Hiding the PHB from players - Cool or Restrictive?

Would you hold back the PHB before they chose classes and race

  • Yes, but I'd assign the race and class off of their character concept.

    Votes: 4 1.7%
  • Yes and i would give a bit of fluff to let the players know about the races and classes.

    Votes: 6 2.5%
  • Yes but I'd only apply it to the powergamers in the group.

    Votes: 3 1.3%
  • No players have rights too!

    Votes: 145 60.9%
  • No and I'd give the players access to the monster manual as well, grrr i'm a monster!

    Votes: 80 33.6%

Personally I'd rather just have access to the PHB, because what sounds cool in concept may not be so cool once you're familiar with the mechanics of it. I have a pretty good handle on what I will and will not enjoy and prefer to make that determination for myself rather than just picking something and hoping I'll like it.


That said, it has the potential to be cool with the right group of people. My suggestion would be to ask them, if they ALL agree then proceed with your plan. I find talking to people offers up all sorts of answers. :)
 

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are you going to play the character for them as well?

an adventurer knows how the world around them works, I xan tell you right now, I've had a dm try and pull this with a system he devised, I handed the character back to him and told him that he was the only one qualified to play it
 



I'd say let them see the PHB. The only time I've told players not to look at a rulebook was once when I was running a H:tR game and I didn't want the PCs to know all about the imbuement and jazz. That said, you could say something like, "Before you look at the PHB, let's talk about what you want to do?" And then give them advice based on what they want to play, who they are, and your past experiences with them (If they love duskblades/gishes suggest a half-elf fighter/wizard or something). Denying them the ability to look at the PHB seems silly, but if there is only one PHB to go around the group, it may make sense to have it on hand and to have a group discussion about things.
 

If your goal is to maintain some mystery and imagination not to be stifled by the mechanics, I would say ..

ask them to come up with an initial concept using the info you mention sharing - tell them you just want to hear their initial concept first but then they can see the phb and come up with their character. then let them go at the phb at which point they can alter their concept if they want... or go with their concept,e tc.

sure, everyone may very well change, but some may keep some kernel of their initial concept in there.

that's just my mental thought process on the topic anyway. it offers some creativity and mystery up front, but won't result in people feeling bothered by not knowing the details when they create the thing.


another option - ask them for their concept, then you make them their 1st level characters as pregens. use these characters for one or two adventures. (tell them that it is so they can get used to the rules) and then after the predetermined amount of adventures, they can switch to their own-made characters (which they could have been making between sessions). they key to pulling this off, however, if making it clear that these are just temp pregen characters 'for them to get used to it so taht they don't waste bad choices on their own characters' - of course, it would be doing exactly waht you wanted though, letting them have a character based on concept and will maintain all the mystery and surprise and wonder, etc etc.

But hiding the phb from them the entire time is just pushing it. though i can see for a couple adventures to get their feet wet...
 
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My group views RPGs as collaborative games, and no single participant has 'authority' over another beyond the roles we mutually agree upon.

So yeah, everyone is reading the core books.
 


Shabe said:
I'm throwing the question out here to test the water basically, would this sound good to you or is this a stifling of the players rights?

NB, none of the players will be buying the core rule books so it will be their first introduction to 4th ed.
If I were actually to do this, I'd probably also create the PCs for them. Of course, if I'm doing that, I'd probably run pre-generated PCs, with backgrounds, etc. designed for the particular module.

I loved monster PCs in 3.x.
 

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