Verboten! What do you NOT allow in your campaigns?

[Belen]

If I tend to eliminate options, then it always has a story or world-specific reason. My homebrew differs from the basic/ core DnD in several ways, such as all the stats for the races (except humans) are changed:

Nomani (elves): They are a gypsy race that tends to wander the world. They have the longest life spans as 150 years and rogue is their favored class.

Roviri (half-elves): Mostly seen as mistakes by humans. They live to about 125.

Avyrim (dwarves): Nature lovers and natural druids. They travel the land making sure to keep it healthy and act as diplomats between nature and civilization.

Estradi (halflings): The most magical of races. They excel at magic and live in mountainous terrain.

Gremen (bear-folk): Nuff said.

I have also assign a common/ uncommon/ rare status to each base class where anyone can choose to play a common class, but rare classes have restrictions. I have also added a good number of classes from AU into the mix.

For example, Clerics are a rare class in my world. The majority of churches are made of priests, but get no real powers, while a cleric has a true calling and passion for his god.

It would take too long to really explain all the aspects and some are still being created, but this may give you a good idea.

Oh! Monstrous races are not native to the world. Orcs and such are outsiders. They get no special powers, but they are just not native.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Nice to see all of the responses (plus the rather civil atmosphere, too).

I'd figure since I started this mess, I'll add to it as well. But first, to respond to a related topic:

For the DMs out there: do you think you're more likely to make restrictions based on campaign concept/flavor, personal taste or out of reaction to past campaigns? For example, if you were disallowing elves as a player race would it because you have an idea to make elves more powerful in a new campaign world or because you personally dislike the idea of elves or because all the players in the last campaign played elves (for whatever reason)?

For me, it's a mix of all of these things. Personally, I've had rather bad experiences with players using evil PCs--said players in those instances pretty much disrupted the game (and other players' enjoyment of the game) for their own amusement. I've personally grown tired of the "mostly elves" groups of PCs back during my 2nd ed. AD&D days, both in stuff I've run & played in (mostly played in). I've also grown to dislike the plethora of subraces for demihumans (also a by-product of the "mostly elves" campaigns of editions past).

As for what I don't allow IMCs:

• No Evil-aligned PCs, unless the game is specifically made/designed to be a villains-only campaign (then, it'd be no Good-aligned PCs & very few, if any, Neutral-aligned PCs).
• For creating beginning (1st lvl., ECL 1) PCs, I do not allow any races that have an LA adjustment. I am considering allowing a few races with an LA adjustment, but I'll use something like the working off the LA variant rules in UA, monster classes, or something similar so that the character winds up on the same footing as the LA +0/ECL 1 PCs.
• No subraces: elves are just elves (ala the PHB), whether they're fair-skinned & blonde or are white-haired with jet-black skin.
• No multiples of classes/races (except for humans, & maybe halflings). (Another by-product of the 2nd ed. campaigns overpopulated by elf thief/mages.) Since there is a good selection of core classes available (including the CG-paladin "Avenger" from UA, XPH psychic core classes, the CW Swashbuckler, etc.), not to mention races (humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, half-elves, orcs, nezumi/ratlings, spirit folk, etc.), there's a good amount of stuff to select from to allow for a conceptually different, as well as mechanically different, type of character.
• Since my campaigns tend to be human-dominant, & to emphasize the rarity of such creatures in them, I generally allow only 1-2 players to use a race not in the PHB (orcs, nezumi, lizardfolk, warforged, githzerai, etc.; +0 LA/ECL 1 for beginners; any +LA/ECL for new PCs of approved "monster" races as long as their ECL doesn't exceed the average ECL of the rest of the PCs).
• Stat generation method: 32-point buy, or 4d6k3 if I'm present & actually observe the dice rolls. Due to past players who've had a very bad tendency to cheat, I've had to implement this rule (said players aren't really around anymore, but if they return, I may just go with point-buy only). If the 4d6k3 yields a really poor set of stats, I have the player use point-buy.
• No rolling for starting money. However, this is a good thing for new PCs--all PCs begin with maximum starting money for their class.

Above all, I really encourage for the players to think of themselves as a team, and to create their PCs accordingly. If feasible, I like them to have a good backstory why they're adventuring with everyone else, whether it's due to shared past employment, shared childhoods, neighbors, romantic interest, etc. I also dislike the "lone wolf" type of characters either (once again due to bad past experiences).

