Disclaimer: This is NOT to start canon war over what is or is not "official" in the OTU. If we could NOT talk about OTU canon in this discussion, that would be AWESOME.
When you are GMing a game, what books do you consider canon for YTU? What books, if any, do you allow unrestricted access to? Do you eagerly incorporate each new supplement, or pick and choose between them? What is your GMing style, and how and why does your approach work for you?
For myself, I allow unrestricted access to TMB, Scout, Scoundrel, Agent, all vehicle and spaceship books, and all 3I setting books. Alien supplements, CSC, and careers from the other books are generally allowed with my approval. High Guard is in-between; I'm more lenient with it than Mercenary, but I still want to look over characters before I let my players run with them. Psion and third-party supplements are forbidden, and I reserve the right to retcon anything in the OTU into or out of existence. For tech, I cap it at 12-13, 14 for high-tech planets like Mora and if the party has military or noble connections.
I tend to buy the supplements as I can afford them and incorporate them as I read them. 1,001 Characters is a good starting point for quickly generating NPCs and drop-in players, so that gets the most use out of any other supplement. I prefer to run civilian over military campaigns, so those books tend to be higher priority than Military Ships/Vehicles (I do not know what I did without the Fast Trader OMG.)
My play style is fast and loose, and I generally don't have an overarching plan, but regular story seeds to gum up whatever the players are trying to do. After my last group managed to avoid all six (different!) story points three sessions in a row, I just threw out my notes and started winging it based on whatever the players want to do. We keep eachother on our toes, and it's a very casual, fun, yet still intense experience.
So there's my novel. Your turn!
When you are GMing a game, what books do you consider canon for YTU? What books, if any, do you allow unrestricted access to? Do you eagerly incorporate each new supplement, or pick and choose between them? What is your GMing style, and how and why does your approach work for you?
For myself, I allow unrestricted access to TMB, Scout, Scoundrel, Agent, all vehicle and spaceship books, and all 3I setting books. Alien supplements, CSC, and careers from the other books are generally allowed with my approval. High Guard is in-between; I'm more lenient with it than Mercenary, but I still want to look over characters before I let my players run with them. Psion and third-party supplements are forbidden, and I reserve the right to retcon anything in the OTU into or out of existence. For tech, I cap it at 12-13, 14 for high-tech planets like Mora and if the party has military or noble connections.
I tend to buy the supplements as I can afford them and incorporate them as I read them. 1,001 Characters is a good starting point for quickly generating NPCs and drop-in players, so that gets the most use out of any other supplement. I prefer to run civilian over military campaigns, so those books tend to be higher priority than Military Ships/Vehicles (I do not know what I did without the Fast Trader OMG.)
My play style is fast and loose, and I generally don't have an overarching plan, but regular story seeds to gum up whatever the players are trying to do. After my last group managed to avoid all six (different!) story points three sessions in a row, I just threw out my notes and started winging it based on whatever the players want to do. We keep eachother on our toes, and it's a very casual, fun, yet still intense experience.
So there's my novel. Your turn!
In particular, GM decisions consider at least two things 1) is this thing conducive to good game balance and 2) is this thing biased towards the game being a game or a simulation?
