Why are many DMs seemingly afraid, or at least opposed to allowing all content for a setting? Whether it be certain classes, prestige classes, races, or systems. Almost every DM I've ever met has certain things they don't allow.

Why?

Books are available as a pdf all over the internet for free so it can't be a lack of resources. Just a prejudice against certain things? That seems very arbitrary. I really don't get it.

Some of us have jobs and families.

Some official content is poorly balanced.

A GM might have a specific vision of their setting or style of play and disallow content outside it.

Some GMs are busy and want to limit content so keep the game simple.

I'm sure there are other reasons.

Might be for setting/concept conceits, might be for mechanical balance purposes, might just be they don't like dealing with a particular aspect of a game element and the easiest way to deal with it is to just not allow it.


There's a myriad of reasons a gm could have.

Anecdotally I'd say most restrictions I've seen have primarily been for mechanical reasons.  Either a gm thinks something doesn't jive with everything else, or they're only familiar with a particular swath of material and have a preference for not inserting something they're unfamiliar with which may end up being disruptive.

In reply to Winter51 (msg # 2):

That has literally nothing to do with it. I never suggested people devote their whole life to gaming. I have a job and a family too. I've just been gaming for 25 years and know much of the content by heart. The rest I've read at least a couple of times and wouldn't need more than a single read to refresh myself on.

I'm sure there are holes in my knowledge but thats what rule 0 is for. And to me gaming has always had the same prime directive no matter what ttepg I'm playing. Story>rules always.

Twenty five years?  Pffft!  Kids!

It all comes down to GM preferences.  Maybe the GM doesn't like the way certain things work, so he doesn't allow them.  Or a specific concept doesn't fit his vision of the game world.  Or maybe he just doesn't like the idea.  His game, his choice.

For example, I never liked psionics in D&D, so I don't allow those rules.  For any reason.  No matter how awesome the player thinks his character is, if it requires psionics, then the player will need to take his awesome character somewhere else.

And not everyone has time or energy to read all books once, let alone "at least a couple of times", and there are many player-facing books some DMs never read unless they need to look up a spell or class, etc. Time is a resource not everyone has to put into RPGs as much as they'd like - if you do, that's amazing, but many don't.

But other than that could be plot or story reasons, including that the standard races don't fit their view of the setting - such as DnD 5e having drow when previous editions had them as deeply seated in the evil monster race, which is where some DMs leave them.

As mentioned, there is also power creep - that affects most games eventually - as companies need to make their newer books stronger to entice players to buy them.

I would rarely say it is ever a fear, usually a preference not to have X in their game, whether it overpowers everything else or doesn't fit their idea of what the game is.
This message was last edited by the user at 09:07, Sat 05 Dec 2020.

I was just saying I don't get it. Different philosophies and all that. This seems to have severely offended some people though. I read very quickly and have a job that affords a lot of down time. Beyond that I've found that carving out time to read things I enjoy takes very little effort on my part and that's with a wife and kids.

Feel free to disagree but at least try to stay civil.