information given to formulate a good answer.
Since he's a new player, though, I'm more inclined to ask him to just play with one of the standard races until everybody gets a chance to know him (and likewise he gets to know everyone else). Everyone brings certain expectations to the gaming table. You don't know his; he doesn't know yours. Taking some time to get to know each other is probably a good thing.
Since he's a new player, though, I'm more inclined to ask him to just play with one of the standard races until everybody gets a chance to know him (and likewise he gets to know everyone else). Everyone brings certain expectations to the gaming table. You don't know his; he doesn't know yours. Taking some time to get to know each other is probably a good thing.
he's new. therefore i don't think you know what to expect from each other, therefore i'd suggest to him that "for this character, could you stick to one of the established races.. perhaps we could even change the visual description of one if it suits your idea better (and it's not already established as looking otherwise in the campaign)"
because, as a dm, i'd be worried about why he wanted to use a made-up race (are the mechanics too out there, or is it more a story thing.. and if it's a story thing, what if my vision of how to work it in to the setting doesn't match what he has and will he get a little "uppity pants" about it since it's "his" creation), etc. etc.
because, as a dm, i'd be worried about why he wanted to use a made-up race (are the mechanics too out there, or is it more a story thing.. and if it's a story thing, what if my vision of how to work it in to the setting doesn't match what he has and will he get a little "uppity pants" about it since it's "his" creation), etc. etc.
GandalfMithrandir
First Post
Great, I think that until we get to know each other better that I'll ask him to play a standard race, then later we can talk about making a switch to his race.
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