Chainsaw Mage said:
I'm curious: where did this aversion to house ruling come from?
I've never had an aversion to house rules in general. I do have an aversion to a large amount of house rules, and always have. I also have found that, at least during the AD&D days, that I had an aversion to most house rules.
The first case, large amounts of house rules, is a matter of practicality. In essence, when you have 10 pages of house rules, you are asking the players to play with a 10 page supplement that only you use. If you have an enclosed group (don't play much outside the group, don't have guests to the group), then house rules are fine. The further you go beyond that, the more it complicates matters.
The second case, certain rules I have problems with, varies. I agree with a previous comment that a lot of the house rules from DMs I've seen have seemed to be power trips. They are usually accompanied by "do it my way or hit the highway" comments, and rarely have strong player support (occasionally they favor a specific player, who is the dominant player in a group).
In other situations, the house rules are poorly thought out. They are often cause more problems than the rules they replaced did.
Still, in my experience house rules aren't usually bad. But, when you find a group with a large amount of house rules, there are usuallly major issues in the rules or the group. It doesn't have to be that way, but it usually is.