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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5196167" data-attributes="member: 59082">I just read Ari Marmell's blog, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/mouseferatu/2562-i-fought-raw-raw-won.html" target="_blank">"I fought the RAW, and the RAW won"</a> and I have to say that my trajectory is rather similar: More house ruling in the Elder Days of my RPG career, especially with 1st and 2nd edition AD&D, and less so with 3ed and 4ed. Actually, with 4ed--because it was after a few years gaming hiatus--I sort of re-capitulated my former trajectory of house ruling: I started out with none, then started adding them like crazy, then started cutting them away until...well, I'm thinking of getting rid of just about all of them except for my favorite one of all, which isn't really a house rule: DM Fiat. I just don't feel like it is worth the hassle, especially in terms of trying to balance house rules with everything else.My biggest struggle over house ruling in 4ed is with regards to critical hits, which just aren't satisfactory to me, at least not until higher levels and you get the stacking effect. But in general, there is nothing more anti-climatic than a critical hit at a dramatic moment, followed by "You do max damage, which is 12 HP." I created a couple options, including an open-ended system where a natural 20 could result in larger amounts of damage, but I've found that in order to get the right blend of balance, drama, and lethality-without-going-overboard, my crit system got more and more complex. Now I'm thinking of paring it down and saying that a critical hit does what I--as DM--says it does (in addition to the RAW version). For example, a crit may automatically kill any non-Elite or Solo monster of less than a certain number of HP, or it may do double max damage against a major enemy. And so on. The idea being to bring the drama and excitement back into critical hits, and to make them really count.But I digress. What are your thoughts about Mr. Marmell's blog? Do you house rule more or less with 4ed (or whatever edition or game you play)? And is house ruling more or less difficult with X-edition/game?</blockquote>

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