Most Common House Rules

[Turanil]

* Dodge is a +1 AC bonus to all opponents, not to just one opponent per round. It makes only a minor difference in actual play and is much easier to manage in-game.

-- If I run again a d20 game, I would use that one too.
-- I would also replace alignment with allegiances from d20 Modern. A paladin would have to have an allegiance to Good and to Law though.
-- Monks would be able to multiclass freely with psionic classes (from X-Psi)
-- I would let go favored class / XP penalty stuff.
-- I would remove all attacks of opportunity and battlemat movement calculations stuff; I hate players who are spending their gaming time making some calculations, counting squares and what not.

 

[ARandomGod]

That's the approach we took too. In fact, after 3 sessions, we went back to dice to see if the difference was as big as we were perceiving. Everyone voted to go back to diceless. The hardest part of the transition was getting a couple of the players over their superstition that it actually makes a difference who rolls the dice or if a computer generates a number.

Well, to be fair it can be statistically proven that it can make a difference who rolls the dice, and what dice are rolled. Since manufactured dice are never perfectly manufactured, and it's possible to have a person who can roll the dice to grant better odds for at least some of the dice. Cheating this may be, but true it also is.

And there's the additional point that it is statistically proven that random number generators all operate off of a pattern, a program, and therefore the numbers generated are perfectly predictable ... by a similiarly powered computer running the same program! That's also irrelevant however.

DM Genie, hrmm.... I must try it out sometime.

 

[lukelightning]

Rule #1: What happens on Venus stays on Venus.

 

[Lorehead]

Anything from 2E, no matter how poorly it fits.

 

[Psion]

A few off the top of my head

• Paladin and Monk multiclassing restrictions are gone.
• I too use Artificer's Handbook for costs, though I do use XP costs (but you can possibly defray them through the use of levin from Green Ronin's Advanced GMs Manual
• I too use action points, the Unearthed Arcana variant to be exact (I like the emulate feat bit), though I am leaning towards a "new allotment every level" scheme like Eberron.
• Multiple action points spent in one round are possible. The cost is accumulative (i.e., first point spent costs 1, second costs 2, third costs 3, etc.)
• I have a few feat and spell rulings. e.g., Power Attack does not double for 2-handed weapon; it follows the same rules for weapon damage as strength mods. (x1.5 2 handed, x.5 light). To make Spell focus and Greater spell focus worth it, the bonus is added both the DC and caster level (this has the side effect of making the feat more worth it for schools that feature few save-based spells.)
• Critical effects rules: You can dig up the house rule on this forum, but long story short: if you ever take half of your remaining HP in one event (attack, spell, etc.), you have to make a fortitude save or suffer a side effect.
• Random death: characters do not die at -10. They die at a negative (con check) level, made by GM. Action points apply.
• All ressurection magic comes with a price tag.
• No godless clerics. Your deity need not have a human-like visage/form like classical pantheist deities, and may be an abstract force. But people who derive power from an intense personal conviction aren't divine, they are psionic.

I also have character building rules that vary from game to game. My latest set looks something like this:

• Heroic Array (16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11)
• Instead of standard feat progression, 1 feat per level except levels you get ability increases (i.e., 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-15, 17-19)
• Many races open. 1 free ECL. Players who take ECL 0 races get compensating bonuses. (There are many worlds out there...)
• 2 bonus skill point per level, and the possibility of extra class skills through background feats (I emphasize skills more than other GMs...)

 

[catsclaw227]

I like the idea of eliminating cross class skills. That one may get a play in my game.

Instead of standard feat progression, 1 feat per level except levels you get ability increases (i.e., 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-15, 17-19)

How does this play out with NPCs and Monsters? I am curious how you balance encounters or if it really even matters.

I should mention that using DM Genie has much more to do with the fluidity of our gaming than playing diceless. It manages everything, the interface is amazing and every single aspect of the game is a click away. Not to mention that it's completely customizeable. You can easily create things like races, items, classes, races, and more. I even customized the built in calendar to the Harptos Calendar of FR.

I absolutely LOVE DM Genie. I start to wonder how I was able to manage everything before I used it. It keeps track of all the details and lets us focus on roleplaying. I haven't tried diceless, but I use it to hide the initiative. For at least the first round, no one knows where other players go in the round, so that eliminates meta-gaming.

I used a hidden initiative before and it seems to work well and keep the suspension alive.
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[The Levitator]

Well, to be fair it can be statistically proven that it can make a difference who rolls the dice, and what dice are rolled. Since manufactured dice are never perfectly manufactured, and it's possible to have a person who can roll the dice to grant better odds for at least some of the dice. Cheating this may be, but true it also is.

And there's the additional point that it is statistically proven that random number generators all operate off of a pattern, a program, and therefore the numbers generated are perfectly predictable ... by a similiarly powered computer running the same program! That's also irrelevant however.

DM Genie, hrmm.... I must try it out sometime.

I agree with ya on those points. What I mean is, for us it's not so much how the numbers are generated, but rather the decisions we make based on the numbers that come up. When you are talking about manufactured dice, you don't mean "loaded" dice, do you? Just kidding!

DM Genie works great with dice too! The autoroller is an optional feature.

 

[Nebulous]

DM Genie sounds awesome. I might check that out. The RPG SoundMixer looks great too. But i've been using custom sfx for YEARS now and have a huge collection of themes and effects. What would be the benefit of shelling out $$ for SoundMixer?

 

[der_kluge]

My last campaign was a disaster because I had TOO many house rules. It became unmanagable.

Of the few houses rules I have in play, the ones that pop in my mind ATM are

- Wizards and Sorcerers can forego the familiar in exchange for an arcane Feat of their choice. (this one is very popular)

- Whenever the game pauses as a result of confusion over whether a creature could get an attack of opportunity or not, it doesn't. I've never mentioned this rule to my players, and since none of us can keep track of when/if/how attacks of opportunity occur EXACTLY, I just use the "group stumped" method of decided then and there that it doesn't.

- Max hit points at first level

- I use "common sense" rules with regards to multi-classing and PrC advancement. I denied the bard the ability to multi-class to Cloistered Cleric (UA) solely because he wanted to get the identify spell for free. Now, I would have allowed him to add a level of cleric if he were pious, but he wasn't. His character didn't know the first thing about the tenets of his deity.


And of course, I use the Artificer's Handbook for item creation. But, no one is interested in item creation, so it doesn't come up very often. I do use it to add quirks to items, and for the potion flavor/color chart. Be aware that if you do use this book, you need to sort of make a decision regarding the multitude of optional rules that are peppered throughout the book. Like, whether to give "scribe scroll" to wizards for free, or to make it a separate feat, and exactly which method of scribing a scroll you want, and the breakpoint level for instability in your world (if you use those rules).

 

[The Levitator]

DM Genie sounds awesome. I might check that out. The RPG SoundMixer looks great too. But i've been using custom sfx for YEARS now and have a huge collection of themes and effects. What would be the benefit of shelling out $$ for SoundMixer?

One nice feature of RPG Soundmixer is that it allows you to create many custom environments and assign them to their own key. It can make them either single play events or loops and you can change the sounds and/or background music on the fly just by hitting a single key.

I'm on the waiting list for Battlegrounds a VT, and it is going to give you the ability to link sound files to miniatures or objects. So when you place a monster on the grid, you can link a sound effect to it. That may render my RPG Soundmixer obsolete!

Back to houserules, I forgot some of our non-game houserules:

1. Whoever shows up last covers the tip for pizza. (not always enforced, but it helps with punctuality!)
2. Bring your own dang sodas!
3. OoC arguments are allowed at the cost of 10000 EXP/minute.