Scurvy_Platypus
Explorer
*sigh* This was better formatted, but the post go eaten and I don't have the patience to go back and do it all over again....
I’ve got a list of houserules I’m planning on using (or thinking of) and I want to do a quick sanity check before I make them official in the game. The upcoming session is going to be our first 4E game, with the last session having been character generation.
My posting of these is to make sure I’m not going to be bumping into unintended consequences.
1. Monster changes:
-1 to Attacks, Fort, Ref, Will at levels 5/15/25
Hp x 0.75 and damage increased .5/level.
This is to try and address issues related to Non-AC defences, as well as trying to cut down the “grind” aspect.
Damage done by monsters is a fixed amount, taking the round-up value of the dice average with a wee bit extra. This is because I personally am not super-interested in rolling dice and want to speed things up on my end.
d4=3, d6=4, d8=6, d10=7, d12=8
1a. Expertise feats banned since I'm addressing what they were supposed to address as I understand things.
2. In the future, I’m thinking of not even rolling to hit. Instead, I’ll go with the 4E version of Players roll all the dice, and have players make the roll instead. I don’t see a whole lot of difference between me making the roll and them making the roll since I generally roll out in the open. The 4E version means they’ll roll 1d20+defense (whatever is appropriate). On a 1 the monster scores a Critical Hit. The TN (Target Number) is 22+Monster’s attack bonus.
Using 22 as the base means that players don’t have to subtract the 10 bonus which is a core part of the rules. Less math basically, which means it goes quicker, as well as leaving their sheets 100% backwards compatible.
Like I said, this particular rule is one I’m thinking of using later but for now I’ll do it straight by the book. If/when I do switch over, the math won’t be changing, I’ll just be letting those dice monkeys that like rolling to do their thing.
3. Initiative for monsters will be 10+Init bonus (if any). Again, I’m not super interested in rolling dice and that just makes things faster from my perspective.
Combat turns will be alternating, meaning PCs and then Monsters. Initiative only comes into play on the initial round. Anyone that exceeds the monster’s init score will go, and then the monsters will go. After the monsters go, the entire group (including anyone that went before the monsters) will go, and then it just alternates back and forth like that.
This based on the ARS Ludi article (Initiative the silent killer) which can be found here: ars ludi » Initiative: the Silent Killer
I’ve done this sort of thing before (3.x game) and been quite happy with it. It means people are usually engaged instead of simply hanging out waiting for their turn and strongly encourages the players to actually work together as a group.
And again, it’s simpler for me.
The whole “delay my action” blah blah blah… I really dislike it.
4. In my games, death isn’t on the table unless the players explicitly want it (and then it's permadeath as otherwise "death" isn't anything more than a money tax). Which means the only way a character is going to die is generally if the player decides it’s appropriate for the character to eat it. However, there seems to be a built-in feeling that there should be _some_ sort of penalty for what would ordinarily mean death (due to HP loss). So I think I’m going to go with the Wound idea floated by Keith Baker (wounds using the disease track). I think it’ll play out better than just "You're dead Bob, make a new character" or "Yeah, just hang out for a while and the group will probably be able to rez you."
Or the worst... “ummm… ok, so I know that was a TPK… I guess you all wake up as prisoners…” which some people fall back on and might be an option in some situations but usually feels sorta forced. For the record, I've never had the group wake up as prisoners; it's a hackneyed solution in my opinion and takes control of characters away from players which I dislike.
Since Wounds are recoverable, I think it’ll also allow for some “character depth and development” without really requiring a lot of overhead. Unlike killing a character, I'm also perfectly fine with bumping a character out of combat and it having a penalty to doing stuff until it recovers.
This idea was mentioned here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...-edition-disease-rules-simulate-injuries.html
And an expanded system here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/240891-wound-system.html
5. Inherent bonuses. I’m not particularly concerned at this point with the question of “why would you buy a higher level version of the item?” My initial answer is “you wouldn’t, so what?” If it was an especial problem I might be tempted to say that while the bonus is inherent and scales up with the character, the additional properties/effects of the item don’t. But I suspect that would immediately lead to other objections.
So yes, if a Fighter was to get into a tavern brawl, smash a chair and start beating someone with a chair leg, that chair leg would have an inherent bonus of + [whatever]. The PCs are just that awesome.
The break down (as done by someone else and which seems fine to me) is:
L1-2=+0, L 3-6=+1, L 7-10=+2, L 11-14=+3, L 15-17=+4, L 18-20=+5, L 21-23=+6, L24-26=+7, L 27-29=+8, L30=+9
6. Companion sheets. When I read the rules in the DMG2 I thought, “Sweet! Now I’m covered for when a player misses the game!” Later, poking around Asmor’s site, I found he had a similar idea so that’s good enough for me. The characters will all have a Companion rules version of themselves which will cover for when the character isn’t around. Simple and straight forward I think. Asmor's thoughts on it can be found here:
Encounter-a-Day » Archive » Stunt Doubles for Absentee Players
7. Skill challenges. Although I haven’t run 4E yet, I’ve kept half an eye on this. I was initially quite interested in the Obsidian version that was done up by Stalker0. However, I do also know that WotC later revised the Skill Challenge system and folks seem to feel it’s fine now. Unless there’s something additional that I’m missing in regards to the Obsidian system, I probably will just use WotC’s version. Any input?
8. XP. Bleh. I can’t be bothered messing around with XP. Under 3.x I went with 13 encounters and then you level. Under 4E I think I’m going to go with 10 encounters and then you level. Unlike 3.x, 4E has “official” support for this, although that doesn’t particularly matter to me much; since 4E says “8 – 10” encounters, I’ll just go with 10 and keep my math simple.
