My House Rules - What is your opinion?

[HealingAura]

Hello,

After learning from my mistakes as a newbie DM in our last adventure, I've thought about incorporating some House Rules for my new adventure. I would appreciate your opinion about them.
I created House Rules for Critical Fumbles, Elite Minions, Improving Rituals and Character Points System.

1. Critical Fumble:
Why would you add this rule? Because it gives more variety in combat encounters and makes it a lot more fun to see your opponent rolled a natural 1.

When a power resulted in more attack rolls of natural 1 than natural 20, it is considered a Critical Fumble.
The DM (me) rolls a d100 to see the result (in case the result is not possible a fitting failure should be improvised):
1 = Reroll to all the natural 1 results.
2-20 = Just the usual Automatic Miss for all natural 1 results.
21-26 = Automatic Miss for all natural 1 results, and no Miss effect.
27-40 = Slide your character 2d4 squares*** and fall prone.
41-56 = Grant Combat Advantage to all enemies until the end of your next turn
57-68 = Deal** [w] or [damage die] of power to yourself
69-78 = Deal** [w] or [damage die] of power damage*, to a random ally within range*.
79-82 = The Weapon or Implement used with this power is thrown 2d4 squares***.
83-86 = Deal** Miss Effect of power to a random ally within range*.
87-97 = Provoke Opportunity Attack from each adjacent enemy
98-99 = Deal** Hit Effect of power to a random ally within range*
100 = Deal** hit effect of power to you.

* Within range means within range, burst, blast, or melee reach – according to the power.
** Damage type according to power.
*** 2d4 squares movement means: You roll 1d4 twice and move accordingly: 1 = forward, 2 = right, 3 = backwards, 4 = left. For example, if you rolled a 3 and a 4 you move 1 square backwards and then 1 square to the left.

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2. Elite Minions:
Why would you add this rule? Because elite minions are used for simplifying a long battle with a lot of minions.

If you use an elite minion, that’s supposed to represent the equivalent challenge of X minions:
The EXP of the elite minion is X*[Minion EXP].
The elite minion has X HP.
A missed attack never damages an elite minion.
Whenever an elite minion is dealt damage, it is dealt only 1 damage.
A Critical Hit automatically kills an elite minion.
The elite minion receives 1 Action Point.
Everything else is the same as the original minion.

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3. Making Rituals usable:
Why would you add this rule? Because rituals are just too damn costly and takes too much time to use.

New Heroic feat - Ritual Mastering:
Prerequisite: Ritual Caster feat
Benefit: Choose a ritual category (binding, creation, deception, divination, exploration, restoration, scrying, travel, warding). When you start performing a ritual of that category you may choose either to expand only half of the required components (other costs required by the ritual remain the same), or gain a +5 bonus to skill checks that you make as part of performing the ritual.
Special: You can take this feat more than once. Each time you take this feat, choose a different ritual category.

New Heroic feat - Ritual Focus:
Prerequisite: Ritual Caster feat
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to all skill checks of a ritual that you mastered, as long as you are trained in the key skill of that ritual. You can also perform that ritual at one tenth of the time normally required to perform it.

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4. Character Points System:
Why would you add this rule? Because it allows players to influence on the campaign in things that they usually can’t change.

I introduced a new character stat, which will be used to reward players for various things. In general, the more character points a character has, the more that character’s player can influence on the adventure.

[Gaining Character Points]:

- The player improvised some new interesting details about the character background
- The player played especially according to character, especially if he had a dilemma
- Having interesting conversations between PCs (my players rarely speak to each other as characters)
- Making all players laugh.
- Succeeding in doing something exceptionally hard that directly helped the party.

[Spending Character Points]:

- Choose a specific item: When the DM announces the party found a magical item, players can spend character points to choose which item to receive as long as it is of the right item type and level. For example, if the players found a level 3 plate armor, a player can choose to spend character points in order to choose that this is a Lifegiving Armor.
- Receive a hint for a riddle
- Survive death: As long as you have at least 10 character points, you can spend half of your character points (round down) to make your character unconscious instead of being dead if you died (failed 3 times in death saving throw or your HP was reduced to your bloodied value expressed as a negative number). Only after the encounter is over the other characters can try to help the character heal.

[Loosing Character Points]:

- Not concentrating and distracting other players.
- Not acting according to character.
- Excessively talking out of character and Meta Gaming talk.

Note that the starting Character Points each player receives is according to the character background (the better it is, the more he'll get). I told my players I won't let them start with less than 10 Character Points.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I have a few comments:-

Elite Minions
The system I have used for elite minions that worked well was:

- An elite minion has an XP value of 2 standard minions of its level.
- An elite minion is bloodied the first time it takes damage and killed the second time it takes damage.
- An elite minion in all other respects is the same as a standard minion.

