What are your favorite house rules? Please include system

What are your favorite house rules? Please include system.

Pathfinder. Spells and abilities that heal damage instantly instead provide fast healing equal to the ECL of the caster and last until it heals the designated hit points rolled.

I've been slowly creating a homebrew ruleset that blends all the best parts of Dark heresy1/2, only war, Rogue Trader, Black crusade, Deathwatch and so on all into one workable system.

The tables, houserules, balance places rules and customizations make it porbably more rules intensive than the original by quite a bit, but the end result is a fairly wonderful game.

D&D 3.5e
Due to the nature of our party, that being two hyper-religious types (A Tiefling Knight and an Aasimar Cleric, who do not like each other) and an "honorary member of the church" (Barbarian) the DM gave us all a "Divine Intervention" check with the modifier being our level-- well, except the barbarian, who only gets half their level.

Due to the fact that he also instills the benny rule from Savage Worlds, he made a small note that you can just give up a benny on the first roll to double the score, kind of like some sort of crude fate point.

D&D 5e: file related

I'm very grateful to whoever made it

>demotivator
What is this, 2006?

>Paladin
>Free Martial Adept feat at level 3
This doesn't seem like a good idea.

Only two house rules were ever instated in our old games of 3.5e.
>penalties for any kind of craft check under the influence of substances would result in defects in the end product, to varying degrees depending on the severity of failure and at the GM'S discretion - resulted in one player trying to create a scroll of darkness while heavily drunk, rolling a nat 1, and inventing the scroll of purple which tinted everything in a 20ft radius a pleasant shade of violet
>escape artist skill being used to roll for hasty exits through the nearest window, due to one new player's wild misunderstanding of what escape artist was for

4e
>Everyone gets a static +1 to hit and all NADs per tier
>Expertise and the paragon and epic plus-to-all-nads feats are banned
Feat taxes are dumb.

When it comes around to your turn, and you say, "Uhhh..." you are officially holding action, and can take your turn when you decide what to do with it.

That sounds like it would piss every player on the table off.

Orcs are orks and elves are eldar. Both only in name and appearance but no technology.

Buffs to classes that are already top tier and make multiclassing even more favored? Why does everything need to be lvl 2 fighter/18 other? Not to mention "you take out sword, shield a potion out during your turn", are you even trying to have immersion?

Why would you nerf in combat healing any further? It's already usually poor action economy and this method removes its only applicable use which is a panic button when one of the PC's is a single hit away from death?

At least this way if someone gets knocked unconscious they'll heal for a bunch on their turn, possibly getting them back up or just stabilizing. Dumb regardless but "Gritty".

At earlier levels it makes the PCs weaker. At later levels it's a negligible effect since healing for 10-12 points per round is good enough to keep going.

If you can't hit the table you can't hit your enemy. If when rolling your dice lands on the floor (And this includes the GM) then that dice is the worst possible result.

We made this because players would get a bit too excited when rolling and we'd have to spend time every five minutes to look for lost dice

>Add a Jenga Tower
>During moments of stress, the GM may tell a player to remove a number of blocks
>If the tower falls, Bad Things happen

We loved it because of how tense it made things, but the campain slowed to a crawl since we all took forever when the tower started to become unstable

Sounds like those players should spend less time bitching and more time planning their action before it's their turn

DnD 5e.
Variant Human banned, all races get a free feat at character creation.
Half Elf banned for being even more broken than Variant Human was for non-martials who didn't need the feat super badly.

System generic.

If your fucking dice rolls off the table, it's a fucking 1.

If you roll a 20 on your crit confirmation, not only is your attack a crit, but you can roll to confirm again and if you succeeds your crit also does max damage. If your re-confirmation is ALSO a 20 I almost always make it an instant kill, complete with a graphic description of the attack.

What if it's a D% game? Or GURPS?

D&D5e: Allowing 'storage' for Inspiration. Our cap is three instead of one (it scaled on a whim with character level, too), and the general expectation is that its use ties in somehow with how it was obtained. The Rogue giving snarky advice to the Barbarian on dodging falling rocks that comes in handy later, etc.

then you are a gay faggot for playing them

>implying there is literally anything wrong with being a gay faggot

Never played those but I guess it would be whatever the lowest/worst result possible.

