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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 6004501" data-attributes="member: 8461">Thanks to everyone who's replied so far! To answer some of the questions and comments that have been put forth:If you mean if anyone had asked to make an Eclipse-built PC while I was GMing, I would have allowed it. As for why I would have, it would have been because it was a book I was already familiar with, and so didn't need to read in order to be up to speed on what such a character could do (though, being point-buy, I'd have asked to be briefed on what options were being used beforehand, and that I could disallow certain combinations - something I said I'd be willing to be subject to if I were using the book as a player).Hence why I said it's not about option restriction as it is that I'm burnt out on reading new material. As the GM, I want to be at least somewhat familiar with how the PCs are designed, but it's getting harder and harder for me to keep up with the endless treadmill of new books.I'd be happy just to keep my knowledge of the new books to "working" rather than "very unfamiliar." <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />That said, beyond what I said before about knowing what the PCs can do making for better adventure design, there's also the issue of things grinding to a halt when the material is something I need to reference.We frequently stop play to look things up, and we've all lost count of the number of times when somebody has put forth something (usually a bonus to a die roll) that, upon closer inspection, was incorrect for some reason. If the GM is unfamiliar enough with the material that they need to crack the book open and read it right there, this will happen all the time. To me, the more familiar the GM is with the material, the quicker things flow. Hence, if I can't keep up when I'm GMing, the game quickly starts to hit speed bump after speed bump.To be fair, I didn't say that I wouldn't allow it, just that I'm not familiar with it and that it'd be nice if they steered away from those books. In other words, they aren't "basic stuff" to me.Similarly, the other GMs don't have a problem with expanded material. They don't use it themselves, but they're more open to the possibility since they have more time and energy to read and integrate new material. I wouldn't have put the idea forward if I thought they were as burnt out on new stuff as I am.The players know how to play their characters with those options; it's harder for me to run a game when I'm near-totally unfamiliar with the books they're using - sometimes fairly heavily - because when I don't know what they can do I can't run better adventures.If they start pulling out spells and using feats I've never heard of, it's usually a precursor to things going off the rails, and not in a good way. It's not a "hey, the game is going in unexpected directions" thing, but more of a "the BBEG just moved? If he's in 10 ft. of me, I get an AoO with my whip. I'm tripping...yep, that's a 41 to trip. I get an AoO on a successful trip also. And everytime he tries to stand, I'll be using the AoO to trip him again." Suddenly, the villain is locked down, and the exciting fight goes into a grind-fest slaughter.I'm not saying I need to have the books memorized - I just want to be familiar with the pool of options they've got so that I'm not being overwhelmed in the game I'm running.</blockquote>

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