Most Ridiculous Rules in RPGS

[Gizmogidget]

RPGS try to create a semblance of realism but many rules are so ridiculous that you can't even see the logic behind them.

My most ridiculous rule: The gold to exp rule was pretty ridiculous in AD&D 2e. One time I had a player open up a gold mine to gain exp through this method. From there on, I scrapped that rule.

What is your most ridiculous rule.

[JustIgnoreMe]

In the King Arthur Pendragon RPG, it is possible to be so ugly you become bedridden and die.

[RazorChain]

Falling 200 feet in D&D does 20d of damage which is on average 70 points. This means that higher level characters often can't die from falling if they are at full HP.

"Grok...you fell 200 feet and landed on rocks...are you all right?" Grok:"Sure, only a flesh wound"

[Honest Tiefling]

It was pointed out today in the 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder forum that Assassins, a profession normally associated with stealth, technically has to sing or be otherwise heard when casting spells because of lazy editing. I really just want to find an example of a singing assassin in some musical right about now.

[LordFluffy]

In FASERIP Marvel Superheroes, you couldn't be killed by blunt force trauma. It was also technically possible for Tony Stark to buy a yacht, then be unable to buy a pen for a while.

In Lords of Creation, the Demolition skill was exclusive to the Espionage progression, meaning any construction worker who used explosives was also a spy.

In AD&D a housecat is a serious threat to a first level magic user.

In the original Traveller, it was possible to die in character creation.

In Cyberpunk 2020, a set of contacts can possibly make you go insane. Also, a reasonable blow from a baseball bat can rip someone's arm off.

[ComaVision]

Falling 200 feet in D&D does 20d of damage which is on average 70 points. This means that higher level characters often can't die from falling if they are at full HP.

"Grok...you fell 200 feet and landed on rocks...are you all right?" Grok:"Sure, only a flesh wound"

Eh, I don't really think that's too crazy because higher level characters in 3.5e are essentially demigods. A better example would be the rule that starting to drown brings your hp to 0, meaning it can heal you if you're under 0 health.

[SaintRidley]

FATAL. All of it.

[Jormengand]

It was pointed out today in the 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder forum that Assassins, a profession normally associated with stealth, technically has to sing or be otherwise heard when casting spells because of lazy editing. I really just want to find an example of a singing assassin in some musical right about now.

Pirates of Penzance: With Cat-like Tread? It's an operetta (and the song from one), but that basically is the same thing as a musical really.

[flond]

RPGS try to create a semblance of realism but many rules are so ridiculous that you can't even see the logic behind them.

My most ridiculous rule: The gold to exp rule was pretty ridiculous in AD&D 2e. One time I had a player open up a gold mine to gain exp through this method. From there on, I scrapped that rule.

What is your most ridiculous rule.

For what it's worth, unless I'm mistaken usually only gold gotten through adventuring or taxes counted.

[CharonsHelper]

RPGS try to create a semblance of realism but many rules are so ridiculous that you can't even see the logic behind them.

My most ridiculous rule: The gold to exp rule was pretty ridiculous in AD&D 2e. One time I had a player open up a gold mine to gain exp through this method. From there on, I scrapped that rule.

What is your most ridiculous rule.

While it may have been broken in the edge cases, its purpose was the promote exploration so that you got EXP even if you bypassed monsters to get the treasure.

[Yora]

XP for gold (brought back to town from an adventure) is actually a pretty brilliant idea. It's not a simulation of anything, but a very good incentive system. It encourages and rewards players for using any available options to get as much treasure out of a dungeon as they can. This leads to much more interesting gameplay than rewarding players for getting into a fight with everything they can find. It lets you have situations where players steal and decieve and have to get past enemies without getting into a fight.

Level limit for nonhuman PCs but unlimited advancement for human PCs: Now that's a really ridiculous rule. As long as the campaign doesn't reach that level, the limits have absolutely no effect. Once that level is reached the limit becomes extremely prominent. It's either not there or very frustrating. It doesn't do anything to balance PC races.

[The Glyphstone]

In the original Traveller, it was possible to die in character creation.

Having actually read the Traveller books, this makes a lot more sense in context to me than it did before. It's always optional whether to risk death in exchange for getting to start with better gear and higher stats, repeated until you die, get denied another try, or choose to stop pushing your luck. Plus, 'character creation' in Original Traveller took about 5min and consisted of, on average 10-15 rolls of 2d6, so even death wasn't much of a time setback.

[BWR]

Pirates of Penzance: With Cat-like Tread? It's an operetta (and the song from one), but that basically is the same thing as a musical really.

Beat me to it.