I’ve got a list of houserules I’m planning on using (or thinking of) and I want to do a quick sanity check before I make them official in the game. The upcoming session is going to be our first 4E game, with the last session having been character generation.
My posting of these is to make sure I’m not going to be bumping into unintended consequences.
1. Monster changes:
-1 to Attacks, Fort, Ref, Will at levels 5/15/25
Hp x 0.75 and damage increased .5/level.
This is to try and address issues related to Non-AC defences, as well as trying to cut down the “grind” aspect.
Damage done by monsters is a fixed amount, taking the round-up value of the dice average with a wee bit extra. This is because I personally am not super-interested in rolling dice and want to speed things up on my end.
d4=3, d6=4, d8=6, d10=7, d12=8
1a. Expertise feats banned since I'm addressing what they were supposed to address as I understand things.
2. In the future, I’m thinking of not even rolling to hit. Instead, I’ll go with the 4E version of Players roll all the dice, and have players make the roll instead. I don’t see a whole lot of difference between me making the roll and them making the roll since I generally roll out in the open. The 4E version means they’ll roll 1d20+defense (whatever is appropriate). On a 1 the monster scores a Critical Hit. The TN (Target Number) is 22+Monster’s attack bonus.
Using 22 as the base means that players don’t have to subtract the 10 bonus which is a core part of the rules. Less math basically, which means it goes quicker, as well as leaving their sheets 100% backwards compatible.
Like I said, this particular rule is one I’m thinking of using later but for now I’ll do it straight by the book. If/when I do switch over, the math won’t be changing, I’ll just be letting those dice monkeys that like rolling to do their thing.
3. Initiative for monsters will be 10+Init bonus (if any). Again, I’m not super interested in rolling dice and that just makes things faster from my perspective.
Combat turns will be alternating, meaning PCs and then Monsters. Initiative only comes into play on the initial round. Anyone that exceeds the monster’s init score will go, and then the monsters will go. After the monsters go, the entire group (including anyone that went before the monsters) will go, and then it just alternates back and forth like that.
This based on the ARS Ludi article (Initiative the silent killer) which can be found here: ars ludi » Initiative: the Silent Killer
I’ve done this sort of thing before (3.x game) and been quite happy with it. It means people are usually engaged instead of simply hanging out waiting for their turn and strongly encourages the players to actually work together as a group.
And again, it’s simpler for me.
The whole “delay my action” blah blah blah… I really dislike it.4. In my games, death isn’t on the table unless the players explicitly want it (and then it's permadeath as otherwise "death" isn't anything more than a money tax). Which means the only way a character is going to die is generally if the player decides it’s appropriate for the character to eat it. However, there seems to be a built-in feeling that there should be _some_ sort of penalty for what would ordinarily mean death (due to HP loss). So I think I’m going to go with the Wound idea floated by Keith Baker (wounds using the disease track). I think it’ll play out better than just "You're dead Bob, make a new character" or "Yeah, just hang out for a while and the group will probably be able to rez you."
Or the worst... “ummm… ok, so I know that was a TPK… I guess you all wake up as prisoners…” which some people fall back on and might be an option in some situations but usually feels sorta forced. For the record, I've never had the group wake up as prisoners; it's a hackneyed solution in my opinion and takes control of characters away from players which I dislike.
Since Wounds are recoverable, I think it’ll also allow for some “character depth and development” without really requiring a lot of overhead. Unlike killing a character, I'm also perfectly fine with bumping a character out of combat and it having a penalty to doing stuff until it recovers.
This idea was mentioned here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...-edition-disease-rules-simulate-injuries.html
And an expanded system here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/240891-wound-system.html
5. Inherent bonuses. I’m not particularly concerned at this point with the question of “why would you buy a higher level version of the item?” My initial answer is “you wouldn’t, so what?” If it was an especial problem I might be tempted to say that while the bonus is inherent and scales up with the character, the additional properties/effects of the item don’t. But I suspect that would immediately lead to other objections.
So yes, if a Fighter was to get into a tavern brawl, smash a chair and start beating someone with a chair leg, that chair leg would have an inherent bonus of + [whatever]. The PCs are just that awesome.
The break down (as done by someone else and which seems fine to me) is:
L1-2=+0, L 3-6=+1, L 7-10=+2, L 11-14=+3, L 15-17=+4, L 18-20=+5, L 21-23=+6, L24-26=+7, L 27-29=+8, L30=+9
6. Companion sheets. When I read the rules in the DMG2 I thought, “Sweet! Now I’m covered for when a player misses the game!” Later, poking around Asmor’s site, I found he had a similar idea so that’s good enough for me. The characters will all have a Companion rules version of themselves which will cover for when the character isn’t around. Simple and straight forward I think. Asmor's thoughts on it can be found here:
Encounter-a-Day » Archive » Stunt Doubles for Absentee Players
7. Skill challenges. Although I haven’t run 4E yet, I’ve kept half an eye on this. I was initially quite interested in the Obsidian version that was done up by Stalker0. However, I do also know that WotC later revised the Skill Challenge system and folks seem to feel it’s fine now. Unless there’s something additional that I’m missing in regards to the Obsidian system, I probably will just use WotC’s version. Any input?
8. XP. Bleh. I can’t be bothered messing around with XP. Under 3.x I went with 13 encounters and then you level. Under 4E I think I’m going to go with 10 encounters and then you level. Unlike 3.x, 4E has “official” support for this, although that doesn’t particularly matter to me much; since 4E says “8 – 10” encounters, I’ll just go with 10 and keep my math simple.