I'm not the only person who DMs in the group, & the other DMs run different styles of games, so there are opportunities for the players to play certain types or concepts of characters that may not be viable IMC, but may be viable in theirs.

 

[Raduin711]

A lot of gnome hatin' here...

*pours one for hiz homiez the gnomiez*

 

[RFisher]

I won't bother to list anything because, the minute I do, I'll end up allowing it in the next campaign I run. I guess it has to do with that thing in me that likes to challenge my own ideas.

 

[Old One]

Hmmm....

Just switched to 3.5...

General Precepts

• No Evil PCs...been there, done that, don't like it (although I might allow a player I really trusted to play one on the sly)
• PHB is the prime source...just say "No" to the splat books (actually, I will review things on a case-by-case basis and give credence to designers I respect, like Monte Cook. The sorcerer in my current game is an Eldritch Might variant.)
• Prestige Classes on a case-by-case basis (must have justification and good in-game reasoning)
• No Psionics...never have liked them...although the 3.0/3.5 variety are much more palatable than earlier versions

Current Homebrew Campaign (Faded Glory)

• Late Roman/Early Dark Ages setting
• No stirrups...therefore no medieval-type heavy, armored cavalry
• No plate-type armors, two-handed swords, heavy lances, longbows and other types of late medieval/renaissance weaponry
• No magic shops. One-shots (potions/scrolls) have limited availability in decent-sized towns, but permanent objects must be commissioned, crafted, bartered for or "liberated"
• No gnomes, full-blooded elves or full-blooded dwarves (well, there is 1 full-blooded dwarf, but that's a long story)
• No piles o' gold (silver standard, but prices are still the same)

~ Old One

 

[Pants]

What I allow in my campaigns generally depends upon the campaign.
- I've run an all-Evil Faerun campaign, which meant that I disallowed Good PC's.
- I've run campaigns where I've said 'No Evil PC's' and I've also run games where I've said 'No DISRUPTIVE evil PC's.'
- I've run games where I say that I must look over everything non-Core before I allow it in the game and I've run a game where I allowed anything and everything (from PrC's and feats, to strange monstrous classes).
- In my current campaign, halflings and orcs don't exist, but the players are allowed to play Feytouched, Half-Giants, Thri-Kreen, Goblins, and Kobolds along with some modified Core races.

However, in every campaign I've run, I make ONE rule absolutely clear. A PC MUST have a role-playing reason for taking a PrC.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

• No evil pc's.
• Very few monks (i.e. the first person to play one has the privilege of being the last).
• Highly restricted non-human choices (same as above plus you need a good reason and will be constantly singled out for good or ill).
• No maintainence heavy characters; the group gets the game time and only then the individual.
• No PC killers or inter-party conflict junkies. Drama is good but causing bad blood between friends is going to kill your character real quick.
• No weird 1 wish, 2 wish ... 5 wish madness.

 

[Henry]

So, what don't you allow in your games?

Everything.

To be more specific, I've taken a policy to state that anything outside of the core books is subject to DM approval. Anything in the PHB is open. Anything outside of it I have to look over and approve. This has caused some frictions with a player or two over the past couple of years, but it works better than simply throwing open the floodgate to every PrC, equipment item, and feat out there.

I swear there are some players who don't understand that just because it's got a d20 on it or a D&D logo on it doesn't mean it's all MEANT to work together!

 

[BluWolf]

The only one I can not be talked out of is gender bending. Sorry, it just ruins the game for me. I don't want to look over at my buddy "billy" and refer to him as Lillandra or smeothing. I have a good imagintion but not hta good.

No Half-dragon anything. You want a half dragon? Go find a draogn and start rolling dice and hope your hps hold out.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

For the DMs out there: do you think you're more likely to make restrictions based on campaign concept/flavor, personal taste or out of reaction to past campaigns?

Mostly campaign flavour - as mentioned in my earlier post - but there are a few exceptions.

I disliked halflings when they were I Can't Believe It's Not Hobbits, and I don't like them any more now. It's fair to say that I will always design my campaigns in such a way as to exclude halflings - so while it's technically a "campaign concept" issue, in reality it's because I just never liked the idea of them.

Similarly, I'm likely to exclude elves from any campaign I run, because I would need to have thought of an incredibly creative spin on them before I could stand to include the overused sonsabitches in my games. I'm not a big fan of the kind of Germanic/Anglo-Saxon fantasy that Tolkien and his legion of imitators used, and for me elves are intimately tied up with that - and realistically, if you get too far from those roots there's no reason to call them elves.