D&D General Harshest House Rule (in use)?

[R_J_K75]

Oh, we used to do this in a long running AD&D 2e game I was in. "No PC t-shirts" was one of the DM's sayings, and the party picked it up - we didn't accept others just because they were run by a PC.

I remember in one group, the Fellowship of the Azure Phoenix, I was trying to bring in a new character, and the remaining party decided to have auditions for a new cleric. I almost got upstaged by an NPC who they would have brought in.

And this was our "neutral, morally grey" campaign where the PCs intentionally took on the role of heroes because it got us the most perks. So my replacement character was lying to them and they were right to be suspicious. I was a worshiper of Mask (Faerun god of shadows, thievery, and intrigue) pretending to worship Shaundakul (god of travel and exploration). Luckily by the time they found out they already realized he was supremely lazy (== efficient), and he convinced them that he'd rather work once a month and amass a fortune over a year rather than one heist against the party that would leave him looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life for a powerful and vengeful party of adventurers. They bought it - sometimes the best deception is the god's honest truth. Depending on which god, of course.

I miss those style games but unfortunately time isn't exactly on our side anymore. So, we don't get too in depth with the campaign/character stories anymore. It's just assumed that the players get along and we discourage in party treachery. When we play for 2-4 hours every few weeks, it just isn't worth it and gets in the way.

 

[Seramus]

The harshest house-rule I'm using (according to my players): you must roll your hit points at every level-up.

Those poor, unfortunate souls. They suffer so much, so unjustly.

Back in my day, you rolled 1HP and your fighter put down his sword and grabbed a bow!
Shakes fist dramatically.

 

[Seramus]

In our regular game back in AD&D days, for narrative purposes if a character died you had to wait until a logical point to introduce a new one. So, this meant the player may have to wait a few hours or even a session or two. We were always upfront about this and tried to minimize that time. Everyone was OK with it. Back then it didn't make sense for a group of characters that had been adventuring together to just trust and welcome some stranger with open arms into the party. There was a probational period until they proved themselves. We've since come to our senses. players can introduce new characters as fast as they can make one, even if that means "Bob" just becomes "Bobagain".

Hahaha. Yeah, after I had to sit out an entire 8 hour session waiting for my character to be introduced (the DM insisted it make perfect narrative sense), we kicked up a big fuss and now new characters are introduced in random unplausible and potentially ridiculous ways.

BOOM! You find them tied up in the next room with a bunch of goblins arguing over who is going to eat which parts.
BOOM! You walk into the room to find a large chest jerking back and forth. A muffled yell comes from within.
BOOM! A scattering of ale mugs are all over this corner of the dungeon. The orcs are passed out, and so is a lone dwarf.

We would just make the scenario, and the player had to improvise WHY they were in that situation. It generated so many funny stories.

 

[edosan]

Yeah, we were big fans of the "You find a halfling thief in the back of the goblin lair, bound and gagged" back in the day...

 

[cbwjm]

Hahaha. Yeah, after I had to sit out an entire 8 hour session waiting for my character to be introduced (the DM insisted it make perfect narrative sense), we kicked up a big fuss and now new characters are introduced in random unplausible and potentially ridiculous ways.

BOOM! You find them tied up in the next room with a bunch of goblins arguing over who is going to eat which parts.
BOOM! You walk into the room to find a large chest jerking back and forth. A muffled yell comes from within.
BOOM! A scattering of ale mugs are all over this corner of the dungeon. The orcs are passed out, and so is a lone dwarf.

We would just make the scenario, and the player had to improved WHY they were in that situation. It generated so many funny stories.

That sounds like more fun. As a DM, I'm pretty terrible at organically introducing new PCs so I tend to just go "Here's such-and-such's PC, he's part of the party now". I think I like the randomness of your way though, it sounds like a fun way for players to introduce their new PC.

 

[ezo]

Yeah, we were big fans of the "You find a halfling thief in the back of the goblin lair, bound and gagged" back in the day...

LOL we still are big fants of it!

 

[R_J_K75]

Hahaha. Yeah, after I had to sit out an entire 8 hour session waiting for my character to be introduced (the DM insisted it make perfect narrative sense), we kicked up a big fuss and now new characters are introduced in random unplausible and potentially ridiculous ways.

This sounds pretty much what we did, and after while we didnt even bother to come up with ridiculous ways to introduce them. It was just...

BOOM: Hey look its your old buddy Joe from your home village just wandering alone in (insert, dungeon, forest, swamp, mountain range, desert, 500 feet deep in the middle of the ocean, or the Elemental Plane of Fire) 80,000 miles from home, what a coincidence.

 

[Blue]

Gotta love the player that shows up at the table with 20, 18, 18, 17, 16, 15 stats and max hp. I always make my players roll their stats in the open at session zero.

I was in a 5e game that used the average HPs. I was playing a high-CON tanky paladin. Then it came up that the rogue had significantly more HPs than I did. They said they misunderstood and was rolling. The DM just let them adjust.

Then we checked the math and they couldn't have had that many HPs even if they rolled max every level. More than a little bit sus.

 

[ezo]

I've been in games and run them where the DM tracks HP for the PCs. The game was basically set so you were:

Healthy = 76-100%
Injured = 51-75%
Wounded = 26-50%
Maimed = 1-25%

 

[R_J_K75]

Then we checked the math and they couldn't have had that many HPs even if they rolled max every level. More than a little bit sus.

I used to play at a local game store in a weekly 3.x game. There was a guy who would roll his dice and pick them up immediately before anyone could see and declare "NATURAL 20, CRITICAL HIT" every single attack. We all just rolled our eyes and get on with the game. Unfortunately for us he played by his own house rule where abiding by the unspoken social contract of bathing before game night was optional. Apparently, he had resistance to soap and water.