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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7334394" data-attributes="member: 29398">Fair enough.The example of a character from a far-off land is a good one.  For my part, when I design a world there's usually vast swathes of it left blank - mostly because I'm concentrating on the parts where most or all of the adventuring is likely to take place - and if someone wants to fill in a bit of the blank page they're welcome to do so.  However, the risk there is that doing so might run up against something specific I have in mind for what is now a blank bit; and to have to move or alter what the player does might hint at or completely give away a reveal that's not supposed to happen for years. (at risk of my players reading this: my current world has a number of these sort of elements - specific things in specific locations in the middle of what looks like a vast ocean of blank map, with those specific locations tied to specific story bits that will in theory come up later either in this campaign or a future one, depending how things go)Come on, man - you know in your heart that banning Gnomes is always the best option. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />But if a player wants to play a full Vampire as a character in a low-level party - and I've had this happen - yeah, out comes the veto hammer. (this was before the days of templates)And even if one or more players do care, there's often room for compromise.  But if that fails, in the end it's the DM's game.Where I posit that the DM, in neutrally designing the world, should as a part of that neutrality be actively trying to ignore what the players are doing.When faced with an adventure they're clearly not set up for the players - in character - can always choose to abandon the mission and go elsewhere, or to recruit or hire some NPCs that can help cover their weak points, or to take a much more cautious and-or different approach that plays a bit more to their strengths, or whatever.While this is true, it's also verging into the very gray area of DM metagaming - a whole other can o' worms.First, it's not always clear what the players would prefer.  Even if they all roll up Nature Clerics it doesn't mean they're looking to play the whole game in the forest; just that they want a lot of available healing no matter what transpires.Second, most players IME are looking for a fun game with beer and monsters and aren't all that serious about much else.  Which leads to something we all need to keep in mind here: not everyone - and I'm often in this number, when a player - takes this all that seriously, or puts much thought into it beyond their own character, maybe a bit of the overarching story, and the here-and-now of the in-game situation; and some don't even get that far. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  From what I've read here and elsewhere I'd hazard a guess that [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] and his players take this all far more seriously than I'd ever want to - a rather gulf-like difference in playstyles. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The advantage you had was that the player in this case handed you something you could fairly easily put to use and that would likely engage all involved, and you ran with it.  Unfortunately not everything is as simple.Example: I once had a player who rolled up a character and then came up with a great long drama-riddled (and rather depressing) backstory for it which was intended to spill over into the ongoing run of play once the PC joined the party.  Great fiction, great foundation for roleplaying the character, but when as DM I'm looking at a choice between trying to involve everyone in (or drag everyone into) this one character's personal angst or playing through something that's more fun and cheerful for all then yeah - easy choice; and the drama gets swept under the rug.Lanefan</blockquote>

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