[Jormengand]

Honestly, ANY roll to shoot yourself in the foot during character creation irks me. Rolling for hit points, ability scores, and so forth just annoys me on the basis that I have no control over whether I'm playing a strong, smart, tough guy or a dork with no reflexes and no sense of observation, or both.

[CharonsHelper]

That reminds me - critical fumbles are moronic. Why in the world should my inhumanly badass warrior trip 5% of the time he tries to swing his sword? Especially bad since as you level and gain more attacks, it increases the chance of you tripping. In 3.x, a high level monk would have nearly a 50/50 chance of fumbling each round of combat. (8 normal attacks, plus Haste, plus any potential AOOs)

[Alent]

The D&D 3.x Economy and skills relating to it, all of them.

[Waar]

In rogue trader the damage and blast radius of explosions scale linearly with the mass of the used explosive, and since rogue trader characters are filthy rich...

[Beleriphon]

That reminds me - critical fumbles are moronic. Why in the world should my inhumanly badass warrior trip 5% of the time he tries to swing his sword? Especially bad since as you level and gain more attacks, it increases the chance of you tripping. In 3.x, a high level monk would have nearly a 50/50 chance of fumbling each round of combat. (8 normal attacks, plus Haste, plus any potential AOOs)

I'm fond of of a roll, then another roll, then another roll all being 1s, or the system's equivalent worst result.

[Pex]

2E telling DMs even if they allow a player to adjust rolled ability scores to deny them playing a class they want to play. Example given is if a player already qualifies for a fighter the DMG asks "Does he really need to be a ranger?" He should play a fighter who always wanted to be a ranger but is allergic to trees. "Inspire roleplaying!"

2E dual classing rules. Not only do you need high stats even to qualify, but you are forbidden to use any class features of your original class while advancing in your new class. If you do use such a class feature you get no experience for that particular encounter and half experience for the entire adventure.

Various 2E spells aging the character for the audacity of casting them.

Rollmaster using a chart for everything.

In GURPS, upon successfully completing a task for some NPC or organization that entity can never count as an Ally/Patron unless you spend character points. Good relations mean nothing. However, a person or organization who opposed your completing that task can become an Enemy to haunt your further adventures, giving you the drawback of the Enemy disadvantage but not the extra points you could have gotten if you chose it at character creation.

[Gizmogidget]

While it may have been broken in the edge cases, its purpose was the promote exploration so that you got EXP even if you bypassed monsters to get the treasure.

Eh, but the way it was used was my players would bypass whatever monster collect the loot and escape. I did change the ruling though to promote exploration by giving players exp bonuses when they explored in new areas.

[CharonsHelper]

Eh, but the way it was used was my players would bypass whatever monster collect the loot and escape.

That was Working as Intended then. The entire purpose of the rule was to encourage that exact behavior. The monsters should have stopped being so lame and defended their hordes.

Now, you might not have been a fan of that sort of game-play, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't doing exactly what it was intended to do, and it wasn't a ridiculous purpose.

[Thrudd]

It was pointed out today in the 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder forum that Assassins, a profession normally associated with stealth, technically has to sing or be otherwise heard when casting spells because of lazy editing. I really just want to find an example of a singing assassin in some musical right about now.

To be fair, assassins are normally known more for stabbing people, poisoning them, or strangling them, rather than casting spells. An assassin that is casting spells is stepping out of their normal profession. The word "spell" literally refers to using words, saying things. So that's not really weird that most spells have a verbal component. It is weirder that some of them don't.

[Gizmogidget]

That was Working as Intended then. The entire purpose of the rule was to encourage that exact behavior. The monsters should have stopped being so lame and defended their hordes.

Now, you might not have been a fan of that sort of game-play, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't doing exactly what it was intended to do, and it wasn't a ridiculous purpose.

Believe me, the monsters defended the hordes to the death (not literally of course) but the players were crafty enough to bypass the monsters unless I did something utterly ridiculous like prevent all other modes of transport but walking within 1 mile of the boss, and then make the terrain super difficult to move through. The party invested so much into moving as fast as possible so they would run in take the loot and disappear. In fact they took a keen liking to games where they had to steal an item from a castle, mansion etc. Eventually I got tired of those kind of games and initiated my exp by discovery rule.

I will admit that the exp from gold rule for finding a monsters horde is acceptable if the players don't outright abuse it. The exp from gold because you get taxes is pretty ridiculous because that implies that the lord of a small village who is described as timid of adventuring and never leaves his castle can become an npc of decent level say 7th level.

[JAL_1138]

Some of the level titles for classes in 1e. Rutterkin and Waghalter spring to mind. I rather like them because of the ridiculousness.

Alignment languages. This one was just a bit too ludicrous even for me.

Potion miscibility results could be hilariously stupid (and wonderfully so).

