Who plays DnD without messing with it?

[SWBaxter]

On the one hand, I run campaigns rather than games. I change the rules to match the setting and emphasize the things my group finds fun. I can't imagine doing it any other way.

On the other hand, players have certain expectations of what the rules will be when we sit down to play D&D, so I feel I have a certain obligation to adhere to the rules as written as much as possible when we play D&D. So if I'm planning to use a setting that doesn't correspond well to the core rules assumptions, I use a different ruleset as the base - sometimes an OGL game like AU or Conan, and sometimes a different ruleset like Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing.

 

[Cor Azer]

I change very little if possible; and if I do make changes, it's due to campaign reasons rather than a desire to change the rules to my liking.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm actually "all of the above."

I could run D&D perfectly happy without changing a thing.

But by my nature, I tweak things, and invent new things, and adjust things for the individual campaigns I run. I like it like that, too.

And sometimes my tweaking goes totally haywire and winds up changing the system quite drastically. And I like it like that, too.

While we can appreciate that bipeds could conceivably be moving and shifting during the round, we reject that rule applies for things like the Frost Worm, Purple worms, Dragons, Snakes, and every other creature that is long. For that reason we created a Long subtype, that has some specific rules about what squares are threatened. Right now were toying with the idea of spot and listen checks (at a penalty) for long creatures to NOTICE the areas behind them. Obviously that means more math and more dice rolling. We've also been working to counterbalance the change by describing some abilities to these long creatures, including the ability to roll over or shift while moving (to squish people beside them), and the ability to tail slap (if applicable, and including as a readied action) if the creature IS aware of someone behind them.

Stuff like this makes things too complex to be fun for me....while stuff like, say, the default way of advancing spellcasters seems to be flawed from the very concept of how one acquires magical ability in the D&D world (a wizard gets better at fighting, a fighter never gets better at wizarding)

 

[Hammer of the Circle]

The alterations in my games are pretty cosmetic. This feat does this instead of that, etc. Maybe a little tweakage to a rule, almost always to favor practical realism.

 

[Mr. Lobo]

Undecided

I just haven't played enough d20 (D&D specifiaclly) to have a really good sense for rules tweaking and how it will affect the machine.

Another thread discussing power creep has got me thinking about how published rules tweaks affect the game.

Examples of Power Creep (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=121210)

From these discussions it does seem like the system can absorb a lot of tweaking. But it still gives me the willies to try it on my own.

 

[DSC-EricPrice]

Stuff like this makes things too complex to be fun for me....while stuff like, say, the default way of advancing spellcasters seems to be flawed from the very concept of how one acquires magical ability in the D&D world (a wizard gets better at fighting, a fighter never gets better at wizarding)

Oh, I agree with you there, dont get me wrong. I realize it may not be the least complex product, but have you considered Sigil's Buy the Numbers? Its class-less and level-less.

 

[nopantsyet]

I've moved away from wholesale modification, and now stick to drawing in other sources and emphasizing certain alternatives. Perfect example is Vancian magic. I'm not a fan, but I'm not going to impose some other system on the players. It's still there, but it is not the prevalant tradition. Players get some choice, depending on their PCs background, but the system remains complete with no major house rules.

It's Eberron that got me on this kick. I started my current homebrew around the time the first hints started emerging, and it really struck me as sound, the idea of, "everything in D&D has a place in Eberron." I should be able to create a world with its own distinct flavor without having to carve up the rules to do so. And so far it's worked out well.

 

[Slobber Monster]

I just started playing and DMing the game again last year for the first time in about 8 years, and most of the players had little or no recent RPG experience. So I thought it'd be best not to get bogged down with messing around with the rules at first, so we pretty much go with the RAW.

On the other hand I'm not overly fond of certain D&D'sms. So I created a campaign world which works with the rules in the PH, and most of the default assumptions in the DM's guide (e.g. wealth, magic levels), but has a simpler cosmology and racial profile. So for example no hobgoblins, drow, dueregar, svfirfneblin, kobolds, etc. Dragons do not follow the color = evil, metal = good split. The cosmology is not organized into Gygax's multitude of "planes", though all PH spells will work the same with perhaps different flavor text. So far I'd say it's worked pretty well.

Next time around I might be looking to fiddle with things a little more.

 

[jeffh]

Examples of Power Creep (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=121210)

From these discussions it does seem like the system can absorb a lot of tweaking. But it still gives me the willies to try it on my own.

Um... the consensus in that thread, at least among the more respected / better known posters, seems to be that there's little if any power creep.

 

[Rudar Dimble]

We don't use light, medium and heavy load. We changed falling damage to 1d10/10ft. We don't use a grid and therefor hardly ever use the 5-ft step and AoO (sometimes we use them, but it's the DM's call).
And some other, minor tweaks...