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<blockquote data-quote="Jhaelen" data-source="post: 5457376" data-attributes="member: 46713"><p>I'll start with an answer to the last question: Everything!</p><p></p><p>Regarding horror stories: Do you think you'd enjoy a 'campaign' that consists of aborted one-shots that usually end with a tpk and the DM chuckling and saying 'Well, looks, like I have to tune those critical hit tables a bit more...'?</p><p></p><p>Houseruling a system you don't have a firm grasp on is a sure-fire way to ruin it.</p><p></p><p>The greatest danger, imho, lies in alienating the players:</p><p>Most players don't enjoy being play-testers. They want to play, period.</p><p></p><p>Once a DM has lost the players' trust by fiddling with things she doesn't really understand it's very, very, very hard to regain that trust. It's a lot more likely they'll just stop showing up and look for a new DM elsewhere.</p><p></p><p>Unless you've told them beforehand, they're going to be lab rats for your crazy ideas, players will have certain, legitimate expectations about your game. </p><p></p><p>A _much_ better approach is to start playing the game as written and after noticing certain things you don't like, talk it over with the players and come up with houserules that everybody agrees with. Test them one at a time and don't be afraid to ditch them again if they don't have the desired effect. </p><p>Likewise, encourage your players to speak up about things they don't like and discuss if a houserule might help.</p><p>But don't go overboard with it! If your collection of houserules has more pages than the PHB, you've likely missed the point of playing that particular system.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jhaelen, post: 5457376, member: 46713"] I'll start with an answer to the last question: Everything! Regarding horror stories: Do you think you'd enjoy a 'campaign' that consists of aborted one-shots that usually end with a tpk and the DM chuckling and saying 'Well, looks, like I have to tune those critical hit tables a bit more...'? Houseruling a system you don't have a firm grasp on is a sure-fire way to ruin it. The greatest danger, imho, lies in alienating the players: Most players don't enjoy being play-testers. They want to play, period. Once a DM has lost the players' trust by fiddling with things she doesn't really understand it's very, very, very hard to regain that trust. It's a lot more likely they'll just stop showing up and look for a new DM elsewhere. Unless you've told them beforehand, they're going to be lab rats for your crazy ideas, players will have certain, legitimate expectations about your game. A _much_ better approach is to start playing the game as written and after noticing certain things you don't like, talk it over with the players and come up with houserules that everybody agrees with. Test them one at a time and don't be afraid to ditch them again if they don't have the desired effect. Likewise, encourage your players to speak up about things they don't like and discuss if a houserule might help. But don't go overboard with it! If your collection of houserules has more pages than the PHB, you've likely missed the point of playing that particular system. [/QUOTE]
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