I believe that this is the simplest and most effective way of giving minions a little more staying power while keeping them bookkeeping free.

Character Points System
I totally understand your reasoning for developing this system but I cannot understate how bad an idea I think it is.

Not only will it get to be a pain to keep track of in session, but it will be a constant source of arguement and resentment for your players. Instead of it encouraging roleplaying and concentration it will distract your players. They will constantly argue about how you are handing out different amounts of character points to different people, you will be acused of favouritism if one person recieves more and you will be resented if you take them away.

The only real way to get your players to roleplay is to set a good example by putting them in roleplaying situations and roleplaying the NPCs in ways that engage them.

The only way to discourage out of game chatter and metagaming is to politely challange it when it occurs, and maybe point out that the creatures don't metagame (your creatures don't metagame do they?)

Sorry if this comes across a little harsh but you say you have learnt from previous mistakes in your first outing as a DM (kudos, every session is a learning experience, even the highest quality DMs are continually learning and trying to improve), I am just trying to discourage you from making another mistake with your character points system.

 

[Eric Finley]

Mesh is absolutely right. The proposed system is a social disaster waiting to happen; at best, it'll break even through better RP, and even that is unlikely.

The only way to make something like your character points system work is to integrate it heavily into the core of the system; you'd need a much bigger rework of the system than you're proposing to make it work. Generally this needs to involve tradeoffs somewhere - not because the tradeoffs are inherently necessary, but because they redirect any resentment or ill feelings which may end up cropping up among the players and because they allow you to worry much less about elements of subjectivity in the social dynamic.

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For an example of a game where something similar truly does work, check out The Riddle of Steel by Driftwood Publishing. (Alas, Driftwood itself is functionally dead due to medical issues, but the fans have self-organized a "buy PDFs and we'll send Driftwood the money" system to both keep it available and help out the publisher.) Read its section on Spiritual Attributes, be puzzled, and then play the system for a while and feel the lightbulb come on inside your head. To generate its analogue in D&D, I might do something like this:
- All monster defenses are +3, and monster HP are +level (double for elites and 4x for solos); all monster attacks are +3 to hit, and add 1/3 level to damage. All skill check and attribute check DCs are +3 as well. (Or do this by subtracting from the PCs, whichever fits your style of game prep better.)
- Each PC has five Character Facets. Each of these is an aspect of the character which drives them - a higher goal, a love or a hate, faith in a deity, a destiny, etc. Each has a score from 0-5.
- Every time you make a significant decision in-game which is clearly and obviously driven by one of your facets, the GM increases the facet score by 1 at the end of the encounter. If the facet score is 0-1, you basically get the point for the asking, you just have to point out how. If the score is higher, the DM sets a higher bar; to raise a 4 to a 5, you have to really have done something foolhardy or extreme (or extremely moving) because you were driven to do so.
- When making a roll whose clear purpose is to pursue, fulfill, or respond to one of your facets (basically, the facet is one of the reasons for the roll), you add the facet score to your roll, and half the score to your damage. If multiple facets apply (you're killing your longtime nemesis, while in your signature blind rage, because he's defiling your god's altar with your true love's entrails), they stack.
- You can expend facet points into a Characterization pool on your sheet; do this whenever you like. To level up, you need both sufficient XP and Characterization points equal to your level in the pool; this empties the pool.

Try this, and I guarantee you'll enjoy the results. Casual combat becomes fatal; you fight when it matters, and when it really matters you kick ass. It's a very different style of game; I wouldn't use it in my current D&D game because I'm enjoying the more laid-back, tactical style of D&D after playing TRoS for a couple campaigns back-to-back. But it'll give you RP benefits like you wouldn't believe. (Or, of course, just play TRoS and see what I'm talking about. As a bonus, the combat system was designed by an accredited Senior Free Scholar (effectively a black-belt or top-mastery level) in the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts - it's AWESOME.)

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Another trick along a similar vein is an idea called Fan Mail, from a game called Prime Time Adventures (where you play out episodes of a TV show). Also an awesome game.

To port fan mail into D&D, you'd do it like this:
- At any time, when any player is about to make a hit roll or be attacked (but before the die roll in either case), one of the other players - never the one who is acting, and never the DM - may give them a free +1 to the roll or to the defense targeted. This is understood to be a player-judged reward for cool roleplaying moments, or integration of background, or an awesome stunt. Any given player may only add to a given die roll once, but if other players agree they can do so as well.
- However, every time this bonus is given, the DM gets a token. He can save up the tokens as long as he wants, and spend one or many on any encounter as the encounter begins. Each token is worth equivalent XP to one minion of the party's current level; this is "free" XP toward his XP budget in that encounter. He gets to add monsters worth that much and/or level monsters up by that much, and the party doesn't get extra XP for this increase in danger.

