House rules are fan created additions and replacements to core rules in a rules set. In most cases, they are not officially sanctioned by the designer, in contrast to optional rules.
6
votes
3answers
158 views
What alternatives are there for replacing the D&D memorize and forget magic rules
I'm starting a campaign and will be the DM. We are basing our system off the D&D 3rd ed. Most of us (players and myself) don't really like the rules surrounding Wizards / Sorcerers when they have ...
5
votes
1answer
64 views
How can I adapt elements of the Gumshoe investigation system to Ars Magica?
Many of my games feature a heavy investigation influence.
Gumshoe, being designed for investigation, provides a way of finding clues and manipulating clues that provides for a far more enjoyable ...
2
votes
2answers
129 views
Rules for increasing ability scores in Basic D&D?
Are there any rules (house or otherwise) for increasing ability scores in Basic D&D or any of it's retro clones? (Other than magic items or wishes.)
3
votes
4answers
194 views
How to discourage players from roleplaying out of their alignment when using a 3.5e alignment system in a 4e game?
My GM would like to implement the 3.5e grid-based alignment system in his 4th edition game. He would also like to implement better penalties for not playing within your alignment.
I understand that ...
6
votes
3answers
156 views
Respawn with stat reductions system
(We play Death Watch, but that is not central to my question.)
My idea is that the players enter a sentient dungeon that wants them to conquer it and is actively helping them by keeping them alive.
...
1
vote
0answers
103 views
How should someone react to this version of Zone of Truth? [closed]
Well, I guess the Actual question would be "How the save?" but that's terrible grammar.
In my group, we have a house-rule that makes the use of Zone of Truth a bit more... useful, for lack of a ...
5
votes
5answers
191 views
Games with a granular alignment system?
I've recently started out a Basic Fantasy campaign with several new players.
In this campaign, I want their characters to gradually gain their alignments based on
they actions they take. For example, ...
4
votes
3answers
119 views
Should house rules and custom material be created before experiencing the game? [closed]
Let's take a new GM. New in the sense of "new to a specific game", not new to GMing. The GM read all the rules from cover to cover and he understands them, but never played. Should he start house ...
3
votes
3answers
247 views
House rules for flanking
I am currently considering house ruling flanking to be:
If two or more enemies are adjacent to you, you are considered flanked.
I do this because I want to break up the conga line of death that ...
5
votes
3answers
212 views
How useful would a house ruled immediate Counterspell ability in Pathfinder be?
I have been GMing for 10 years, and we are currently are using Pathfinder with little to no house rules. The only character that has ever used counterspell is when we made a prestige class up that ...
7
votes
2answers
215 views
Does crafting necessarily require spending gold?
I know the crafting rules say you have to spend gold to represent the cost of materials used in crafting something, but what about in a situation where you aren't in a city and can't reasonably just ...
5
votes
5answers
347 views
Impact of allowing characters to change their main casting stat
I have never really understood the rationale of "wizards use Int, clerics use Wis and sorcerers use Cha". So for my new campaign, I am considering getting rid of that rule, and allowing characters to ...
5
votes
1answer
79 views
Is there a penalty for rolling consecutive tens?
In 2nd edition Legend of the Five Rings, is there a penalty for rolling too many tens in a row (like in monopoly for rolling doubles 3 times in a row)?
For some reason I'm convinced there is, but it ...
9
votes
1answer
201 views
How does non-magical healing work in AD&D 2nd Edition?
I'm unclear on how natural non-magical healing is supposed to work in AD&D 2nd Edition. In the Dungeon Master Guide, Chapter 9 : Combat, in the section titled "Natural Healing" it states :
...
6
votes
4answers
252 views
Creating rules for jumping or climbing onto monsters?
Partly inspired by this thread's discussion about creative role-playing and one answer there referring to stunts, I wanted to adapt a similar concept to the fairly rules-strict D&D 4th Edition.
...
3
votes
1answer
145 views
Are there rules for or against unusual or alternate weapon types?
In DnD 3.5 and Pathfinder, are there any provisions for characters wielding weapon types not on the given lists, like meat cleavers or swordcanes? Are those not allowed, do you use them as equivalent ...
