Bad World Building Hurts Players

#dnd #dnd5e #5e #rpg #ttrpg #tabletopgaming #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonmaster #gamemaster #dndshorts #roleplaying #tabletopgaming #criticalrole #dndtips #dndadvice #dndplayer #dndcharacter #gaming #tabletop #thatguy #fantasy #worldbuilding #roleplaying #roleplayinggames #characterdesign #charactercreation #imagination #improv #worldbuilding #redflag #rpghorrorstories #dndhorrorstories #homebrew #dndhomebrew

[@tonyb9290]

I got one: basically no dwarves. Why? Ask the players, they know what they did… poor dwarven kingdom didn’t stand a chance against player shenanigans and bad luck

[@MrTurtleThief]

Imagine your Nat 1 deletes an entire race of people 😭

[@Blabla_tomatos]

Skyrim?

[@ConstantChaos1]

Or make certian natural metals required tor Karsus's Folly and curse all natural metal deposits. This means only magically created metals exsist that don't drive you insane. Warforged are all made with natural metals so they went mad, only the elite have metal weapons and only the most elite have guns There thats thr entire lore patch required to turn this from railroading to story building

[@digitaljanus]

​@@MrTurtleThief Genodice

[@tonyb9290]

im trying so hard to not make this reply a book lol Basically result of five campaigns where things just didn’t go right for anyone. One campaign the bbeg who was a former PC just doing what the player set out for her to do, she was quite pleased with the carnage. Also result undead were everywhere in a very bad way. In the end the dwarves had dragons, kobolds, orcs, goblins, undead and elves relentlessly attacking them while they were cut off from their allies and trade partners. Supplies running out, population dropping rapidly, what little forces they could muster were barely enough to slow the onslaught. So, they went into the deep and took their chances digging down. Maybe they will decide to try to get them back one day in campaigns future, I hope so because dwarves is one of my favorite fantasy race.

[@kainzow45]

I like the Brennan approach: 1) Build the world setting to provide your players 2) Players build their characters based on your choices 3) Build more of your world based on their choices Repeat 2 and 3 until everyone is ready to play.

[@arianall]

I did this and even had discussions with my players on it but one of them has changed it 5 times even asking if an npc that i worked so hard to make could be dead as a part of their backstory

[@jiggycalzone8585]

@@arianall Could roll with it-- the npc WAS dead, but came back. It makes the PC lowkey uneasy. Maybe that NPC isnt (or wasnt) the *real* NPC...? Then tell them to stfu

[@LocalMaple]

That’s what I do too!

[@lordfelidae4505]

That’s how I desire to do all my games

[@raideranimator6091]

Brennan Lee Mulligan proving to be the worlds greatest dm once again

[@Independentfellow]

Insane warforged in the past sounds like an excellent reason to have a warforged character.

[@zarrotechgeek]

The reason is simple. The DM played Kenshi and liked the idea

[@captainwoolbeard2447]

Wait, people have to be reminded to do this?? Usually I spill out the lore dump *before* carrying out restrictions

[@alexdillahunt6908]

Or at the very least, allow the players to discover why as they progress.

[@ConstantChaos1]

Yeah like make certian natural metals required tor Karsus's Folly and have mystra/mystril curse all natural metal deposits. This means only magically created metals exsist that don't drive you insane. Warforged are all made with natural metals so they went mad, only the elite have metal weapons and only the most elite have guns There thats thr entire lore patch required to turn this from railroading to story building

[@Merilirem]

Should at least assure them there are reasons and let them look into it if they want. Not just say no to Guns.

[@jamestaylor3805]

Everything that doesn't spoil the plots of that particular campaign should be shared.

[@nojusticenetwork9309]

​@@Merilirema DM is fully in their right to say no to anything. Not everything needs some lore reason to ban. It can be as simple as they just don't want them. Players are free to disagree but a DM should be allowed to have fun and not every piece of material or player option is fun for them.

[@luccolyer3673]

As a DM for my group I told them that in my campaign they wouldn't be able to play any dragonborn/similar races or be able to speak draconic due to my lore of a 500 year old war between the dragons and humanoid forces, since I explained it before session 0 they were able to come up with character ideas that fit into the world, the fact that so may people still don't do a session 0 for long campaigns shocks me

[@jamestaylor3805]

I have always suggested a printed sheet to each player at recruitment (before session 0) with any hard restrictions that are specific to the campaign and the relevant lore reasons behind them. This gives the player more guidance on what ideas to bring to session 0 from the start. This let's session 0 have more time to finish character ideas and letting players develop their inter-PC relationships before session 1.

[@FalkonNightsdale]

Right now I'm heading home to get on videocall with friends I play for several years… We play in adapted Burning Wheel (I play dwarwen prince, who is the sole survivor of his keep being slaughtered, when he was just a young, 40y old child). My character is a result of like 16 hours of playing 1-on-1 some minor stories, that affects eho my character is and what skills he possess… And even then - due to some alchemy side effects, I have permanent injuries, that shifted me from being based paladin-brawler/medic with basic magic (gold-based) into commander that starts fights with small destructive spell, than tell others what to do and meditate afterwards to comune with The Holy Forge to refil goldpoints used in spellcasting…

[@AvangionQ]

All the Warforged went mad, except the player's one who was in a shelter when the plot happened that made the rest of them all go mad, and now they have to live in a world where everyone expects mad Warforged but you're still holding onto sanity ... would be an interesting backstory.

[@Dragowolf_Rising]

Going to great lengths to pretend you're not warfarged could be fun as well.

[@AvangionQ]

@@Dragowolf_Rising Believing you're not the species you think you are is an interesting backstory as well, not limited to Warforged.

[@ConstantChaos1]

Just tie naturally occurring metals to Karsus's Folly so all natural metals were cursed Only magic metals are usable

[@ToTheKneeProductions]

​@@Dragowolf_Risingyou can pretend to wear plate armor but its actually just your body

[@AvangionQ]

@@ConstantChaos1 Warforged in Forgotten Realms? Thought this was about a homebrew world.