Once again... you will see cool things happen in your game because of this. It prompts players to appreciate each other's cool stuff rather than resent it, and yet to restrict that appreciation to when it's real, because there's a price.

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Basically, when rewarding cool backgrounds and good RP, it's a difficult design puzzle to do so in a socially beneficial way. Most of the "naive" ways to do it, many of which run along the lines of your proposed house rule, lead to problems in the end, or at best do as much harm as good. But it's not a problem you have to solve starting from nowhere; good solutions do exist. Those are just two examples out of a wide field of others.

 

[DMingNicholas]

The character points system can be done. Burning Wheel does something similar with Artha, even with some of the exact same ways to gain them. I think the major source of anger here is going to be the ability to bid to create magic items. It is going to cause major social conflict and infighting. It might also have the opposite effect from the intent of the points, meta-gaming. If you have two characters who wield the same kind of weapon and one of them spends points for a sweet magic version, how do you justify in game that the spending player gets it? What if the other character tries to take it?

 

[Kingreaper]

I like the sound of the TRoS system, but normally I'd say to steer clear of giving game mechanic bonuses for roleplaying things.

Maybe you could have character points affect more storyline type things; ie. you could spend character points to be sent on a quest where an enchanted highlevel armour you want is available, or you could spend them to say that when the village was sacked, that lovely barmaid you had your eye on hid in the cellar.

Stuff that doesn't directly make people who RP more powerful in combat, but gives them more RP opportunities.

 

[HealingAura]

I have a few comments:-
Elite Minions
The system I have used for elite minions that worked well was:

- An elite minion has an XP value of 2 standard minions of its level.
- An elite minion is bloodied the first time it takes damage and killed the second time it takes damage.
- An elite minion in all other respects is the same as a standard minion.

I believe that this is the simplest and most effective way of giving minions a little more staying power while keeping them bookkeeping free.

I really liked the simplicity of this method for Elite Minions. When combining Elite Minions (as you suggested) and normal Minions, the players will not know which ones are tougher. In fact, I can just decide at the start of the battle that out of X Minions, Y of them are Elite Minions and choose which ones will survive the first hit during the combat encounter.

Character Points System
I totally understand your reasoning for developing this system but I cannot understate how bad an idea I think it is.

Not only will it get to be a pain to keep track of in session, but it will be a constant source of arguement and resentment for your players. Instead of it encouraging roleplaying and concentration it will distract your players. They will constantly argue about how you are handing out different amounts of character points to different people, you will be acused of favouritism if one person recieves more and you will be resented if you take them away.

The only real way to get your players to roleplay is to set a good example by putting them in roleplaying situations and roleplaying the NPCs in ways that engage them.

The only way to discourage out of game chatter and metagaming is to politely challange it when it occurs, and maybe point out that the creatures don't metagame (your creatures don't metagame do they?)

I have yet to come up with a better way to motivate the players to give more information about their character without providing their characters with bonuses they should get from powers/feats/features. I'm not sure if we are bound to encounter the difficultires that you have mentioned. In my opinion, players with more character points will not feel their characters are any stronger than the rest of the party and therefore there won't be any arguments about why this guy received 3 CP and another got 2. You could say the same about rewarding players with XP for good RP.

Mesh is absolutely right. The proposed system is a social disaster waiting to happen; at best, it'll break even through better RP, and even that is unlikely.

The only way to make something like your character points system work is to integrate it heavily into the core of the system;

I'm not trying to make my character system the most important thing in our D&D sessions. I want to give my players incentives to connect with their character, not to give them a way to shine in specific encounters depending on their character development. This is not supposed to be some sort of new Action Point system.

Another trick along a similar vein is an idea called Fan Mail, from a game called Prime Time Adventures (where you play out episodes of a TV show). Also an awesome game.

To port fan mail into D&D, you'd do it like this:
- At any time, when any player is about to make a hit roll or be attacked (but before the die roll in either case), one of the other players - never the one who is acting, and never the DM - may give them a free +1 to the roll or to the defense targeted. This is understood to be a player-judged reward for cool roleplaying moments, or integration of background, or an awesome stunt. Any given player may only add to a given die roll once, but if other players agree they can do so as well.
- However, every time this bonus is given, the DM gets a token. He can save up the tokens as long as he wants, and spend one or many on any encounter as the encounter begins. Each token is worth equivalent XP to one minion of the party's current level; this is "free" XP toward his XP budget in that encounter. He gets to add monsters worth that much and/or level monsters up by that much, and the party doesn't get extra XP for this increase in danger.

Once again... you will see cool things happen in your game because of this. It prompts players to appreciate each other's cool stuff rather than resent it, and yet to restrict that appreciation to when it's real, because there's a price.

I have to admit that the "player-judge" idea is interesting. I will think about how to implement it in my system.

