Verboten! What do you NOT allow in your campaigns?

[billd91]

There are very few things I categorically disallow in my Greyhawk game.

1) Underdark races as PCs. I run a campaign based on the surface. Playing underdark PCs might be appropriate for a campaign set underground, but not mine.

2) Certain feats and prestige classes from the main splat books. Certain feats and prestige classes don't fit in with GH as I see it and so they aren't approved.

3) No psionicist PCs. Psionics are reserved for very special circumstances that the PCs in my campaign don't even know about yet. Mwah hah ha!

Basically, I ban things to keep a certain flavor and let the players know about it. Other things that I don't ban, I may still make difficult, such as buying powerful magic items in any old city.

 

[Andre La Roche]

I pretty much allow anything on those rare occasions that I get to DM anymore, though they come with a few conceits:

1. Even when I categorically "OK" a non-core book I want to know exactly what they're going to use from it just to check for brokenness, and to refresh my mind about it's contents.

2. It has to make sense. I'd allow a PC to play the freaking love child of Tiamat and the Tarrasque so long as there's a good, gripping, and compelling reason behind it that I can milk for gameplay (well, not really, but you get the idea...)

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

I disallow evil characters as a matter of personal preference, although my upcoming Eberron campaign may lack this rule. Gmomes are outlawed for Campaign Reasons (Very few, and they're all Yoda: They know what happened, but can't properly explain it to anyone non-Gnomish), again gone when we shut the game down in favour of Eberron. The rule that won't change: No Psionics. I despise them. Instead, the Kalashtar are getting a makeover. Other than that, not much is restricted.

 

[Alynnalizza]

3.0

Major do not allows are:

Dwarves cannot be Sorcerers or Wizards. I might allow an Adept or a Bard, but only has a 'first in a bloodline' type character.
Psionics are generally out. If I use any Psionic ability it is in the form of a Wild Talent. For PC's they are definitely out.
PC's that are monster types. Gone.
Still have alignment, but greatly neutered.
No evil PC's.

Generally any non-core book, I like to give my approval with first. Though I also have a list of 'accepted' material.

I'm probably missing something, but can not think of it at this moment.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Homebrew world so most of these are for campaign reasons.

No gnomes - they just don't exist.
No underdark - as Gothmog there are caves and stuff, but not an Underdark in the classic sense of an interconnected world underground
No evil PCs - at least not in this game - maybe in a later one
No evil NPC races - for that matter no good ones either. Orcs are orcs, elves are elves, any one individual is no more or less likely to be good or evil... it's all a matter of perspective.
No PC elves - or at least not at the start - but that was more to do with the fact that I hadn't fully worked them out yet and didn't want any of the players not able to get into their role
PRCs will have to be approved - but most of my players don't collect books in a big way so are likely to stick with the core classes anyway.
Templates - again if approved but the players I have aren't going that way yet - maybe when they need new characters it will come up. If they want half-dragon I'll let them have it as dragon's are a major part of the power play in Hern.

The Hoard

 

[Turanil]

2) no time to play

That's really a harsh restriction!

 

[sellars]

In a lot of campaigns that I am DMming I want only human PCs, so that makes:

No non-human PCs

In the campaign in which I am currently playing everything goes, as long as you have a background story to cover it. So that makes:

No lack of background story

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Any game I run: no evil PCs. I simply don't enjoy running a game of that nature.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

Why no evil PCs??? I'm going to play an evil PC soon, as a hero. just because he's a heartless murderer doesn't mean he has to be an enemy. I personally has never baned anything aka I'm an idiot. psionics unbalanced the whole game last time I played with them. the people I normally DM for are not power gamers so all's good

 

[Li Shenron]

If you mean "what to you disallow in ALL your campaigns" pretty nothing.

On the other hand every campaign setting has its own features, and players are not allowed to incorporate something that doesn't belong to the setting.

Some material which mechanically seems bad designed may be banned for the moment, but there's no reason to think it would always be banned.

In general every gaming group assembled for a new campaign gets a list of which books are allowed by default rather than a list of what is not allowed.