Verboten! What do you NOT allow in your campaigns?

[ForceUser]

No psionics in my current homebrew. It's just an additional hassle I don't want.

Typically, no non-WotC material, the exception being Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. If someone really wanted to play a character from a non-WotC source and I felt it fit, I'd allow it though.

No monster race/class characters from Savage Species. I allowed a djinn once...ugh.

Absolutely no evil PCs. I like to play the villains, and I like the players to defeat them.

Other than that stuff, anything goes (with DM approval).

 

[MerakSpielman]

We play 3.5. I'm sure many people will disagree with this one, but I strongly discourage polymorphing because it is (to me) very complicated to keep track of which abilities (SA, SQ, SU, EX, etc) follow when. I don't like the extreme complications of having to look everything up every time someone wants to change shape, and I don't like the complications with having my relatively new players have to try and calculate all the final effects of every change.

So, except for wild shape, which is a key druidic ability, I generally discourage the polymorphine and also limit it's use on the part of PC's.

I require anybody who's going to polymorph to have the stats of their new form worked out ahead of time. It's a high-homework spell. Same with summon spells. Don't summon anything you haven't prepared to play.

 

[maddman75]

In general, I have few things that are outright forbidden. I'm *really* not a fan of nonstandard races. To play anything but the races in the PHB I'm going to want a good reason why, and if it sounds anything like 'it would give me really good bonuses' the answer is no.

Otherwise, I allow things outside the core on a case-by-case basis. If you want a feat, class, or spell from another book I'll take a look and tell you if its okay. Most things are fine, and I find this simpler than making a list of approved and unapproved books.

Prestige classes do require approval ahead of time, as I feel the need to work them into the story. They are often things your character will have to persue. They are not just skill-building tools, but plot devices for the game. This has worked well, generating some interesting power groups because a player was looking at a certain class down the road.

For given campaigns I'll sometimes put restrictions on. In my last campaign I disallowed barbarians and druids as PCs. Not because I'm a right bastard, but because I wanted to play up the conflict between the civilized and barbaric peoples, and the PCs were the civilized. In my current campaign things are pretty well open, so there's no real need for such limitations.

 

[Khayman]

WWWWWWWHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????


No bards, no evil PCs, no polymorphing, no Underdark, no psionics?!?! You guys might as well not allow any roleplaying while you're at it!

Hey, if that shocks you, try my historical campaign on for size: no spellcasters and no non-humans.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

That's actually a great little rule, Greylock. I'm going to steal that one.

As for what I don't allow, generally the only thing I've said "no" out of hand to was evil PCs -- just not my bag. We also take non-Wizards stuff on a case-by-case basis -- very little was used in the FR campaign that I had to leave when I moved north.

Best,
Nick

 

[Steel_Wind]

The list is long...

Currently, an Age of Despair DragonLance campaign, which means:

1 - no evil PCs (*ever*). I play the bad guys - the party plays the good guys.
2- wanton intimidation or violence against the peasantry will provoke "angry villagers". Property crimes, if handled sensibly in game, will be tolerated.
3 - no divine based spells, abilities or bardic healing and no potions of healing either. This is, mind you, a temporary state of affairs...
4 - races: human, dwarf, elf half-elf, kender. That's it; that's all - (and for the most part, if you aren't human, you need a REASON to be there)
5- no inter-party threats or dissension unless it makes sense in game terms (else I just pack up my books - it has not happened in over 20 years, mind you)
6- no psionics
7 - no deliberate min/maxing without a solid character concept and rationale behind it to back it up
8- munchkinism in any form will earn a quick and painful death
9- no raise dead/ressurection or otherwise. You die - you die.

 

[Wombat]

In the last campaign the players could only start as human; as they met up with the dwarves and elves (heavily altered from the "core" races), I allowed them as well.

There has never been psionics. There have rarely been monks. We don't "do" the Planes. We don't use miniatures and we have heavily streamlined combat rules (moves much faster now).

We also dropped alignment. That solved a LOT of headaches

The Underdark isn't in our gameworld, so I guess you can say we dropped that, too.

In the upcoming campaign we will be changing rules again, mainly since we are using Monte's AU as a base (with lots of modifications).

Many rules like these change from campaign to campaign.

Our consistents are no alignment, no planes, and no psionics. Just felt better to our group.

 

[MerakSpielman]

no Underdark, no psionics?!?! You guys might as well not allow any roleplaying while you're at it!

I presume you're invoking hyperbole.

I'm nixing the Underdark probably out of mental backlash of my entire last campaign being contained in the Underdark. I don't DISallow psionics so much as I ONLY allow the core rulebooks. I don't own the psionics book and am not familiar with the rules. I can't say I'd be totally against somebody wanting to play a Psion, though. I'd just object to the additional homework I'd need to do to properly incorporate such a character into the campaign.

 

[Gothmog]

Oh wow, this is going to be a big list for me. In my homebrew:

No non-human characters
No sorcerers
No bards
No monks
No psionics
No underdark (still have caverns and subterreanean systems, but not worldwide interconnected)
NO DROW!!!!
No 6-9th level spells cast as per the PHB (they are rituals instead)
No teleport/rapid travel spells
No raise dead/resurrection
No buying magic items
No PrCs that haven't been approved
No planar travel
No spells/feats/PrCs out of FR books- WAY too overpowered
No spells/feats/items from other books that haven't been approved (but I'm open to almost any publisher)

 

[Gnarlo]

At the moment, my campaign has only two restrictions:

1) no evil PCs, by group consensus (they all want to play the heroes), and

2) no time to play