Every group has a set of house rules regarding how things are handled like player absences, how to speak in or out of character, quick decisions, how rules are applied, etc. Below is a list of suggested house rules which are open for discussion.
Players and Gaming Sessions
- Player Absences/Cancellation of Sessions: – We have decided that so long as four players and the DM can make a session, the game will go on. If we cannot bring at least four players and a DM to the session, the session will be cancelled and will defer to the next regularly scheduled session. We do not attempt to do make up sessions on a different day. Our core campaign is designed for a group of six players. At times we have added a seventh player. The minimum number of players still remains 4. If a player is absent their character will be played by another player in the party willing to take over the duties. Players accept responsibility for the actions of their characters even when another player is playing it for them so players are allowed to pick who they prefer to play their character based on who they think knows their characters motives and play-style best.
- Rules Disputes – As the DM I am sort of expected to know the rules better than anyone but I guarantee you that I’m going to forget things, make mistakes and that, from time to time, we may disagree about how or when a rule should apply. I assure you that I want to get better as a DM and learn the rules as intended so if I get something wrong I welcome anyone to help me see what I missed or overlooked. Having said that, I also do not want to bog down a game with arguing rules DURING a play session. Therefore, during play if I make a rules decision which you think is in error or would be better handled a different way, please feel free to speak up, briefly. However, if for some reason I do not agree or have more questions that i don’t have time to look up, I may make a ruling to continue the way I originally stated and I’ll look into the rule further between play sessions. It’s possible we may never agree on how to apply a rule and in those cases the ruling goes the way the DM states it. This is the expectation stated in the Player’s Handbook as well. All rules decisions by the DM are final. Again, I welcome elaborate discussion BETWEEN sessions, but not during game sessions where it will slow the game down.
- Unruly or Difficult Players – From time to time it is possible that one player just seems to make everything into a fight or creates chaos or division in a gaming group. It is my job as the DM to provide the most enjoyable game sessions I can and mitigate unruly or difficult players to keep them from ruining the game. If I feel that a single player is making the game less enjoyable for all the others I reserve the right to un-invite that player to future gaming sessions.
- Game Structure – We are starting out assuming that we will be playing a full “Campaign”. A Campaign is a long story arc that will contain many adventures and take many, many gaming sessions to complete. A campaign typically has a beginning, middle and ending and is designed to start with level one characters and progress them too level 15 or so by the end. A level 15 character is a VERY powerful “end game” character and it may take years of real time to complete a Campaign (depending on how often the group meets). Along the course of a Campaign are shorter mini “Adventures”. Adventures also typically have a beginning, middle and end and are mini goals along the main story arc on your way to achieving the main campaign goal. An adventure may take several play sessions to complete. A play “session” is typically three hours give or take a half hour. I design each play session to take approximately three hours but we could wrap up early at a good stopping point or go a little later if the next logical stopping point is close at hand.
- Leveling Up – A single adventure may take place over several play sessions which are about three hours long each session. I prefer to level up characters at the end of each ADVENTURE (not between play sessions). Typically an adventure ends with players back at a home town or area where it is expected they spend some time doing some training, getting new supplies such as spell components for new spells etc. It is a logical breaking point in which the housekeeping of leveling up, learning new skills (and the rules that go with them) take place. Game sessions often end with players stuck in the middle of a dungeon, wilderness, or some dangerous location where leveling up makes less sense.
- Hero Points – As discussed in depth in another article, I like to use a house rule I call “Hero Points“. These points are awarded to players who do something funny, clever, or valuable that adds to the enjoyment of the game for everyone and can be used to fudge dice rolls in many situations to make the results more favorable to the hero’s.
- Open Dice Rolls vs. Private Dice Rolls – When possible I like to keep all dice rolls open for everyone to see including the rolls for the creatures attacking you. I find players enjoy it more when they see the rolls so they know that the results are not being unfairly manipulated one way or the other behind a dungeon screen. After all, players can modify dice rolls using Hero Points so why not see the rolls out in the open? From time to time, however, a roll must be made in secret so the players are not tipped off about a detail they are not supposed to know. From time to time I may make a secret dice roll just to keep players guessing as otherwise every time I go to make a secret roll you’ll all know SOMETHING is up!
- Role Playing What Your Character Knows – I seriously prefer players who keep in mind what their characters know vs what they as players know. If your character has never been to a certain location or encountered a certain type of monster, try and refrain from taking actions that only someone who knows the area or monster well would know. As a bad example, if your character has no experience fighting skeletons it may not be the best “role” playing to immediately put your sword away and grab a large club to attack with. Would your character know that bludgeoning weapons are more effective on skeletons than piercing or slashing weapons until they see it in action? If in doubt, simply ask the DM. “Hey, would my character know what weapons are most effective on skeletons?” I then might request you make a knowledge check to see if you do. Likewise, my number one pet peeve is when some player has a suspicion about something that no other player has thought of yet and says something like “I’d like to check this wall for a secret door” and then all of the sudden every other player in the group wants to make a search skill to find the secret door if the first attempt fails. Better would be if the player about to search a wall for a secret door announces, “Hey guys, I think there might be a secret door here and here’s why…can you help me look?” In other words, try not to just do something because someone else did and tipped you off. Try and have an in-game and in-character reason for trying it yourself.
- Whispers and Secrets – I enjoy a little intrigue in my games and thus, from time to time, I may give a piece of secret information to one player via a whisper in Fantasy Grounds that was not given to the rest of the group. In these cases a player may wish to keep said information secret for a while or announce it to the others. It’s up to them. In addition, there may be times when your Character wants to ask a question in private that they don’t want the rest of the group to hear. As a bad example, the group’s rogue may want to inquire more about that expensive looking necklace they saw an NPC wearing and want to know if they can determine the value without tipping off all the other players that they are thinking about doing something really stupid. In RARE occasions a player may even conspire against another player in the party and need to ask a question via whisper. I STRONGLY discourage players stabbing each other’s characters in the back, however, in some situations a players background or personal story goal gives them every reason to do so in specific cases and thus if it is something that will enrich the story I may allow it.
- Killing or Injuring other Players – We are all here to have fun and I find it is not fun if players find excuses to bully each other, threaten each other, or come to blows with each other. I ESPECIALLY dislike when players attempt to kill another player. Only in the most extreme cases will I allow this to disrupt the game. Again, it is possible, (though extremely rare) that the story or a character’s background provides an element in which the story will be enriched by a potentially deadly conflict between two players but it is REALLY rare. Pretty much the only time I’ll allow players to fight each other or kill each other is when it’s obvious that the entire group is on board and agrees it’s best for the story to let it play out or, in rare cases, when a player in real life wants to or needs to quit the group long term. In some cases then it may be fitting for a character to meet an untimely death in an unique way that could include death by another player (if the story dictates it).
Rules and Errata
- Encumbrance Rules– We are using a modified/simple encumbrance system. Coins are not counted into encumbrance weight at all (consider them dime sized coins of negligible weight. In addition, the only stat we currently worry about with encumbrance is max carrying weight. A player may not exceed their max carry weight. All other rules for encumbrance such as movement speed reduction, fatigue, etc are not being used at this time.
- Looting – We employ a standard time formula for determining how long it takes to search and loot a body. Ten minutes are required per body to fully strip it of weapons and armor. Five minutes are required per body to quickly search for items of value (gold coins, maps, fancy weapons etc. When a combat is finished we quickly determine the number of bodies to be looted, the number of players doing the looting and determine roughly how long the looting takes place. For example, two players want to loot ten bodies of all weapons and armor so this would be calculated as ten minutes times 10 bodies divided by two characters looting for a total of 50 minutes