Does anyone have funny house rules ?

[Pugwampy]

My first and favorite DM was obsessed with giving all the players regardless of their class , helmets to wear .

Our choices were . P..pot helm 1 AC or Full face helm 2 AC but - 2 Perception . None of players really complained as it was extra stackable armour option . Heck I had a bite attack yet i was allowed to wear a full face helm .

Does anyone have any interesting stories of this nature ? I would love to hear them .

[ComaVision]

I allow my players to opt in to a fumble table as a flaw.



Nobody has taken me up on it though. (Which is pretty funny because the only reason I did that is because there was some resistance to me not using it at all.)

[nedz]

I once gave everyone a free Tub of Lard as part of their starting equipment.

[Falcii]

We say that any time someone misses dnd night that they tripped and fell on a rock and are now sleeping in our treants branches. No matter where we are, tripped and fell on a rock. In the desert? Rock. Deep sea? A rock with scuba gear. Outer space? still a rock yo.

[Falcii]

Another one I think is hilarious and disincentives stat stacking is saying that someone's charisma is directly proportional to the size of their... features. We've had male bards have to wear it as a cummerbund and female clerics with wheelbarrows in front.

[Shinn]

I look this one on Reddit :
When you have 4 dwarves or more at the same place, and if none of them is hostile to another, they have all to do a Will Save (DC 7, plus 2 for each Dwarf). If a Dwarf fail, he starts to sing, and the DC for the other dwarves is raised by 2 (cumulative).

My Bards must bring a toy instrument at the table and try to play it good for each Spell they cast.
And since there's many Bards at my table, now we're all experts of xylophone, ukelele, toy trumpet and djembé.

[Corlindale]

We once had a drunken game of D&D with rotating GMs - rules very loosely based on 3.5.

I remember that "Ninja" was a skill you could put ranks in, which covered everything a ninja might be good at - it was pretty broken.

We also had an improved version of Quick Draw which let you draw your weapon so fast you could draw it backwards through time. If you then killed an enemy after drawing your weapon, everything that enemy did on its last turn would be undone, since it actually died the previous round.

[Raenel]

I sometimes give everyone power attack and weapon finesse for free. And let casters cast in armor if they are proficient with it. Besides that? There is always a gay elf innkeeper, normally named Vivian, who makes the PCs look like children fighting with sticks and poppers.....and not once has anyone decided to try and learn who this apparently inter-dimensional and insanely powerful character is.

I even have a long and detailed background somewhere on my compooper. Something like 15 pages or so...... I'm gonna have to find that some time

[PsyBomb]

I also have a multipage house rule document, but there is only one there I'd really call funny. "All mounts of any kind MUST have names before being allowed to enter any desert region"

[Telonius]

Several years back we had a thermodynamics-based discussion of Plane Shift. The end result was that whenever somebody Plane Shifted, something else of equal mass had to appear in its place. The DM ruled that the Plane of Potato Sacks intersected with every other plane for exactly this purpose.

[NerdHut]

I also have a multipage house rule document, but there is only one there I'd really call funny. "All mounts of any kind MUST have names before being allowed to enter any desert region"

Love this. Stealing it.


In the games I DM, I've ported what I could find of the alcohol rules (mostly existing in 3.0, it seems) and brewed up some extras. Drinking too much penalizes DEX and WIS, along with some skills as the situation calls for it.

Normally, my players stay near the bar they get drunk in, but once the party's witch (more homebrew, based on the DMG example class) got suuuuuper drunk and walked to the docks district to go soak her feet in the water. She fell in and I had her roll swim checks and she thought she was drowning... until she remember her race was amphibious.

[Jay R]

In the games I DM, I've ported what I could find of the alcohol rules (mostly existing in 3.0, it seems) and brewed up some extras. Drinking too much penalizes DEX and WIS, along with some skills as the situation calls for it.

Normally, my players stay near the bar they get drunk in, but once the party's witch (more homebrew, based on the DMG example class) got suuuuuper drunk and walked to the docks district to go soak her feet in the water. She fell in and I had her roll swim checks and she thought she was drowning... until she remember her race was amphibious.

I eventually realized what you meant, but this is the wrong topic to use the word "homebrew" in, if you want us to think about custom D&D rules rather than, you know, homebrew.

