Does anyone just play the game with no house rules?how does it work for you? Just curious most of the post I see deal with house rules affecting something.
The only house rules that I am aware of in our current campaign is the "Don't be a jerk rule" and the old firearms rules.
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I think a problem with this question is that a lot of things that are considered house rules equate to rules as interpreted. There certainly is a segment of the community who decides to change some aspect of the game to suit their needs, but I would say that most 'house rules' are because they see something that may conflict within the rules or simply doesn't make sense and make a decision about it.
A current example of this going around on the forums would be dragon hide armor. A thread popped up asking about how dragon hide armor makes sense when its relatively cheap but requires such a big and thus dangerous dragon to make. Most answers were 'Why don't you use multiple smaller dragons', but the rules don't account for this so that simple change is a house rule.
I would imagine it would be pretty impossible to find a game where some sort of house rule wasn't in place, even if they may not realize it.
In my case it would be a 'no'. I think for a lot of us older gamers it comes from the current system we are using being way better than previous systems but still 'not quite right' in one or two minor ways. Thus house-rule.
A lot of what one might call house-rules are actually very minor, though. I have a house-rule that the player can take the average HP for his hit points each level (rounded down) instead of rolling. In the end, it only accounts for a few HP difference one way or the other, but it's something I feel comfortable offering (there's nothing worse than getting a '1' on HP rolls two levels in a row).
We for the most part play the game as written. We DO have a couple of house rules, but that is not because we found a problem, but wanted expand the game a bit more.
Some examples are.
1 *** Play nice with others and have fun.
2. Keen and Improved Crit can stack.
3. Vital Strike is a single feat for the whole tree.
4. HP's are 1d4 + Balance for every class.
(So Wizards get D4+2+Con Mod. Fighters Get d4+6+Con Mod)
5. Magic Weapons and Armor resize for character of same type.
(Halflings and other humanoids can all wear the same piece of magic armor. A wolf and a horse could both wear a piece of magic barding. This basically expands the cloak/ring resize rule.)
So some house rules are there, but not many and most of them do not change the game that much.
I have a house-rule that the player can take the average HP for his hit points each level (rounded down) instead of rolling. In the end, it only accounts for a few HP difference one way or the other, but it's something I feel comfortable offering (there's nothing worse than getting a '1' on HP rolls two levels in a row).
Off the top of my head, this and double the first level hit points are pretty much the only house rules I use.
However I may use Thazar's hit point rules in the future, if he doesn't mind.
I am always happy to share... and for the record I read about that one from some other poster on these boards a year or two ago and stole it. LOL
Up until the last session my game held pretty closely to raw. I can think of anything that was houseruled, though I do use a fair amount of material from 3rd party sources or 3.5. But otherwise it's rules as written, and specific elements are disallowed or allowed. And it always worked fine for me.
The only house rule I have recently adopted is the concept of stamina vs deadly damage, and my next campaign will have significant house rules for my attempt at a low magic item game. But before that it was pretty much all raw.
Does anyone just play the game with no house rules?how does it work for you? Just curious most of the post I see deal with house rules affecting something.
I've been playing about 31 years now and in that time, I have never played in any game that did not have some house rules, with the noted exeption of games run at game conventions, for obvious reasons.
I think a problem with this question is that a lot of things that are considered house rules equate to rules as interpreted.
Indeed. There are rules that are ambiguous enough that they could legitimately be interpreted in at least two ways. So someone using interpretation #1 is using house rules compared to someone using interpretation #2, and vice versa.
Does anyone just play the game with no house rules?how does it work for you? Just curious most of the post I see deal with house rules affecting something.
I confess, I have considered and suggested many house rules, but in the end just play the game as is.
Thanks for all the responses I figured as much , I've been playing about 28 yrs now and most of the games I've been involved in had some house rules . Just thought I'd see what the rest of the world had to say about it .
Our group prides itself on not having to make stuff up in a game where you make stuff up. :P
I have a house-rule that the player can take the average HP for his hit points each level (rounded down) instead of rolling. In the end, it only accounts for a few HP difference one way or the other, but it's something I feel comfortable offering (there's nothing worse than getting a '1' on HP rolls two levels in a row).Off the top of my head, this and double the first level hit points are pretty much the only house rules I use.
However I may use Thazar's hit point rules in the future, if he doesn't mind.
I use a different method for HP, but since it's not really on topic I'll
It's not very complicated in use (moreso when written out), and it lets each player manage the risk in their hp. The average result on all these rolls is the same (except for 1d0+4, which is half a point lower), but the range lets those who want to be assured of a halfway decent roll give up the ability to get a great roll, and those who can afford to risk losing out to gamble for a big payoff.
In general, as much as I post about what RAW actually is in the rules forum, I tend to be pretty flexible with house rules - everyone's there to have fun, after all. I think some amount of house ruling is inevitable, though, no matter how closely you want to stick to RAW, just because sometimes the RAW can legitimately be read two different ways.
Our 2E game is nigh-unrecognizable with all the house rules we've implemented. We call it 2.8864732 or some such number.. Not quite 3.0, but getting closer...
Pathfinder however we're JUST learning, so... we're in book 2 of Runelords and book 3 of serpent skull. As such we've pretty much agreed to run it as written until we good a grip on the rules as they are...
THEN we'll house-rule as needed ;)
Our group prides itself on not having to make stuff up in a game where you make stuff up. :P
So if two rules contradict each other, you use both versions at the same time? Neat! ;-)
Playing since 1975, well past 100 campaigns now, and I have never played in one without house rules of some sort, including both Gygax's and Arneson's. Oddly, one of the most 'RAW' games I played in had 3 pages of single spaced 'rules interpretations'. Today, they would all be house rules.