What Rules Sources Do You Allow?

[Michael Silverbane]

I allow pretty much anything until it actually causes a problem in the game, then I have the player change it.

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

I realize 1) is a common DM sentiment, and while I can appreciate the reason for the policy, I have never fully agreed with it. It seems to set up a DM vs. players environment. So I have never adopted it.

It's not really a DM vs. players thing--when I say "think very carefully" I don't mean "I'm going to completely screw you over if you use this" I actually mean to consider whether you want to go ahead with the plan, and if you do the NPCs will adapt to suit as appropriate for those NPCs. This works as much for introducing new material as it does for crazy tactics, and it works both ways: if the PCs don't want to deal with something, whether it's psionics or dragons or particular spells or whatever, the NPCs don't get to use it either. Fair is fair.

A fun example of how this policy can work out for the better, spoilered for length: [sblock]Four or five campaigns ago, one of my parties managed to establish a huge trading company and, through shrewd business dealings and plenty of theft and acquisition of competitors, managed to amass a rather large sum of funds, somewhere in the area of 3,000,000gp at level 8 or so. Instead of trying to buy the best magic items they could to become nigh-invincible (which wouldn't necessarily have worked anyway; I'm permissive, not insane ), they decided that upon leveling up they were all going to take the Landlord feat and abuse make use of the Stronghold Builder's Guide to make a gigantic flying plane-shifting turtle-shaped fortress resembling Blastoise, complete with disintegrator cannons, scrying wards, anti-boarding weapons, and so forth. When I said "Do you really want to do that?" they decided that yes, they had thought about it and really did want to do that.

So over the course of the next four sessions, they sought out the best and most discreet crafters they could find, mined literal tons of adamantine, and otherwise got to work on their ship. When it was done, they took it on a test flight that leveled a small town of the Evil Empire^TM they'd been covertly fighting. The empire quickly got word of this, sent a bunch of assault teams against the turtle fortress (unsuccessfully), and decided that they needed some flying fortresses of their own to defeat the PCs. The empire was ruled by elves who had made various pacts with Baator and the Abyss, so they had plenty of manpower and wealth to work with, and the construction commenced. The PCs managed to screw with most of the ships being built, but enough reached completion through wards around the construction sites and plain ol' secrecy to give the Empire some breathing room.

Now, this particular campaign had two parties of 5 PCs each in the same world, as I had 10 players wanting to play with me and didn't want to run them all in one party. When the other party heard about the turtle fortress, they decided they wanted a ship too. Not to be outdone, they spent a session in planning and recon, then assaulted a githyanki stronghold on the Astral Plane to steal one of their larger scouting vessels, take it back to their base on the Plane of Shadows, and trick it out with an intelligent item "artificial intelligence," prismatic hull shielding, rapid-fire transdimensional ballistas, the works. They proceeded to engage in their own guerrilla warfare against the Empire.

By the end of the campaign, we'd transitioned from a covert sneak-and-destroy campaign of infiltration, misdirection, and subterfuge against the Empire to a major plane-wide war fought by flying battleships, culminating in a massive battle between the most powerful vessels on each side. On the PC side, the F.T.F.^{(Flying Turtle Fortress)} Godzilla and the S.G.S.^{(Stolen Gith Ship)} Astral Dreadnought; on the Empire side, a similarly tricked-out Ship of Chaos flown by demons and the custom-built Star-Destroyer-esque Hammer of Nessus flown by devils. After a series of plane-hopping conflicts including a cat-and-mouse chase through Limbo, an ambush in Pandemonium, an attempted boarding action in the Quasielemental Plane of Vacuum, and a brief jaunt to the Far Realm, the PCs emerged victorious, though it was a very close call with lots of lucky rolls on both sides.

Now, most DMs, being relatively sane, might have said "Stronghold Builder's Guide? No way in the Hells!" or would have had it disallowed from the beginning. Some might have fiated their way around the PCs' protections and preparations or otherwise tried to make their plans fail to get "back on track" with the plot. However, it worked out very well for us, everyone loved the campaign, and they're still talking about it 4 years later. [/sblock]

 

[Grogg of the North]

I realize 1) is a common DM sentiment, and while I can appreciate the reason for the policy, I have never fully agreed with it. It seems to set up a DM vs. players environment. So I have never adopted it.

The problem I have run into in the past, and am having right now, is when a single player decides that they need to cherry pick powers/feats/spells because they want to "win" D&D and "defeat" the GM.

However, the rest of the players at the table, and my goal as GM, just want to have a good time with friends and tell a story together. Most of the people I have and currently play with tend to treat mechanics second to role-playing.

Yet despite trying to tell new players that "you don't need an AC of 50 and I won't put you in a situation where you have to have one" I sometimes find myself stuck with a player that needs his character to be able to punch out Asmodeus by level 8.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

There's a lot of broken stuff in the supplements, but what people really need to realize is that the most broken stuff has always been in the Core. I don't maintain a list of "approved" sources; I review rules that I am unfamiliar with in advance and reserve the right to ban or nerf anything I don't like.

So far, I've felt the need to ban very very few things, and more often than not because of the flavor of the rules than balance concerns.

 

[am181d]

I generally allow any official 3.5 D&D rule with Dungeon/Dragon magazines being a corner case. I clear other d20 stuff on a case by case basis.

For certain campaigns, certain d20 material may be in by default. For instance, in one campaign, I used a few of the Arcana Unearthed classes.

 

[Dandu]

Yet despite trying to tell new players that "you don't need an AC of 50 and I won't put you in a situation where you have to have one" I sometimes find myself stuck with a player that needs his character to be able to punch out Asmodeus by level 8.

Level 8?

Lame.

 

[Arkhandus]

I generally allow the core rulebooks plus most material from books I own, with some exceptions depending on the campaign (typically no FR material when running a different setting, usually no OA material when running a non-OA setting, etc.). I also sometimes allow material from other sources if the player can provide the book or an excerpt for me to review before I OK or veto the stuff they want to use from it. And I allow some homebrewed material on occasion, besides any homebrew material I may have made for the campaign myself (like the custom prestige classes I make for some settings).

But I consider most pieces of rules material to be a case-by-case thing; just because I allow material from Masters of the Wild doesn't mean I'll allow Frenzied Berserkers or Shifters from it, for example (at least not without serious alterations to nerf their abuseability). Though I don't discriminate between players or particular combos; if someone tries to make a broken combo, I'll just veto whichever part of it is most-problematic or houserule it to be more balanced.

 

[Ahnehnois]

There are rules that I don't allow, but I source from everything I can think of. The full range of official 3.X stuff, 3rd party, PF, TB, UA, etc.

Frankly, at this point I expect my players to come up with creative rules combinations for their characters, or write their own class on occasion if need be.

If something seems unbalanced or unfair, I try to fix it if it can be saved.

That's the beauty of 3e. It's a toolbox. Pick what you need and use it.

 

[delericho]

PHB/DMG/MM
Spell Compendium
Magic Item Compendium

If running in Eberron, any Eberron book.

If using Psionics, the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

And no prestige classes.

 

[HoboGod]

I allow all WotC material excluding dragon magazine and campaign setting books (like Oriental Adventures) unless I'm running that campaign setting. Everything else I ban not because I'm worried about my players "breaking the game" and "getting too strong," but rather because I'm worried they aren't being useful. I don't fear powergamers, I fear the gamers that build wacky homebrew characters that focus on being a rabbit.