I just don't get it. I make this rule, and my players STILL miss the table. IT'S LIKE FOUR FEET WIDE AND EIGHT FEET LONG HOW DO YOU MISS IT REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I've pretty much stolen the force and destiny light/dark side mechanic completely.

At the start of every session we roll one d12 for each player, they then lie in the middle of the table. A player may flip an even dice to establish something about the world that is positive for him or the party and the GM may flip an odd dice to do the same but negative. Obviously it's not allowed to be something major.

It's occasionally used for rerolls too.

We're play GURPS.

System: Savage Worlds

I home brewed a set of Monster Hunter rules to have a game where if the DM isnt ready or a player doesnt show, we can do a quick/easily cobbled together adventure/monster hunt.

Any system. Crafting skills are banned.

Can't say I've ever had a player that used a craft skill very much, what exactly is the reason?

story?

There's not really much to tell. I think that, in general, the focus of a particular game should not be on the downtime activities that can be adequately summed up with "you make [thing], it takes [reasonable amount of time]".

3.pf is the original reason I banned the skill (along with Profession, since Profession is literally just "You Wasted Points on a Character Resource Tax, the Skill"), though I don't play 3.pf anymore.

But, the original reasons for the ban are:

1.) The crafting system is nonsense. It takes longer to make a cast golden object simply because it has a higher value, rather than the complexity of the project or the ease of working the material. It can occasionally take longer to make something out of platinum than it would be to enchant an epic level item, depending on how big said item is and much gp value went into its construction.

2.) Players who focused on crafting fell into two camps: Those for whom the rewards were disappointing (for non-casters) or those who found them overpowering (casters gaining more bang for their wealth buck), thus widening the gap between classes further.

3.) I've had players try to abuse the crafting rules from the Epic Level Handbook in low level games, claiming that it's somehow "core" when in reality, it isn't. Even if it is on the SRD.

4.) Thematically, crafters are probably best left as NPCs, since they don't often move around a lot, can the be the subject of a meaningful quest or quests, and may be a way to get players invested in the world and asking questions like "Why did this guy spend decades on a mountain top forging the best weapons in the world? What drove him to that?"

Eventually, I got tired of arguing over it, and just made sure to be upfront about it in my houserules that I wasn't allowing it, and people who didn't like that should find another game better suited to their tastes.

Not the person you're asking, but I too disallow craft skills because I believe magic items should be rare rewards from quests and dungeons and legendary deeds and ancient civilizations and such. Alot of the charm is lost when players can just MAKE that kind of stuff with enough time and money.

there is though, gay faggots are gay

I have a couple of house rules for Fantasy Flight's Star Wars games. First if a character or rival level opponent reaches zero wounds they have to make a resilience check to stay awake equal to the crit they just received. If they fail they fall unconscious, if they succeed they stay awake. Nemesis level enemies are immune to this rule.

Second a character my permanently burn a destiny point to prevent character death if they have an available light side point. For the rest of that session the GM gets a dark side point that doesn't flip when used. They may only use it once per check though. And in each session from that point on the game starts with one dark side point automatically in the pool. This extra point functions exactly like a normal point would

I feel the first one fixes some combat issues in the game and the second is a nice fluff rule that my party and I like, especially since we've all gotten really attached to the characters.

>I've pretty much stolen the force and destiny light/dark side mechanic completely.
My African American ally.

I wish

Do you have a typed up document of this? I'd be interested in giving it a once over.

20 is an automatic crit and you don't have to confirm, 1 is an automatic failure and something bad happens

If you're at the apmt past 10pm on a. Weekday, any yelling will result in disadvantage on your next roll

We haven't had a noise complaint in two years, even during several near-tpk's

>tfw my DM actually does this

Nat one on rolling the dice...

If you care to take notes and make artwork of the party I'm giving you an exp boost.

