What are your go to house rules?

[Whisper-Kitten]

So when I start the game no player can roll a 1-2 for hp. Also, I roll with them and they can take the higher roll. This is a choice though. Some of my players prefer not to do it.

You roll twice for stats, but you have to keep the last one you roll.

The person with the lowest stats gets to roll a third time.

All prepared casters have spell levels 1-2 prepared all the time when they hit level 6.

You max out on at least one die when you crit.

If for some god forseen reason you crit a boss three times in a row it's an insta kill. (Yes this has actually happened)

They that bring food get a Hero point.

They that bribe the GM also get a Hero point, but only when it's with food.

Magic items can be found in Dungeons or for sale with a search roll. You will never just get to go into a shop and find one though.


Yeah, that's about it. How about everyone else?

 

[Greg K]

It depends upon the system.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Players can choose their secondary skill and start with two nonweapon proficiencies.

 

[overgeeked]

Clocks for everything.

 

[jtylerk]

(5e) Players roll HP after first level with advantage…hell, I may even do that with earlier DnD editions. Just started that HR about a year ago (45+ yrs of gaming)—what the heck was I even thinking before that?

 

[zarionofarabel]

Yeah, definitely depends on the system. I don't ever play any versions of D&D so I don't have houserules for D&D. I actually try not to use houserules at all if possible. I think that if you need more than a couple of minor houserules it's indicative of there being a major disconnect between how the system works and what you are doing with it, and it means you should probably find a different system that works better for the game you want to play.

All that being said, I do often houserule re-roll mechanics because I find re-rolls especially disruptive to narrative flow and prefer not to use them.

 

[John Quixote]

ODnD - House Rules 2026.pdf

tinyurl.com

 

[aco175]

We roll HP but you get half rounded down if you roll below that. I wonder if rolling with advantage would work out to about the same?

I give a Hero Point each game night to reroll anything. It is usually spent on a monster crit-ing the PC or a failed saving throw.

I tend to skip Perception to find a secret door and then Investigation to find out how to open it. I'll go with either depending on situation and might depend on if the thing opens with figuring out buttons or something or if it is just a sliding door or more like a concealed door.

 

[bloodtide]

• Magic that create or alter extradimensional spaces, manipulate time, the planes or involve teleportation risk creating planar breaches each time they are cast/used
• All divine spell casters must have a patron deity. Divine magic is power sent from a deity to a mortal. And what that power does depends on the action taken and if the deity approves.
• No questions during the game. No knowledge checks.
• No Long Rests on the Road Gaining the benefit of a long rest requires a comfortable place to rest or base camp.
• Shields Shall Be Splintered:Whenever you take damage, you can opt to have the damage absorbed by your shield. Fighters can splinter the shield after the damage has been rolled, everyone else must do so before the roll. The shield is splintered and destroyed, but you don’t take any damage from the blow.

 

[Greg K]

The only games that I have a lot of house rules for are d20 based and any edition of Dungeons and Dragons. However, those games have not been my main RPGs for a long while.

Since the OP did not specify house rules for D&D and the topic was posted in TTRPG general, here are the house rules I use for a few different games.

BASH!, BASH! Fantasy

1. You roll to hit and, when determining damage, you keep the roll to hit and multiply it by the Damage Multiplier rather than re-rolling. This started as a result of having a vision/reading issue prior to reading. Funny enough, the designer asked today what people thought of using this method as a house rule.
2. Skills: I added one or two skills

ICONS: ASSEMBLED:
Most of these are incorporating optional material from supplements

1. New Specialties from official supplements.
   1. From Origins: Animal Handling, Espionage, Politics, Shields
   2. From I is for Interaction: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Persuasion, Seduction
   3. New Specialty: Area. I am not sure if this is from the prior edition's supplement Team-Up of Icons or an Icons: Assembled supplement
2. New Power: Hellfire Control from the supplement/article D is for Demons
3. Qualities: I use the version of Qualities and Challenges found in the original version of Icons instead of the Icons: Assembled version of Qualities.

SAVAGE WORLDS
I incorporate material from Clint Black, the Savage Worlds Brand Manager

1. Modern Martial Arts (12 to Midnight/Reality Blurs) While waiting what seems forever for an official Martial Arts Companion, I have been using Modern Martial Arts, a small PDF supplement written by Clint Black for a prior edition of Savage Worlds. It has several new Edges for martial artists.
2. New Edges: I use the following new Edges that Clint posted on the old PEG forums.
   1. Avoidance
   2. Improved Avoidance
   3. Seize the Day!
   4. Tricky Fighter
3. Incapaciation Setting Rules: Another post from Clint on the PEG forums. This one involves options for adjusting the lethality of a campaign setting or one-shot from cartoony (Nobody Dies) to very Gritty. In my opinion, this should have been included in the SWADE addition.
   1. Heroic Incapacitation: Involves ignoring Wound modifiers when rolling on Incapacitation rolls. Hard to Kill adds a +2 bonus to Incapacitation rolls. Death according to Clint will be "much more unlikely" while still remaining a concern.
   2. Cinematic Incapacitation: All results on the Incapacitation table- are moved down one category. Among the results of this change, a Failure is a Success and a Success is a Raise. Death and permanent Injuries will be rare according to Clint and Wild Cardss will be knocked out or remain in the fight with "minor injuries"
   3. It's Good to be the Hero Option: The Heroic or CInematic option used applies only to Player Characters.
   4. Harsh Incapacitation: Increase the results on the Incapacitation are increased one category. A Success is treated as a Failure, a Raise is treated as a Success, and the Raise result is dropped or requires two Successes. As a result of this option, surviving Incapacitation is rare or results in permanent injury according to Clint.
   5. Cartoon Incapacitation: All Incapacitation is non-lethal. Characters are only unconscious rather than dying.

GURPS 3E

1. Using the optional Strength/ Health swamp when determining Hits and Fatigue. I think this became official in 4e

TINYd6

1. Weapon Mastery: Rather than granting advantage, a die roll with this trait succeeds on a 4,5,or 6 rather. As a result of this change, a person with Weapon Mastery can qualify for Advantage.