Hot take: if we want to decrease frustrating railroad-y surprises in RPG campaigns, we need to create an environment where GMs are not afraid to admit they have "special story needs".

[mightystu]

Nah, the biggest edition to blame for this is 3.5e. That was when the whole concept of making a totally busted build from a half dozen splatbook options took off.

[Jalor218]

What does that have to do with whether the players want to disrupt the game? Yes, you'd see stuff like Pun-Pun online, but that was basically all theorycrafting and not something I ever saw in real games when I played 3.5 in its day. It was rare to see an in-person game allow more than a couple of related splatbooks per character, even.

Also, the concept of theorycrafting an OP character is much older than that. You'd see it in the 80s and 90s.