House Rules and You!

Another of the major differences between Roleplaying Games and more conventional board games is the ability of the DM to change the rules. Often called "Rule Zero", the basic idea is that the DM is free to change, add or ignore any rule that he wishes for the sake of the game.

Each DM will decide how much house ruling they will do, and the spectrum is immense, and will change depending on which game, and even which edition of that game that the group plays. For example, in 2nd and 4th editions of Dungeons & Dragons I did relatively little house ruling, but when we played the 3.5 edition of Dungeons & Dragons, I had house ruled so many things that i took to simply pasting my house rules into the books. By the time I had stopped playing that edition, I had so much of my own paper pasted into the books it threatened to crack the spine.

Many of you, particularly those that have never run a game themselves, will wonder at the purpose of creating house rules. There are a number of reasons that a DM might choose to change the rules of the game. The first would be for simplicity's sake. RPG's can be very difficult games to learn and to run, and sometimes it is easier to simply ignore a difficult rule than to waste the time attempting to implement it. The best example of this in 2nd edition is that there is a rule for different weapons to get bonuses to hit against different armor types. I find this particular rule to add nothing to the game other than extra bookkeeping, and therefore I ignore it.

The second group of house rules stems from changing the inherent leathality of the game. My last post dicussed the different types of heroes in games, and some houserules are used to present the particular type of heroes that the DM wants in his game. In my current game, I house rule healing magic to increase its effectiveness, slightly. This allows me to keep the game from becoming to deadly to the characters, while not taking away all threat to them. These types of house rules are very common.

The third type, and potentially the most difficult, are house rules intended to make the game and the world match the DMs idea of what is is supposed to be. An example of this: In a game I played a year or two ago, the creator of the world (who was not the DM, which caused its own problems) had a very specific vision of the world that he wanted the rules to reflect. To do so, he added a number of rules that empower a certain race: elves in this case. By the time one read all the house rules, the elves were allowed better weapons, more powers and were in general better than a non-elf in every conceivable way. This creator also did something similar with certain weapons that he had a preference for, and other things. This is allow him to create the world that he wanted, but these sort of rules changes do come with a danger. Your players may feel slighted to get the short end of the rules stick simply because they do not want to play the favored character type. In these sorts of situations, it is crucial for the DM (or creator of the world) to communicate with his players and explain to them the aims that he is attempting to achieve. It is often possible to create a world of your liking simply by group consensus, as opposed to needing to drastically alter the rules.

The last type of house rule are those created simply to address something that the original rules left out. It may be that the rules do not include an answer to a particular situation the characters attempt. In this case the rules are often made at the table, and on the fly. It is important that the DM make a decision to allow the game to not get bogged down in a rules argument. It is equally important to revisit that decision after the game is done for the evening. A rule made on the fly to keep the game going may sound fine at first blush, but if it is going to become a common occurence, the DM should make sure that they have thought it out as thoroughly as any other rule change.

DM's should feel free to change the rules all they like, for the sake of the game. It is the last part of that statement that is the most important. DMs should refrain from making unneeded changes just for kicks, or worse to combat unexpected ideas from the players. It is also very important to make your players aware of any house rules that the DM is going to be using, preferably before the campaign begins. This way, everyone comes to the table with the same expectations and can focus on the fun of the game instead of muddling through different rulings and attempting to decide how it affects their character mid-game.