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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 5698680" data-attributes="member: 13966">I love houserules! (within reason)I chose the moderate options as they're closest to my opinion.....I'm all for houserules when they're well-thought-out and presented up-front, so I can decide whether or not I wanna bother with that DM or campaign, since some DMs make rather onerous, severe, or excessive houserules, but others are more reasonable.  So long as I know what I'm getting into at the get-go, before I go to the trouble of making a fun PC with a good background (as opposed to finding out afterward that my PC is screwed and will die quickly from a crappy houserule, DM Fiat, or terrible adventure module).  I've seen DMs that just slap a houserule or DM's Fiat in a player's face during a game session and totally ruin someone's day with their spontaneous "screw you" rules-change.Spontaneous rulings on unclear or questionable game-rules are fine as long as they're handled reasonably (as opposed to random, spiteful, or pointless rulings/changes).As a DM, I try to go by the RAW as much as possible, but do have to make interpretations and rulings on occasion, but I focus on consistency and fairness in those cases, and err on the side of fun whenever it doesn't derail the campaign (I try to run my games kinda seriously and don't want things to devolve into silly randomness or one-upsmanship).I accept player input whenever I need to make a ruling on the spot, but I'm only willing to discuss/debate a ruling briefly; once the DM has heard the arguments and made his judgment, then that judgment stands and the players should respect the DM's authority as the referee/judge.  We don't go to the effort of planning, organizing, preparing, and running campaigns only to have players disrespect us and waste our time.  We have to keep the fun of the group and the good of the campaign in mind (at least those of us who aren't jerks or favoritists), not just pander to an individual player's desire to "win" over everyone else.  If they want to control how the game is run, they can try DMing their own game and see how it goes.However, while I follow the RAW for the most part, I've never had qualms about adding custom/houseruled material or tweaking existing material.  Like giving Fighters some improvements or making feats like Toughness not suck, or adding new classes/feats/spells/items/monsters.  And I change things a bit for some custom settings, like my Aurelia or Rhunaria settings.But I always present my own houserules up-front at the same time as I'm recruiting players and presenting the character creation guidelines/campaign intro, before any PCs are made.  Printed out or provided online in plain text.  And I have enough material for different settings (published and homebrew) to run something different if that's what the players want; I don't use the same set of houserules for every campaign (they're specific to the individual setting or the individual campaign).Also, though I don't often consult players about houserules before a campaign, I'm always open to player input and have often worked with players on any custom material or variants they needed for their character concepts.  I work with 'em to integrate their background elements or whatnot into the campaign setting.  I like to give players the freedom to use whatever character concept they like so long as it isn't too much of a stretch for the campaign/setting, and I work with them to integrate whatever custom or supplemental rules-material they need to make that concept work.</blockquote>

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