What's Your Favorite House Rule?

[GMMichael]

I'm hoping to get a finger on the DIY pulse of ENWorld...

Every RPG is either missing a rule you'd like to see or has a rule that you wish were different. (If not, tell us what this perfect RPG is!)

What's your favorite house rule? The one that you always look for when trying out a new game. Why do you prefer this rule to be present?

Mine is a core resolution rule that includes gray areas. Some call this Fail Forward, some call it Degrees of Success. I just like to know that I (or my players) didn't just completely waste a turn by "failing" a roll. In D&D terms, that might be a "No, But" rule: if a PC rolls below the DC, maybe he fails to do damage or doesn't trip the charging ogre, but something interesting happens.

 

[howandwhy99]

If you fail to stay alive in the game, you start over at zero. Zero XP level 1. Every time.

 

[Ath-kethin]

No resurrection magic. Make death mean something.

 

[Argyle King]

"House Rule"?

I suppose my favorite house rule to a system would be detaching Will and Per from IQ in GURPS 4th Edition.


If you're asking for my preferences in gaming...

I tend to prefer systems in which HP actually represent "meat" and health in some way beyond simply being a completely abstract number.

 

[DammitVictor]

I tend toward drastic overhauls of games rather than small rules... combining whole systems together, replacing half of the classes in a D&D game... that sort of thing.

 

[Jhaelen]

In my games, character creation is always possible without rolling dice. I.e. there's point-buy for stats and averages for hit points (if the system uses hp).
And for d20-type games, there's also always a method for retraining of some sort.

The reason behind both rules is that nothing sucks more than being forced to play a character you don't enjoy playing.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[JonnyP71]

No multiclassing without roleplaying/story-based reasons... that goes for every version of D&D we play.

No point-buy - stats are always rolled.

New characters always begin at level 1.

 

[DammitVictor]

My bete noir for the past decade has been implementing AD&D-style multiclassing in 3.PF.

 

[Firathor]

A few of you mention starting from level 1 if a PC dies. Do you have any anecdotes about how this went down at the table? I'd imagine that this approach would cause issues for making all of the players feel included and able to contribute. If that was an issue, how did you tackle it? If not, do you have any insight into why it worked?