2
votes
1answer
175 views
Genius: The Transgression house rules
I gather that work on the Genius: The Transgression fansplat has ceased, since there haven't been updates in 2 years on the official site. However, I'm having trouble with some of the gameplay and ...
6
votes
4answers
492 views
Will I ruin Pathfinder if I discount firearms?
I'm going for an Old West feel; my players wanted something like Shadowrun but Western instead of Cyberpunk (I love my players so much). Think Trigun with halflings and dragons. They like ...
4
votes
2answers
235 views
Is there an oldschool-style morale system for D&D 3e?
Oldschool D&D has rules for morale, such as these from Labyrinth Lord:
Monsters have a listing for morale, which represents how likely they are to fight or flee when in an aencounter. Morale ...
1
vote
1answer
190 views
Counter-Attack Houserule
I'm thinking of making a house rule for Pathfinder which lets you counter attack when your opponent rolls a natural 1 to attack. First, is there already a counter attack system in Pathfinder? If not, ...
14
votes
3answers
721 views
How do you make 4th Edition Rituals more accessible?
So here’s the situation: Rituals should be awesome. They’re typically a little bit open-ended, they’re not direct combat actions, they’re ripe for interesting roleplaying, and they’re fairly ...
3
votes
1answer
64 views
How can I incorporate Betrayal at the house on the Hill to my game of supernatural?
In Betrayal at the house on the Hill you explore a haunted house with characters until the haunt happens and stuff gets real.
Whilst playing this board game a friend of mine stated it'd make a ...
5
votes
2answers
306 views
Mini Six: How can I avoid the “dodge” skill tax?
I have been reading over the "fast static combat" rules for Mini Six. A character's dodge value is equal to the number of pips in their dodge score, so a character with dodge of 6D would be hit if the ...
2
votes
2answers
265 views
Expand the numeric scale of Strands of Fate
I haven't played any of these narrative focused games like Fate but would like to. My players are very used to other more hands-on type of game where the numbers are plainly what your character is.
...
15
votes
4answers
350 views
Rules for generating a game world as you go?
As an alternative to pre-fabricated game worlds (whether published or home-brewed), I'd like to create some rules for generating a game world gradually and organically.
It would work in a manner ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Question about the Assassin (Executioner) Ninja Build
I'm just getting into 4e D&D, and when I wanted to make an Assassin (Executioner) because of his ability to use poisons, I saw the "Way of the Ninja" as a guild choice, looked at it and loved the ...
4
votes
2answers
217 views
Castle Falkenstein: Is there a faster Magic system?
I love running games in the Castle Falkenstein diceless system. However, I find the CF magic system to be a little slow (to set up, run and play) for a high-fantasy campaign.
Can anyone suggest ...
2
votes
1answer
131 views
Looking for a story board alike sheet for a custom rpg
I am playing via Skype to a custom role playing game with some friends. The game is like an Age of Empires by turns and no one but the GM knows about anyone. I don't know the rules (dice based) but ...
5
votes
1answer
92 views
What kind of equipment rules for low bonus dice and low pool points game?
Background
I've played in and story guided several games of the Shadow of Yesterday and Solar system, but in none of those we have used any formal equipment rules. Equipment has mostly made some ...
8
votes
2answers
267 views
How do I avoid Paranoia Combat in Exalted?
Paranoia combat reduces Exalted combat to a solved problem:
Paranoia Combat" is largely the brainchild of Jon Chung, a poster on rpg.net. You can see some of the basic implementations (and ...
17
votes
3answers
341 views
How to houserule merits?
Merits as a system does not seem to be well balanced. Some merits (such as resources 1) seem like they should be mandatory (or a flaw to not have them). Other merits such as housing ones (haven, ...
7
votes
4answers
1k views
Suggested house-rules for Pathfinder one-on-one storytelling
I'll introduce myself quickly. Played a lot of RPG in teens; mostly AD&D for fantasy, but also Call of Cthulhu and Cyberpunk for those other settings. I lived kind of remote, so all we played was ...
3
votes
1answer
154 views
How can one houserule a fighter's class feature in 3.5 for improvised weapons?
I am looking for a feat or alternate class feature that would enable a fighter to use improvised weapons while maintaining balance. If you are familiar with Kambei from 7 Samurai or Afro from Afro ...
