Chainsaw Mage said:
where did this aversion to house ruling come from?
Every GM I've ever known has house ruled every system they've ever run. That hasn't changed in recent times, and isn't about to change, I'm pretty sure.
I encounter this a lot these days, it seems. Back in the Good Old Days (TM) we enjoyed house rules, and each DM that I knew prided himself in his little collection of personalized guidelines for the game. "You can take my house rules when you pry them from my cold, dead hands!" we would say.
This hasn't changed one bit from where I'm standing, as I said.
Today it seems that more and more people are shunning house rules, and it is common to read things like, "I've got hardly any house rules!" as if this is a good thing.
It's been my experience that many people are very glad/proud of their often growing house rules, and widely seek encouragement, comments, input.
Perhaps, in addition to encouraging a proliferation of rules-lawyering, the thorough and complex nature of D&D 3.5's rules are also discouraging DMs from tinkering with the rules to make the game more to their liking.
Not in the slightest, apparently. Every single D&D/d20/OGL forum I've seen or posted at has had house rules discussions and content in abundance, relative to the total posts on all topics.
Where there
is a negative view adopted and expressed, I think it's often due to the fairly widespread assumption that a game system designed by a team of veterans, and thoroughly playtested, cannot possibly be anything but harmed by some random roleplayer just strolling in and rearranging the thing.
Also, pawsplay's second point in the above post is not only a popular perspective, but completely true. This is an important one.