[@willc3697]

In my main campaign, I told my players that the story was taking place only a week after a giant, country-wide war had ended. My friend asked me about Warforged, and I told them that in this world, a sentient Warforged was looked at with confusion and surprise, since they were originally built for service and warfare(hence the name). So, my player came up with an idea for a Warforged Druid who was originally a standard battle unit but was abandoned in the forest after being defeated, but was reanimated by a forest spirit that gave it sentience and a personality. And that is how you do both world building and creating a character around said world.

[@tr4ktr4k45]

That's true but even if DM is spilling out the lore to specify which races are not available and why, some players are still not going to care enough to read Me, the DM: "Aight here's the world map, we've got seven major "regions" here, but only four are officially inhabited by intelligent species And here's the list of "local" races for each of these four regions, btw a couple of PHB races are not present here at all, please keep it in mind" Player A: I'll be a tiefling (tieflings are not on the list at all) Player B: I'll be from uninhabited region (lore-wise it was abandoned ages ago because of deadly cold weather) Player C: I'll be a half-orc (also not on the list AT ALL) ...and I want there to be two sub-races of orcs and half-orcs, long-tusks and wide-tusks, and they are at war against each other... can you do that? **proceeds to provoke PVP during the first session and dies after I've been implementing these orcish inner wars into lore for several days** Sorry, REALLY needed to vent

[@piotrwisniewski70]

Some players just don't care about the lore, and some are assholes Also, sorry for your lost campaign, it must suck

[@salvadortoscano2534]

Condolences to the shelving of an awesome world idea, friend. I had a similar experience: I made a world, with restrictions on goliaths. The race is basically full isolationist due to near-religious devotion to their God, so venturing into the outside world isn't necessarily forbidden but it's basically a social taboo because *why* would you do that?? So you *can* be a Goliath, but you need a damn good reason to basically break a religious and social taboo to do so. This is part of my lore. Two friends started this campaign with me: one read the lore, 2 pages in my primer I made (it was 25 pages, the 23 remaining pages were race info like features and even height and weight) and made 3 characters, one of which was a Goliath who wanted to go on a crusade to rid the world of the "evil" that their god died to ages ago, so basically a crusade. The other character only made a Goliath barbarian, with his reasoning being, "he's a cook, and he wants to make food." I told him he couldn't have that character because the reason as he presented it wasn't impactful enough to break a taboo for. He asked why, I asked if he read the lore; he said no because the primer was too long to read. I said, "read the lore." He never did, and keep in mind I *told* both of them there would be some restrictions on character creation, and both agreed. So, I made him change his race to human, BUT I let him have the Goliath's damage mitigation ability because the D&D MTG crossover book Mythic Odysseys of Theros basically gave precedent to giving humans non-human racial features. He quit after 4 sessions because he couldn't understand why *he* was getting targeted by all the monsters (as the BARBARIAN) and not my other friend who chose to run with a tiefling warlock (not hexblade). Sometimes the players just won't fit with the guidelines you set, and you can't really change it. It's sad, but if no one's having fun then it's best to part ways. PS: My other friend that read the lore has made 3 additional characters and we're continuing the campaign, because the other lore I had for the world he finds super interesting and he wants to see what I have planned.

[@riithewordsmith]

Oof. Been to a similar place. World of Darkness though. "You all are mercenaries, so please plan your character accordingly." "K my wife and I are playing brother and sister mages who are literally children!" "Imma play a regular human who owns a yoga place." Other two... Could've been fine with different context, but didn't help steer things back in the right direction. Campaign derailed because I couldn't really come up with a good reason for why the mayor was trying to force this discordant group of misfits to work together to solve the city's worst secret problems, at least not... Making it up as I went.

[@heyitsjustaz]

@@riithewordsmith Can we switch groups? Mine always goes more like: "Okay I want to focus on personal horror so I don't want you guys to be combat monsters." Player 1) "I'll be a sharpshooter cop." Player 2) "I'll be a famous martial artist." Player 3) "I am a teenager who loves his mom." Me: "Oh thank god one of them understands." Also Player 3) "He's secretly a serial killer." Me: "Let's play D&D instead."

[@Necroes]

No offense, but I feel as though you need to learn what the word 'no' means, and when to make use of it.

[@frankmachado4142]

Damn, if the DM explains the lore beforehand, the players can create a backstory thats completely connected to that world. Want to play a warforged? Ok, just have un mind that you need to explai why your warforged acts different than the others and what he wants to accomplish towards your robot brothers, there! Nice backstory integrated to the DM plans and that eill make the player fill important

[@jamestaylor3805]

May set the qualifier that once a player has learned some of what happened(enough to write a backstory which explains how they avoided the event) they may from then on play a warforged on subsequent characters.

[@P4rz1va1]

The DM is most likely new and inexperienced, or had a bad experience with these things in the past. And rather than just say "no, I don't want to let you do that" they came up with a quick explanation that they thought sounded legitimate. I can see how that would be frustrating to a player, but if they can't have fun without using those things, they should probably just join a different game, or offer to run one themself (and see the host of problems that come with running a game).

[@cowinjapanese6896]

I feel like a lot of players also come to a table with a character already made, and get mad when it doesn't fit the lore of the homebrew world

[@monkeibusiness]

The DM aint your bitch, after all...

[@halfknight2310]

Problem is. The dm not giving them a world to work with to MAKE a backstory. It’s team thing. A group activity. It’s on both sides to make a fun yet coherent world. (Dm doesn’t need to reveal everything but the basics of the world. Then let the Players make something. Allow players to ask and even convince the dm to let them do stuff. Or the dm can say no. But it needs cooperation .

[@insaynt9924]

In addition to what the other reply said, (Basically, pitch your world before they make the characters, which I agree with) You could also try suggesting that they have about 2 or 3 character sheets ready. Chances are at least one of those ideas will fit your world, And the ones that don't could give you ideas for another game. Also be willing to adapt. If you're not willing to shift things around a little bit to suit the players maybe that's also the problem. Try to have a variety of ideas in your head so that you can be more flexible.

