Rational request. Lots of people always advocate this extremely reasonable request of people. Be appropriately geared for the content you're running, especially if it's with strangers. And I say especially with strangers because you have zero right to walk into a situation wholly unprepared and impose your unpreparedness on everyone else there, it's rude, selfish, and extremely disrespectful. But that's ok, people who categorically refuse to take any personal responsibility for their own success or failure and seem to dump it at the feet of strangers won't see it that way, they're unable or unwilling to. The "Why can't we all just get along and do w/e with who ever no matter what they're wearing" line doesn't work. This isn't an episode of that My Little Pony business where everyone gets apples and rainbows and it's all ok no matter what. The game asks simple things of you, like being appropriately geared, in order to join in on the fun and rainbows. That's it. No more no less. That's not up to strangers to acquire and hand to you in order to play, it's up to you. This is like going to a high stakes poker game and saying the buy-in is elitist, they should just hand you 100k so you can play with everyone else, oh and by the way, it's your first time ever playing poker so if you don't mind can someone else also play my hand for me while I watch, but cash in if my hand wins, k thanks.