Bad House Rules
- Thread starter Quasqueton
- Start date
Gothmog
First Post
Originally posted by ced1106:
* PHB: The spells in the PHB are the spells available to **your** PCs. Other NPCs and critters may have something different.
* MM & DMG: This is the possible information **your** PCs have heard of. The actual monsters and treasure you may encounter may be... different. (;
* Magic items: If you find a magic item (other than one-use ones) it will have three properties: Something good (unless it's cursed) it does, some background history, and some quirk / something unusual about it. No, you don't get to find out exactly what it is by just casting a spell!
* If it has anything to do with magical items or levelling up, you have to roleplay your way to find the contacts you need to help you out! Yes, you can ask your patron for help.
* EQ RPG: Yay, knowledge rolls.
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Actually, I do all of these in my games to varying degrees.
* Its easier when play starts to restrict spells the players know to the PHB and maybe one or two other sources. As the game progresses, I'll throw in opponents who have new spells, or allow access to different spells to the PCs.
* Oh heck yeah! The PCs in my games have probably only heard of a few of the monsters in the MM when they start, and I don't guarantee that monsters in the MM will be exactly the same in play as they are in the MM. Many of my monsters are my own creations as well. That's DM fiat, and well within acceptable parameters of the game.
* Yep. every magic item should have some history behind it, and some of them might have had flaws in their creation that make them have some kind of quirk. Magic items shouldn't just be a way to stack a bunch of bonuses/abilities on your character with no connection to the game world. Also, I don't use the Identify spell- the only way to find out about an item is trial and error, or learing about its history.
* Yep, Knowledge rolls are great- its how you keep metagaming to a minimum by separating player knowledge from PC knowledge. I actually go so far as to add many Knowledge skills to those listed in the PHB, such as: Demon Lore, Undead Lore, Faerie Lore, Herbalism, etc. If a player acts on knowledge that the PC wouldn't have, the DM is justified in giving a warning, then an XP hit on subsequent occasions.
* PHB: The spells in the PHB are the spells available to **your** PCs. Other NPCs and critters may have something different.
* MM & DMG: This is the possible information **your** PCs have heard of. The actual monsters and treasure you may encounter may be... different. (;
* Magic items: If you find a magic item (other than one-use ones) it will have three properties: Something good (unless it's cursed) it does, some background history, and some quirk / something unusual about it. No, you don't get to find out exactly what it is by just casting a spell!
* If it has anything to do with magical items or levelling up, you have to roleplay your way to find the contacts you need to help you out! Yes, you can ask your patron for help.
* EQ RPG: Yay, knowledge rolls.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually, I do all of these in my games to varying degrees.
* Its easier when play starts to restrict spells the players know to the PHB and maybe one or two other sources. As the game progresses, I'll throw in opponents who have new spells, or allow access to different spells to the PCs.
* Oh heck yeah! The PCs in my games have probably only heard of a few of the monsters in the MM when they start, and I don't guarantee that monsters in the MM will be exactly the same in play as they are in the MM. Many of my monsters are my own creations as well. That's DM fiat, and well within acceptable parameters of the game.
* Yep. every magic item should have some history behind it, and some of them might have had flaws in their creation that make them have some kind of quirk. Magic items shouldn't just be a way to stack a bunch of bonuses/abilities on your character with no connection to the game world. Also, I don't use the Identify spell- the only way to find out about an item is trial and error, or learing about its history.
* Yep, Knowledge rolls are great- its how you keep metagaming to a minimum by separating player knowledge from PC knowledge. I actually go so far as to add many Knowledge skills to those listed in the PHB, such as: Demon Lore, Undead Lore, Faerie Lore, Herbalism, etc. If a player acts on knowledge that the PC wouldn't have, the DM is justified in giving a warning, then an XP hit on subsequent occasions.
Timeboxer
Explorer
...sorry for digging up an old thread, but I've seen or heard of a few silly house rules over the years, and I kind of wanted to share. To wit:
- If you succeed at a Reflex save, you immediately are forced to move out of the area of effect (as a free action). If you are unable to move out of the area of effect, you automatically fail the Reflex save.
- Sufficiently high-level characters don't have to save against your spells. Because they're just that powerful.
- When you are in melee with an enemy and you do not have an ally also in melee with that enemy, you are Pressed, and all five-foot steps away provoke an attack of opportunity.
Roll two dice for hp, pick best one. One of the characters at 11th lvl has eight points or something from max.
Don't do that anymore because of that one character.
FWIW- I max all villians hp, goons get bewteen 75-100% of their total possible. I find it makes for tougher villians and the Players respect them more
First DM I played with (that doesn't sound right?) made us keep notes on what we encountered, and what it did during the fights we had with it. Lose those notes then lose that knowledge. I was 12 I just wanted to kill stuff and have fun- take notes- whats that? (I am the officl note taker in my group now.)
Don't do that anymore because of that one character.
FWIW- I max all villians hp, goons get bewteen 75-100% of their total possible. I find it makes for tougher villians and the Players respect them more
First DM I played with (that doesn't sound right?) made us keep notes on what we encountered, and what it did during the fights we had with it. Lose those notes then lose that knowledge. I was 12 I just wanted to kill stuff and have fun- take notes- whats that? (I am the officl note taker in my group now.)
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shilsen
Adventurer
New one from the current DM (my group tends to switch DM duties every few months):
Saves don't auto-succeed/fail on 20 and 1. Skills do auto-succeed/fail on 20 and 1. Why the change? Apparently it's more memorable if people make great skill checks but not if they make/fail a timely save. Or so says the DM. Also, skills don't just auto-succeed on a 20, but one rolls again and adds whatever one rolls to the 20 (and if it's a 20, rolls again, ad infinitum).
Saves don't auto-succeed/fail on 20 and 1. Skills do auto-succeed/fail on 20 and 1. Why the change? Apparently it's more memorable if people make great skill checks but not if they make/fail a timely save. Or so says the DM. Also, skills don't just auto-succeed on a 20, but one rolls again and adds whatever one rolls to the 20 (and if it's a 20, rolls again, ad infinitum).
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The Grackle
First Post
I had a DM who used called shots to the whatever. A called shot to the eye (-12 to hit) resulted in an instant kill, but a 20 always hit. So I made an arching fighter and killed three dragons by eye-shot. I tried to explain to the guy that this system meant any character, even w/no proficiency in a bow, had a 5% chance EVERY ATTACK of killing ANYTHING . He didn't see the problem. ![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
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Humanophile
First Post
This was an old 2e campaign, from when I was still in junior high. But if you had a +x weapon, you multiplied your damage by the power, not added. (We never had a +1 weapon in that campaign, I wonder what the DM would've done with one of those. Did I mention it was a munchkin teenage game?)
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