[@KeyboardTarantula]

this is why you explain the limits of your world BEFORE inviting them into the campaign.

[@DoctorOaks]

​@@KeyboardTarantula Nah, I'd argue it's a session 0 thing. If you have a character concept you've been wanting to try, you should be bringing it up to the DM. It should be on the player to ask these things prior if restrictions are going to be a deal breaker for them. "I'm not going to let you be X, Y or Z" isn't something you'd expect someone to tell you if they're pitching an idea for you to play. If you want to know if there's any restrictions on race/class/etc then you have plenty of opportunities to ask before session 1.

[@zeflowerdemon8866]

This point is similar to the "dm-ing is railroad its just railroading skillful so that it dosent feel restrictive"

[@Demonwalkerproductio]

Any "What" can work as long as your "Why" works with it and works consistently. For the warforged thing, for example, if the DM has an answer and the whole thing is figuring OUT that "Why" and maybe trying to fix it as a sideplot to the main plot? Cool. But if there is no "Why" then just... Don't have Warforged. They're already kinda-slightly tacked on to the given DnD lore, you're allowed to just... Not include them in your game if they don't fit the vibe you want.

[@kylewilliams2943]

When I’m restrictive my why is… I’m stupid, I can’t remember everything so I restrict my game so I have to know less… this is so we’re not spending every session looking up rules giving us time to actually play the game!

[@Cinderblocksally]

Stupid Restrictive Dungeon Master

[@thrawncaedusl717]

Agreed. Imo, any race you add needs a cosmic connection to have a reason to exist (there is a reason humans are the only species in their niche, it takes specific fantasy reasons to justify not having that be true). Honestly, most fantasy with multiple fantasy races is a turn off to me because it indicates a lack of thinking through the actual history (something like LotR or The Witcher is the exception that proves the rule). I prefer systems that don’t have playable fantasy races.

[@jamesduncan4105]

​@@thrawncaedusl717 I tried to limit race for my players for this very reason. I say if they want to go beyond my limits then I need a good reason why they would exist

[@jk2782]

This is legit an issue for me too. When I was starting, I asked to have no casters so I didn't have to remember every spell while making dungeons, traps and characters for the game.

[@michaelcampbell7037]

You were the chosen one Kyle

[@fiddlewheelx]

One of my favorite ways to build a world is to do a FATE thing, where I set the main framework, but then the players get to add some aspects and traits to the world (I make sure they fit in together, and then let them know if I changed something a bit drastically, and tell them why I did so).

[@briankeeler2508]

I think Dr. Strangelove said it best. "Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH?"

[@dozeropolis2219]

Ok but realistically would their characters immediately know why? I feel like that’s part of the world building is discovering the reasons why things are the way that they are IN character

[@palatonian9618]

Great takes. In a fantasy world with magic, if "no you can't do that" keeps coming up over and over again, something wrong somewhere

[@asheronwindspear552]

The PC'S Warforged could easily be the exception that was brought back to sanity, with exploring their backstory as a tool to help explain why they went crazy in the first place.

[@AEther0238]

I started a new campaign recently. The premise is that it takes place on a small, but porous world with a rich and diverse Underdark. A few thousand years ago, some devestation vermin burst forth and basically ruined society. The game is set in a post apocalyptic world, with the remnant of humanity surviving underground. I said the races common to this world are Underdark themed races, such as Deep Gnomes, Drow, etc. I made a few homebrew races for this game. But one of my players really wanted to be a Harengon. So I said "Fuck it, sure, you're an extra terrestrial from a far away world, with the far traveller background." Another player really wanted to be a Devil-descended Tiefling from the Nine Hells. Made another backstory for them. One by one, all the other players picked races not from my setting. The few who didn't, saw that everyone else was, and was like, "I want that", and so they did. Now the campaign plot has drastically changed, and it's largely about illegal aliens immigrating to this planet, and the socio economic problems associated with xenophobia. Which was not at all what I had planned. Point is, when your players don't follow your setting, maybe try just letting them? Might make a cool new story.

[@MichaelBW-bn9gf]

I understand your reasoning and doing that but here's the thing I want to have fun too. You okay socioeconomics game? Sure, that sounds fun for you. But having to effectively rewrite every last bit of lore to appeal to a player then having to rewrite the entire narrative plot of the game because other players got pissy and switch their characters. That sounds like too much of a ballache. That's the thing. It has limitations that the story can grow around, but effectively ripping out each narrative limitation and then having to come up with a new one does not undermine the entire original purpose of your campaign and you go from exploring this cool interesting post-apocalyptic setting to oh. They will not let the illegal immigrants in and give him the same rights as legal citizens leave us fight against the evil abrasive system. To me, that sounds like a lot more boring and watered down what you were originally offering all because some players refused to play by The narrative guidelines.

[@AutkastKain]

In Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, there has been 1000 years of rulership under one bad guy emperor and almost no technological progress was made cuz he suppressed it to maintain power. Great reason for no progress

[@unnamedenemy9]

I am a big believer in having restrictions to make a world feel more real -- worlds where you can be any race and any class in any place or time just as easily have no texture or sense of verisimilitude and seem really bland as a result -- but there needs to be a reason. In my first campaign i banned most races and all divine casters because the gods were missing and believed dead, and because races simply aren't represented evenly across the world, for instance.

[@nerdyguygamer]

I've a lot to say about this so im going to pull out my soapbox here. As a passionate DM with full lore docs for how the world was created and how each city is formed, when you create the world it should be about the story you want to tell your friends and not the character creation bans you want. For example aasimar arent playable in my world because the gate of heaven are closed and no angels exist in the mortal plane. On the opposite angelic end the devilish Tieflings are warlocks who worshipped the fallen angels so they are common. I write an introduction in my table rules about this. It tells the tale of heaven closing its gates as men worship the last angels who then fall to darkness. Its awesome! But its not about whether aasimar would provide a more 'powerful' build for the player characters, its about the STORY you wish to show to your friends.

