If a DM says, "Anything goes in my campaign" (Pure RAW) What is your initial opinion?

[lukelightning]

For me "anything goes"= instant inter-player arms race that degenerates into an assortment of freaks.

I have a half-dragon samurai!
Oh yeah, well that can't beat my 4-armed dervish!
You guys are small potatoes compared to my Necroblaster/Initiate of the Seven-fold Veil!
Bah, that's nothing. Try out my Doomsworn Dire Guard Praetorian Psychic Warrior Giantkin Were-tiger!

 

[gabrion]

For me "anything goes"= instant inter-player arms race that degenerates into an assortment of freaks.

I have a half-dragon samurai!
Oh yeah, well that can't beat my 4-armed dervish!
You guys are small potatoes compared to my Necroblaster/Initiate of the Seven-fold Veil!
Bah, that's nothing. Try out my Doomsworn Dire Guard Praetorian Psychic Warrior Giantkin Were-tiger!

Well to be fair, we have to keep in mind that this depends on the maturity of the players. I once ran a game IRL in which all the players knew beforehand that the power level was suppossed to be ridiculously high. Sure there was some compitition in making good characters (which isn't an all bad thing BTW), but at the end of the day we had a ton of fun and it was a different kind of experience than what we normally have.

 

[Nail]

My answer: "Release the Hounds!

 

[Pielorinho]

My initial reactio is that this isn't a game to take very seriously, but that's fine. It ain't Unforgiven, it's Tombstone. I might drop out after a couple sessions, but then, it might be just what the doctor ordered.

Daniel

 

[megamania]

There is so much out there!

As a DM I have a rule of let me see it and you need to explain how this can be. I then remind them- what is good for the player can be VERY good for the NPC.

Keeping all that in mind we tend to keep things in perspective.

 

[jcfiala]

One guy in the Denver area started up a living style campaign called 'Cheesy Munchkin Adventures', where he allowed any supplement from a range of publishers that didn't use rules that were too different from standard D&D, like VP/WP.

So I took a first level mecha pilot from Mech d20, and said that it was a magical armor of Hextor. He gave me a level adjustment.

 

[Krelios]

What about the "Check your players, if they're cool, you're fine," option? Seriously, if the DM is comfortable enough to trust his or her players with whatever they want to play, be creative, enjoy it, and be sure the people you're playing with are going to be able to handle those options and not pick one of your options above.

 

[Caliban]

"I will own you and your feeble attempt at a coherent storyline."

 

[gabrion]

"I will own you and your feeble attempt at a coherent storyline."

Haha...this should have been an option along with:

"Do you realize you're going to get kicked in the teeth so hard your mom will need new dentures?"

 

[Psion]

Gee, Slanted poll verbrage much?

I chose option 3, but object to your qualificaiton in brackets. More like
Wow, I've always wanted to play <insert interestinge character here>

Incidentally, I did have a GM who ran a game with pretty much this verbage. It didn't get abused. Why? We were there to have fun and play a game, not wank off with the latest power build pulled off the WotC character optimization forums.

There was some truly broken stuff I could have taken, like that overpowered class from the Monstrous Wizards Compendium. But as for me, blatantly broken stuff is, for lack of a better term, icky and uncool, and I would not enjoy making a character with such rules.