"If you can't share, don't bring it..."

[JoeBlank]

In Olgar's recently ended campaign (see story hour in diaglo's sig), we had to propose rules to Olgar. They had to be emailed to him, in entirety. He reviewed them and if he approved them then they were posted on our yahoo group site as approved for all to use.

The guy is so honest, he wouldn't even let NPCs use alternate rules unless he had posted it them on the website.

 

[Cor Azer]

So it's your game, and the players are just guests who participate with your permission?

Yup, if they pay me enough

Whoa... I think I just channelled Bugaboo...

 

[Kelek72]

Let it all in with DM's approval - thats what i do. I woukd expect anyone using such material to bring it every game for reference and to share with anyone at the table who is interested.

 

[Alzrius]

It's not only fair, it's necessary.

Truer words were never spoken. In my last campaign, I let players use anything in a d20 product. It was a disaster to say the least. They were using spells I'd never even heard of to do all sorts of things.

DM's have to know their party's capabilities very well to plan encounters for them. Having an open-door policy on all d20 materials is just asking for trouble.

 

[tarchon]

Certainly, that's the policy I expect when guys bring girlfriends along.

With supplements, we usually do it by veto system and then only on a case-by-case basis. Like if somebody wants it and nobody objects to a new prestige class or a rule change, we'll use it, but we won't take in like a whole supplement. Generally, this means we're pretty conservative about using supplements, but it's also generally understood that if you do use the Wobbly Wanker prestige class from the <i>Jerks and Hosers</i> supplement, you have to pass it around and anybody else can use it too.

 

[Haradim]

Is that fair to limit a player's resources, just because you don't have it yourself?

Yes. Better to be arguably 'unfair' than it is to introduce rules that cannot be easily reviewed at will. If I own a book, I've probably read through it at least once, and I have in mind where all of the rules fit within the campaign.

'Sides, even if I do have a given book, or rule, or what have you, it doesn't automatically mean it's useable in a given campaign anyway. I have DotF, but I don't allow Holy Liberators. I have the PsiHB, but I don't use psionics at all. So even if a player had those books, in those cases, they may still be restricted from using them.

 

[RuminDange]

I allow other stuff form other books only after I have either had time to read over it by borrowing thier book or I own the book myself. Either way the book must be present during game play in case I have a question about thier abilities. As a side note, I too don't allow everything in my campaign just because it is in a book we as a group own, but I'm usually open to at least looking over things.

Also keep in mind that a lot of stuff is duplicated in other WOTC books, perfect example I have a player (a Paragon elf/Ftr/Soc/bladesinger) looking for another class to take to help solidify his character's direction, more in the fighting direction instead of magic now and over the last couple of months he kept wanting to take the "BladeMaster" prestige class from the Wheel of Time source book. After our last game night, He was talking to my wife (also a player) and telling her about the class and she was trying to help him decide on what to do. Now I have read the class months ago and it didn't dawn on me then, but it hit her as she started reading the description in the WoT book. She was like "I've read this before", sure enough in the Sword and Fist splat book. The BladeMaster is nothing more than the Weapon Master prestige class from Sword and Fist gloried with pretty names for the abilities and detailed for use with a sword. But all the abilities are the same.

RD

 

[CRGreathouse]

So it's your game, and the players are just guests who participate with your permission?

I'm not entirely sure how you read that out of what I wrote. When I'm the DM, I decide the rules issues. I make lists of acceptable material for my games so the players know what's in and what's out.

When I play in others' campaigns, I expect that they will adjudicate rules for their games. That doesn't mean they need lists like I make, but some sort of control must be present and they, as DMs, are the ones to provide it.

 

[Kesh]

I typically refuse outside rules until I've had a chance to read through them. Then, they're available to anyone.

For my next campaign/homebrew world, I'm actually combining a bunch of OGL material into a new Kesh's Player's Handbook. It'll be all the optional rules I want rolled into one ruleset. Nothing else enters, unless playtesting shows something is broken/got the shaft.

 

[Voadam]

Do you allow gaming source material -- alternative campaign setting books and the like -- into your game when only one player has access to it? For example, a player brings "Swashbuckling Adventures" to the table and asks if he can play one of the character classes or use the listed feats, but no one else in your group has had a chance to buy the book or peruse it at the store. Do you request that he share the book with others, or just play it on a case-by-case basis?

The arcane trickster in our group does not have Tome and Blood, Traps and Treachery, the 3.5 DMG, or the Books of Eldritch Might. But he has material from each of these that have been pointed out to him by those of us with them. I'm the only one with Traps and treachery and I haven't leant it out to anybody but the DM approved the use of some feats for the AT that I recommended to him. The DM of course read the feat over and thought about it first but then let it in.

All 3rd party material in our campaigns must be approved by the DM at least a game before its use so he can evaluate it. This includes the feats and prestige classes the players have come up with.

Core rules are presumptively useable but subject to DM alteration as he decides necesary.

Not everybody needs to have access to a book for the DM to approve it. Those of us with the books and familiar with them and the rules in general give advice to those who are not familiar with what's out there.

I'm not even sure two of the players have PHs but both their PCs have material from products that other players own.

If the DM is fine with allowing material into his world, the unfairness of different levels of book ownership is not that big a deal.