What's the Coolest houserule you have seen? (In the spirit of the Strangest)

[shouit]

Since we have a thread running around what is the strangest house rule, I figure, what is the coolest house rule you have seen?

I have heard of a rule in which if you roll a '1' for your hitpoints when you level, instead of rerolling it, the DM marks it down and the next time (if there is a next time) you roll a '1' for hitpoints you can reroll it till you don't get a '1'. I really liked this one.

The other rule, we have used is the "Bad Idea" ball. In a group I used to play with, there were a couple of players which would feed the DM ideas about "Wouldn't it be cool(bad, neat,etc) if...?" and it would be determental for another character. For example, he would say something like "Wouldn't it be bad if this cave would collapse on us and lock us in here." I know that is kinda lame, but he was very creative and a lot of times his ideas were better then the planed encounter. He cost me two +2 short swords. Anways, so we have a nerf light bulb and wrote "BAD IDEA" on it. And any time he or anyone else came up with an idea that someone thought was a bad idea, another player could grab the ball and throw it at the other person. It was really funny and no one got hurt cause it was all in jest. I still have that light bulb.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

I always liked the one that my current DM uses:

When rolling HP, you always get at least half on the die. I.E., if you roll 1d10 everytime you go up a level and roll a 1, you still get 5 automatically. But if you roll a 9, you get a 9.

 

[shilsen]

I always liked the one that my current DM uses:

When rolling HP, you always get at least half on the die. I.E., if you roll 1d10 everytime you go up a level and roll a 1, you still get 5 automatically. But if you roll a 9, you get a 9.

Hey, that's my house rule!

 

[Tsyr]

I always liked the one that my current DM uses:

When rolling HP, you always get at least half on the die. I.E., if you roll 1d10 everytime you go up a level and roll a 1, you still get 5 automatically. But if you roll a 9, you get a 9.

I have something similar, kind of... If you roll poorly on a hit-die roll, you have the option to roll again... But on a different die.

A D12 class would re-roll ona D8. Any D10-D8 class would re-roll on a D6. Any D6 class would re-roll on a D4. A D4 class rolls a D3.
Or, you can take half of the possible result of your hit-die.

But if you choose to roll the lower die, you have to take what you get... No choosing half max later.

So there is always the chance you will do better than half of your max on the second roll.. It's not likely, but it's there, if you want to try it.

 

[Tewligan]

I always liked the one that my current DM uses:

When rolling HP, you always get at least half on the die. I.E., if you roll 1d10 everytime you go up a level and roll a 1, you still get 5 automatically. But if you roll a 9, you get a 9.

In my game, players could either choose to take half on the die (i.e., a fighter could just take the 5 hp rather than rolling), or they could roll. However, if you decide to roll, you have to keep the result, whether it's a 1 or a 10. The safer "half option" was rarely taken, which was bemoaned after rolling the dice on more than one occasion.

 

[Voadam]

hit points again

In the current campaign I play in you get half your hit die round up instead of down, it was really great as a wizard! And I regularly roll poorly so I was happy to take it.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Back in the old 2E days, we would allow hit point re-rolls of all 1s. If you were a fighter/ranger/paladin, you could re-roll 1s and 2s.

 

[Taloras]

This is an idea i tried in a game i started (didnt get very far), but my players liked.....instead of rolling one dice...you roll 2. You take whichever is the better. No re-rolls if you get 2 1s, but theres not much chance of that happening....our halfling barbarian rolled a 12 and an 11 at 2nd level....so he got 12. If that 12 had been a 1, he still would have gotten 11. They seemed to think it unusual, but nice....unfortunately for them, i did this for the baddies as well....so the half-orc fighter they were up against(half orc barbarian) had near max hit points (3rd level, max at first, 12, 10 for his rolls)

 

[Paka]

I am running a small D&D game set in Midnight right now and I am enjoying a new rule I have instituted, stolen from Unknown Armies.

The players don't keep track of their hit points, I do. I don't tell them, "10 points of damage." I tell them, "The sword cleaves past your chainmail, ripping into your colar-bone, nearly breaking it in two."

It has made combat feel more dramatic, bloody and dangerous, a perfect compliment to Midnight.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I don't remember where I first read this, but one DM encouraged role-playing by having a rule that if your PC died, you could only replace it by taking over a (level-appropriate) NPC the party was acquainted and friendly with.

Since most NPCs don't interact with the party enough to have all of their details known, it allowed the player to customize the new PC to a good degree, but also ensured that every encounter wasn't just combat.

-Dave
"And I don't like the idea of going anywhere near the gods. We're like toys to them, you know. And they don't realize how easily the arms and legs come off." --Rincewind, The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby.