Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 5225246" data-attributes="member: 5143">It's that none of the DMs had any sort of written list of their house rules.  When I sat down at the table the expectation was simply "We are playing AD&D."  Then we get into the first fight and the DM tells me that in his game each side rolls a d6 and the highest goes first.  And I realize that taking my low weapon speed weapon was kind of useless in this game since it isn't faster than any other weapon(although, this eventually became the house rule of ALL our D&D games). I didn't really have the concept of "house rules" back when I first started playing.  We all played using the same rules.  Sometimes the rules weren't clear and it was up to the DM to interpret them.  Sometimes one DM would declare "I don't like that rule, it doesn't work that way in my game".  But the concept that there would be different rules in different D&D games never even occurred to me.Instead it was just frustrating that there wasn't enough rules, so we had to resort to DM interpretation more often than not.  I don't blame the DMs, I don't blame the players, I blame the lack of rules which necessitated the DMs making rulings on a constant basis.I liken the experience to playing a game of Monopoly but without the rules telling you what happens when you land on a property but the game saying that the banker gets to mediate any rules disputes.  It might be fun sometimes, but other times the banker might decide that it makes the most sense that when you land on a property you always get to buy it from whoever has it.  And it changes the game entirely.  Which is fine, if it changes in a good way.  But sometimes you get used to playing Monopoly one way and suddenly you have to learn to play it all over again with a completely different strategy. This was a long time ago, but we were aged 15-24.  The average being around 18 at the time.  We were perhaps a little immature, but we were there to play a fun game.  Sometimes our DM would give us a magic item for helping to carry in his gaming stuff or give us XP for buying him food.  The game told us whatever the DM said went.  So, if we could convince the DM to say something, we got it.That's kind of my point.  Some people were better at manipulating the DM than others.  They got more benefits in game than everyone else.</blockquote>

Verification