I have one houserule I use in GURPS, but it's system neutral.

>Dying Action
>If a PC would die, the player may describe one "dying action" that is feasible given his condition. He automatically succeeds in whatever this is.

Typically this is one last attack against a powerful enemy. Sometimes it's something sacrificial like pulling the pin of a grenade and charging into a hoard of enemies, or tossing themselves in front of the next enemy fireball.

>1 is a critfail
This is without any doubt the shittiest houserule I know of. I once had a god-awful DM who also used a critical fumble table, which included such extremes as tripping and falling unconscious.

God this fucking houserule has me fuming. And that's not even mentioning how blatantly it favors casters, that don't have to make constant attack rolls.

If the enemy rolls a 20 on salvation, you eat the damage

Dumb. line up 20 level 1 fighters and have them swing at targets once every 6 seconds. At the end of ten minutes how many of these trained swordsmen are dead or bleeding out because they ended up stabbing themselves multiple times?

WoD 1st

Yeah, our Storyteller's pretty much overhauled everything about Werewolves. They're still much, much more powerful than they were in 1st, but nowhere near the world-ending, unstoppable rape machines they are in 2nd. It means humans are trivial (short of exceptional circumstances), but supernaturals are challenging. Changes include:

>Regeneration = 1 Bashing per primal urge
>Wolf-Blooded get dots of Variable Wolfblood for free, with all the benefits and penalties each level entails
>Stealth penalty based on size (sneaking Gauru is NOT a thing)

And probably much more I don't notice, since I've never personally played vanilla 1st Edition.

It's shit.

Shadowrun, cyberdeck prices halved.

the one rule I and my players love during our less serious campaigns is the d20 rule. Any time a d20 hits a nat 20, the player can decide whatever happens to their exact specifications. This has led to very short campaigns. On my end, when they roll a nat 1, it is entirely up to me just how fucked they are, and I do not hold back on impossible happenstance. For instance, two door scenarios have happened. One ended in a nat 20 that, when the player kicked it open, the door shattered, and the gods themselves descended claiming that door was their greatest evil, and that for defeating it, he and his friends would ascend to god dom. It was silly, but we keep this rule to our 1 offs and homebrews mostly. Another time, upon opening a door they had just passed through 5 minutes ago, they rolled a nat 1, reason being the door was tra Wpped in such a way it couldn't be disarmed and would re arm every use. well when they set the trap off with a nat 1, it turned into a portal to the deepest reaches of the abyssal plane. They were summarily ripped apart.

>house rules? Please include system.
It was for pathfinder, in effect it was a "confirm botch" ruling, if you make a skill check and roll a natural 1, you are allowed a free do-over, if you still fail after that then it was meant to be, and if you pass, then that roll is the one that becomes accepted. I should point out that is only would apply to a natural 1 roll, if, you say, rolled a 6 and after modifiers failed, then you just fail, no do-overs for you.

Hard mode: my group plays on tiny circular tables. There are holes /everywhere/.

If your dice falls, it's a crit botch. This includes when we play dice pool games, and yes this does mean all 27 of your ridiculous dice pool has to land in that 1 foot square of stable table space.

Skills don't critfail, kys

Forgot the system. And a flat 5% chance to have 'something bad' happen is retarded.

not the point.

Whoever plays the bard has to theatrically expose what happened during the last session.

WHFRP 2e:
add grades of success in your channeling roll to your casting roll.

Does this make people attracted to playing Bards or adverse? Genuinely curious

Shit rule.
>level 1 scrub Fighter has less of a chance of hurting themselves than a level 20 Fighter
>god help you if you're a Monk, who has a near 40% chance of fumbling due to volume of attacks

>Martials have a 5% chance of "something bad happening" anytime they roll an attack roll.
>Meanwhile, Mages continue to rape everything over a barrel at no risk of fumbling at all.

Many damaging spells need attack rolls. Besides, casters are not your enemy, faggotsare.

>Many damaging spells need attack rolls.
>Implying mages bother with direct damage spells.
I'm just saying, if you're going to create a house rule, it should be a house rule that affects everyone equally, especially when it concerns something as important as combat.

