D&D, house rules, and other game systems

[Victim]

Another reason DnD may get more sweeping house rules is that the changes can be an attempt use the large DnD player base without actually using DnD.

 

[kibbitz]

Well, for me, it's just down to the representation of the mechanics. I own some White Wolf stuff, Synnibar *shudder*, D&D basic, Robotech, Recon, Shadowrun 2nd Ed, Maelstrom and D&D3.0. Have browsed through a few more. I started from by-the-book. That was when I was younger and the rules were just rules. Now, even though I've stopped playing, I'd really be doing a fair bit of house-ruling for most of these if I did start again.

Maybe I'm crazy but I find that I cannot accept mechanics if they don't give me a acceptable approximation of reality in terms of they work. Thus, as long as the system has stuff that I don't agree with, I'd house-rule it as much as I feel the need to.

 

[monboesen]

I've houseruled every game system I've ever run.

I'll second that. It's in my blood, just can't help it.

 

[Lanefan]

My guess is that it's in large part due to the strongly-implied idea in D+D's older editions that the "rules" are more like guidelines. Not being familiar with other games, I can only ask whether they have the same implication built in.

Lanefan

 

[ThirdWizard]

D&D has a larger player base to draw from. So if you want to run a game, but don't want to run D&D, you can advertise a D&D game but then change it so much that it isn't D&D anymore, claiming a few "tweaks."

 

[WayneLigon]

I think most games wind up with house rules eventually, but for many many years D&D practically required house rules especially as gamers saw the advances made by other systems. D&D's design was simple and generic enough that you should put almost any other system 'inside' it and have it work fairly well.

 

[Crothian]

Also, there might be a few people that house rule Palladium RPGs

 

[Ciaran]

Back when I played and ran a lot of Vampire, there was a lot of house ruling. The two times I ran Vampire (one tabletop game, one LARP), we had house rules all over the damn place; the tabletop game's ruleset was almost unrecognizable.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Like any other 800 lb. gorilla, it gets the most attention. Other games don't get houseruled as much simply because they aren't played by as many groups!

QFT

Other RPGs don't have as broad a playing base. Also, many RPGs provide genuine options within the system for certain things so the official options can be used instead of homebrewed house rules. In many respects, D&D and d20 Fantasy do not.

 

[Psion]

I think people are just used to it.

I mean, I've scratched my head over things about D&D ever since I started playing it... and plated over sections of it. It used to be that some sections of the rules outright needed ignored, and really benefitted from a few tweaks.

Other systems tended to be "second systems" for many people. You less readily altered them because you were already playing the system because you were seeking a different experience; no need to house rule it to give you a different experience. Unless you adopted one of those other games as your main game; in that case you would eventually evolve into tweaking it to taste.

I think 3e needs it much less, but I've built up a habit of house ruling D&D.