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Burning Questions: Why Do DMs Limit Official WOTC Material?
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<blockquote data-quote="Panda-s1" data-source="post: 7762560" data-attributes="member: 59554"><p>Man I stop paying attention for a day and people are still hung up on me saying "coward". Let's go over what I said again:</p><p> </p><p>Oh hey look, an important word here is "some"! I didn't say all DMs are cowards, but to be fair at this point I could be splitting a dichotomy between DMs who will and won't ban official material from their games.</p><p> </p><p>I give some understanding here. I get why DMs might want to ban official material from their games. Hell, I like to be pretty open as a DM, but I've had to say X material won't be allowed for Y reason in my game before.</p><p></p><p>HUH in this sentence I'm pointing out a specific type of DM. Specifically, one that I've had to deal with before. Let's see if I elaborate on this point...</p><p> </p><p>Oh hey, I do elaborate.</p><p></p><p>And this is the behavior I'm calling out as cowardly. People seem to believe that I don't think DMs get any sort of authority, but nothing can be further from the truth. This is why I'm calling some DMs cowards; what is it about something that seems powerful at first glance that makes you not want to deal with it in the first place? "Ngggh what if they get a +5 Holy Avenger at first level?" Then f*cking have their god smite them out of righteous fury 'cause a peon decided to wield an artifact meant exclusively for their champions, like god. Or just undo their action and say "Haha no, we'll discuss this later, but for now you can't use X power 'cause it's clearly broken," and if they're gonna have a tantrum about it then tell them to leave. More likely though, as the "laws" of that one blog post better articulated, DMs like this are just afraid of having to think of new and creative ways to deal with some cool new thing, and would rather conform their players than let them be creative with their characters (yes I'm painting broad strokes here, but I'm getting into other behaviors said DMs tend to have). Also, disclaimer about obviously broken stuff (sure, feel free to say this ruins my argument, but if you're gonna compare a +5 weapon at first level to something like, I dunno, one extra cantrip at first level then that's a completely different issue entirely I suppose).</p><p></p><p>If you don't fall into this category, well I still might (greatly) disagree with what you have to say, but I'm not really calling you a coward.</p><p></p><p>And if you're upset about me using the word "coward" to describe such people... well, damn. I dunno. Some people get upset 'cause they're not "allowed" to say things like racial slurs, but this isn't even on that level, and not only am I pointing out a specific behavior, but it also falls under what is considered cowardly. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This is part of why I starting GM'ing myself. When I was a wee young tabletop gamer (read: a 19-year-old attending college who had negligible experience with RPGs) I went through a number of GMs, a few who were really good, and well some of them were pretty "bleh". Even with little experience, I was kinda wary of any GM who wasn't into this whole "collaborative storytelling" thing.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't get how a setting is suddenly immutable after you've started a campaign. I don't see how any scenario here needs to be outright denied either.</p><p></p><p>I mean this player who "didn't listen to the DM (or bothered to check) about what his game allows" (I mean realistically most D&D campaigns these days don't have racial restrictions, so I wouldn't put it that way), I dunno I'd probably allow the race they wanted if it were reasonable like "oh hey a gnome, were they here before? I dunno, do we need to mention gnomes every session for them to exist?" Maybe it'd be different if it were a race that explicitly didn't exist, but even then I'd consider it, that's something interesting setting-wise. Like the drow didn't go extinct like we all thought they did, they just went into hiding and this new PC has come to warn us (warn is pretty ambiguous here I suppose), or tieflings didn't exist before and suddenly there is one, what's up with that? are they the only tiefling? were they just a regular human before? are devils plotting something? that sounds like an incredible new development in the world that could lead to a new plot thread in the game.</p><p></p><p>I guess the deity thing is a bit different, but even then I'd work with that player to figure out a thing that makes sense for their character than just "Choose one of these three deities or gtfo".</p><p></p><p>Ultimately it's your game, I just don't get how a setting can be that immutable, especially when it starts out with player collaboration.