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How many House rules are too many?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 5813440" data-attributes="member: 40522"><p>I think that the house rules should be discussed with your players before play begins, and you should take their opinions into consideration. (Not necessarily do everything the way they want, but at least consider it.) I think that a game doesn't "belong" to the GM more than the players, and I want people to play a game that they enjoy.</p><p></p><p>Maybe they hate the idea of house rules and want to play the game by the rules-as-written. Maybe they love the ideas you have and eagerly devour your home rules document. I've found that most groups fall somewhere in the middle: most of the groups that I've GMed either love the house rules or are indifferent to them. There are two caveats, however.</p><p></p><p>1) Write your house rules down into a document and hand it out <em>before</em> you use them. In my experience, people that dislike house rules really don't dislike the rule so much as having it suddenly sprung on them in the middle of play.</p><p></p><p>2) Be prepared to change your house rules as the campaign progresses, and make it clear that you reserve the right to make such changes.</p><p></p><p>I've included my house rules document from my current Pathfinder game (set in Greyhawk) as an example of what I do. This is the 4th version, I highlight the newest material so it's easy to see what's changed.</p><p></p><p>When I run a game set in my homebrew, I usually go with the rules as written (at least for people's first campaigns there). I want them to focus on the setting and the narrative on their first time through more than variant rules, it's just a personal preference.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dykstrav, post: 5813440, member: 40522"] I think that the house rules should be discussed with your players before play begins, and you should take their opinions into consideration. (Not necessarily do everything the way they want, but at least consider it.) I think that a game doesn't "belong" to the GM more than the players, and I want people to play a game that they enjoy. Maybe they hate the idea of house rules and want to play the game by the rules-as-written. Maybe they love the ideas you have and eagerly devour your home rules document. I've found that most groups fall somewhere in the middle: most of the groups that I've GMed either love the house rules or are indifferent to them. There are two caveats, however. 1) Write your house rules down into a document and hand it out [I]before[/I] you use them. In my experience, people that dislike house rules really don't dislike the rule so much as having it suddenly sprung on them in the middle of play. 2) Be prepared to change your house rules as the campaign progresses, and make it clear that you reserve the right to make such changes. I've included my house rules document from my current Pathfinder game (set in Greyhawk) as an example of what I do. This is the 4th version, I highlight the newest material so it's easy to see what's changed. When I run a game set in my homebrew, I usually go with the rules as written (at least for people's first campaigns there). I want them to focus on the setting and the narrative on their first time through more than variant rules, it's just a personal preference. [/QUOTE]
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How many House rules are too many?
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