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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 2550152" data-attributes="member: 18280">Some thoughts:1)  It takes no more than a cursory examination of the threads on this board to demonstrate that there is a large and vocal group of players who do interpret the WotC material to mean that a DM should allow any option unless there is an extremely compelling reason to say no.  I.e., the DM whose world was long ago established as having no orcs should allow a PC to be a half-orc if that is what the player wants because there must be some way to explain the presence of this anomaly.  Then, as the anomalies mount in the campaign world (i.e., each player gets to be what he or she wants, or one player keeps making setting-bending characters) and the integrety of the world is destroyed, these same players blame the DM.2)  If you're a DM, and your players are doing as much work as you are, then by all means let them make the decisions.  Apparently, they're making them anyway.  For most groups, however, the concept of the players doing as much as the DM is ludicrous.Thorin, but from where I sit you have excellent players.  However, if that is work equal to the work you are doing, then you are not doing a sizeable fraction of what I do before a game.  I, too, have had players come up with story hooks that I based plots around -- but a one-page character background that I use to develop 100+ pages of material does not make the player's contribution equal in my eyes.Nor do I expect the players' contributions to be equal.  That is not their job.3)  Telling me that I cannot say "No" prevents me from doing my job as DM...or it would prevent me if I listened.  The DM has an absolute right to intrepret, change, allow, and/or disallow rules as he/she sees fit.  If the DM is a good one, it will enhance the experience for the players.  If the DM is a bad one, it'll mean that game day is a lonely day for that DM.  If the DM is a mediocre to poor one, people will play anyway then come onto EnWorld to complain about what a bad DM that person is.4)  The current "default style" makes mediocre DMs.  If your DM is worse than that, then having a mediocre DM probably seems pretty good.  If your DM is better than that, he/she is probably not using the "default style".  5)  The Shaman said it, and it bears repeating:  "Bad GMing transcends rules systems."  Of course, good GMing transcends rules systems, too...but often because it rewrites them.6)  Not only do I reserve the right to say No, but I reserve the right to completely rewrite the rules from the ground up.  Modify the classes.  Change the races.  Redefine feats and spells.  Finally, I reserve the right to not tell you all the rules ahead of time.  Sure, you may have the character generation rules, but there are feats and spells the PCs must learn of in-game, and monsters can be quite different.....RC</blockquote>

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