Do you let your players know your House Rules?

[Dr_Rictus]

What is there to gain by not telling players the rules? Maybe a little mystery to a monster encounter? There's better ways to do that; that's what templates are for.

Why risk annoying people with rule changes that will seem sudden and arbitrary?

You're going to need to support your argument that telling players up front you've changed certain rules, which seems to be the widely-advocated approach, amounts to "rule changes that will seem sudden and arbitrary." Otherwise this is another straw man.

You're also going to need to support your assertion that templates are better, across the board, as a way of injecting uncertainty into encounters, because you haven't made the prima facie case just by saying so. Please elaborate.

 

[WayneLigon]

Every actual rules change is documented in a player handout and given to everyone, including how the rule used to work and how it works now. I can't see concealing any actual rules from a player.

'Flavor', such as 'Elves live in the woods', is subject to unannounced change at any time. Any campaign document generally says that monsters are not rules and are subject to change at any time as well; it's a general warning that a monster may not be exactly as written. I mainly make small-scale changes, such as giving Ghouls a Climb movement rate. Any large-scale changes generally get mentioned in the campaign handouts.

 

[RFisher]

I generally want to make sure players are informed of house rules up front, but...

Monsters (IMHO) don't have to follow the rules. I usually try to advise players not to make assumptions about monsters, but I'm not going to lay out the changes explicitly.

Also, there are a class of house rules that I won't advertise. e.g. I may wait until someone asks about playing a multiclass paladin before revealing that I've choosen to ignore the multiclass restrictions on that class.

 

[Voadam]

What is there to gain by not telling players the rules? Maybe a little mystery to a monster encounter? There's better ways to do that; that's what templates are for.

Why risk annoying people with rule changes that will seem sudden and arbitrary?

But what has changed are some monster characteristics, not game rules.

And how is a template better?

Here's a new demonic template for you

applies to 3.0 demons only, change DR from X/+X to cold iron or good.

Now if a PC was using improved familiar, or summon monster, or was crafting a construct, they should have the monster stats and be aware of their capabilities, but otherwise I see no real problem using 3.5 DR lycanthropes in an otherwise 3.0 game, as opposed to house created 3.0 werewolves with new mechanics (say regeneration vulnerable to silver instead of silver DR).

 

[Aristotle]

If its a permanent change to a fundamental mechanic then I certainly tell them of my intended change. It is impossible to be sure it will never come up, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. I also have one player who takes particular interest in the rules (he runs games as well) so I like to get his insight on the pros/cons of a given house rule.

If its an ocasional change to something that should never directly affect the characters than I see no problem keeping it from them until/unless it comes up in conversation.

So if DRX/Magic is being replaced with DRX/Magic(+Y) across the board, I would tell them. But if DRX/Magic worked like usual except for one specific creature/race who used the variation... then they'll have to find that out in character.

 

[Tzarevitch]

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

When I start a campaign, I give my players handouts stating all of the rules changes so that they know in advance. This is especially important if it directly affects their characters. For example, I would certainly tell them if the DR change. That doesn't strike me as fair leaving them out of the loop on that because that is something their characters should reasonably be able to find out. (Legends tell that certain creatures require magic weapons of certain levels of power to affect them and that sort of thing.)

Now do I tell them of every change? No. I adjust creature CR all the time (particularly creatures in the 3.0 books). I also don't precisely follow the DMG calculating XP and I don't tell them that either. I also don't tell them when I adjust creature stats or HP because that is something that they have no way of knowing.

As a general rule, I believe in keeping my players informed. Even mid-campaign I give players handouts or electronic copies of all of my rules changes so they cannot claim that they weren't given notice.

Tzarevitch

 

[Chris Durham]

I allow my players to know about and even vote on the inclusion of some house rules and variants. However I've made the decision (stop reading if you're my players) to include the UA rules for Sanity and Taint in my Eberron campaign. These are two things I don't want them metagaming against. If a player goes insane, I don't want him to know he's about to. It should be something I address for roleplaying issues when it arises (i.e. "You're now deathly afraid of cats"). I want to describe in words the horror of the undead, but still have a measureable effect. If they spend a few days in the Mournland I want to tell one of them "you begin to have a purple lesion form on your face." I've had to modify the sanity rules a bit to fit what I feel is appropriate to the campaign, but I think it works. Any rolls tied to these rules, I make.

 

[Ibram]

There is a big difference between telling them that DR works slightly different in your game and telling them that Timmy the Daemon has DR 5/+2... telling them the first bit is important, telling them the second bit is not neccisary (infact I would argue that it is more important NOT to tell the players the specific DR of a creature unless their character seaks it out.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Yes, I tell my players about any house rules I plan on using before we play. Few things are more irritating to players than having the DM suddenly spring a house rule on them in the middle of a session...

DM: Okay, the ogre swings his club at you... *rolls dice* ...and scores a critical hit. *rolls percentile dice* Also, your armor has been damaged and will have to be repaired.

Player: What the hell?!

DM: It's just a house rule I decided upon before the session started.

Player: Are there any other house rules I should know about?

 

[reanjr]

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?

Maybe legends tell of the great metals of mithril and adamantine. But it's actually a well-honed scam by a guild of blacksmiths and merchants. While pretty and used commonly in decorative works, it is no more useful than steel. Your character, unfortunately, was duped.

Folklore is most often wrong, occasionally incomplete, and rarely accurate. Yes, you have heard that some creatures can turn the finest weapons. You have also heard legends of a sword that was used to slay the dragon, Inzish, a sword that bit the dragon like no other, crafted jointly by a famous dwarven smith and a wizard. You make the assumption that magical weapons can penetrate through these types of hides, but it turns out that it has to be a certain potency of magic. Congrats, your character has duped himself.