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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7497516" data-attributes="member: 42582">There's no single answer because different rules serve different purposes.The rule in 1st ed AD&amp;D that Hill Giants have 8 HD + 1-2 hp (if I remember correctly) seems clearly like something that a GM might change (outside perhaps of a tournament context, where part of player skill might include knowing monster stats).The rule in the same game that surprise is checked on a d6 is also something that a GM might change in appropriate contexts, and Gygax even suggests as much in his DMG. And some post-MM monsters provide examples of this (eg from memory a svirfneblin is surprised only 1 in 12).There are other sorts of rules that look a bit like the surprise example. For instance, DCs in the rulebooks (for games that use &quot;roll skill vs target number&quot; resolution) are a way of establishing setting - and so if the GM wants to change the setting (eg this is a high gravity world, so jumping is harder than on earth) then changing those DCs is part-and-parcel of that.But other rules are rather constitutive of the game, and changing them would be a big deal - so compared to changing some system DCs to reflect a different sort of gameworld, changing how skill ranks are acquired, or how skill checks are made, seems in a completely different ballpark. Or to go back to 1st ed AD&amp;D, the rules that to hit rolls and saving throws are made on a d20 doesn't seem like a guideline to me, and changing that (eg to 2d10 rolls or 3d6 rolls, or somehow substituting in the Classic Traveller combat system) would look like a change in the game from AD&amp;D to some quite different variant.If a game has only rules of this last sort (and of games I GM I would say that Marvel Heroic RP/Cortex+ Heroic and Prince Valiant come very close to this, and 4e much closer than any other version of D&amp;D) then I tend not to change them. If I want to play a different game I'll just play a different game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7497516, member: 42582"] There's no single answer because different rules serve different purposes. The rule in 1st ed AD&D that Hill Giants have 8 HD + 1-2 hp (if I remember correctly) seems clearly like something that a GM might change (outside perhaps of a tournament context, where part of player skill might include knowing monster stats). The rule in the same game that surprise is checked on a d6 is also something that a GM might change in appropriate contexts, and Gygax even suggests as much in his DMG. And some post-MM monsters provide examples of this (eg from memory a svirfneblin is surprised only 1 in 12). There are other sorts of rules that look a bit like the surprise example. For instance, DCs in the rulebooks (for games that use "roll skill vs target number" resolution) are a way of establishing setting - and so if the GM wants to change the setting (eg this is a high gravity world, so jumping is harder than on earth) then changing those DCs is part-and-parcel of that. But other rules are rather constitutive of the game, and changing them would be a big deal - so compared to changing some system DCs to reflect a different sort of gameworld, changing how skill ranks are acquired, or how skill checks are made, seems in a completely different ballpark. Or to go back to 1st ed AD&D, the rules that to hit rolls and saving throws are made on a d20 doesn't seem like a guideline to me, and changing that (eg to 2d10 rolls or 3d6 rolls, or somehow substituting in the Classic Traveller combat system) would look like a change in the game from AD&D to some quite different variant. If a game has only rules of this last sort (and of games I GM I would say that Marvel Heroic RP/Cortex+ Heroic and Prince Valiant come very close to this, and 4e much closer than any other version of D&D) then I tend not to change them. If I want to play a different game I'll just play a different game. [/QUOTE]

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