Hot answers tagged house-rules
38
Here's a technique I've used. When I invite people to a game I tell them that the game we're playing is a homebrew system called "Valadil's Game" which is loosely based on D&D.
This does a couple things. Firstly, it scares off rules lawyers who want to play RAW. I figure those players aren't compatible with my games anyway and I'd rather just nip ...
33
Speaking as a Rules Lawyer (I try to think of myself as a good guy, i.e. "how can the rules let you do what you want to do"?) and the occasional TD, I've found a couple simple rules work out.
No checking the rules on your turn. Look it up while you're waiting.
That includes the DM - if you ask the DM if you can do something, you get their best guess; we're ...
20
The most important thing I do to achieve this, I think, is to communicate to my players that, while I am responsible for handling the actions of their enemies, I am not their enemy. In fact, I am on their side, because what we are all working to do is enjoy ourselves and put together some bits of story worth remembering.
A lot of factors go into this, from ...
15
Wizards has pretty carefully balanced combat advantage and flanking and it might be inadvisable to change it. Let's look at some reasons why.
This makes the rogue incredibly overpowered. Instead of having to use an at-will power like Clever Strike to get CA when she is around an enemy with an ally, she now has the freedom (with no expenditure of action) to ...
14
I've played with a GM who was extremely adamant about NOT playing by the book.
His method was extremely simple: players were forbidden to mention the artifacts of the game during the session
dice results
rules
meta-information
The first few times we slipped, he warned about it, then accidents would happen. We never got the meteor he had promised us, but ...
13
The Shock Treatment
I run a short (one-off) game session using some (not all) of the Original D&D rule set. Each player chooses a class, race, and name; then I give them stats, "all standard equipment", and 5-10 gp (and a couple of spells for mages & elves of course); finally they choose armor and a weapon (fixed dmg 1d6) and max hp. That's it. ...
13
I'm going to reword the question: How could you, as a GM, help me, as a PC, learn to relax about the rules?
This answer is written in a completely subjective "appeal to Brian" case study. I hope that it tells a persuasive story.
T-2: Before the character
When I join a group, I expect to discuss how the group works with the GM. I'm very aware of different ...
13
Yes, you can craft without spending gold.
The description of the craft skill does indeed include paying one third of the item's price for the cost of the raw materials. This is an abstraction, a simplification of the crafting, relieving players and the DM of the shopping for the multitude of different ingredients required for the process.
If one can not ...
12
A few thoughts from a mostly reformed rules lawyer:
Hopefully understanding where the lawyer is coming from will help you to reach out better to them.
I realize that Rule 0 is that what the DM says, goes. If the player wants to argue and won't listen to anything in game, maybe it's time for a break. Go to the bathroom, smoke a cigarette, walk around the ...
12
One important thing to note is what the merits actually give the character compared to one without the merit. Resources zero does not mean homeless (although it can). Resources represents 'extra money'
WoD: Core pg 115
All characters are assumed to have a job or a source of income (trust fund, parents) that is sufficient to cover their basic ...
12
Rule number 1: This is your world. Your rule. If you think that firearms would be common to the point of like, even the commoner protects his farm with a shotgun, hey..go for it!
Just keep in mind that you would have to make the guns Martial weapon instead of requiring a specific feat. So that any military-grade training will provide training with guns. Or ...
11
I think that the crucial part is to demonstrate the benefits of your approach. The new players have been taught and shown that, by developing a sense of system mastery and learning the ins and outs of the rules, they are certain to have a fun time and a measure of success. You're asking them to discard those things and rely on their nascent instincts of how ...
11
Alignment is a description of how you have acted in the past, NOT a restriction on how you act in the future
There can be no penalties because alignment is not a straitjacket. This was one thing that 4e absolutely got 100% right (though I prefer the 9 alignments to the 5).
Playing out of alignment may anger others who share your alignment, may draw the ...
10
First of all, this is not so much a problem, as a design decision. 4e is purposefully designed to let characters start afresh every morning, to make encounter design easier for the DM (and published adventures). Another thing worth noting is the fact that hit points are highly abstract, and don't necessarily represent physical damage characters sustain:
...
10
Generally I try to define, with my players, what "broken" really means. If everyone in the party goes with a fairly optimized build my PCs may be more powerful than average, but it isn't hard to create a positive roleplaying experience by simply writing stories that put them up against more powerful antagonists.
