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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 6750024" data-attributes="member: 2629">Generally, I do not have restrictions on a vageuly reasonable choice.  Roleplaying involves a lot of improvisation and Rule #1 for improvisation is "Never Say No".  Instead, say "Yes, and..."  D&D is a storytelling game and it works best when the players and DM all get to participate in shaping the story by contributing the elements that most intrigue them.This obviously has some limits, but I extend them as far as reasonableness will allow.  If the race comes from reputable source material and the player has a backstory that fits in with the campaign (or is willing to work with my suggestion for one), I have no problem allowing the player to play the PC concept that they want to play - even if it seems to clash with my concept of the universe as a DM.  Adapt and perform.  If they try to bring a home brew race that is clearly over powered, I would ask them to modify it back to reasonable levels, but in general I want the players to play something that sounds fun to them - so I'd allow homemade stuff as well.  If the race doesn't exist in my universe, then we'll talk about why that PC is the exception to the rule: Were they a wizard's experiment?  A visitor from another plane?  Perhaps they were inexplicably born to parents of another race - with no explanation (yet) for why a dragonborn was born from elven parents? In the past, when PCs wanted to play unusual races or classes, we introduced them with:* A PC of a unique race was turned to stone a long time ago.  When returned to flesh, thousands of years had passed - and his race was extinct (and forgotten).  * A Warforged PC in the Forgotten Realms was the creation of a powerful Cleric of Gond.  * Dragonborn PC in a world generally without the race turned out to the the illegitimate child of a dragon that took a queue from Zues...* A Kender in a world that generally only knew halflings - kender were just a particular clan of troublemaking halflings.* A Dark Sun campaign featured a player that really wanted to play a paladin.  His PC found a Holy Symbol in the Silt Sea and felt a connection to a higher power... and he spent years believing he was a clpaladin of "Odin" - raising a church with followers, when in fact he was serving in a plot by a secret plane-traveling Sorcerer King seeking to ascend to greater power by becoming a God in a world without Gods.  The reveal came near the end of the campaign with him making contact with the real Odin and really becoming a paladin - and returning real faith to Athas. * ... and the greatest example: We wrapped up a Gamma World game and the player didn't want to stop playing his mutant golden retriever PC with high tech guns, power armor, etc...  We were switching to a D&D campaign.  When his PC stepped through a portal and ended up in Oerth, we worked him into the game and enjoyed seeing a Mark V Blaster rip holes in everything.  Technology versus magic became a storyline for that (short) campaign and he had to contend with the ramifications of introducing technology that could be duplicated with magic that was so destructive.... thousands of lives lost....</blockquote>

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