Do you let your players know your House Rules?

[Pinotage]

Here's the scenario. A DM in a game incorporates a few house rules, say, for instance, by making changes to the DR system. Now, instead of DR being based on DR X/magic, it's back to the old 3e system as DR X/magic (+Y). The other types of damage reduction (good, adamantine etc.) are unaffected. Or say the DM house rules that Scent now works over 10 ft, or that Energy Drain works differently.

Would you tell your players that you're making these house rules? It is related to monsters and hence DM terrain only (beyond character knowledge checks) so technically it's not player domain. And, if you were standing in your character's boots, you wouldn't have any knowledge on DR. You'd just choose your weapons based on what you'd heard.

So, the questions is - what do you tell players about your house rules? Should they know everything? Or can certain house rules be kept to yourself?

Pinotage

 

[Mouseferatu]

Tricky. Technically, you have every right to keep such things to yourself. The characters would likely have no way of knowing such things.

On the other hand, some players get upset when things don't work as they expect.

I'd say your safest bet is to tell them "By the way, I'm making some changes to a few rules regarding the way monsters work. You shouldn't expect all critters to conform exactly to their entries in the rules." That lets them know they can't count on meta-gaming (which they shouldn't anyway), but doesn't give them details as to what you've got planned.

 

[Telperion]

In-game the character has no clear concept about a whole lot of things. For example he doesn't know about the existence of feats as a game mechanical attribute that give the character special options to use (mainly) in combat.

The player, however, is aware of the feats and has the right to construct his character by using the knowledge available to him. Now, if you feel that a character needs to have certain knowledge, such as Knowledge (the planes) or Knowledge (arcane), to find out about the house rules then it is your decision. Personally I just find it easier to tell the house rules as they stand and avoid as much frustration / bad blood as possible that has come up because players' assumed you were "playing by the book", when in reality you are not.

 

[Mouseferatu]

You could, I suppose, also allow certain knowledge checks where appropriate. A wizard with high Knowledge (arcana) or a ranger with the proper favored enemy might know enough to say to his friends, "Guys, magic items may not be enough. I read somewhere that only really powerful magic items can hurt this thing."

But I'd be careful about allowing such a roll unless the character's knowledges really fit the topic, and even then I'd make it a difficult one.

 

[hong]

Tell them. From an in-game point of view, knowing that DR works as X/+N is no easier or harder for characters to learn than DR X/magic, or X/adamantine, or X/fish, etc. If it made sense for people to be able to find out that you need cold iron weapons to harm demons, it still makes sense for them to find out you need +5 weapons to harm dragons. Of course, you don't have to mention the exact DRs of the monsters you've changed.

 

[rbingham2000]

If your house rules are ones that your players will use on a regular basis, such as races, classes, feats, different weapon and armor rules, magic and whatnot, then you need to let the players know, especially if they fundamentally change how the game is played, like the Generic Classes from Unearthed Arcana.

As for magic items and monsters, the players don't need to know about how they work, and they will just have to find out about them in-game.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I don't keep house rules to myself - for lomg. In the scenario about DR, I would keep that to myself, at first, just to build up the mystery about the creature.

Obviously, any kind of serious rule where the characters would be at a serious disadvantage day after day, I would let them in on. For instance, if the house rule was 'swords now do d6-1 damage' that is something everyone deserves to know.

As a slight tangent, I run a Mutants & Masterminds game. Ofetn I use lots of conspiracies and tricky villiant, focusing on themes like 'what is reality' or long hallucinations. Here has been my dilemma in the past: during a hallucination (where the players think it is real, too), a character decides he wants to fly away from the danger. The hallucination is going to prevent this so I roll some dice, look around like I am examining a chart and then say 'sorry - your flight doesn't work.' In the past I have had serious problems from players who think I am (a) trying to screw them or (b) not being fair.

Fortunately, over the years, my reputation has been pretty solid and honest but at first, thinsg were a little tense with some of the players.

Now, like I said, that is not really a 'house rule' unless the house rule is 'I keep stuff to myself that you have no way of knowing.'

 

[Zappo]

Tell them. Actually, I'd be a bit upset if the DM changed game rules without telling me. In this case, if I purchased mithral and adamantine weapons and then found out at a later time that I've wasted my money, I would ask to retcon the purchase, because there is no reason in the game world for which my character would have bought them.

Metagaming? I doubt it. While the specific resistance of any given monster may be unknown, the general notion of the existance of damage reduction and how it works (ie, degrees of magical power versus materials) should be a fairly well-known fact in folklore at least. Besides, isn't changing the rules specifically to hose metagamers metagaming too?

 

[Buttercup]

I guess my players must not be like everyone else's. I can't imagine they would ever notice if I tweaked monster rules, because none of them has read the monster manual or the DMG. However, I tend to run monsters right out of the book, so the scenario in question wouldn't come up.

I try to tell my players about house rules in advance, but in most cases where we haven't, it's because they are a response to something that happens during play, and we all decide together what we thing makes sense.

The gaming experinece for us is cooperative rather than adversarial, so I don't think it would ever occur to any of us to try to "win".

 

[Li Shenron]

It's a good question...

When I am the DM I usually use very few house rules (few = 3-5), and I always let the players know in advance because one may be having some idea about the character that it is possible it won't work as planned.

On the other hand, changes to monsters are IMHO completely in the hands of the DM, a player who rants because all zombies in your campaign can take full rounds worth of action is metagaming.

In the case of DR, it's not obvious... probably better to tell it however, before the players start crafting or buying weapons with special abilities but a mere +1, without understanding why the hell their weapons are ineffective. It's the sort of thing that can irritate players well versed with the rules. Ok, it's still metagaming in a way, but better to avoid complications and keep the game enjoyable to them as well