Do You Use Your RPG Rules as Written?

[FickleGM]

I don't use all of the rules some of the time and I don't use some of the rules all of the time. I also modify rules and use house rules.

In other words - no.

 

[hexgrid]

Still I am surprised at how many 'yes'es to 'no's there are. I do not think I have ever played in a game that was 100 legit outside of RPGA or Conventions.

The poll doesn't ask if you use ALL the rules as written. The way it's set up, both 'yes' and 'no' would be valid answers for most people. So the poll results don't mean much.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I use the rules. I don't let the rules use me.

Which is to say I use them as long and as far as they work for what I am trying to acheive. As soon as they don't, I'm not shy about changing or overruling them... preplanned or on the spot, as the case may be.

I have always agreed with Psion's thinking on this matter.

 

[ThirdWizard]

The poll doesn't ask if you use ALL the rules as written. The way it's set up, both 'yes' and 'no' would be valid answers for most people. So the poll results don't mean much.

Also, you can read the question two different ways, which I hadn't noticed before.

"Do You Use Your RPG [of choice's] Rules as Written?" (how I first read it)
"Do You Use Your RPG Rules as Written?" (which would include HR as RPG Rules)

So, I'm not sure exactly what's being asked anymore. Mark, generic polls are one thing. Subjective is too far.

 

[The_Gneech]

Hmm. I was gonna vote "usually."

-The Gneech

 

[buzz]

Yes.

Of the three campiagns I play in, only two have made any changes, and in those two, only one change each has been made. Otherwise, we're all RAW.

I'm only willing to modify a ruleset so much before I deem it time to just use a different ruleset. I'm not paying $40 a book to do design work.

 

[PieAndDragon]

Yes, I do use the rules as written.

Just not all the time.

 

[WayneLigon]

In general, yes. That said, I look at a new rules system pretty carefully to see if it's something I can live with. I try to use the tools that best fit the job, to reduce my workload. Time is better spent on worldbuilding and npc creation than writing new rules. If I run fantasy, it'll probably be D&D. If I run a modern game, it'll probably be GURPS. If I do a superhero one, it'll be Mutants and Masterminds. A Wild West game, I could do in GURPS, Sidewinder: Recoiled, or Deadlands d20, depending on the flavor I wanted to impart.

ANY flavor could be done with ANY of those systems but for some, I find I like the different rules sets.

If I do houserules at all, they are generally 'flavor'-based ones such as changing a racial ability to better match my idea for that race, or dropping a handful of spells that either I don't like (I've only met three spells I don't like, though I have not even glanced at the ones in most supplements) or do not fit the setting.

 

[Ry]

Yes...

But I write them.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I have about a page of one sentence changes and houserules. So no.