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

[Micah Sweet]

With the way some DMs act, nope. An intelligent skeleton would be exactly as hard a sell as a dragonborn, because dragonborn are weird and dumb so don't even dare ask. A sentiment I have seen, explicitly, in multiple different places.


And my point is that 3PP is held up as the solution for fixing problems folks have with playing 5e. If what you say here is true, then that "solution" is unlikely at best and an outright falsehood in many cases.

It is the solution. Some folks don't want to take the cure. You can't help everyone.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Think of it this way.

I don't give a flying fig whether the DM forbids particular 3PP for one reason or another. Even if it's a crappy reason.

I'm asking if you're allowed at all. Any actual 3PP, not just table-specific homebrew. Has any 3PP been allowed?

That's a very hostile post to a simple explanation. Could it be your poll isn't showing the result you wanted?

So, in case my post wasn't clear, the answer is yes, in 100% of the D&D games I have participated in the last 5 years, 3PP character options have been allowed, and used.

But, and I really thinks this explains why you don't have the same experience, I play with a regular group of friends, so we trust each other.

 

[Zardnaar]

That's a very hostile post to a simple explanation. Could it be your poll isn't showing the result you wanted?

So, in case my post wasn't clear, the answer is yes, in 100% of the D&D games I have participated in the last 5 years, 3PP character options have been allowed, and used.

But, and I really thinks this explains why you don't have the same experience, I play with a regular group of friends, so we trust each other.

This. Most of my group are 4-21 year veterans with 3 new players over two groups.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This. Most of my group are 4-21 year veterans with 3 new players over two groups.

I think I've been playing with the same group (with the occasional minor adjustment) for around 10 years now. Frankly, I think I would rather not play at all than have to play with all new people.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think I've been playing with the same group (with the occasional minor adjustment) for around 10 years now. Frankly, I think I would rather not play at all than have to play with all new people.

All new is rough. I'll go down to 1-2 people.

I started a 2 player game late last year. Now it's 5. 2 new players and returning players.

I live in student city so normally you get a year or two out of student types and they leave after graduation or workload year 3/4.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

That's a very hostile post to a simple explanation. Could it be your poll isn't showing the result you wanted?

No, thus far it has shown pretty much exactly what I expected. Even if a slim majority see 3PP at least half the time (28/54, a mere 51.85% of the time), a clear plurality are in the "rarely or never" category.

So, in case my post wasn't clear, the answer is yes, in 100% of the D&D games I have participated in the last 5 years, 3PP character options have been allowed, and used.

But, and I really thinks this explains why you don't have the same experience, I play with a regular group of friends, so we trust each other.

Okay. What about folks who don't have a group that does that?

Because a game that is ONLY playable properly with friends has a pretty serious hole in it, I would think.

 

[Zardnaar]

No, thus far it has shown pretty much exactly what I expected. Even if a slim majority see 3PP at least half the time (28/54, a mere 51.85% of the time), a clear plurality are in the "rarely or never" category.


Okay. What about folks who don't have a group that does that?

Because a game that is ONLY playable properly with friends has a pretty serious hole in it, I would think.

D&D is primarily a social game. Every groups different.

Can't really mandate 3pp use allowed for example.

I allow curated 3pp. There's just to much of it. Can't even keep track of it even if I wanted to.

Woukd you be willing to buy the material for a DM? Cost me $300 nzd ($200 usd) to ship 3 books here.

One reason I curated it. I want to use what I own. I woukd consider running Tale of the Valiant or Level up if a player bought it.

They won't. Idk how much I've spent on D&D ballpark figures house deposit.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No, thus far it has shown pretty much exactly what I expected. Even if a slim majority see 3PP at least half the time (28/54, a mere 51.85% of the time), a clear plurality are in the "rarely or never" category.

And I suspect there is a very strong correlation between how much 3PP is allowed and how well the players know each other in the group.

Okay. What about folks who don't have a group that does that?

Because a game that is ONLY playable properly with friends has a pretty serious hole in it, I would think.

That's nonsense. It's only been possible to play with strangers over the internet for a couple of years. It's hardly reasonable to expect a game that is about to cerebrate it's 50th anniversary to have been designed with that in mind. D&D, like the vast majority of boardgames, was designed to be played with friends. It's hardly the game designer's problem if you don't have any.

 

[Seramus]

BOTH Very frequently/always and Very rarely/never.

I find Critical Role material is allowed at almost every table I've played at since they became popular. Outside of them, the policy is almost always "No" or "It hasn't been playtested enough to be trusted". It's practically a knee-jerk reaction to not allow 3PP besides CR.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

And I suspect there is a very strong correlation between how much 3PP is allowed and how well the players know each other in the group.

That's nonsense. It's only been possible to play with strangers over the internet for a couple of years. It's hardly reasonable to expect a game that is about to cerebrate it's 50th anniversary to have been designed with that in mind. D&D, like the vast majority of boardgames, was designed to be played with friends. It's hardly the game designer's problem if you don't have any.

I've been doing it since (late) 3e. "A couple of years"? Try a couple of decades. Yes, it required that you be more in favor of TOTM early on. But there have been options for shared work/art spaces for ages and voice convos since well before Skype.

One of the groups I hung out with (online, naturally) had people who were rabid 4e haters literally on launch. That's why I hated 4e for its first couple of years, until I finally sat down and actually read the rules (in order to respond to someone who had made claims about it), and discovered just how badly I'd been misled. These were people I had played 3e with, over voice chat, in 2007. I'd played with other people even before that.