I think the major source of anger here is going to be the ability to bid to create magic items. It is going to cause major social conflict and infighting. It might also have the opposite effect from the intent of the points, meta-gaming. If you have two characters who wield the same kind of weapon and one of them spends points for a sweet magic version, how do you justify in game that the spending player gets it? What if the other character tries to take it?

I can think of 3 solutions:
1. Increase in demand will result in increase in prices - the player who's willing to pay the most Character Points.
2. Let the dice choose - just roll a die to see which one can choose the item.
3. According to character items - if one has only a small amount of crappy items and the other character has many powerful items, the first character will get to choose the item.

By the way, how do you divide treasure to prevent such a situation (poor characters and rich characters) in the first place?

I like the sound of the TRoS system, but normally I'd say to steer clear of giving game mechanic bonuses for roleplaying things.

Maybe you could have character points affect more storyline type things; ie. you could spend character points to be sent on a quest where an enchanted highlevel armour you want is available, or you could spend them to say that when the village was sacked, that lovely barmaid you had your eye on hid in the cellar.

Stuff that doesn't directly make people who RP more powerful in combat, but gives them more RP opportunities.

I didn't add the treasure selecting option to make the players who RP more have more powerful characters. It's more of a way for players to choose the treasure they get without giving me a direct "wish-list". If a player knows he wants to play a paladin who worships Corellon that will multi class to warlock, and he's about to receive a level 8 Holy Symbol, he will probably choose the Star of Corellon Holy Symbol from the Adventurer's Vault.

 

[Mesh Hong]

HealingAura: If you want to still go ahead with your Character Points system then by all means try it out. It is your game and only you really know what will motivate your players.

All I was doing was giving my opinion and small wisdom from my own experience.

After many years developing my style of DMing I seem to favour the following general approach to character background/personality in regard to story or plot.

- If a player has a background or personality that I find interesting it naturally gets woven into the plot and therefore given a chance to develop and grow. This should pull in the other members of the group and keep both the RPing and the Story moving forward.

- If a player has a background that I don't find interesting it naturally does not recieve the same amount of attention or become part of the plot, so it becomes less of a problem. To balance this I try to present new opportunities and situations to the specific character that I do find interesting. This should subtlely guide the player towards an acceptable character while still giving them "what they want".

- If a character has a very defined personality or a strong set of beliefs (or even the opposite - no personality, weak beliefs) it can also be usueful to "hold a mirror up to them", or more specifically to introduce an NPC that is similar or shares common traits. Then you can start a discussion by casually pointing out how similar the NPC is to character X, sometimes people do not realise how they are acting. Either way the character will either have a role model or a warning of what their character may become if they do not mend their ways. Both encourage RPing and therfore story development.

Of course this only works for me because I have been playing with the same group of good roleplayers for a long time and therefore have built up a reasonable amount of trust and respect.

In my opinion you can probably achieve everything you want from your Character Points system without using it and instead applying some subtle psychology.

 

[RyvenCedrylle]

You could also steal the 'Compel' mechanic from the Dresden Files RPG - for D&D I would have each character write out 3, maybe 4 strongly-held beliefs or character flaws. Whenever a player has a character act on one of these beliefs to the detriment of the entire party (including themselves), they get a +1 bonus to any d20 roll until the end of the encounter or until the start of the next combat. A rogue stealing something that gets the party into trouble, going back into the burning house to save the dog despite the danger to the party, etc.

...May edit this later as I have to get to work now.

 

[Garthanos]

You could also steal the 'Compel' mechanic from the Dresden Files RPG - for D&D I would have each character write out 3, maybe 4 strongly-held beliefs or character flaws. Whenever a player has a character act on one of these beliefs to the detriment of the entire party (including themselves), they get a +1 bonus to any d20 roll until the end of the encounter or until the start of the next combat. A rogue stealing something that gets the party into trouble, going back into the burning house to save the dog despite the danger to the party, etc.

...May edit this later as I have to get to work now.

I was going to mention the fate system myself (that is the core of Dresden Files RPG), but figured I would wait to see if somebody else did, congrats ;-)
the economy of fp are very self correcting, but an FP has a major impact closer to a +4 in d20 terms, but only on one action. I await an elaborations on your idea with interest.

 

[tinkerer]

I have a few comments:-

Elite Minions
The system I have used for elite minions that worked well was:

- An elite minion has an XP value of 2 standard minions of its level.
- An elite minion is bloodied the first time it takes damage and killed the second time it takes damage.
- An elite minion in all other respects is the same as a standard minion.

I believe that this is the simplest and most effective way of giving minions a little more staying power while keeping them bookkeeping free.

I have been using an almost identical version of this for some but not all of my minions. However, I have one difference.
- A critical hit kills the minion in one hit instead of two.

I also tend to bump the base damage that all minons (elite or otherwise) doll out by a bit. I have not been consistant on by how much as I have tried a couple different formulas and am not happy with any quite yet.