Are your players usually ok with restrictions?

[Zhaleskra]

In my attempts to run online games, which I stopped bothering with when they became a chore rather than fun, I did something like this (with the forum's suggestion)
Allowed books: Blah, blah blah, blah blah blah
Allowed Races: 3 campaign specific, 1 of the setting's version of human
House Rules: Core classes A, F, and G, are changed in ways Q, T, and Z

I tended to allow a little leeway for things I didn't consider as long as it still fit with the theme, though I did get one potential replacement player who wanted to play something from some source I never heard of because "he was tired of the core classes". Not a good enough reason for me. In the same game, a player who started at the beginning asked about playing some variation on the barbarian that had some sort of ice powers with his rage. Given the information on the race he chose, I allowed it, because the race does have more clans than listed in the campaign sourcebook.

So, all in all, depends on the player.

Now, I saw earlier that one poster mentioned he'd never exclude a friend even if there was only one friend who didn't want to play the proposed game. I find that odd, I've often sat out of games friends were running that didn't interest me, or said something like, "well, enough people are interested, so I'm running it, maybe next time it'll be something you like".

 

[Water Bob]

Since I often enjoy playing half-orcs...

I design the game for my players, and when I was deciding to run a Conan game, before I decided to focus it on Cimmerian barbarians, one of the things that encouraged me to select what I did instead of, say, apprentices to a powerful sorcerer, members of a cult, or thieves in Shadizar, is that the people I knew who would be playing both really like playing strong fighter types.

I knew I wanted to run the game where all PCs were of the class (or have a very limited selection of two or three classes), but I didn't have a preference for what that class would be. I looked to the players' tastes when creating my restriction of one class.

My campaign would not have been as attractive to the players had I decided to make them all monks in a monastary somewhere.

Honestly, reading threads over the years, I've been very surprised at the sense of entitlement some players have. Yes, it's a shared experience. Yes, everyone should have fun. But dictating to a GM what needs to be included in a game isn't justified -- especially if the player in question isn't willing to shoulder the GM burden.

Yes.

In my 2E AD&D campaign that I played before I started this Conan game, I wanted to start that game off using just the core rule books. Then, after we'd all gotten reaquainted with that game system, I would slowly introduce the supplemental books.

I had one player that just flat out wouldn't play unless we used all the supplemental books from the beginning.

I gave in and allowed him to have his way--and that was a huge mistake. Just as I had feared, we all had bitten off more than we could chew--having not played that version of the rules in decades.

That player started in my current Conan game, but he got so testy that I had to let him go. He's no longer playing with us. And, my game is better for it.

 

[ggroy]

Honestly, reading threads over the years, I've been very surprised at the sense of entitlement some players have. Yes, it's a shared experience. Yes, everyone should have fun. But dictating to a GM what needs to be included in a game isn't justified -- especially if the player in question isn't willing to shoulder the GM burden.

But then I don't get the mindset of players who want to play "gotcha" with the GM and find a way to exploit a particular build to make a munchkin character, either....

Over the years, I've noticed the belligerence of numerous players (and some DMs to a lesser extent) frequently had to do with prior bad experiences.

If one asks some of these belligerent individuals why they do what they do, the most popular response was that they were trying to avoid being "screwed over" again. Essentially by being very "proactive" in their actions by preempting any and all possibilities which can lead to them being "screwed over" (whether real or perceived).

Essentially it is an extreme form of "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

 

[ggroy]

The consequences of belligerent players who were always trying to avoid being "screwed over", leads to stuff like:

- Kill everything in sight.
- Kill all NPCs. (Largely to avoid the "traitor switch" from being ever flicked on).
- Kill first. Don't ask any questions.
- Kill everyone along with all the extended family and followers. Don't leave any possibilities for "avenging descendents".
- Burn everything to the ground.

In the case of 3.xE/4E D&D, this typically led to games which were almost purely hack and slash with roleplaying relegated to the sidelines.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

If you open up the game, willy-nilly, and end up with, say, a party of cut throats and thieves plus a good aligned Cleric, you've got a believeability issue there. Why would a good Cleric travel with band of marauders and bandtis?

"No evil PCs" is a pretty common restriction -- so much so that I might even call it a standard assumption.

As to the racial issue, my campaign primer has a page titled What I Expect From My Players. The second item is "I'll work with you, but finding a reason to adventure and work with the group is your responsibility, even if it requires a bit of metagaming. (“I wouldn’t normally associate with such vagabonds, but I have a good feeling about them.” Or “In a dream last night, my god told me to help these strangers.”) If you just can’t see your character adventuring or associating with the others, think of a different character.

So I don't mind having a dwarf and an orc in the same party; I don't think it's any less believable than say, a house-sized flying lizard.

 

[Zhaleskra]

So, I guess everybody just needs to relax and either just choose to play or not play. There will be other games.

 

[Nytmare]

If I don't put restrictions on them, my players will usually come up with restrictions of their own.

"Let's all play mounted halflings!"

"We're all servants of the Raven Queen."

"Is it okay if we're a party of Half-orc bards?"