I have a question about how DM's play their game. Do you allow characters to have whatever it is they want or do you limit the game a bit more? I have played in a lot of games and the one I had the most fun in was one where the DM was extremely limiting. He would not allow evil characters, he would not allow starting characters to have higher than an 18 in an attribute, and the list goes on. For instance, I wanted an eastern style armor and he told me that I could have it, but I would have to pay someone to travel to Tian Xia to get the armor as it was not available in the area we where in. It made my armor feel more exotic and worthwhile. Ultimately the campaign felt like a challenge.
Since this time I have started to limit characters who play in my game. They resist at first, but in the end they have a lot of fun and the games tend to last much longer.
Back to my original question, do DMs limit their players or just allow them to make whatever they want? Will you let a player get a campaign trait from a campaign that you are not playing, or a feat/spell that is in some obscure book? Do you allow third party feats/spells?
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PCs in my game can be created using all Paizo material. 3PP material is allowed only with GM approval. I use PFS starting gold; everyone starts with 150 GP. I used to use a 20 pt buy but in my most recent game we've rolled stats and I think I'll stick with that.
After the game begins the restrictions happen. PCs roll into an area and get whatever resources are there. I have no "magic marts" or wholesale magic item shops, so hopefully the PCs have a way to reliably create their own consumables early in the game.
For instance last night the players wanted to buy a bunch of druid scrolls since 2 of the PCs are druids and one's a hunter. I was like "Great! Now just find the wizard in town that scribes scrolls and pay her to sit and help you make these things, paying full price and spending the time to craft." When my players were a bit taken aback I explained that there's no druid circle in town churning out scrolls so therefore they shouldn't count on these things just sitting on a shelf for them.
Now this isn't to say that they can't EVER have nice things. Like your eastern armor, if there's something cool they want that isn't available where they are the PCs can always use skills, abilities, powers or even quest for the things themselves in order to locate them. I also hand out a free skill rank at creation usable for a Craft, Perform or Profession skill only. This represents a chosen vocation the PC had before they took up the life of adventure. I wholeheartedly encourage PCs to exploit this skill in any way possible for gear and such.
For example if a PC wanted some unique book and had Profession: Woodcutter I'd have them speak with other woodcutters and network; they could also offer to barter wood for service crafting the device; they could even say that they're going to seek out a special tree that a crafter can use to turn into the book and work it into the current story as a side quest.
I'm a bit opposite of that. I had a character in one of my games named Tantus. He ruined rolling stats for me. He rolled 4 18s, a 17, and a 16. The rest of the game was Tantus vs the world. In order to make the encounters a challenge I had to throw encounters at the party that were well above their level. This meant that the game was basically Tantus and his group of toadies. The rest of the party stopped having fun.
After DMing only one game and participating as a player in four others, and seeing how things interact with that small bit of experience...
I have set my DM rules as allowing all PF sources for race & class, no winged races, no 3rd Party material, no Gunslingers, Traits only if you do a backstory and the backstory supports those Traits.
The only set limits we usually play with are:
- No Guns (probably tech in general now)
- No 3rd party material without expressed consent, in triplicate ...
- Limited list of racial choices (CRB + Aasimar + Tiefling usually)
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As a GM I do what I think is best for the campaign, per group, to try to maximize the fun for everyone involved
Things that I might limit for one particular group of players, a certain AP, module or setting, might then be allowed under different circumstances
As a GM I do what I think is best for the campaign, per group, to try to maximize the fun for everyone involved
Things that I might limit for one particular group of players, a certain AP, module or setting, might then be allowed under different circumstances
What he said. I tend to ban the android race plus a few others and most tech items. But if and when we play Iron Gods the android and tech are back in.
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I generally go with stat-buy, but I'm looking to start rolling stats next campaign. I allow all Paizo material on the caveat that it doesn't end up becoming something which grinds the game to a halt (Summoning multiple monsters with different stats, Sacred Geometry, I'm looking at you!).
When it comes to character creation I have a write-up for the campaign and request players make a character that makes sense to exist where they are.
Back to my original question, do DMs limit their players or just allow them to make whatever they want? Will you let a player get a campaign trait from a campaign that you are not playing, or a feat/spell that is in some obscure book? Do you allow third party feats/spells?
I generally allow most sources, unless I can see something ridiculous about it on a single read-through. Traits included, usually. I mean what's the logic in restricting them if the player can reskin it? "Sorry, we're not playing Carrion Crown, you can't get +2 to damage against skeletons. Nope, writing it into your character history won't help." I have no problem with, and in fact encourage, options I've never seen before. I mean, every game is a play test, if you think about it.
I would consider myself a very open minded GM.
I try to stick with PFS rules, no crafting, no pvp, no evil.
I encourage people to play classes they never played before and to experiment, I usually make my own setting and campaigns and I inform everyone about the limitation/special rules will be in place to fit with the settings and the game mechanics.
It really depends on the kind of game that I'm trying to run. My first instinct is the usually allow the players to build whatever they want and adjust the game to work with the characters. This is useful for a few reasons as it makes the players happy and the players have a way of letting you know what the want to do in the game with their character concepts. This takes a lot of pressure off me as a GM to work out what will be a fun and interesting game.
However, I do sometimes apply creative restrictions to help set a tone for the game. A bronze age game, a sci-fi games, and a lovecraftian horror game have very different needs.