Core Books only or Everything?

[National Acrobat]

Just curious to see how the spread is on supplemental material. When I run 3E, I only use the Core Books, I don't use supplements, PrC's or spells, etc. that come from non-core sources. Do any of you run with just the three books? How many of you use and allow everyhing?

 

[francisca]

Just curious to see how the spread is on supplemental material. When I run 3E, I only use the Core Books, I don't use supplements, PrC's or spells, etc. that come from non-core sources. Do any of you run with just the three books? How many of you use and allow everyhing?

My recently retired homebrew was mostly core. I used a few monsters from the FF, MM2, Tome of Horrors, and Creature Collection I. I used the Battle Sorceror class from UA, Cook's first hack at an alternate ranger, and a few templates from the Book of Templates and Savage Species. I never used a single PrC, from any source.

Wow. More than I thought. In all honesty, the players and I would have been just as happy with just the core 3.

 

[Buttercup]

I think you'll find very few DMs who allow "everything" at their table.

I use things from any source that fits the flavor I'm going for. Up until the end of last session, I was using all of the Freeport material, Alchemy & Herblaists (Bastion), a variant sorcerer I've pieced together from several sources, and spells from half a dozen print and pdf sources. Oh, and Stone to Steel for equipment options (Monkey God). Next session the campaign is going in a radically new direction, and I don't yet know if I'll be bringing in new player options. Fortunately for me, we aren't playing again until March 20th. That gives me plenty of time.

The way I work things is this: a player tells me what sort of thing they want, and I find an acceptable source. They don't just go out and willy-nilly collect PrCs, feats and so forth.

I'm sure I could run a perfectly decent campaign from just the core books, but I've got all this stuff, so I might as well use it, eh?

 

[GlassJaw]

I voted for medium.

I've been running a group that's semi-new to 3ed so they are using mostly core stuff so far. I have a TON of 3ed resources but I pick and choose. I'm actually finding a mostly core game pretty cool. I'm running published modules (Dungeon Adventure Path)but I'll tweak monsters and NPC's here and there. If a player brings something to the table or wants to browse through some of my books for PrC's, I'll definitely listen.

 

[IronWolf]

Core Books plus the Complete Books for the most part. I pretty much only allow in WotC material in my games. It's not that I have anything against all of the great d20 products out there, I just don't have time to keep up and evaluate whether I think it will fit in my game or not.

 

[pogre]

Pretty much core only. I allow players to design their own stuff, subject to approval of course. Some of them use source books as a basis for their creations, but I say no far more often than yes.

 

[aco175]

I tend to allow a lot of non-core things into the game. Most of the players do not own anything but core, so there is not much of a problem. New spells can be used, with approval, but a caster can only take one per level, or is allowed to research non-core ones. The biggest problem is feats, so any of those need to be approved first. Several of the PrC's from various web sites and non-core stuff need to be tied into the game before I allow them. Generally, I try to give the players the chance to play what they want and how they want it, but I always felt there needs to be a reason for it in the game.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I allow pretty much anything, though not without approval first for anything non-Core. I've run a Core only game before, and it was great...but I love all the hundreds of different other options that are out there, 3rd party and otherwise.

 

[Swiftbrook]

I use the core books plus a few other material. Generally, a few pages of house rules, an article or two from Dragon Magazine, and material from the "complete" series. I guess I just blan and traditional.

-Swiftbrook

 

[Endur]

I think everyone has cool books, but as a GM, I'd suffer rules overload if I allowed everything in. Plus, once you allow everything in, you have to throw game balance out the window and depend on the GM to balance everything, because the players will come up with combinations that the Designers never playtested.

Right now, I'm trying core rules, and each character can have one splat book rule (i.e. one feat, class, race, or something else from an outside book).