The fact that in most editions of D&D you can't stab someone with a medieval longsword, a weapon designed to be thrust into the joints of armor. In 5e, you can't stab someone with the spike on a halberd (you know, one of the very things that makes it a halberd instead of a long-handled axe).

Blaster-proof Wookies in WEG D6.

Almost everything about psionics in AD&D.

[J-H]

In the original Traveller, it was possible to die in character creation.

How??
Inquiring minds must know.

[Pex]

4E skill DC depends on the level of the character doing the skill and not the difficulty of the circumstance independent of whoever is doing it.

5E skill DC and resolution to determine success depends on who is the DM at the moment the skill is attempted. I acknowledge some people find that a feature to be cheered.

5E using all ability scores as saving throws. You get worse at making a save as you level because you can't increase all your scores while spellcasters and magic using monsters of the appropriate level increase their spellcasting score that determines the DC.

3E charging double skill points to increase a skill rank for skills not on your class list.

3E favored class limitations and essentially forbidding paladins and monks from multiclassing.

3E Truenamer unable to do what it's supposed to do because the formula to determine success at truenaming increases exponentially higher as the levels increase while your ability to increase your skill is linear, thus the math makes you fail almost all the time. The only way to make the math work for you is to have one specific build of having specific feats and magic items.

Pathfinder splitting up what was one feat in 3E into multiple feats.

3E and Pathfinder having an Attack of Opportunity for almost everything requiring a character have a feat in order to do one particular thing because without it if the AoO hits it either autonegates the thing you want to do or the damage dealt increases the DC to attempt the thing by that amount you might as well not even attempt the thing at all.

[The Glyphstone]

How??
Inquiring minds must know.

Original Traveller worked like this:
1) Roll 2d6 for each of your 10 or so stats.
1) roll 1d6 to determine your career (Army, Navy, Marines, Scouts, Merchants, or Criminal AFAIK), or select one.
3) Roll to survive a 4-year tour of duty in your career - this was a 2d6 roll against a variable DC - Merchants had the easiest at 3+, Scouts had the highest at 8+. Having a high score in certain stats boosted your survival roll.
4) If you survived, roll for Re-Enlistment, again a variable DC depending on service career, and for Promotion to a higher rank.
5) If you got the option to re-enlist, you could do so, or choose to retire early. If re-enlisted, go back to 3.
6) Once you failed a re-enlist roll, or chose to retire, add up your total tours of duty served, then get stat/skill/wealth increases based on that number and the highest Rank you were promoted to before retiring.
7) Begin the game.

Once the game started, it was almost impossible to raise your stats or skills without absurd quantities of money and downtime for training, so the optional risk-reward tradeoff of death versus bonuses was often worth it. And of course the riskier service courses got better rewards.

[goto124]

RPGS try to create a semblance of realism but many rules are so ridiculous that you can't even see the logic behind them.

In FATAL, the convoluted character creation system is such that the smartest female ever that could possibly exist is still dumber than a 'sorta smart' male. When asked, the author said this was on purpose.

I wonder what can beat this.

[NoldorForce]

That was Working as Intended then. The entire purpose of the rule was to encourage that exact behavior. The monsters should have stopped being so lame and defended their hordes.

Now, you might not have been a fan of that sort of game-play, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't doing exactly what it was intended to do, and it wasn't a ridiculous purpose.

Before co-developing D&D, Gary Gygax worked as an insurance underwriter, so that whole playstyle of risk assessment and management was near and dear to his heart.

Believe me, the monsters defended the hordes to the death (not literally of course) but the players were crafty enough to bypass the monsters unless I did something utterly ridiculous like prevent all other modes of transport but walking within 1 mile of the boss, and then make the terrain super difficult to move through. The party invested so much into moving as fast as possible so they would run in take the loot and disappear. In fact they took a keen liking to games where they had to steal an item from a castle, mansion etc. Eventually I got tired of those kind of games and initiated my exp by discovery rule.

I will admit that the exp from gold rule for finding a monsters horde is acceptable if the players don't outright abuse it. The exp from gold because you get taxes is pretty ridiculous because that implies that the lord of a small village who is described as timid of adventuring and never leaves his castle can become an npc of decent level say 7th level.

It sounds like the problem was more that the PCs had invested so hard into being zippy that the rest of the game became rather degenerate. Normally, excepting things like Teleport which always had some risk that you might instead pop into a wall or so forth, it would take a fair bit of time to scout/map/sneak on by. But that's all in the past, so oh well.

[Zavoniki]

Exalted has charms that increase and decrease the time it takes bureacracies to perform certain tasks. This can lead to interesting results, like making the task of filling out a simple form take a month. Not submitting it, just filling it out.