Table Rules

[Michael Morris]

What are your favorite "Table Rules" - these are a type of house rule that has nothing to do with game system itself, but rather conduct of games you run/participate in overall. Some of mine are:

1. The DM doesn't chip in for pizza, snacks, what have you, since he or she provided the evening's entertainment (and if they do a bad job, they don't get to DM again).
2. All dice rolls with immediately apparent results (such as attack rolls) are made in the open. All dice rolls with results that might not be immediately apparent (such as a hide check) are made in secret by the DM, though players can drop a die over the screen if they want to roll it themselves.
3. Dice must come to rest on a level surface to count.
4. Zodocahedrons (true 100-sided dice) are banned - bring one and I'm giving it to my cat to chase around the room. (Reason: They take to long to come to rest).
5. In combat each player has 10 seconds to decide on their action for their turn. If they can't they pass the turn - their character is considered to be holding their action so if they want to react to something later I'll allow it.

And so on...

 

[Crothian]

Common Curtisy...that's all I ask from my guests.

 

[EricNoah]

Players: Please do not look up the monster or spell I'm currently using against you. (I know we have a lot of DMs in the group and a lot of folks bring DMG and MM with them for various uses, but ... don't look up the demon's vulnerabilities during the combat with said demon!)

 

[Ry]

I've only ever needed one:

Game with friends.

Never needed to worry about the rest.

 

[Psion]

When I do make these rulings, it's usually temporarily. Most of the time, I just rely on the judgement of the players unless I need to emphasize something.

Two recent such rulings:
1) When the GM says it's time to shut up (stop making riffs on the same dumb joke), it's time to shut up. Do not interrupt me when I am trying to narrate the game.
2) (Invoked in a high level game with lots of iterative attacks) - Show me your math. Jot down your rolls and bonuses for your interative attacks when you make your rolls. Why... because people roll, but then can't recite their rolls, it was taking me forever to get through a high level combat. (Because of this reason alone.)

 

[Desdichado]

We do that "cocked die" rule as well; you can reroll it if it's not flat on the table. We also have a "cursed die" rule; once per session you can call cursed die, put the offending die back in your bag for the rest of the night and reroll the roll with another die. Typically only if one die has been letting you down for multiple rolls all night.

 

[jerichothebard]

Rolling:

• each player shall own (or have on hand) enough sets of dice to roll all attacks, with damage, at once.
• each d20 shall be of a different color; damage dice for each d20 will match its color. (crit confirmations may be rolled seperately).
• Those with iterative attack sequences must declare a dice order by color (i.e. red is first, white is second, blue third, etc.)
• If a player cannot roll close enough to themselves to read the die without reaching for it, they will henceforth roll in a box provided by the DM (I have enough to go around!).
• If it rolls off the table, it doesn't count; reroll (and get a box; see above.)
• Plan
• Know your abilities

I had to implement these for cause, unfortunately. Things go much better now, though. It's a great game.

 

[talinthas]

-If the die falls off the table, you have to reroll it. same with die that land on uneven surfaces.

hmm. thinking about it now, it seems that that's the only real rule we consistantly enforce. everything else is just kinda there, or dealt with on the fly. actually, i don't think there IS anything else. just make sure the dice are rolled on the table. huh. i'd have thought there'd be more =)

 

[maggot]

Our current ones:

1. DM makes all combat rolls in the open. (Removes temptation of DM to "fudge" rolls which seems only to lead to the DM making the next combat require even more "fudging.")

2. Players roll all their own rolls if there is any chance they could know how well they are doing. (Sneaking around you usually figure out you made a noise, so you can see you rolled a 1, but you don't know how alert the guards are.)

3. Reroll all cocked dice.

4. No looking up monsters you are fighting.

5. No TV. A quick check of the score of an important game is okay though.

6. Everyone pitches in for food and drinks. Any food or drink left at the game site can be consumed by the host. This is the "payment" for his hosting of the game, and storing of the consumables for the weeks between games.

7. If you are on the phone or in the bathroom on your combat initiative, your character is considered delaying.

The ones we would like to add:

8. Something to speed up combat decision time. 10-second rule or something. We've tried but we always go back to long decision times, usually during a very hard combat. I think we just have to stick to it and let the combat difficulty naturally adjust like we did in our all-DM-rolls-are-public decision.

9. Something to prevent overcoaching other players. In combat people provide way more information that is realistic, and outside combat other players are often providing way too much advice. We don't seem to be able to come to a solution on this one.

10. Something to prevent high-level spellcasters from wasting time by reselecting spells. This would be a bigger problem if there were more than one non-spellcaster in the party.

11. Leave your character sheet with the GM. I can't count the number of lost character sheets and remade characters I've seen due to not enforcing this rule. Players always rebel because they want to update the sheet at home, and then they lose it.

12. Limit discussion of DM calls during the game. I remember a discussion about wall of thorns going on for hours after the DM made his call.

 

[der_kluge]

A couple of groups ago, we had "bylaws".
One of the bylaws was:

"After gaming, we shall watch at least 30 minutes of porn on the satellite dish".

Right... no women in the group.

Probably not what you're looking for, but it's still funny to me.



Seriously, we had rules like: "All new players had to be voted in by the majority after one preview session", with certain caveats like, "it's my house, and my vote can override the majority".

Most places I've played have a lot of informal "cocked dice" rules like the ones described.

I think Rycanada's rule is the best one, though the hardest to implement.

Most of these are never written down.