[@raymondbrasuell2564]

Why can very few people use firearms? Because they're fairly difficult to make and are reserved for the military elite, kinda like with samurai and katanas. Why has technology been stagnant for 500 years? Because after the Warforged went mad, people stopped innovating for fear of history repeating itself. The "what" doesn't matter anywhere near as much as the "how" and "why"

[@scraprat8843]

Whenever a DM tells me no guns and no bombs because it's fantasy, I point out Firearms exist in the Fearun and have since roughly the start of the setting. They're very rare, the Church of Gond has a near-monopoly on their production. and then they always say he doesn't exist.

[@mordisgaminggedons5119]

got very rare Guns too. but my reason is, Gunpowder can only be harvested in magical pirate islands and the local Merchants have a monopole on Ammo. its not that hard to tell people why Things are as they are!

[@hawluchag7305]

Omfg, I think this is the best advice I've ever heard. As a DM, you should be able to allow or not allow almost anything in your world/game. There's definitely a line, and that line is "am I able to give a good explanation as to why," be that mechanics or lore or whatever

[@skycastrum5803]

I’d disagree, because the reason it’s not allowed does not need to be lore. It’s perfectly acceptable for a DM to just not want things at the table. However... a DM should be able to come up with something. If they can’t, then there are other larger problems.

[@Kyodie-bz1sf]

Very true! I'm currently running a dark fantasy campaign where a lot of restrictions are placed on characters but I gave serious explanations on each facet of the world and my players were cool with it. They made characters that mesh well with the setting and its ended up a great game as a result

[@TheGreyTurtleEntertainment]

I had a thing where in a homebrew world i build, dnd was used as a framework with new lore and backstories for pretty much every race. There were no warforged because this world did not have people capable of building such technological magic (because oppresive bbeg preventing that sort of development) Howecer there was an ancient race of robots who arrived on the world long before civilization and sometimes they just woke up with little to no knowledge of who they were before hand but had a deep connection with the ancient tech that was sometimes found.(There was more extensive backstory but suffice it to say as long as they adhered to these rules then player could effectively play a warforged in all but name) Player got pissed that they werent playing a stock standard warforged despite ahead of time everyone being on the same page about it being a heavily homebrewed world, and i effectively handed them a lore document that explained exactly what was different and why, and eventually left because they refused to discuss things and instead used a mutual friend ( and player) as a go-between. All of this is to say sometimes it truly is the DMs fault, and sometimes its the player being too picky for their own good- putting their personal character narrative above the story and experience as a whole.

[@joecrawford1999]

My amazing DM's campaigns are all in one consistent world so each of our campaigns are canon events. So his reasoning for certain restrictions are "that race/magic/technology hasn't been discovered/made yet". I love it. Everytime we discover a new race/magic/technology in a campaign I get so excited because it is unlocked for future campaigns and the duration of that campaign.

[@williambowen8054]

Mistbourne's world Scandrel doesn't advance in tech for 1000 years due to an oppressive immortal ruler.

[@waterzila1074]

A good way for the bbeg of a world we're warfoge have gone mad would be a wizard that controls them through magic

[@rabbidninja79]

Or maybe it was a failing in their design. Even though they are effectively immortal they were created to serve for a limited amount of time, they were disposable troops after all. Tldr: warforged had a y2k bug.

[@tbug50]

I gave my player a good reason why he couldn’t play a goblin, he wasn’t satisfied

[@PrMultivers]

As a DM, I got a campaign with a big character restriction. No divine magic. So no cleric, no paladins, no divine soul sorcerer or celestial warlock. But I explained why and it was a big part of the setting and plot. After one of those classic stories of a mortal becoming too arrogant, the gods challenged him... And the mortal won. Being sour losers the gods basically declared "Well, if you are so great, you clearly don't need us!" and all the gods abandoned mortals completely for a thousand years. A huge part of the campaign was to bring back the gods or at least divine magic to deal with a new threat.

[@opalEDM]

That’s why my first game dming was an amnesia campaign; I don’t have to worry about my players broken builds if I know exactly how all of them tick!

[@kooolainebulger8117]

most questions in my setting can be answered by "yes, and..." or "no, but..."

[@WilcrezTheWanderer]

I was invited to play in a campaign in a huge city where the variety of species/races was immense. Most of the players had already played fantastical stuff. I made a planetouched: an Undine Wizard with an Elemental School (water), per the rules in the books I was told to use. And then I was simply told, "No." When I asked why, the DM said something about genies, but planetouched aren't genies. In fact, I had built my character around the concept of being descended from Tritons. That old group has always shit on my character concepts for seemingly no reason, regardless of who was DMing. We were using stuff from across the entire spectrum of TTPRGs, and while one player would have a celestrial centaur with a homebrewed class, I pulled up the Risen Demon (basically a Tiefling with different flavor), and was told "No, you can't play an actual demon." As SOON as I tried to explain what a Risen Demon was, I was shouted down.

[@riithewordsmith]

Yes. This is exactly true. I've been playing in a campaign where wizards and artificers were off limits because of the setting - the world's connection to the feywild has been almost completely cut off, and magic is starting to die. Powers from a god/patron or heritage are still around, but you can't study magic. Paladins were also a no go for a thing the DM wanted to try with paladins being a singular champion for god type entities. As our players have gained favor with a particular god, they get extra paladin abilities on top of their actual class. That's been really cool. We've been playing multiple years and the feywild (and previously mostly unknown Shadowfell) just were snapped back into contact with the mortal realm. There's magic swells and everything is bad and it's a very intense period for us. The lack of wizards and whatnot really helped a lot to add to the drying out feeling the world had up to this point and made for a great contrast to the ahhhhhh happening now. The ban on three (3) classes (and several races due to... More reasons that would take a bit to explain but the tldr is "evil" races didn't exist yet until crap hit the fan) hasn't felt especially restrictive, even though I originally wanted to play a teifling paladin. Of course, my DM is a trusted story teller, so I could just make a totally different character and trust it would pay off and be fun, and it has.

