Implementing House Rules

[S'mon]

I type up a sheet of potential house rules and hand them out. I ask the players to read over them and voice any concerns they may have.

I pretty much do that, I put them up on the Web & email them to players. I'll take input on likely impact, particularly from certain players. I don't seek to minimise house rules but I aim to keep certain core elements of the game unchanged. Some things are completely fair game, eg spell effects - but if I nerf a spell then spontaneous casters can swap it out for something else.

Edit: Sometimes if I'm unsure about something I'll put it up for discussion.

 

[S'mon]

I used to play a house rule-intensive game but when 3E came along I made a conscious decision to curtail house rules as much as possible. It's a real turnoff for new players to join a game and "discover" all sorts of weird house rules implemented by the DM...

I tell players that if they don't like HR, don't play a spellcaster. I aim to keep non-spellcasters unchanged except for a few buffs, like Rogues getting d8 hit dice.

 

[the Jester]

I usually discuss it with my players, but ultimately, as the dm, I'm going to run the game I want to run. I'm often willing to compromise, and usually my players seem to like the HRs I use. When they don't, I often don't like it either and we remove it. I can't recall a real instance of strong conflict over house rules, though it's possible some players may have just kept it to themselves.

Anyhow, I try to play mostly by the book. There are exceptions- colorful critical hits, variant xp system, fumbles, some of the dmg variants and one or two 3.0 throwbacks (cover/concealment, etc).

 

[arscott]

Then newest rule update that I had was doing fall damage exponentially

And nobody objected to this blatant disregard for physics?

Right now, the group I game with does a lot of RPGA. If I were to run a game, I'd probably type up a campaign standards document with character options, houserules, and an explanation of the setting. As long as I let them keep the items they found, I don't think they'd care very much.

 

[DonTadow]

And nobody objected to this blatant disregard for physics?

Right now, the group I game with does a lot of RPGA. If I were to run a game, I'd probably type up a campaign standards document with character options, houserules, and an explanation of the setting. As long as I let them keep the items they found, I don't think they'd care very much.

LOL
I just had way too many people saying, ooh look 100 foot chasm, I'll just jump down and have the cleric heal me later. That was a rule that wasn't popular but had to be done to stop the 1d6 per 10 ft abuse.

 

[Cerbie]

Like I said, typically I don't get a chance to implement house rules, but when I do I often say "ok, let's try this rule for a session or two." Then I chat with my players about it, both outside of sessions and before or after our meetings. If it's a popular rule (or if there's general indifference), it stays. If there's a real problem with it, I try and work from there. May make more modifications, may just remove the rule completely.

I think you've got it. I'll just institute rules that are either common sense (for the setting and style), or if I can really cut down on the number of rolls w/o changing balance too much (grappling, FI). From that point, house rules tend to be things that there are problems with in the game, or situations where no one could recall a needed rule and the one agreed on as a substitute felt better in play.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I do feel for the players under DMs who hide these House Rules, as well. :\

This happened to me a few times under my old DM. He allowed paladins to multiclass between fighter, rogue, and cleric w/out penalty. I unfortunately didn't find this out until 12th level. Which was when I finally got my mount.

 

[Ibram]

Major rules change (like a level AC progression or armor as DR) is only implemented at the start of a campaign. Once the characters have been rolled and the action has started no more large scale rules changes are made. The only exception was when we changed from 3 to 3.5.

Small changes (Dodge adding a flat +1 to AC instead of a targeted) are made at the start of the session, not in the middle of combat.

Players coming in to an existing game are told all the house rules when they create their character (I give them the campaing notebook, which has all the feats/rules that I allow IMC).

 

[DragonLancer]

I usually discuss it with my players, but ultimately, as the dm, I'm going to run the game I want to run.

Thats how I do it as well, though I keep HR to a very minimum.