[NerdHut]

I eventually realized what you meant, but this is the wrong topic to use the word "homebrew" in, if you want us to think about custom D&D rules rather than, you know, homebrew.

To me, homebrew and house-rule are nearly synonymous, hence the wording I used. The point was that the rules for alcohol exist for the most part, and having established my ruling on them, they've led to some hilarious situations around the table.

[jjcrpntr]

I sometimes give everyone power attack and weapon finesse for free. And let casters cast in armor if they are proficient with it. Besides that? There is always a gay elf innkeeper, normally named Vivian, who makes the PCs look like children fighting with sticks and poppers.....and not once has anyone decided to try and learn who this apparently inter-dimensional and insanely powerful character is.

I even have a long and detailed background somewhere on my compooper. Something like 15 pages or so...... I'm gonna have to find that some time

I'm stealing this,

also stealing the idea about mounts.

Not really a homebrew but funny moments, we had 2 debates spark up during games I've run. One was about the definition of spontaneous regarding a fireball (if you throw the little pebble of fire is it spontaneous or not?)

Second one was when the players wandered into a giant pyramid like temple that they knew was the nesting grounds for a race of giant termite like monsters (think the bugs from the movie Mimic). They had a debate about if they used create water if they could flood the pyramid. I told them no, but they insisted on trying to calculate how many casts it would take to fill a building that size.

[radthemad4]

A fellow player once asked if he could give an enemy the middle finger with a swift action. The DM said he could do it with a free action, but that a swift action one would be way more potent. Neither had any in game effect (the player didn't have anything else to do with his swift actions) but the conversation amused me.

A game I was in allowed us to take an unlimited number of flaws, but they had to be 'RP based'. He helpfully gave us several links with a massive number of them. This was my favorite flaw:


Scheming
You like big, complicated plots, the more the convoluted, the better. In fact, sometimes your schemes are so hard to grasp that your minions screw them up entirely. It's so hard to find good help these days.
Once per game session, the DM or another player can activate your Flaw in order to prevent you from doing things the easy way. It's not enough to kill an enemy; you have to lower him into a deadly maze, complete with lethal traps.

[Kelvarius]

A fellow player once asked if he could give an enemy the middle finger with a swift action. The DM said he could do it with a free action, but that a swift action one would be way more potent. Neither had any in game effect (the player didn't have anything else to do with his swift actions) but the conversation amused me.

A game I was in allowed us to take an unlimited number of flaws, but they had to be 'RP based'. He helpfully gave us several links with a massive number of them. This was my favorite flaw:

That sounds ridiculously fun. Do you still have the links?

[meemaas]

I played a Kineticist that ended up becoming more powerful than the rest of the party (still don't know how I managed that), but for some reason I on average rolled a 1 for my initiative half the time. I finally said "I rolled a one, I go dead last" and the group loved it so much we've kept it in honor of my flame throwing plot wrecker.

[Buufreak]

Several years back we had a thermodynamics-based discussion of Plane Shift. The end result was that whenever somebody Plane Shifted, something else of equal mass had to appear in its place. The DM ruled that the Plane of Potato Sacks intersected with every other plane for exactly this purpose.

In a similar vein, my group had an hour long discussion of momentum, inertia, and the like because someone managed to climb atop a huge enemy gargoyle and attempted to activate an obsidian animal statue to crush it. The resulting house rule was something along the lines of if it fell more than 5 ft in idol or animal form it shattered, this event being the lone acception.

[Duke of Urrel]

I once gave everyone a free Tub of Lard as part of their starting equipment.

This would be a helpful item if a character wanted to execute a coup de gras (instead of a coup de grâce).

[radthemad4]

That sounds ridiculously fun. Do you still have the links?

Sure. Here you go:


[Flaws]
Flaws must be approved by the DM. I strongly prefer RP based flaws. There is no maximum # allowed. A few good sources are: DanD Wiki (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/3.5e_Flaws), RPNexus (http://www.roleplaynexus.com/flaws.html), DND-Wiki (http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/3.5e_Flaws), EberronUnlimited (http://eberronunlimited.wikidot.com/flaws)

[Jay R]

When we get enough experience points to level up, my current DM requires us to get to a safe place to get new abilities (spells, feats, skills, etc.), but gives us improved BAB, saving throws, and hit points immediately.