[@racoonwithrabies]

Doing my first dnd campaing and the only thing we know about the world is that it is a fantasy middle age and any choice we make will affect it, i really like the fact that flirting and scoring a date with a tiefling led me to get the greatest health potion for free or that while on a quest kicking some mage's nuts revealed some of the lore of one of the players

[@girlwithtehface5880]

The thing I would add to this is, "Those are questions you can find answers to in the campaign," is a valid answer. If your DM is setting up restrictions for the sake of the party finding the answers, that could make for a fun campaign.

[@jamestaylor3805]

The plotline behind my one 'no dragonborn policy' is entirely tied up in the major background plot behind the campaign itself, I also drop the restrictions for players who have learned enough about that background plot to properly create a dragonborn's origin story in that world. Like with the Warforged example in the OP, once my players know why MOST warforge snapped they could write a backstory that avoids the corruption event.

[@girlwithtehface5880]

@@jamestaylor3805 Yes, this is a decent approach. And someone playing a Warforged character in a campaign like that needs to be aware of the repercussions of doing so in such a space. They'll likely have to hide themselves, present as an organic species somehow or risk being attacked or at least treated badly by society.

[@zachwalker9420]

If D&D level magic is available, it would be weirder for there to be noticeable technological change in only 500 years. We think that the way things work in the late 20th and early 21st century is normal, but constant technological advancement is pretty much new. The overwhelming majority of human history is the stone age.

[@hadows6936]

I follow the ideology of “tell me what you want to play so we can tailor the world to make it work” I have a player who wanted to play a ninja in a fantasy Viking campaign, so now there’s a portal to the shadowfell in a mineshaft where a Shadar-Kai ninja clan is spilling through 😄

[@greengoaot7955]

I feel like the warforged would be such a good character concept if they all went insane. Like imagine being a newly made warforged or one that never went insane and had to hide for many years, generations pass and many species except the ones who can live that long only know your kind as crazy only to find a new family and home with your party Ann’s or battle the stigma of being supposedly the last of your kind to be truly sentient. The pain and struggle you’d have to deal with as well as still really being able to have whatever personality you want cause it’d be ok to be broody with that past or using humor or a bully personality to cope with potentially 500 years of tragedy and resentment.

[@domenicfrankpatino8056]

I have a sci fi setting where warforged aren’t banned but in certain parts of the universe certain warforged like Juggernauts are illegal. A player can still play it but they need to recognize if they go to certain places it’ll cause a lot of unwanted attention if handled without any care

[@rabbidninja79]

I banned half-orcs from a setting i made. Nothing wrong or op with them, it was because in lore orcs were other humanoids (elves, humans, ect) that had fallen into willful cannibalism. This caused severe mutations and made them ugly and brutish. There can't be a half orc since it's an aquired "race". I did create the oni, which had all the stats of a half-orc to replace the half-orcs. There was also a time skip between campaigns, a 1500 year one. Technology didnt advance much due to what happened in the previous campaign (a massive meteor proto-goddess slammed into the main continent wiping out an entire country. This caused severe societal upheaval and brought innovation down for many years however some new technologies were created, like the warforged, guns, and other weapons of war.

[@jas6919]

Sounds ass

[@ob2kenobi388]

I had the gun thing in one of my games: My explanation was that guns (as well as many other pieces of "gnometech") are still in their alpha stages, where a nat 1 means the gun explodes and you lose a few fingers. Nobody trusts them yet. Cannons are used to defend cities and in warfare, but not guns. Really the only place where they're used (where most gnometech is used) is this one dwarvish/gnomish city where all this stuff is getting invented.

[@piotrwisniewski70]

I watched the video again, and I remembered one book that could answer the question about world with technology not changing In that book there was a cult of Black Faith that would kill any inventors who wanted to create any form of progress. They had strict rules and almost every nation had to apply to them. If the cult found an inventor working on gunpowder gun that had multiple barrels or used different kind of powder, he and his inventions would be eliminated This left the world in stagnation for hundreds of years, leaving people with golden age of piracy technology Also, some new inventions were made. For example one guy was working in the pirate hideout that no one knew about, or often inventors would work in remote villages, hoping that no one would notice fishermen with better boats that everyone else

[@partyrock4144]

Then steps in “Rev up Mow Down” a warforged with an arm mounted gatling gun that was brought online for reasons unknown to him. He wanders the plains as a bounty hunter looking for who or whatever brought him back and a companion that doesn’t mind a tin man.

[@tiredman99]

1: Firearms are a new technology which means there aren't a lot in use and the ones that are, are used by professional armies 2: Warforged went crazy due to some magical or mechanical flaw in their system 3: There's a powerful force keeping technological advancement from moving forward

[@ImNotGoodAtAnimation]

That Unite Move in the final stretch was so *good* holy crap

[@lazy2335]

Once ran a short campaign where the players where students on a field trip and I the dm spine through their teacher. But the teacher was a villainous individual so he would miss lead and miss inform the kids to further his goal. The players would role insight, investigation, history checks and when they would get information that contradicted the teacher it would lead to some really fun interaction.

[@Nommicus]

I heard a similar story from my housemate who is a GM. She had some character design rules that in game 1 she felt was a mystery to explain as that was a part of the story, and having a lot of complaints from one guy who wanted to play the restricted race.

[@Cassiopea525]

My players had no access to races that were constructs... because the timeline was too early! They met one of the first ever ones and loved it.

[@Wolfbane1677]

This is why I manage my life to have different sections of lore dumping, the first part of the lore dump is about the main essentials of the world, while the latter part is about minor details like how races react to each other. I do this so we can enter the campaign as soon as possible but if the players read more on the homebrewed lore then they can make their characters around that maybe even allow me to bring it in as a plot point.

