House Rules That Cause Unintended Consequences

WayneLigon

Adventurer
At one time I played in a D&D campaign where dragons were rare and powerfully magical creatures. So much so that magic would just accumulate in parts of them much like mercury does in fish. It could be anywhere, from the brain to the tail. But it was there and the lucky adventurer who killed a dragon and was splashed by its blood or, say, consumed it's heart, would find himself granted a special power or a stat increase.

That one house rule created the only dungeoneering team that went miles out of their way to not only rid a region of it's dragon problem but to root through and sample every part of the dragon, looking for the part that granted said ability or stat increase. The adventurers would comb through the remains, still crackling from lightning bolts and fireballs, up to their waists and armpits in blood and gore as they systematically dismembered a creature larger than a blue whale, tasting and sampling as they went like a fat master cook who must taste every dish before it goes out the door.

Finally, someone would feel a strange sensation as they swallowed a chunk of uncooked pancreas or drank some intercranial slop and scream 'It's in the pancreas!' (or whatever organ contained said miracle), whereupon everyone else drops what they're doing and dives for the pancreas, stuffing their cheeks like hamsters.

Before we found out about said rule we avoided regions with dragons, terrible and fell beasts that they were. After our first encounter with one and accidentaly finding out about this property, we sought them out. We could have cared less about the treasure. What was a pile of mere gold against that +2 Strength or permanent Spider Climb or something like that?
 

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WayneLigon said:
At one time I played in a D&D campaign where dragons were rare and powerfully magical creatures. So much so that magic would just accumulate in parts of them much like mercury does in fish.

...

they swallowed a chunk of uncooked pancreas or drank some intercranial slop and scream 'It's in the pancreas!' (or whatever organ contained said miracle), whereupon everyone else drops what they're doing and dives for the pancreas, stuffing their cheeks like hamsters.


I don't think I've ever gone from thinking "that's really cool" to "that's really distrubing" faster in any post.
 


BiggusGeekus said:
I don't think I've ever gone from thinking "that's really cool" to "that's really distrubing" faster in any post.

Poor dragons. They went from aloof and terrifying creatures to open-air diners in one game session.
 

...and dives for the pancreas, stuffing their cheeks like hamsters.

THAT.... will not soon leave me. :)


I once DM'ed a game where I in a fit of artistry described the passwall spell as "phasing" like going ethereal, rather than making the 10' hole it was supposed to. One player tried to use it to bypass a bunch of automatic death-saws coming from a ceiling, until I had to just flat explain that "it didn't work that way." Back in those tender age-10 days, I had no clue that altering the rules to fit the game was possible.
 


hehehehahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh... I haven't laughed this much at a post in a while... *sigh*
That Funny Feeling was actually gastro enteritis poisoning due to the pancreas being exposed for 8 hours while they'd sampled all the other organs, bit by bit.


Ahhh I like this house rule, I mean a young dragon could have a euphoric effect and an ancient necromancer dragon could have a booby trap Slay living Sphincter!
 


frankthedm said:
I like this idea, though there should be drawbacks like a drug addiction's should they overindulge like the party did.


Dragon-Crack?

Dragon flesh is addictive?

No wonder they're always terrorizing the land, burning all the see. They're afraid of being eaten!

Once you taste dragon-flesh, you don't go back.

Though a type of Ghoul that only consumes dragon flesh sounds pretty cool.
 


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