Usually though, there are a few abilities ...
10
According to the D&D online compendium, there are some stat blocks for an Arcane Ballista DDI in Dungeon Magazine 155, page(s) 68.
Also there's an entry for Trebuchet and Crew DDI, Dungeon Magazine 170, page(s) 96.
I'm not sure how useful those are for ship-to-ship combat, though. Look deeper in the D&D message boards - there's a bunch of stuff ...
10
Here are some house rules I've used to great effect – based on the writings of many bloggers and forum posters.
Simplify casting times to Short rest and Extended Rest
If casting time is less than 1 hour, make it a short rest instead. If it's longer, make it a extended rest.
Severely cut the casting cost
Cut casting cost by at least 50%. Consider cutting ...
10
It will have an effect, because people won't bother with armor. There's no reason to get weighed down/slowed/possibly drowned if people can easily and cheaply shoot at your touch AC instead.
From the sounds of it, that's an intended effect of moving things into an Old West style world.
The unintended consequences are likely to be in what makes the scissors ...
10
You may find it more effective to give monsters new traits or powers.
In terms of flanking, there is a theme called Stormraider that does something similar:
Stormraider Level 10 Feature (10th level): If you and one or more allies are adjacent to an enemy, you and those allies are considered to be flanking that enemy.
It's not much of a stretch for a ...
9
I don't believe it's a wise idea to take a player and try to make them conform to your group's play style. I think the right way to do it is to find players that share your group's play style. The two big issues in bringing a new player to a group are managing expectations and determining compatibility.
First, managing expectations. Does the new player ...
9
There is no general way to gain Cantrips as they are Wizard Utility powers with no level. Without a level they can't be used to substitute for another gained power.
There are a couple other ways besides being a gnome though
the Resourceful Magician paragon path (Bard) grants the Wizard's Cantrip class feature if the bard possesses the Arcane Initiate ...
9
The main issue is the difference in how useful Int, Wis, & Cha are for non-casting purposes.
Intelligence: great for everybody, since it gives more skills (plus it boosts knowledge skills, which tend to be popular with casters)
Wisdom: meh; it boosts your will save, which is nice, but most casters have pretty good will saves from their class anyway, so ...
9
No
There are two reasons for this. One is that reading the rules is very different from running the game. The other is that potential players also have a role to play in the creation of house rules.
If you don't have any direct experience of how things work at the table, it's a lot harder to feel where the balance actually lies. For example, creating a ...
9
The simplest is to simply use the Sorcerer instead of Wizard - you get a small list of known spells, and a number of spells, and nothing else changes.
Slightly more effort, but more easily used for all classes...
Spell Points
Allow the usual numbers of known spells. Each spell costs spell points equal to twice it's level, with zero levels being treated ...
8
Some things to think about (that I've experienced) when using variants:
Each additional variant used puts an exponentially larger demand on the DM.
Rule Calling: dealing with variants that have very little documentation can cause headaches in rule decisions. There will also be a much smaller group of people to turn to for advice on rulings, even on the ...
8
Recent changes to game system (available via the Scroll of Errata) have neutered passive lethality (the largest problem). Soak has become far more important, both due to its increased use and the cost increase on perfects.
Many charms that granted soak have been improved (especially the Solar resistance line) and weapon and weapon stats from the Core book ...
8
Don't hack systems until you've played them! There are all kinds of reasons why, but the most important is that it's nearly impossible to understand every rule of a game until you've used it… and that's the case here.
Abilities do not cap at 3. 3 is merely above-average, while 5 is peak human ability. What you thought the rule should be is almost exactly ...
7
I'd be concerned about two classic DM techniques that seem to be prohibited by this approach:
Hidden knowledge - If the players know the result of every die roll, they prematurely learn about armor class, monster strength, or DC requirement.
Cloaked passive checks - Another important technique is DM rolling unexpectedly for passive checks, or more ...
7
In addition to the simplified Pathfinder system, in late 3.5 some people used the Saga system skill rules, which were simplified... From the SWSE Wikipedia page:
Skill points have been eliminated. Characters have a number of "trained" skills they can pick based on their class and Intelligence bonus. When a character makes a skill check, they roll a d20 ...
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