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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deset Gled" data-source="post: 5795561" data-attributes="member: 7808">Your point is valid, but is foiled by the way it is perceived by players/customers.  Once people know about additional material that has been added by the system, they generally judge other aspects of the game using their full knowledge as a baseline.  So once a fun/cool/powerful aspect of the game is added, people expect the baseline game to match that level of fun/cool/power.  We all know this by it's traditional name, Power Creep, but it could be expanded to cover options, flavor, and verisimilitude. This causes problems for both players and developers.  For the players, it means the DM has to find ways to politely exclude materials, and that the players have to be accepting of it.  This may sound like an easy task, but it can get hairy.  If Player 1 buys a new splatbook based on his character concept and is then told by the DM it's not allowed, he's not going to be the happiest player in the group.  Or, if Player 2 sees that you allow Player 1's splatbook, but for some reason you disallow the splatbook that Player 2 wanted to use, it can escalate the problem further.  I have always dealt with this by saying "You can use the core rules, plus A, B, and C, with other material requiring discussion" instead of "X, Y, and Z are banned", because it makes things seem more permissive than exclusive, but it's not a perfect solution.But the problem doesn't end there.  The more splatbooks that exist, the more difficult it becomes for the DM to manage his players' expectation of a game.  Eventually, you hit a point where the baseline level of the game can fluctuate so badly that players from one group have a completely different understanding of the game than others, which can make starting new games more difficult.  It also makes it harder to discuss the game (at places like ENWorld) because people don't always have a common point of reference for the game.  Or worse, they assume different points of reference and start edition wars over it.Too many options also makes things difficult for developers, because they cannot design in a vacuum.  They have to write new material assuming every other option exists.  The only alternative is to insert a section at the start of the book saying what other options it has been tested with.  This would probably work okay for a third party, but there would be internet riots if WotC published a PHB 4 that was expressly not compatible with PHB 2.  You eventually hit a point where further development of the game is stiffled by material that's already been released.  And let's not even get into discussion about the way that some new material is designed to be more uber as a way to increase sales.So, while I think your stance is fine in theory, I think it fails in practice.  At the end of the day, I'm an addition fan.P.S.  Does this count as an addition war?</blockquote>

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