Ah, the death penalty...
I have two main house rules:
1. "No teleporting". I play with miniature figures and I make the players move themselves on the battle map. And I tell them not to teleport, meaning dont just pick up your mini and magically place it where you move to. I want them to show me the path they move in so that I can see if they fall in a pit or set off a trap or whatever.
As a part of that rule, I also tell them to ignore the grid on the map. I HATE how 3E has made D&D mroe like checkers. If I ever see my players moving their mini in little square hops like "1-2-3" in each square I blow my top. The grid is there for scale and for distance. It is not a grid on which we have to hop around.
2. "Death Penalty." This is a "no advice" rule. It boils down to this--if someone who is not involved in the action (person A) gives advice to someone who is involved in the action (person B) and there is no way for those two characters to have communicated, then person B cannot take that action, no matter how reasonable and no matter if person B says they would have done it anyway, presuming the advice is not a joke or other similar comment that isnt really advice.
For example, person A is playing a dwarf whose character is unconscious, person B is fighting a mummy. The player for person A says "just get out your oil and burn the mummy." There is no way for person A's character to have communicated that advice to person B. Thus, person B's character cannot now take that action, no matter how obvious the action is.
I give new groups one freebie. They can mess up once (collectively) and I will ignore it. But after that, death penalty! There is also the reverse death penalty--you cant exploit the rule by saying a dumb thing to do so that the person cant do the dumb thing. Using the example above, if person A said "whatever you do, dont burn the mummy" that is just a cheesy way to try to communicate improper advice and get aroudn the rule. That doesnt work either.
I have only had to really use it a few times and let me tell you, the players get more pissed at the guy who violated the rule then at me for enforcing it.
Clark