[@dungeonsanddragonshomebrew3165]

I generally don’t act restrictive and with the way I set up my recent game it acts as a way to help with slow lore drops while player ignorance to things is explained in game by the previous lore

[@Allesef]

500 years spunds like a long time for technology to barely develop, but that's only by modern standards with the speed information can be shared. You might think magic could speed that up, but the existence of magic could affect technological progression adversely by making the more rudimentary stepping stone technology redundant.

[@unnamedenemy9]

Yeah, like why make these volatile, slow, shorter ranged weapons when you can easily enchant a crossbow to be just as good? Why bother with cannon when you can have a wizard or two throwing fireballs and they *don't* misfire or explode? Hell, things like heat metal are very basic spells that would make guns *catastrophically* fail. Technological progress isn't inevitable or linear, and it doesn't have to advance at the same speed it did for us because conditions here are different.

[@dorca9308]

there's an important lesson that all GMs should know, regardless of system. what might be god writing for other mediums doesn't always work for tabletop games, and vice-versa.

[@thrawncaedusl717]

I’m struggling a bit with this. I have a player who wants to be a warlock, but he wants to have a morally good patron, and all of the usual options are currently at war about who gets to enslave the mortal races. I don’t like limiting him, but this campaign was originally developed for a different group of players that he is now joining, and the whole point was a cosmic war where mortals need to play the cosmic forces against each other. I’ve found one celestial option (which itself is a stretch in the fiction of the world), but he wants a fiend or great old one that supports mortal free will, and that simply does not exist in my campaign.

[@Cinderblocksally]

The question to ask yourself is “it might not exist, but if it did - how would it?” What would it take for a fiend to be so changed as to want to help free will? Could that lead to an interest new ally or plot point in the cosmic war story? Worth thinking about.

[@bonzwah1]

The very first campaign I ever gm'd for, I wasn't familiar with DND 5e. So when the character started getting access to resurrection spells, I was caught off guard and I banned them because they didn't fit my vision of the world. I had a set idea of how my world worked and the history and thebaociety just wouldn't make sense if resurrection spells were readily accessible. - In retrospect, I could have let the players keep those spells and simply emphasized that they were uniquely the only ones that could use them. Or that they could only use those spells on each other. I could have been more flexible, and used it as an opportunity the make the players more special while maintaining the integrity of my world.

[@armageddon7432]

me with reasons for why tech hasn't advanced

[@rosscalhoun3389]

I can see the firearms thing easily coming down to militaries hoarding access to gunpowder, so players can only use what they steal/scavenge. But that's still something that should be conveyed.

[@nojusticenetwork9309]

But does a DM really need to have a lore reason for what they dont allow? Why does a DM have to justify their choices when THEY have to put in the lion's share of work to have a game ready to play? If players really need more than "because it doesn't work with what I'm planning/find fun", I really have to question that player. Sure a DM needs to have a decent sales putch for their game and SHOULD run a session zero every time, but a DM shouldn't have to be put on trial for saying "that's not allowed".

[@Cinderblocksally]

I don't think a Dm needs a lore reason to not allow something. i just think they need A reason if they want to come off as open and welcoming as a dungeon master. And a lore reason is often an easier sell, and can be fun to use as a tool in worlding building. But its totally fine to just say "I don't like running games for _____" or "I am not good at designing encounters for ____"

[@konradwright7725]

I totally empathize with DM’s that restrict races. Each race is basically its own society and history. Gets complicated quick. I ran a Human Fighter campaign and it was a blast. There were other races like dwarves and elves, but they’re in hiding bc humans move through life so fast they disrupted the balance.

[@linkboynine9814]

I had a DM like that. It wasn't so much that he was banning things as much as he had his campaign setting that he'd been working on and was very attached to the details of, but never shared his worldbuilding in a way that was particularly interesting instead of just restrictive to potential player ideas. So, when you brought a character idea to him, he'd say, for example, "In my campaign setting, dwarves don't have magic," which was fine, because my dwarven gunslinger didn't necessarily *need* magic to build a Monster Hunter style Heavy Bowgun. Buuut when he completely failed to progress my goal of adventuring to find materials to craft with AND was ominously hinting that he'd TPK our group using another player's character if we didn't get back to town before the full moon (without clearing this with said winter wolf werewolf's player first, natch. we were all level 1 btw. the ruleset was 3.5. I'll let ya'll run the calculations for that guys' ECL), I decided to roll up a changeling factotum (professional adventurer and jack of all trades) to replace the dwarf with, because our group needed someone to do rogue shit badly enough the dm had given us a temp npc to pick locks for us. ...only to yet again be hit with the "In my campaign setting, if ANYONE other than their one true love discovers they're a changeling, at ANY time for ANY reason, they are instantly teleported to the changeling home city and magically bound within city limits for the rest of their existence, by their god's decree" and then couldn't understand why I might, y'know, *want* to reveal to the party that I could, for example, cast Disguise Self at will, as a spell-like ability to look like the nobleman we were robbing. ...oh, and I didn't want to play a rogue because I knew based off a different campaign I'd played with him that, you guessed it, "in my campaign setting, ALL rogues are lawyers, and ALL rogues work in service of my homebrew goddess of Law" I was... not particularly heartbroken when that game fell apart before the next session happened.

[@d0mlyf322]

I almost always have firearms in my games but they usually come from a land that magic just doesn’t happen

[@MichaelBW-bn9gf]

Problem with that. Give him the reason and they still gripe. They want their cake and to eat it too.

[@stateofhibernation]

Been there... even little things where they put it into the world and they get upset we want to mess with it. Like when we found a gem in a mountain side... yea we're gonna try and get it! Oh or when the opposite happens and they offer cool stores and get depressed when we don't buy anything but its because we can't afford it! So many enemies who just didn't have money, little jobs that paid and when they did we had split it with eachother, oh and the gem in the mountain they didn't want us to have 🙃

[@dustindavidson8033]

I know the main rule of being a dm is the yes and rule. But every once in awhile a no but hidden as a yes and is perfect in certain situations,wanna one shot the bbeg, roll a d20, oh it wasnt a nat 20, the spell backfires on you. You cant break concentration because thats all you can think about as its happening to you. For example.

