How have you handled this?

[Alan Shutko]

Bear in mind that it may be unfair to your players even if you introduce new material, then let them use it after that point, as it may be impossible for them to benefit from it then, although they could have taken it earlier, and allowing retroactive changes would quickly become unworkable (new spells, and sorcerers spring to mind)

Personally, I don't think this is a problem, and I don't think it's unfair. It's a wide world out there. There are wizards researching spells, creating magic items, breeding hideous monsters. Naturally the PCs won't know about _everything_ that's happening out there. That's the fun of adventuring.

 

[Numion]

If you're going to use published adventures you're bound to be in trouble, because 90% of those include new items, spells or PrCs.

Would you see trouble using new monsters from non-core monster manuals? Because those too will have abilities unavailable to PCs normally. What's the difference with those, and the abilities non-core PrCs might allow your PCs enemies?

My point is that even a core game will be filled with critters with abilities not available to PCs normally. From whence those powers came does not matter.

So go ahead and use the non-core sources, if you feel it adds to the game.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Our group has two DMs, I am one of them. The two of us do things very differently for our campaigns. Our other DM has put together a list of "canon" materials from which we can choose. This list includes the core books, the "Complete X" books, the various FR books and a couple of others. The DM is restricted to these materials as well unless absolutelt required for a specifc adventure.

I have taken a different approach. For me all core books are of course OK, and any material from the setting specific books (I run Scarred Lands and am about to start Midnight) are OK in the right campaign. Beyond that every other option is judged on a case by case basis. Someone wants a feat from Dragon? Let me look at it first. This one is OK, but it does not mean the next one you want will be. I try and justify why it is or is not acceptable, and that mostly comes down to possible balance issues or it just does not fit with the flavor of the setting (but it might be OK for the other setting we play in).

 

[Mouseferatu]

Do you play with friends? Are these people who know you well, hang out with you on a regular basis?

If so, they really ought to trust you enough as DM to know that you aren't deliberately trying to screw them over.

The argument "if the DM can use it, the players can use it" is hogwash. Pure and utter. Sometimes, the story requires that the villains have access to strange and alien powers. A wizard communing with a Cthulhu-like creature from the Far Realm should have powers and spells unknown to the PCs. The 5,000-year-old lich who seeks to control all magic should have access to artifacts the PCs have never heard of, and have no idea how to use. Sorcerers from far-off lands, cultures foreign to the PCs, should have spells the PCs have never heard of--and, in turn, should never have heard of some of the PCs' spells.

So long as it's all done in good faith, to serve the needs of the story, and so long as the PCs still have a fair shot of defeating the villain, there's nothing wrong with that. I have never played with anyone incapable of acknowledging that fact--and I don't think I'd ever be willing to do so. I don't play "DM vs. player." I don't introduce new or strange aspects for the sole purpose of pummeling the PCs. I do it because it makes sense for the villain, monster, character, or story at hand. Someone who won't trust me to do what I must to make the game and the story the best they can be, someone who throws a fit if an NPC ever shows signs of an ability or spell the PCs don't have, is not someone I would care to run a game for.

 

[Janx]

Another key rule, in agreement with Mouseferatu...

The DM has final approval over all new rules/material.

At the time of character creation, you made a list of what was approved. The players used it.

Then later, you wrote an adventure, and approved some new material.

There's a simple rule of logic. PCs don't get access to something unless there is a logical reason for that access. Just because the bad guy can do something, doesn't mean the players can.

And there is a huge difference of an unbalanced rule in the hands of a villain, than one in the hands of a PC. The PC has that power for longer and can abuse it to far greater effect than a one shot NPC can. The XP system is built on this very short-term value concept.

Janx

 

[the Jester]

I allow pcs to choose from the core books only unless they specifically run something by me first.

In general, with things like choosing spells when they level up, they have to be exposed to it before they can choose it.