FrozenNorth
Hero
My stance has always been:See, I feel your stance is, "if the player wants something, just give it to them". I don't think its fair to the DM to just do whatever the player wants.
- if something doesn’t work explain why;
- be open-minded; and
- try to come to an agreement like a normal person.
@Tonguez provides a very good example with Loxodons.
I see two main issues:
- DM who are too proprietary of their setting and resent changing anything about their setting to accommodate players;
- oversimplifying the “can I play this race?” argument as if either the DM must always accede to the pkayer’s request or the player must always bend to the DM’s will.
Here’s an example. DM is running Curse of Strahd, limits it to say, 5 races. Player wants to play a gnome, which isn’t on the list.
Maybe the DM didn’t want to include gnomes because he finds the a bit too light-hearted and silly for a serious campaign with mature themes. If the player commits to a serious concept for the gnome (maybe a druid attached to the land, which is resonant with some of the themes of CoS), then maybe the DM allows the gnome.
On the other hand, if the player only wanted the gnome for the woodland creature aspect, maybe the player compromises and plays the DM’s homebrew leshy class instead.