[@nineCryptids]

I hate restricting players unless it’s game breaking stuff or straight up going against the lore of the setting. So far one of our characters is an octopus in a mech, who plays functionally as a warforged

[@Fayanora]

Alternatively, you can leave it unexplained to start with and have it be a big mystery the players have to solve.

[@igormuller7306]

The world I've built for my 5th edition campaign has a strong limitation on the spell Teleportation. It's only possible to use it safely at specific locations, but then it can even traverse continents securely with the spell. There are special magical circles from a time before the young races, when only elves, dwarves, and gnomes roamed the world. The continents in this world are not separated by seas but by massive canyons that sometimes reach to the core of the planet, from which chaotic energy flows, seemingly uncontrollable. These energies make teleportation without circles virtually impossible.

[@rebeccacarr5154]

Where do they get water, and how does the planet not explode if the core is exposed?

[@igormuller7306]

@@rebeccacarr5154 "The edges of the rifts pile up into gigantic mountain ranges, causing most clouds to break against them. This results in most land masses on the continents being surrounded by water like islands. But even here, there are differences; for example, Scribatis has its 'Ink Sea,' which, although watery, cannot be used for agriculture. The black fluid is popular among all magically gifted individuals. This gives the continent a monopoly position, which is used to treat water expensively and force oases into the barren land, similar to Dubai or Las Vegas. I apologize if my initial explanation was unclear. English is not my native language, and I wanted to convey that there is no body of water connecting one continent to another. The core of the planet is made of chaotic energy, positive and negative in equal parts. As long as this balance holds, everything seems fine. Perhaps there was an attempt to change this energy, which gave the planet its current form."

[@jacknewquist6213]

Bethesda should really follow the advice here

[@AmaraQueenOfDice]

Honestly I think in a World where warforged are insane playing a sane war forged it'd be the same as playing one of the monster races you could also do a really cool thing and be a barbarian and like whatever that madness is takes over when you rage be pretty fun

[@magmati55]

I made my guns powered solely by crystals, because gunpowder was never discovered, because saltpeter is much more volatile.

[@HagathaHexMe]

What I like about my Spelljammer campaign is I don’t really have to worry too much about restricting my players or explaining the world to them. There’s hundreds of worlds! Any information that would be seen as exposition is instead pertinent knowledge the players seek to better fit in to the worlds they visit. And since the party is very Spelljammer, not one of our party is of the same race or even solar system, it’s fun seeing them think creatively to go about their business without getting all the attention. This world doesn’t have guns? Alright, the gunslinger swaps his guns out for crossbows. This planet doesn’t have orcs? Looks like our orc is getting a makeover! The cleric’s god doesn’t exist in this sphere? Sweet, time to find another god to be patron to the cleric while in this sphere.

[@rebeccacarr5154]

I love this!

[@ConstantChaos1]

This is easily explained. Its called metal madness and was an effect of the spell plague, all metal objects and beings caused an insanity buff/nerf (depending on if you use sanity or insanity as a stat) Carying such a metal focus3d object as a gun results in madness and tech hasnt been able to evolve because all natural metals were cursed with this, only magislly created etals can be use anymore as magc metals allows Mystril to ensure none can harvest the requisite materials to preform Karsus's Folly. Therr made a lore patch. Its that simple to institute bans with world building.

[@ivaniawren5014]

I tend to build pretty restrictive worlds, but always make it so that players can always be rare cases or exceptions. Right now I'm running a New Capenna campaign, a 1920's fantasy gangster world run by demons, and healing magic and options are *unheard of* but we still have a cleric who can heal, it's just that nobody expects her to be able to do it. Wanna play a tortle in a setting that doesn't have them? Maybe you're a human cursed into this form, or maybe tortles did exist and you're the last one. I find you can always keep your restrictive worldbuilding while finding ways for your players to still pay what they want to play, as long as everyone is willing to work together.

[@josephwatkins9350]

Yes thank you. This is a game where the only limit is supposed to be our imagination so when it is incredibly limited it is a sign that the DM has a limited imagination.

[@sanshinobi3664]

​@@josephwatkins9350 Restrictions breed creativity. While there is definitely a place for kitchen sink settings, cutting certain options out allows your setting to distinguish itself from every other open-air botanica.

[@josephwatkins9350]

@@sanshinobi3664 to an extent. When you are restricted from using one specific thing I can understand, but when the DM shuts down every decision you make without even having a reason it begins to feel like targeting. I've found out that while some DMs will limit decisions to expand on the lore there are also some DMs out there that won't even let you make a simple decision, or use a spell you have. I can understand having a few simple restrictions, but when a DM restrictions every decision you feel strapped to a rail like your on a rollercoaster. A good DnF campaign has decisions, and multiple things to branch out on. It should feel more like an RPG game with decision than a book that has the same events, and outcomes every single time. I do feel like having certain restrictions can encourage creativity, but there can be overly restrictive DMs as well.

[@happymanharp1378]

Nah: You can't be a warforged because they all went insane Ya: You can be a warforged but you have to fight against the corruption that is trying to make you go insane

[@good-sofa]

I'd still allow the player to make a warforged, i think it would be fun as hell to have them cover up their identity and stuff and maybe if they save the world they would uncover their identity and people would start to be more accepting of the warforged, there's a lot of potential

[@simondurso6743]

I do think the warforged could work with the insanity: My mind was transfered to a data strip to save my mind. My body was to be remade into a mighty soldier. They acomplished their goal but, they forgot about my mind, replacing it with a new one. For many hundreds of years, my mind sat in purgatory. Nothing to do nothing to experience. Only memories The only way I staved off insanity was eternal slumber slumber. I after my 300 year rest, I awoke to an inventor creating me a new body unlike my old one: this one was less advanced, with barely if any metal at all. Everyone I used to know are now either insane or dead. I feel it is now my duty to save the warforged from their fates. if only just one, I will save them.

