Which rules do you NOT use?

[Morrus]

There's a whole bunch of things I don't do in my game - usually because I think it's not interesting, slows down play, detracts from the fun or whatever. I realise that my style is not the same as everyone's (I'm sure some people would be horrified!)

Anyway, the following don't have a place in my game:

Encumbrance - too dull. Too tedious.

Money under 1 SP - can't be bothered with CPs and the price of a meal. That's not heroic gaming! Really cheap stuff is just "assumed" in my game. Same goes for basic adventuring equipment (ropes, picks, rations, etc.)

Identify - this one will be the one which most people will disagree with. I don't force players to identify items (unless there's a good plot point involved). Unless it matters to the game, they get all the info on an item (using an Item Card) immediately. I can rationalise by trying to claim that all the knowledge skills and divinations in the party make such a thing easy, but the truth is it's just easier and facilitates play for me. Doing this, IMO, does not detract from the enjoyment of the game, even if it seems unrealistic.

Components - unless it's really expensive, spellcasters are always assumed to have material components.

Anyone else do anything similar? If so, why? Is realism more important to you than smooth gameplay and fun? Is realism more fun for you than for me?

 

[Goblyn]

Encumbrance, for the same reason. Also, I don't use cross-class skills. It seems to add unnecessary complexity and I just plain don't like the cross-class skills thing anyway.

 

[Psion]

I usually handwave encumbrance unless I know a PC is going to be loaded down.

Monk and Paladin mutli-class restrictions are right out.

 

[ThirdWizard]

When combat starts, apparently backpacks dissapear unless you need something out of them. It's strange.

 

[Dog Moon]

I usually handwave encumbrance unless I know a PC is going to be loaded down.

Same here. They could have dozens of items equalling 800 lbs, but we don't really stop to think about encumbrance until the group has defeated the outpost of 50 soldiers and someone writes down 50 suits of full plate on their sheets. Then it's like 'dude, 50 plate mails? How you carrying that?'

We ignore Favored Classes and the XP penalty thing.

As for Identify, I've decided to have Spellcraft ID stuff to make things easier. You can cast the spell if you really want, but it's not necessary. I did have it give a bonus to the Spellcraft check to determine what stuff is.

 

[FrostedMini1337]

The damage cap on falling from a distance.

 

[rvalle]

Flat Footed.

'Fire and Forget' spell rules. You only have to memorize Magic Missle once and then cast it as many times as you have spells available.

 

[el-remmen]

When combat starts, apparently backpacks dissapear unless you need something out of them. It's strange.

In my game it is assumed that if you are more than lightly encumbered you drop your backpack as a free action at the beginning of combat (unless you say otherwise), which has made for some really cool scenes when people crawl their way back to their packs to get potions or other needed gear/weapons mid-combat.

To answer the question:

I play with all the things Morrus mentioned - but then again I am something of a simulationist.

The few rules I can think of I do not play with:

AoO for standing from Prone: I use a knockdown system with blows and this would make combats way too deadly. We like the possibility of knocking people down with blows and the possible drama that provides. The AoO on the otherhand seems to bring less to the table. We do play with all other AoOs, however.

Alignment Restrictions for Bards: Barbarians, Monks and Paladins I can see - but the restriction for bards seems particularly arbitrary. I do have a lawful barbarian variant which is based on a cultural difference.

Auto Spells for Arcane Casters: Other than purchased/captured/traded spells wizards and bards only get new spells through research and time. They get news spells at the rate of 1 every 2 levels and they have to be declared ahead of time and be of schools you already know spells of (but this has something to do with keeping a certain low-magic feel for my setting).

 

[xnosipjpqmhd]

It's probably quicker to list the rules I use rather than ones I don't.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I have two:

Alignment: Boy, how nice it was to eliminate those arguments.

Rules: Kind of a catchall. If a player comes up with a truly cool idea, I toss the rules out the window and try to find a way to make it happen.

By the way, I think asking the question in reverse would be instructive. "What do you add to your game?"