el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
The game I am currently running is "core rules only," but I was spending some time looking through another supplement for some spells to introduce via a found spell book (there just aren't enough necromancy spells in the core book to make an interesting and strange mid-level necromancer's book) and I got to thinking/wondering about how others introduce new material to their games.
Do you wait for a new campaign to start up to introduce new class powers/variants, feats, etc. . ?
Do you find things in new books to recommend to players?
Do you find things to recommend to the DM to use or allow you to use?
As DM, do you make players make a case for new material or do is it anything goes as soon as it comes out?
How do you handle owning the supplemental rule books? Must everyone have a copy? Just the DM? Just the player using the new material for their character? Something else?
I assume the degree of engagement by players in your group also effects this, for example (as came up in my "I got the Long Rest rules wrong" thread), my group owns core books, but basically looks to me to introduce, explain, and enforce rules. None of them are the type to just buy a random game book to read or suggest we use it (and that is fine with me).
So far, I am only introducing the possibilities of new spells (and magical items) in-game, either from found books or from learning from someone else, like an ally or mentor. So even though, for example, wizard cantrips are not learned and scribed as usual spells, I include "notes for a weird cantrip you've never heard of" in the margins of a found book for example, allowing them to spend down time figuring it out and adding it to their list when they get an opportunity (or replacing an existing one on their list). It maybe possible that the next time the PCs have a choice for a feat I may open up the field of possibilities from another book. Maybe if I end up running another campaign with this same group I will open more access, since I will have more confidence by then that they (and ME!) will have more facility with the rules.
I think one of my (personal) issues with 3E is that from the moment it was released I was house-ruling it and trying to account for every round of new books and materials came out, when I should have learned my lesson from the glut of 2E "Handbook of. . ." books and had a simpler approach (basically, I wanted the games I ran in 3E in my homebrew to match up in some ways with the games I ran there in 2E - but now I say, F-- the homebrew!"). I am glad I approached 5E this way - but also I have only been running it for less than a year - and I know many of you have been down with it since day one - so you might feel different by now about new/old material.
then again, if you run games anything like I do, five years means your first campaign is wrapping up and you're just getting started on another
So what are your guidelines, plans, approaches, limitations, stories of what worked and what didn't for introducing new stuff?
Do you wait for a new campaign to start up to introduce new class powers/variants, feats, etc. . ?
Do you find things in new books to recommend to players?
Do you find things to recommend to the DM to use or allow you to use?
As DM, do you make players make a case for new material or do is it anything goes as soon as it comes out?
How do you handle owning the supplemental rule books? Must everyone have a copy? Just the DM? Just the player using the new material for their character? Something else?
I assume the degree of engagement by players in your group also effects this, for example (as came up in my "I got the Long Rest rules wrong" thread), my group owns core books, but basically looks to me to introduce, explain, and enforce rules. None of them are the type to just buy a random game book to read or suggest we use it (and that is fine with me).
So far, I am only introducing the possibilities of new spells (and magical items) in-game, either from found books or from learning from someone else, like an ally or mentor. So even though, for example, wizard cantrips are not learned and scribed as usual spells, I include "notes for a weird cantrip you've never heard of" in the margins of a found book for example, allowing them to spend down time figuring it out and adding it to their list when they get an opportunity (or replacing an existing one on their list). It maybe possible that the next time the PCs have a choice for a feat I may open up the field of possibilities from another book. Maybe if I end up running another campaign with this same group I will open more access, since I will have more confidence by then that they (and ME!) will have more facility with the rules.
I think one of my (personal) issues with 3E is that from the moment it was released I was house-ruling it and trying to account for every round of new books and materials came out, when I should have learned my lesson from the glut of 2E "Handbook of. . ." books and had a simpler approach (basically, I wanted the games I ran in 3E in my homebrew to match up in some ways with the games I ran there in 2E - but now I say, F-- the homebrew!"). I am glad I approached 5E this way - but also I have only been running it for less than a year - and I know many of you have been down with it since day one - so you might feel different by now about new/old material.
then again, if you run games anything like I do, five years means your first campaign is wrapping up and you're just getting started on another
So what are your guidelines, plans, approaches, limitations, stories of what worked and what didn't for introducing new stuff?