PDA

View Full Version : houseruling: how often do you do it?



elliott20
2008-11-03, 11:04 PM
frequently, we'll see threads here where a poster will be asking about how he can play a particular character and what kind of build/tactics/mannerisms/motivations would be appropriate for said character. Most of the time, people pony up some builds and it all works out. sometimes though, no matter how hard you try, some character concepts just aren't possible due to the RAW being rather strict about certain things. i.e. being a master of all weapons and still be effective. frequently, the end suggestion is that you have to go about fulfilling this concept in very unconventional and unintuitive ways, which is fine and all, but not all of us are endowed with the encyclopedic knowledge of all the published material.

sometimes, this means in order to make the concept fit, you pretty much HAVE to ask your GM to break some rules for you and make an exception. How often do you do that?

I myself do this as a GM. very often, in fact. this is simply because I usually do not feel that spending time looking through piles of books for a rather arcane solution is the best use of my time as a GM.

In a lot of cases, I can readily give a solution to a player's build quickly and in those cases, I try to stick to RAW or RAI as much as I can. But every so often, I'll just break the rules for the player and try to homebrew the rule so that it fits his vision better, saving the research time we would have to do. After all, not all of us are born scholars. (specifically, me)

how about you?

Emperor Tippy
2008-11-03, 11:15 PM
For builds and such? It depends on what the player wants to do but I don't have any aversion to homebrew or changing the LA/HD rules if someone wants to play an unconventional character and it will fit power wise. But changing the rules once play has started? Almost never (4 times in 5 years). That's not to say that my groups haven't agreed on all kinds of houserules before the game starts.

afroakuma
2008-11-03, 11:17 PM
Quite often. I houserule non-core feats, spells etc. as far as who can choose what, although I can be persuaded for decent in-game reason to change my mind. Of course, I'm also a homebrewer, which is a different kind of houseruling. :smallbiggrin:

quillbreaker
2008-11-03, 11:37 PM
Well, in 3.5 I tend to house-rule things by writing new prestige classes, which really isn't a house rule at all, it's a new prestige class. I've done this to allow a player to play a necromancer in a certain way, for instance, or play a caster that derives from an alternative fiction source.

WotC does it all the time. It's homebrewed content, not a houserule. I think of a house rule as something that affects everyone, such as "your character drops his weapon if he rolls a 1".

bosssmiley
2008-11-04, 06:43 AM
All the time. I run a heavily home-brewed & house-ruled campaign and, for us, fun almost always trumps RAW.

"The rules serve the game..."

Quietus
2008-11-04, 07:16 AM
Any houserules I use are placed up front with the players - and I try to keep that list as short as I can, even if it ends up producing strange results.

Comparatively, one of my other DM buddies will houserule at the drop of a hat if he doesn't feel D&D's rules represent the real world effectively. This results in me trying to do something about once every three game sessions, and him going "You can't do that, the DC (x) check fails 'cause I can't see that working in the real world, instead I need you to roll three other checks in skills you don't have. Or, you can choose another action.", when I've been working toward this bit of cool for three rounds now.

My stance : If the rules as written will let you do something (in core and allowed books), and I haven't explicitly houseruled it, I will let you have your win for that one attempt... and make it clear that from then on out, since it's incredibly silly, it will work on <this> basis. I don't think it's fair to screw with the way something works like that without forewarning.

Curmudgeon
2008-11-04, 07:49 AM
How often? Constantly.

I use these house rules, for instance:
Monks are proficient with unarmed strikes.
Full attacks with ranged weapons provoke AoOs.
You can cast Feather Fall (redefined as an immediate action spell) when flat-footed.

elliott20
2008-11-04, 09:20 AM
Any houserules I use are placed up front with the players - and I try to keep that list as short as I can, even if it ends up producing strange results.

Comparatively, one of my other DM buddies will houserule at the drop of a hat if he doesn't feel D&D's rules represent the real world effectively. This results in me trying to do something about once every three game sessions, and him going "You can't do that, the DC (x) check fails 'cause I can't see that working in the real world, instead I need you to roll three other checks in skills you don't have. Or, you can choose another action.", when I've been working toward this bit of cool for three rounds now.