[Jormengand]

I can see BaB and hit points, and then needing training for skills and new abilities, but I suppose with the new skill points it makes sense if you've been practicing those skills.

[Doc_Maynot]

I allow people to roll to disbelieve anything, if they score a nat 20, they succeed. And no longer believe it is there.

[daremetoidareyo]

I allow people to roll to disbelieve anything, if they score a nat 20, they succeed. And no longer believe it is there.

including stuff that actually is there?

[Doc_Maynot]

including stuff that actually is there?

Well, if they try hard enough to believe something isn't there. Actually had the party artificer roll against a wall at a dead end. Rolled the nat 20, and as far as he knew continued down the corridor that was hidden. The party however watched as he was pushing himself against the wall.

[martixy]

I have a thing which we affectionately call "the Harry Potter feat". It allows you to discharge wands containing spells that require an attack roll as an attack action.
Which means now you can make full attacks with wands and even dual-wield wands.
Pew-pew.

[Keltest]

Everybody at my table gets a free Ring of the Schoolgirl with their starting equipment. If they run away shrieking like a schoolgirl, theres a chance that all enemies will be paralyzed with laughter.

[ekarney]

We say that any time someone misses dnd night that they tripped and fell on a rock and are now sleeping in our treants branches. No matter where we are, tripped and fell on a rock. In the desert? Rock. Deep sea? A rock with scuba gear. Outer space? still a rock yo.

We use "Has mysteriously vanished from the space time continuum, except for plot relevant events then they're just hanging out with you."

[Novawurmson]

My players at least play by the rule that the point of D&D/Pathfinder is not to achieve whatever goals their characters desire: It's to break down the GM's will to the point that he allows them to do what they want.

One of their greatest victories took place in a city of giants. A discussion erupted over whether the archer could shoot a giant that was clearly, 100% behind a building. They argued so passionately, eloquently, inanely, and long that my brain eventually decomposed into mush, and they congratulated each other on a hard-fought victory.

[Inevitability]

We use "Has mysteriously vanished from the space time continuum, except for plot relevant events then they're just hanging out with you."

My group prefers 'got abducted by a dragon'. The dragon usually just wants to drink tea with the PC.

[Falcii]

My group prefers 'got abducted by a dragon'. The dragon usually just wants to drink tea with the PC.

My only problem with that would be the inherent coolness of going to tea with a dragon. Knowing my groups they would try to get some sort of mythical draconic teacup that gives ever flowing tea and turn it upside down to flood a town or something

[Pugwampy]

We say that any time someone misses dnd night that they tripped and fell on a rock and are now sleeping in our treants branches.

My one is . Ran into the bushes to take a dump .

Although more then once they were drafted as NPC pack mules .

[daremetoidareyo]

When someone can't make it to a session, they are put on "Auto mode." I as DM promise that the absent player's character will not die. Another player elected by the absentee chooses how they move an attack and they are limited to the use of only renewable abilities (no wand charges, no scrolls, no giving away non-mundane common gear).

[GreyBlack]

There is a small, quiet, lazy town on the outskirts of civilization named Rosewell that, somehow, angered the gods in its distant past, prompting the gods to plague the city every couple years with some form of cataclysm (zombies, goblins, civil war, multiple simultaneous episodes of spontaneous human combustion, random release of raw arcane energy, etc.). No one knows exactly why, but it's basically become the button end of all jokes that on every alternate material plane in existence, there exists a plane called Rosewell that occasionally just explodes.

[Val666]

Well, at my table players use homebrew classes made by me. The thing is, I like my players to feel powerful from start, so I usually give them 3 abilities at first level (passives and feats, protection or mobility and damage) At the beginning it was a little hard to balance the classes with monsters (which are nearly always modified or homebrew) so we came up with this "Damage balance" rule, in which the players deal megatons of damage at early levels and monsters deal low damage but have megatons of hp. I also give them +10 hp/level and items that help them fill their needs. They also like ("unintentionally") to destroy nearly all towns/cities/kingdoms they step on and I help them doing that. There's also this npc which they love/hate named "Pinzas" which is a werecrab that sometimes helps the player or sometimes is against them. He's in all my games and the only thing he says is: "Pinzas, pinzas, pinzas"