8
votes
3answers
733 views
Can I acquire cantrips with the Wizard multi-class feat?
The multiclass feat for wizards in the PHB says you gain a 1st level wizard at-will ability. Now, the cantrips in there are gained at first level, and they are at-will. I'm guessing that, since they ...
11
votes
1answer
743 views
Where can I find rules for firing a Ballista?
More specifically I'm looking for rules for a ship mounted ballista for my players in a 4th Ed. game.
I haven't been able to find anything in any of the books, the closest to anything in print is ...
5
votes
1answer
151 views
What are the rules of natural healing?
I've read a few times the core rules of Microlite20, and the Expert Rules, but didn't find a place where it explained how PCs healed naturally. What rules should I use for that? The ones in the ...
3
votes
4answers
315 views
Would adding a Move-Attack-Move “basic combat power” to DnD 4e unbalance the game?
I've been thinking of adding a power to DnD4e as a basic maneuver that all players can do. I'm not certain yet if this power should be regulated to only BRA (Basic ranged attack) or if it's ok for it ...
4
votes
1answer
127 views
What side effects might arise from modifying the XP cost to increase traits in the Storytelling system by category primacy?
Currently, the Storytelling and Storyteller Systems have primary/secondary/tertiary skills/abilities, and at character creation, the primary have more points, whereas the tertiary have less points.
...
9
votes
3answers
282 views
3.5e Variant Rules
I'm thinking of starting a new campaign with a laundry list of house rules. The variant rules on the SRD seem worth while. As an example, using 'armor as DR' and 'Spell Points' are at the top of my ...
12
votes
3answers
444 views
CoC's Sanity-like rules for the nWoD?
Is there a good adaptation of Call of Cthulhu's Sanity rules to the Storytelling system of the new World of Darkness (possibly replacing Morality)?
(Edited the title to make it more precise.)
10
votes
6answers
318 views
How to deal with broken combos?
Based on Rob Schwalb's article Stuck in the Middle:
How do you, as a player or DM, deal with choosing or forbidding broken combos in your character, group, and system?
5
votes
2answers
325 views
What house-rules would be appropriate for a D&D Ironman game?
In a game I'm planning on running, I'm planning to run it in an "Ironman" fashion, reminiscent of Nethack and the Diablo options.
I have established that:
there will be no possibility of ...
11
votes
4answers
332 views
Rules modifications for Exalted Clinches
In the basic rules for Exalted a successful clinch allows the attacker to do the all of following:
Squeeze the target for damage
Reduce the targets DV to zero
Changes the tick on which the target ...
7
votes
3answers
317 views
Repeating The Same Half Action and other Combat Enhancers
When my previous group and I got a hold of the Dark Heresy rulebook (practically the day it came out), we were all pretty satisfied with the rules, with the exception of one. We noticed that the ...
7
votes
6answers
608 views
Is there a way to make the damage system in 4e more like previous editions?
I have been playing 4e for almost 3 years now and have noticed that the average character has the capacity to take massive amounts of damage each day without any ill effects the next day. I have even ...
2
votes
1answer
804 views
House ruling the Shaman's Spirit Companion's HP
As written, the Shaman's spirit companion has a damage threshold set at 10+half-level. At levels below 4, this is above the average damage (level+8) of a monster, and above 4, it quickly becomes an ...
62
votes
19answers
2k views
How do you help players not focus on the rules?
Background - My Group's Gaming Style
When I GM, I run games loosely from a rules standpoint, and do not feel bound to adhere to what the rulebook says when it doesn't make sense in a given situation. ...
4
votes
2answers
178 views
Is there a tested spell-research like mod for D&D 4e?
I'm looking for a mod to D&D 4e which reintroduces spell-research in a balanced way. Are there any of them around, which have been play tested and seem to work without unbalancing things too far?
14
votes
5answers
749 views
Firearms for DnD
My DM would like to run a DnD adventure set in 1930s-tech era, replacing technology with magic-punk stuff. He's pulling a lot from Eberron.
Guns will exist, however, and he's just "renaming" bows ...
6
votes
2answers
745 views
How do you improve Death Saves for the character?
I don't know if my group is particularly incompetent in combat or if its our own feckless dice at fault, but we frequently find ourselves locked in desperate combat, with multiple members of the party ...
