(Poll, please read 1st post) What does the DM have the right to restrict?

[The Thayan Menace]

True Thayan Metal

Basically, if the game is houseruled to the point where it ceases to resemble 3.5 D&D ... I'm not playing it.

-Samir Asad / Thayan Menace​

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

The first option is my honest answer, but the last one was sorely tempting just for the asinine, joyous stupidity of it.

I ran a game for a group of 7th graders recently. The bad guy swings "Armor Class 24!" says I "For 9 points of . . ."
"That doesn't hit" say my player of a newly-generate 1st level character called 2-Pac.
"What?!" What's his Armor Class?"

I look at the AC. Sure enough. Kid did the math right. Except for the part where magic studded leather provides a +10 armor bonus to AC.
"You can't just make up your own magical items! At least not as a 1st level fighter!"
"Oh, dang! Why not?"
"9 points of damage."

 

[Drowbane]

I voted #1. Its the DM's game, there are things I'd like to be available, but I'm not going to throw a fit if I can't use those things.

As to the bottom poll option, any player who came to my game with that sense of entitlement would quickly be disappointed.

I may attempt to negotiate, or give the DM some options, but my feeling is it's his/her game. By letting me play in it, I am giving tacit approval to the DM's choices.

In the games I DM, I let nearly everything in, including player suggestions, third party books, and online stuff.

I agree for the most part, I'm suspicious of 3rd party stuff (blame the glut of crappy 3e books 5-7 yrs ago ), but I'll allow it after a look through.

There are certain WotC things I would ban for my personal campaign (I make that distinction, as soon I will be running a few sessions using characters from TC's campaign).

A growing list of SC spells, a template or two, some poorly worded feats...

 

[The Thayan Menace]

Samir's Choice

For the record, I chose option #2.

-Samir​

 

[Quasqueton]

On the internet a lot of time you get the impression that D&D players now expect to be able to make up anything they want for any game regardless of the individual DM, world, etc. That's a lot of work for a DM to cope with, if I have to take on a Troll PC with a couple of prestige classes from strange books or whatever.

There's a lot of problems that exist mostly only in Internet discussions.

Quasqueton

 

[brehobit]

Just as an aside, here are some rules that folks have proposed for recent games we've either started or talked about starting:

#1 Improved goblins/hobgoblins/orcs/kobolds as the only PC races. 36 (I think) point buy, but you have to spend some of those points to be a caster and you can spend 9 to be always one level higher than you should be.

#2 Gestalt Monk/X where X must be a Bo9S class only.

Both games had highly limited magic, the 2nd one has basically no magic. The first advancement was slower than normal (1 level every 4-6 sessions), the 2nd much faster (1 level per session).

We're currently debating which to play, but it looks like Deadlands is winning

In another game I played in recently, the rules were 25 (or 28 maybe?) point buy, core rules only as a starting point.

Mark

 

[kaomera]

I'm wondering what you, as a player of D&D3, expect to be available for character creation when you sit down at a table for a new game. What rules, etc. do you have a right to expect being in play when you're sitting down at the table with a new group and you haven't made any special agreements in advance?

IMHO, none. The first thing to do when entering any new game is to discuss exactly what rules will be used with the DM and the other players. Most players (and DMs) do make assumptions, and if they assume that 4d6 for ability scores or 32 build points are some kind of a standard across all of D&D, then they aren't going to mention it unless you ask.

 

[Hussar]

See, I'm the complete opposite. The 'core' of the game is pretending to be a crazy adventurer and going on crazy adventures with some friends. Whatever rules are used to facilitate that are secondary. If I need to learn something new, great, that's just an added pleasure. New information entertains me more than whatever sense of 'mastery' I might get from using a familiar set of rules. I'm much less interested in succeeding than I am in experiencing something new.

What I love about D&D, and RPG's in general, is that they're never the same game twice...

Therefore, I voted for the first option. Remove anything you like, so long as we all can make something interesting out of what's left.

Oh, and that's very fair. I've got no real problems playing other games. If you want to run a True 20 game, let's do that.

What I don't particularly like is sitting down for one game and then the DM, through monkeying with the mechanics, changes that game for something entirely different. If I want to play 3.5 D&D, I want to play THAT. If I want to play someone's homebrewed brainchild, I'll play that. However, if I want to play 3.5 D&D and you want to play your homebrewed brainchild, I'll generally pass.

So, yeah, the DM can change whatever he or she likes, but, I reserve the right to vote with my feet. There's just too many games out there to stick with one I don't like.

 

[billd91]

Of course people want games to suit them. Is that really a radical concept? The DM wants a game to suit his style, the players want a game to suit their style, and they compromise so that everyone has fun. Is this really not how the majority of people game?

I've never seen the whole DM runs a game exactly how he wants and anyone who doesn't like it can go home. I've never, in my life, seen such a rigid DM. I've always seen a group of friends who want to have fun playing a game at the table. A DM who doesn't compromise to suit other people's playstyle as well as his own is not a very good DM in my book.

This seems particularly true when you're playing with your friends rather than a bunch of players cobbled together without previous personal connections. The gamers I run games with are pretty close knit. Not everyone plays in every game, but we do in most of them and make compromises for each other's styles and preferences.

 

[Melan]

Thanks for making the thread, Calithena. I was really surprised by the poll results - could a myth about current D&D players have been dispelled, or is it due to sample bias?