[@tyrongkojy]

"Technology didn't advance." Um yeah. Don't think people realize just how much tech has advanced now compared to how it used to.

[@TarynBeeswax]

I've put very minimal restrictions on my campaigns. The first is in a dark era for technology, so artificers and warforged are out of the question. There are guns, but they're few and far between, moreso relics than actually effective weapons. Meanwhile the next campaign is set hundreds of years after the events of the first campaign, on the complete other side of the plane. In this one, wizards aren't allowed as the study of magic has gone to the wayside in exchange for the study of technology. Magic still exists in sorcerers and the like, but nobody's spending their life learning the components of fireball.

[@turningintoacrazydolphin1211]

It seems interesting to play a warforger in a world like that. What better way to explore the fact they went insane than to have a character related to that?

[@federicopalacios7439]

My first DM had an INSANE amount of lore, he would spend entire weeks writing lore for every little thing. We never found ANY of it, and all of his NPCs refused to say anything, they also didn't know anything whenever we asked. So in our perspective, he was just an asshole DM who purposedly screwed us over constantly, because we never understood why everything was so convoluted and why everyone hated us.

[@GremlinOfTheNorth]

I had a dragon born as a DM once I forgot to add more dragon born as NPCs I just made them rare while not so rare that they're treated differently

[@IndustrialBonecraft]

This isn't a DM, this is a writer that doesn't want to throw 700 hours into writing a novel.

[@antonoid2764]

I’m in a campaign where all our characters come from different points in the past but woke up in a dungeon. Only 1 character is aware as they are a ranger and it had only been a month. My character was from 700 years before, but our DM had a conveniently placed war that explained the lack of new technology.

[@michaelcampbell7037]

I have a hombrew world that has alot of restrictions including no magic, but I have spent alot of time changing/ making subclasses for martial characters along with working with my players to create hombrew classes that fit their idea and allow me to imbued them deeper into the world.

[@sanshinobi3664]

If you're going to keep magic out of your campaign setting, d&d might not be the rules that you're looking for, as that game is essentially balanced for everyone and their dog being a wizard.

[@michaelcampbell7037]

@@sanshinobi3664 Part of the plot will be magic creatures coming back into the world. There is a long backstory of why the creatures left the world to begin with, but I will be using them alot for enemies later on. I'm pretty much making my own system at this point that just pulls alot from dnd with alot of custom rules.

[@pepe-zj6cn]

If they all went insane, then there should be a cool story explaining why the player character is the only one that remained sane

[@giantpizzafish]

Also remember you only need two or three layers of reason: No warforged, because crazy, crazy because cursething, curse thing because mystery you can figure out later.

[@NojoJojo598]

One DM I had banned Reborns from a CoS semi homebrew campaign because they thought they were broken because of their lower rest time and their knowledge of the past skill

[@goodbro2046]

I only told one of my players: please, don't play a fairy in my first campaign.

[@specterman603]

Oooo I already have intresting answers in my head

[@philpocalypse6322]

If my DM was overly restrictive and couldn't give me valid reasons id just walk away from the table. Because at that point it feels like the DM is a control freak and will probably try to shutdown any creativity throughout the campaign.

[@diablo2048]

I MEAN 600 AC, we fought with Bows and Swords, 1200 AC we still fight with bows and swords.

[@jacobcrumpton4643]

guns: Either a burgeoning technology that is only available to high ranking military as a result, or gunpowder, and therefore devices that use it, it's a scarce resource, and is only allowed to be used in extreme circumstances. Warforged: All Warforged were connected to one central system. An anti-tech rebel grip group uploaded a virus to that system, resulting in the Warforged insanity time skip: take this one of 2 ways: A massive war that set technology back and this is a far as its managed to recover, or another event occurred that redirected 90% of research and resources, stunting technological growth Ala my hero academia with quirks.

[@freddyaxebear7547]

A group I played with was especially bad at banning things and it drove me crazy. For the most part they were power gamers, nothing inherently wrong with that but when you accidentally make a character stronger than someone with main character syndrome it gets rough. I personally got banned from playing rogues, barbarians, warlocks, and paladins. Short answer on them is rogues: firearms were allowed, rogues take aim bonus action, and climbing equipment. Essentially if I knew combat was coming I'd hide in a tree and stay there the whole combat not moving and just taking aim and sneak attacking every target within 30ft. Barbarian: multiclassed into fighter for fighting style: unarmed combat 1d8 unarmed attacks. Its a prison campaign I need no armor or weapons and the two spell casters are always wearing chinese finger cuffs. Warlocks: hexblade and bard with only buff and debuff spells. Paladin: the DM literally made the character for me with custom subclass, I designed the personality and backstory. An actual neutral good paladin.

[@JamesNiteJK]

World building idea built off the specs given a world where the industrial and technological revolutions backfired and caused damage to society as a whole, the perforated went insane due to humans(the most populace and dominant sentient species) attempting to upgrade the warforged with new technology, because humans aren't very bright, despite their intelligence, and guns are scarce, and considered legendary relics because a council of sentient species, (which is now disbanded after the chaos caused by the tech revolution) decided they were far to dangerous to be produced in massive quantities, and, consequently, 500 years later, the few guns left are nearly impossible to find, and are difficult to use because no one in current times was ever taught to use one.

[@Kristabombastic]

Instead of saying no, try saying "yes but". For example, Player: can I be warforged? DM: yes but most of them went crazy in the past, so most NPCS will fear you. Or Player: can I have a gun? DM: yes but it very difficult to hit things with it.

[@kassassin_brahgawk]

I told my PCs that humans were really rare and kinda looked at like plague carriers when we restarted my universe. The reason: one of the party members in the first campaign had a secret plague he didn't know about, taking out a fuck ton of people, majority being human based on where they were in the world. They fought hard to fix the plague results, but humans never fully recovered. The campaign takes place 300 years after the 1st party went missing. (I did this because I wanted to challenge my players to look at the other races capabilities, which worked out so well and fun for character concepts)