My stance : If the rules as written will let you do something (in core and allowed books), and I haven't explicitly houseruled it, I will let you have your win for that one attempt... and make it clear that from then on out, since it's incredibly silly, it will work on <this> basis. I don't think it's fair to screw with the way something works like that without forewarning.

even though I initially was asking mostly about things like abilities and powers that classes get, this is also quite relevant too.

for me, a lot of the times I try my best to do a quick gauge over the rules and if there is in fact a rule that covers the question, I follow it and move on. If not, I make a quick call on the spot, and figure it out later. Because, quite frankly, same philosophy for me, the less time I spend dwelling on rules, the more time I can spend on the game.

Epinephrine
2008-11-04, 10:11 AM
We houserule constantly. Mostly small alterations to how spells work, but nobody is shy about questioning the rules, and suggeting replacements. It's pretty collaborative between the DM and the players, we're all trying to make the game sensible and fun.

goram.browncoat
2008-11-04, 10:12 AM
I try not to houserule unless its completely gamebreaking.
(eg. no punpun, no 'immune to all damage' combos)

Prometheus
2008-11-04, 10:15 AM
At least once a session, sometimes more.

Satyr
2008-11-04, 10:18 AM
Does it still count as houseruling if you replace the majority of the game's rules? We use replacement rules for all character classes, the magic system, and alignments and heavilty borrowed good ideas from other games for our D20 campaigns and I would not like to readjust to the original rules. Beloved houserules improve the commitment to the game.

kpenguin
2008-11-04, 10:21 AM
Does it still count as houseruling if you replace the majority of the game's rules? We use replacement rules for all character classes, the magic system, and alignments and heavilty borrowed good ideas from other games for our D20 campaigns and I would not like to readjust to the original rules. Beloved houserules improve the commitment to the game.

I think at that point, its called homebrew.

OverdrivePrime
2008-11-04, 10:31 AM
I generally houserule for minor flavor things or other attempts to work with the spirit of the rules without punishing players.

Little things like allowing Skill Focus: Concentration to be used instead of Combat Casting to qualify for prestige classes, or adding Scimitars to the list of weapons that can be affected by Weapon Finesse.

I make very large house rules only rarely, usually for nerfing things like Teleportation (characters take damage/penalties depending on the distance they teleport) or other such effects that put me in a little more control of the direction of my games.

Eorran
2008-11-04, 02:00 PM
Frequently I DM for a group that cares little for rules knowledge or attention to detail. They just want to "get on with it!" and progress the story/their plans, so I houserule frequently in order to keep things moving. Few people enjoy looking up the bull rush rules mid-combat, for example.

These same players often enjoy ridiculously overpowered characters (one 2e game involved several dragons, a storm giant mage, an 18' tall troll ninja/mage, and an acid-breathing halfling, living in a cloud castle), in which case we ignore at least 50% of the rules. And lay waste to the countryside.

Tadanori Oyama
2008-11-04, 02:21 PM
I make houserulings every single session I DM. I find it easier to make judgement calls case by case. And my players don't remember the rules I rule on from one session to another...

Eldariel
2008-11-04, 02:39 PM
Most of the D&D 3.5 material is pretty unusable as written. Therefore, I change stuff constantly (and adapt them for the gameworld - if I'm playing a low magic world, PCs won't be Bards, Druids, Sorcerers, Wizards and Clerics). How things are handled by the rules is mostly set before the game, but things like classes, spells, powers and such can easily be adapted and/or added on the fly (which I do constantly). All online homebrew is also ok as long as I accept it. Such only serves to enhance the play experience, so this feels by far the best means to go about it.

Also, there're occasionally some stupid generic rules I forget to abolish before the game begins, so I sometimes have to fix those midgame (for example, I was DMing a game where I forgot to state that Favored Class-rules don't exist - yes, I got rid of those as soon as someone brought it to my attention). All of these "game rule changes" are going to be discussed with the players though, and if implemented and they make someone wish they'd built their character differently, I'll allow them to change it.

Finally, if someone suggests some course of action not governed by the rules, I'll make stuff up as we go. I'm more at home DMing AD&D anyways, and my players prefer the rewards to creativity, so that part is an AD&D carry-over we're very happy about.

turkishproverb
2008-11-05, 01:49 AM
In 3.5? enough I'm acutally looking at publishing my own game remake.

horseboy
2008-11-05, 02:17 AM
Hmm. Nope, I don't house rule like you're asking. Then again, I don't run D&D. When I house rule, it's either to make the game run smoother or to make cultural fine tunings.

Dogmantra
2008-11-05, 01:43 PM
I'm going to run a game of Risus for some friends, needless to say, there will be (and already is) much houseruling for stuff like combat movement.