Or at least a houserule that doesn't punish the shittiest classes and leave the actually overpowered ones mostly alone when they're doing the things that make them overpowered.

>not opening every sentence with uhh because you speak slowly and it gives you time to backstep the several mental words your already gotten into said sentence.

Whenever my players pass a substantial milestone, like say completing a lengthy questline, I award them each a "Fate" point.

Fate points can be exchanged to turn a single failure into a success, no questions asked. This is supposed to represent that moment in a story where the hero, at their lowest point, grits their teeth and pulls through in spectacular fashion.

There's no limit to how many fate points a character can acrew, but considering I give them out only once every several sessions, I don't consider this system particularly ripe for abuse.

I use this rule and I'm never going to stop. Combat is chaotic, sometimes in your favor, sometimes not. Watching players deal with problems or capitalize on chances is great fun.

>I attack the ogre knight with my greatsword at +11 to hit.
>nat 1
>>LOL YOU TRIP AND CUT OFF YOUR OWN HEAD XDDDD

Something can be shit and fun at the same time, user.

I do this, but natural 1s are almost always treated like comic relief where, at absolute worst, you lose your sword or something.

Exactly, there is no reason to go overboard and kill the character (unless you're playing FATAL), but it does tend to spice up combat a little if the leader of whatever group you're fighting picks up your barb's +12 axe of eat a dick

I dislike killing anyone on a single roll, unless it's an obvious do-or-die situation beyond the pale, like jumping from one airship to another without a rope or magic or a jetpack while 1,000 feet up in the air.

If you roll a 1 there, welp, nice knowing you.

Bad things can happen without being retarded. Blood gets in your eye. Your weapon misfires. Your clothing snags on a piece of debris. The weapon you just impaled into someone last round is stuck there. Whatever.

>get more skilled
>become far more likely to hurt yourself fighting
Explain.

>Any system that uses melee weapons
Weapon swing speed and recovery speed.

>misfires
>implying that this mechanic isn't exactly why Gunslinger is trash until they can stack enough reduction to make it never happen
>implying that your attack routine stopping dead in its tracks and needing a round to fix isn't catastrophic in a game where combat rarely lasts longer than 3 rounds

How is it becoming more likely?

It was 5% before and it's still 5% now, unless you're talking specifically about multiattacks, which fair point.

Jesus Christ. It's really not that hard to devise a system that allows critical failures without it turning into a carnival of people stabbing themselves in the face. What sort of clown shows are people playing in?

"If you've never used it, you can change it"

"Everything I say about the game when off-game is 80% bullshit and should not be believed"

"I will add whatever shit you want, as long as it isn't too crazy"

"This is the tier of crazy I use btw (Usually street level, but can get DmC level sometimes)"

Ryuutama
>"Fumble points grant re-rolls, they carry over sessions and can be gained by exceptional RPing"

Your chance of not crit failing in a round is 95%^number of attacks.

This is why a full tilt Monk at level 20 has a roughly 37% chance of crit failing every time they attack while a level 1 Fighter who doesn't know shit has a 5% chance of crit failing.

The rule in 5e doesn't call it a crit fail, it's just an auto fail, as in you didn't hit.
Captcha: Free Gooch

The problem is that we're talking about stupid as fuck fumble rules that are almost universally implemented by people who don't understand the game.

I see no problem with added chaos, if everyone involved knows how to play the game correctly and is cool with it.

I see no problem with fumble rules in a game that doesn't have a dice mechanic with such a small range of results. It'd work fine in GURPS, and games like Shadowrun and WoD actually have them by default.

But it's straight up shit in a game where you not only have a small range of dice results, but the people who it affects universally get better at combat by getting more attacks.

Gurps is mostly 3d6 though, how is that not a small range? not disagreeing just asking

1/216 is a world of difference from 1/20

Oh I get you now, 3d6 has 216 possible outcomes, and 1d20 has of course 20, makes sense.

I'm gonna use that

I'd rather be a straight faggot desu.