GoodKingJayIII
First Post
All right, a hypothetical situation, so bear with me.
**
A player comes to you with his Fighter. He wants to expand on some of his options. He happens to suggest some stuff from Complete Warrior. Now, you own Complete Warrior and happen to approve of everything in it; in your eyes, all its contents are creative gold, and you agree he can use anything in the book so long as he lets you know.
Now, a second player comes to you. Her character just died and she's tired of playing the same old halflings. She wants to try something new, and suggests Races of the Wild. You also happen to own this book, but find some of its contents circumspect. You tell her so, and tentatively allow her to use something from the book as long as she has your approval and understands that you may tweak or remove certain things for balance issues.
A third player wants to tweak his bread-n-butter sorcerer and suggests Complete Arcane. You also happen to own this book, but believe it is the worst piece of garbage WotC has ever produced. It is full of overpowered classes, questionable feats, and cheesey spells. There's no way you'd ever allow this supplement and let the player know as much, though perhaps in a more diplomatic terms.
**
Remember, just an example. I picked the books randomly out of the sky; it could be any non-Core rulebook, really. Now, player 1 has lots of options at their command, player 2 is worried you might tweak her character concept into oblivion, and player 3 is disappointed because his idea was shot out of the sky. How do you compensate 2 and 3?
Obviously you're worried about power creep. A fair thing to worry about. But it's no longer a question of power. Right now, it's possible players 2 and 3 are having less fun. Maybe even no fun. And really, that's what we're all about as DMs: creating fun, for ourselves and our players. At this point, the mouse already has his cookie, so to speak. Now the other mice want their cookies too, or at least better ones. Mouse 2's cookie fell on the floor and has a little bit of hair on it, and Mouse 3's cookie is pretty and moldy.
So, what do you do now? Do you leave things as they are? Do you offer some other kind of compensation? It's a slippery slope. On one hand, you don't want to be overwhelmed monitoring all the players' options. On the other, it's possible you took away some serious enjoyment from some of your players, and that could affect the game as well. How do you respond?
**
A player comes to you with his Fighter. He wants to expand on some of his options. He happens to suggest some stuff from Complete Warrior. Now, you own Complete Warrior and happen to approve of everything in it; in your eyes, all its contents are creative gold, and you agree he can use anything in the book so long as he lets you know.
Now, a second player comes to you. Her character just died and she's tired of playing the same old halflings. She wants to try something new, and suggests Races of the Wild. You also happen to own this book, but find some of its contents circumspect. You tell her so, and tentatively allow her to use something from the book as long as she has your approval and understands that you may tweak or remove certain things for balance issues.
A third player wants to tweak his bread-n-butter sorcerer and suggests Complete Arcane. You also happen to own this book, but believe it is the worst piece of garbage WotC has ever produced. It is full of overpowered classes, questionable feats, and cheesey spells. There's no way you'd ever allow this supplement and let the player know as much, though perhaps in a more diplomatic terms.
**
Remember, just an example. I picked the books randomly out of the sky; it could be any non-Core rulebook, really. Now, player 1 has lots of options at their command, player 2 is worried you might tweak her character concept into oblivion, and player 3 is disappointed because his idea was shot out of the sky. How do you compensate 2 and 3?
Obviously you're worried about power creep. A fair thing to worry about. But it's no longer a question of power. Right now, it's possible players 2 and 3 are having less fun. Maybe even no fun. And really, that's what we're all about as DMs: creating fun, for ourselves and our players. At this point, the mouse already has his cookie, so to speak. Now the other mice want their cookies too, or at least better ones. Mouse 2's cookie fell on the floor and has a little bit of hair on it, and Mouse 3's cookie is pretty and moldy.
So, what do you do now? Do you leave things as they are? Do you offer some other kind of compensation? It's a slippery slope. On one hand, you don't want to be overwhelmed monitoring all the players' options. On the other, it's possible you took away some serious enjoyment from some of your players, and that could affect the game as well. How do you respond?