D&D@40 Blog Hop: Day 11

Around this point, things started to decline...

Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve.

Well, I never did any begging of this sort. I was most often a DM/GM, so usually I was the one who was being begged. I have to say the only time I was ever begged was when we were playing Rifts...and we all know that Palladium has basically vomited (for lack of a better term) sourcebooks, world books, etc. for that game over the years.

I was cool with the first few sourcebooks and world books. Heck, I was even cool with some later worldbooks, like the ones for the New German Republic and Russia (some cool tech in those). But some of the stuff was just horrendous. The England world book? F*ck the what?!? I don't even know what was going on with that travesty...you have to read through it sometime if you get a chance. Just...just really bad things in there...

I think the straw that broke the back of my Rifts-camel was when one of my players desperately wanted to be something called a "Dragon Slayer." This wasn't a class, it was a race...who people called Dragon Slayers. I guess because they were giants who really liked to slay dragons. The race had an actual name, but...were more often just called Dragon Slayers. Yep. Take a look at the scary guy pictured here:
 

"Uh...seen any dragons?"

Uh huh. Sure. Let's just throw him into the party with the cyborg, the leyline walker, and the Glitter Boy. He won't make things conspicuous at all!

It's a shame, because I think Rifts has some real potential. You just need to have a strict policy with players that the stuff in the splatbooks is to be strictly evaluated for appropriateness for your campaign, and that they shouldn't get their hopes up for playing anything they want to play with impunity. There's going to be standards set. Otherwise...Dragon Slayers.