For DMs only: how much you delight in House Rules?

[Li Shenron]

Although the topic is clear, I think the question is general enough to go into a General RPG Discussion poll...

I have the feeling that basically no one runs a D&D game without at least a few house rules. My opinion is that every DM has his own preferences about some rules he doesn't like, and overrule them even before trying, or otherwise his gaming group had one bad experience on a single thing that seemed to be too good, and the only solution they found was to ban it altogether.

But IMHO the rules are not so bad. I have DMed in 3.0 with NO house rules whatsoever and it worked very well. Admittedly, some times it happened that something seemed to be very very cheesy, but luckily (for me) it was the players who simply chose not to cast that spell every time, or not to take that feat every character and so on...

Now I am DMing in 3.5 and it's almost the same. For the first time I am using 3 house rules at all, and all of them are to lessen some restriction (in multiclassing, in cross-class skills, in weapon equivalencies), so nothing is really a huge change.

I would like to know if there is anyone who normally uses the game as it is... Of course some material that is setting-dependent is from the start chosen by the DM and doesn't necessarily count as a real house rule (such as which races, classes and magic items may or may not be available), therefore I am more interested in changing mechanics or altering existing material (including races, classes, spells, everything) when it is done NOT for campaign issues but because you don't like the RULE...

edit: you can vote more than once, e.g. I voted both "none" and "few" because I did both at different times

 

[Janx]

My house rules document is actually pretty empty. I run a D&D3.0 campaign, and I'm slowly looking up the changes in 3.5 and planning on only taking the critical fixes.

I expect I'll have the following changes:

Use the D&D 3.5 haste,Harm/Heal spells
Use the D&D 3.5 Ranger
Use the D&D 3.5 Bard

I have a section on ship construction, but only because I'm doing a sailing campaign and I like my rules better than SeaFarer's Handbook.

 

[Cbas10]

I would like to know if there is anyone who normally uses the game as it is... Of course some material that is setting-dependent is from the start chosen by the DM and doesn't necessarily count as a real house rule (such as which races, classes and magic items may or may not be available), therefore I am more interested in changing mechanics or altering existing material (including races, classes, spells, everything) when it is done NOT for campaign issues but because you don't like the RULE...

edit: you can vote more than once, e.g. I voted both "none" and "few" because I did both at different times

I tend to run with very few house rules; partially because I don't like to spend my time making alterations and then telling everyone more rules, and partially because I run games at the FLGS as a gimmick to get more potential players into the game. Generally (if I even decide to use ANY), the only house rules I use are a few things from 3.0 carried into my 3.5 game. I use the previous critical threat range stacking rules, a hybrid of 3.0/3.5 Heal/Harm rules, and a small number of the "Optional Rules" found throughout buth editions of the DMG. As soon as I start a new campaign that will not be for introducing newbies, I'll start using the Wounds/Vitality system, as presented in the Unearthed Arcana

 

[Psion]

So, would the 3.0 rules I am keeping (or alternately, the 3.5 rules I have decided to use) be considered house rules or not?

Anyways, I definitely have less house rules than in the 2e era by a large margin, when I had to re-engineer large sections of the rules. But I have a pretty decent selection of house rules, if you count my "rules on which rules to use" as rules.

 

[Li Shenron]

So, would the 3.0 rules I am keeping (or alternately, the 3.5 rules I have decided to use) be considered house rules or not?

It's a good question. With this poll I meant that if you play a hybrid of 3.0/3.5 you are using house rules, either on top of 3.0 or 3.5, depending on which is the basis in your opinion.

When I moved from 3.0 to 3.5 there were many things I didn't like in the revision, and a couple of which I really despised (AoO for standing up and the new Deflect Arrows). Anyway, I resisted the temptation to overrule them and decided to give the 3.5 set a try as it is.

I can understand that for many people playing a 3.0/3.5 hybrid does NOT mean houseruling, but let's consider it that for the purpose of this poll That's also valid if someone plays a hybrid between D&D and d20 Modern for example. So if you play a hybrid, think of which of the 2 you are closer and the other as your set of house rules, which probably means many

 

[Quickbeam]

Like most people I've spoken with and watched post here on the boards, our group is using a hybrid of 3e and 3.5 right now. It's not clear whether or not we'll ever abandon this format, but even if we do there's little doubt that we would retain some vestige of the old rules.

As to actual house rules, we have several, but they come as go as our campaign evolves and events present new concepts for us to consider.

 

[arwink]

I tend to play 3.5 and 3.0 pretty much as written, although I changed spell-book rules a little and added in changes to the XP.

D20 modern I tend to house-rule obsessively, depending on the genre I want to simulate.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

I have a few (under 10) house rules I use, as the game progress's I'll probably add more of them to cover certain situations that arise. But right now, all the character creation options and any house rules as well as my gaming misson statement all fit on one and a half pages.

So I think I'm doing alright.

 

[Kemrain]

The game I'm in right now is so butchered that it bearly resembles DnD.

We use the Grim n Gritty HP and Combat Rules (By Kenneth S. Hood), a heavily modified Elements of Magic Revised magic system, our own economics system, a revised class system, mastercrafting rules and the YAARGH Armor system... That's off the top of my head, too.

Pity there wasn't an option for "D&D? What that?"

- Kemrain the House Ruler.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

You don't have an option for "rewrote the books". Sorry. Can't vote.