D&D 5E 5e Players: How often have you been allowed to use 3PP?

[MatthewJHanson]

I assume the poll is "When you want to use 3PP content, how often is it allowed." Players don't ask often, but when they do it's normally allowed, so I voted frequently.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Simple question. In the games you've played, how often were you allowed to use 3PP? Even if you didn't use it yourself.

Note: You cannot change your vote. Vote wisely.

Note that I am not talking about table-specific homebrew. It has to be an actual product, that someone could acquire (buy, PWYW, etc.) on something like DM's Guild, DriveThruRPG, etc. or through some sort of publication like EN5ider.

More often than not averaging the history of my 5e play, trending towards nearly always in recent years. I convinced my group that Level Up was the way shortly after it was released.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sadly, a lot of 3P content is crap. I generally rewrite anything I import this way and post it on the campaign wiki. So saying I allow "3P-inspired" is perhaps more correct than saying I allow 3P content.

A lot of WotC content is...less than great too. They don't get a pass from me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That a lot of 3PP is crap does not mean that a lot of 3PP can also be great - as long as "a lot" is less than 50%. And even then, tastes differ. I was not stating a truism, I was making an evaluation according to my own tastes. Some 1PP are also in need of edits, even if I am sometimes over-zealous with this.

Another reason to edit 3PP and put it on my wiki is also to make it available to all players, few of whom are up to date on the 3PP scene.

You should consider, if you're going to make inflammatory subjective statements, that you don't frame them objectively.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm usually the DM, so I've only been a player once in the last couple of years, but when I asked my DM if I could play a Ruin Dwarf (from Keith Baker's Exploring Eberron) I got an immediate "yes". So that would be 100%. But I suspect, like me, if a player asked to use something that looked broken or out of tune with the campaign, it would be "no".

 

[Voadam]

I have not asked as a player and I am not aware of anyone else in those games asking either, I have been fine with the PH and Tashas so far as a player. I don't believe I used any player thing out of Xanathars so far, though I have run games with hexblades and such.

In my games that I have run player's have been allowed to use 3rd party stuff if I approve it and players have used OGL 3rd party stuff, mostly spells.

 

[Pedantic]

The dynamic I've ended up with, through preference and temperament, is that players tend to bring an idea to me, and I find the resources to model it, or I present an interesting mechanical or thematic concept I found in some rules somewhere and someone gets interested.

I'm the player with the most appetite for more rules, so my player's use of 3pp is as much projection as anything.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

On a related note: how much do people think the reliance of many groups on D&D Beyond, which has limited 3pp offerings, influences the willingness of DMs to allow 3pp or players to want to use 3pp?

 

[Micah Sweet]

On a related note: how much do people think the reliance of many groups on D&D Beyond, which has limited 3pp offerings, influences the willingness of DMs to allow 3pp or players to want to use 3pp?

Depends on how beholden to DDB your group is, I suppose. I was able to wean my group off it when we moved to Level Up as a base game.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I assume the poll is "When you want to use 3PP content, how often is it allowed." Players don't ask often, but when they do it's normally allowed, so I voted frequently.

That, and "if anyone happened to ask, would it have been allowed, to the best of your knowledge?" If you simply don't know because nobody asked, then that's essentially a non-entity, though if that makes up the vast majority of your experience then that's sort of a different story.

E.g. if everyone just always presumes 3PP is forbidden, they'll never bother asking.