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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark" data-source="post: 3014783" data-attributes="member: 5">Well, if the players might believe that there is an adversarial motive, definitely don't go that route.  I suppose I might have put a caveat to that effect but I wasn't thinking along those lines when I posted.From my own experience, though, it's a good way to let players know that all things are going to have some balance when they ask for extras beyond the established rules.  If they know that you won't just throw anything into the game without provisos, it gets the players to self-govern their requests for expansion of the game past the limits you've set on source material.  I believe it helps to keep the players thinking of terms of game balance and, hopefully, gets them to focus more on what they can do within the established rules rather than trying to look for advantage by adding things.  I like to be flexible but there are some players who will spend a great deal of time testing and pushing the limits of what is allowed and this tends to detract from the game for the other players and myself.I had one player that I had to let go from a game because of all the time demands he put on me between game nights, constantly calling or stopping by with a new book from which he wanted to upgrade his character.  With him, though, I think it was a matter of his trying to justify his runaway spending.  He simply couldn't *not* buy each and every book that ever came out.Here's some additional food for thought.  It happens sometimes, though perhaps not in this case, that an adversarial mindset already exists with a player in a game but is unspoken and shrouded to avoid a direct confrontation.  This can happen when a player is primarily used to other (perhaps non-RPG) games where direct competition is the norm or when they come from other RPG experiences that include adversarial DMs.  In this case, a player might simply believe that an edge can be found by gaining an addition to the rules that the DM won't factor into the world through the NPCs.Anyway, once the door has been open that additions can be made to the source material you always run the risk that one or more players, for whatever reasons, are going to focus more on what they can do outside of the established rules.  IMO, it's best to find a way to get the players to curtail this activity themselves.</blockquote>

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