GMs: With What Do You Tinker?

[Campbell]

I pretty much run games like Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World straight, but when it comes to more traditional games like Vampire, Exalted, and Infinity we have basically redesigned significant portions of the games to make them work for us. We do have a couple of game group specific PbtA hacks (nothing polished enough to share) that we have developed for specific games.

 

[Fenris-77]

I tinker with all the things.

 

[aramis erak]

Rules - the mechanisms that make the game go. These are the foundations of RPGs (with the social contract being the soil beneath). Example: your character is fully healed after a long rest.

Lists - the game features that rely on the rules. It's often easier to tinker with lists than rules, since the effects of a change are limited to that list. Example: monsters, equipment, character classes (that don't introduce class-specific rules).

Adventures - what your group does with the rules and lists. Sometimes these come with the game, sometimes they're sold separately. Tinkering with these means writing your own or modifying pre-made adventures.

I tinker with rules sparingly, and lists almost never.
I'll mod the hell out of adventures to either highlight desired theme elements or character abilities.

My house rules for FFG Star Wars are very few...
2 motivations, not 1
Specific rates for experience, rather than the vague guidelines in the book
Shields add as much soak as they add black dice to opponent's to hit rolls.
Movement cribbed out of the optional movement rules in L5R 5e,
Helpers need the skill being used to help in order to provide a blue die; this need not be the same skill as the primary is rolling.

 

[Li Shenron]

Nowadays I mostly trust things as-is, at least in core books. With a minimum of rule-0 on dice rolls and adjudications on aspects not explicitly covered by RAW, I can run 5e games without house rules.

I still tinker with lists if I am running a campaign under a specific theme, deciding which options are in or out.

I always modify adventures a little bit, on the other hand, but even with those I have gradually restrained myself more and more. The reason is, I have grown to value more the "shared experience" of running the same game as many others.

 

[Yora]

My approach is to primarily tinker with lists to better reflect the setting and adventures of my campaign. Spells, monsters, weapons, armor, and magic items primarily.
I usually try to keep my tailoring of game rules to a minimum. I'd not say I try to avoid it, because I always know I will be modifying quite and lot and it's really necessary, but my goal is to have as few exceptions to the rules that players are already familiar with. Even when I think there are more elegant ways to do certain things, I keep them untouched unless the default rules are just plain unusable for my needs.

I wouldn't say I am tinkering with adventures. It's more like I am taking inspirations from adventures. The thing I actually run is generally an original adventure that takes some ideas from an adventures that players might possibly recognize if they are very familiar with it.

 

[payn]

The whole trifecta.

Rules; I like rules systems that do what they should. For a generic system do they provide the right experience for the genre they should emulate. For specific systems, do they provide the narrow scope of a great experience that relates to source material? If the rules are too far off the mark, I simply wont use that system. Though, if they are close I am willing to make a few adjustments to make it fit my style and group.

Lists; I'll tinker to taste here.

Adventures; This is probably the biggest one for me. I have not seen a published module yet that I didnt think could improve with a little of my own input. Also, as GM I have the most fun developing a good story, mystery, conflict, etc... for my group. I'm not great at making my own setting and/or adventure on my own. I need a good foundation laid for me to work off of. While design and taste in the modern era has decreased the need for tinkering with rules and lists, the need for adventures remains entirely necessary. I also see this as a feature and not a bug of adventures.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I seem to like to modify RULES & LIST. Little things dealing with environments and creature habits. Example: due to an orcs muscle build they cannot effectively use a bow and are unable to run long distance. Or how all movement in a forest is rough terrain for most (not all) and how animals and creature have a natural concealment in their habitat. It is all background (not happy with that word) stuff.

 

[uzirath]

I suppose I tinker with all three, but my primary system is GURPS which is such a toolbox that RAW provides a very broad palette. I rarely fully invent new rules from scratch.

I commonly customize lists for particular settings. Most adventures are either original or customized significantly.

 

[gamerprinter]

I didn't click Lists, but for me making lists is a part of the process of creating rules and adventures - I don't see Lists as a stand-alone created thing, rather a process element only. So I do make lists, but in developing rules and adventures. Consider I'm an author/game designer/illustrator/publisher so I delve more comprehensively in it than just as a home GM at a table. Not dismissing the work that GM homebrewers do, but I do this as a living...

 

[Blue]

This is a fun question, thanks for asking it!

I'm 100% homebrew in setting and adventures, and when I finish a campaign (4+ years for the last three completed) I rarely go back to a setting because I love to come up with new ones. These may or may not have changes, restrictions, and new options based on the setting. I have been repeatedly invited to DM in a shared world that I play in, but for me that's actually harder then staying consistent in vision with settings that are entirely a product of me & what has occured at my table.

I heavily tinker with rules, to the point of making up my own systems (I am currently working on two, one a crunchy combat-oriented that satisfies my Battletech/Star Fleet Battles/D&D 4e/Champions likes, and one a more heavily narrative/gamist where the idea that any one type of scene or challenge consistently takes up so much wall time that everyone needs to be good at it so as not to feel left out is incorrect.

I have several bolt-ones for D&D 5e, and some fairly heavy revisions, such as a drop in replacement for classes. Which I don't play with because the groups I'm with like 5e as is, and some of the players don't really care about system mastery so use outside character builders and such that I don't want to take away from them. (My two house rules are: Inspiration can be a reroll, and bonus action to drink a potion.)