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Aside: someone's probably gonna call a PC being the only representative of their race some disparaging name like "snowflake" or "Mary Sue", but in a game where heroes are supposed to be exceptional that hardly seems like an issue.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Panda-s1, post: 7762560, member: 59554"] Man I stop paying attention for a day and people are still hung up on me saying "coward". Let's go over what I said again: Oh hey look, an important word here is "some"! I didn't say all DMs are cowards, but to be fair at this point I could be splitting a dichotomy between DMs who will and won't ban official material from their games. I give some understanding here. I get why DMs might want to ban official material from their games. Hell, I like to be pretty open as a DM, but I've had to say X material won't be allowed for Y reason in my game before. HUH in this sentence I'm pointing out a specific type of DM. Specifically, one that I've had to deal with before. Let's see if I elaborate on this point... Oh hey, I do elaborate. And this is the behavior I'm calling out as cowardly. People seem to believe that I don't think DMs get any sort of authority, but nothing can be further from the truth. This is why I'm calling some DMs cowards; what is it about something that seems powerful at first glance that makes you not want to deal with it in the first place? "Ngggh what if they get a +5 Holy Avenger at first level?" Then f*cking have their god smite them out of righteous fury 'cause a peon decided to wield an artifact meant exclusively for their champions, like god. Or just undo their action and say "Haha no, we'll discuss this later, but for now you can't use X power 'cause it's clearly broken," and if they're gonna have a tantrum about it then tell them to leave. More likely though, as the "laws" of that one blog post better articulated, DMs like this are just afraid of having to think of new and creative ways to deal with some cool new thing, and would rather conform their players than let them be creative with their characters (yes I'm painting broad strokes here, but I'm getting into other behaviors said DMs tend to have). Also, disclaimer about obviously broken stuff (sure, feel free to say this ruins my argument, but if you're gonna compare a +5 weapon at first level to something like, I dunno, one extra cantrip at first level then that's a completely different issue entirely I suppose). If you don't fall into this category, well I still might (greatly) disagree with what you have to say, but I'm not really calling you a coward. And if you're upset about me using the word "coward" to describe such people... well, damn. I dunno. Some people get upset 'cause they're not "allowed" to say things like racial slurs, but this isn't even on that level, and not only am I pointing out a specific behavior, but it also falls under what is considered cowardly. This is part of why I starting GM'ing myself. When I was a wee young tabletop gamer (read: a 19-year-old attending college who had negligible experience with RPGs) I went through a number of GMs, a few who were really good, and well some of them were pretty "bleh". Even with little experience, I was kinda wary of any GM who wasn't into this whole "collaborative storytelling" thing. I don't get how a setting is suddenly immutable after you've started a campaign. I don't see how any scenario here needs to be outright denied either. I mean this player who "didn't listen to the DM (or bothered to check) about what his game allows" (I mean realistically most D&D campaigns these days don't have racial restrictions, so I wouldn't put it that way), I dunno I'd probably allow the race they wanted if it were reasonable like "oh hey a gnome, were they here before? I dunno, do we need to mention gnomes every session for them to exist?" Maybe it'd be different if it were a race that explicitly didn't exist, but even then I'd consider it, that's something interesting setting-wise. Like the drow didn't go extinct like we all thought they did, they just went into hiding and this new PC has come to warn us (warn is pretty ambiguous here I suppose), or tieflings didn't exist before and suddenly there is one, what's up with that? are they the only tiefling? were they just a regular human before? are devils plotting something? that sounds like an incredible new development in the world that could lead to a new plot thread in the game. I guess the deity thing is a bit different, but even then I'd work with that player to figure out a thing that makes sense for their character than just "Choose one of these three deities or gtfo". Ultimately it's your game, I just don't get how a setting can be that immutable, especially when it starts out with player collaboration. Aside: someone's probably gonna call a PC being the only representative of their race some disparaging name like "snowflake" or "Mary Sue", but in a game where heroes are supposed to be exceptional that hardly seems like an issue. [/QUOTE]
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