Jester David
Hero
Honestly, I think the only things that are "mandated options" are those in the basic rules: cleric, wizard, fighter, rogue; halfling, dwarf, elf, and human.
Everything else is optional.
Everything else is optional.
Honestly, I think the only things that are "mandated options" are those in the basic rules: cleric, wizard, fighter, rogue; halfling, dwarf, elf, and human.
Everything else is optional.
Which raises an interesting alternative.
What happens if, during the collaborative worldbuilding, when one player says "No orcs. They're overdone."
Is it still okay for the player to argue about bringing in a half-orc then?
Making an expansive campaign setting is how I "play" the game and engage in the hobby between sessions. It's the DM equivalent of making builds and testing characters. Lonely fun.
I've seen collaborative worldbuilding work quite well.
I've also seen it fail. Where the players just want to play and have no interest, freezing like a deer in headlights, and the one or two creative players end up dominating the worldbuilding. (They also seldom make sense. Kingdoms and terrain placed randomly and developing over time, and are seldom logically situated.)
I also think you lose some of the continuity you gain from having a DM created worlds. Where the actions of your campaign and the players can affect the world for an extended time, and even be encountered by future campaigns or even other groups. The success or failure of the party matters: you don't just win and then sweep the board clean.
Story time from my current game. Just to emphasise that I do understand.
My campaign setting is one I wrote in 2e and heavily revised during 4e. A player has decided to retire their PC and bring in a new one, and be a tortle druid. Tortles not being a race I really considered or incorporated into the world. It's super awkward just having turtle people running around.
(The player asked to play a tortle in part because when he ran the Tortle Package adventure as a one-shot when another player was MIA for a month, and I painted four tortle minis for him to use in that game. And so he wanted to keep using one.)
But that's not a big deal. It's easy to add a tortle. Especially when the motives are known and, well, pure. It's not like it was just the most optimal race to synergize with his build, or he wanted to be special and unique in a lazy way so he wanted to be the only tortle on the planet.
25 pages. That's cute.
Mine is sitting at 170-pages and I plan on sending it to a PoD site to be printed as a physical book I can place on the shelves alongside my other D&D settings.
(Of course, the moment I do it becomes out of date, as the actions of the PCs will change things and shift the world.)
Which assumes all the other players are neutral in these matters.
Which might not be the case, especially if playing in a publish setting.
Almost every published D&D setting has limits. Dragonlance and Dark Sun have class and race limits. Mystara doesn't have gods. Even Eberron, the sinkiest of kitchen sinks, has dragonmarks tied to certain houses.
And that's presuming you're not doing something like Adventures in Middle Earth. To say nothing about non-D&D games like a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying or Star Trek Adventures.
Players playing what they want has to have limits. If the group has decided to play AiME then you shouldn't push to play a dragonborn cleric. If you're playing Marvel Heroic you shouldn't demand to be Batman. And if you're doing STA, you shouldn't request to play a wookie. This isn't unreasonable that you should try and fit the world and tone of the game.
Just like if the group has decided to play a gritty horror campaign, you shouldn't play a halfling bard named Sprinkles Von Toot Toot.
Sorry, I know there is context around this, but I couldn't resist.
DM: We're playing Dark Sun!
Table: YAY!
DM: So, we'll do it with all the base assumptions.
Table: YAY!
....days pass....
DM: So, it looks like everyone has a good character, except.... um, Rolf?
Rolf the Obstreperous: Yes?
DM: You made a gnome?
Rolf the Obstreperous: Of course! I wanted to play a gnome this time.
DM: ...... um .... you know that there aren't any gnomes in Dark Sun, right?
Rolf the Obstreperous: What? I don't care. I WANNA PLAY A GNOME! Be flexible.
DM: Um, but you could play ... let's see ... Dragonborn, Dwarf, Elf, Goliath, Half-Elf, Halfling, Human, Mul, or even Thir-Kreen? Any of them?
Rolf the Obstreperous: I WANNA BE A GNOME! Be flexible.
DM: How about we re-skin the gnomes stats? You can be a "Halfling" with gnome stats?
Rolf the Obstreperous: GNOME GNOME GNOMITY GNOME!
DM: Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go ... I wanna be sedated. Nothing to do, don't want to hear about gnomes ...
I wanna be sedated.
*fin*