House Rules Document/Format

[coffee]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I decided to put this here.

I'm working on a sort of general purpose House Rules document for OD&D. Everybody has different ways of doing things, but if a new player is familiar with another DM's style, it can be jarring to come to a radically different game.

What I have (below) takes some of the guesswork out of integrating a new player into your game. I've listed as many things as I can think of (and I know I've left some out...) that might change between one game and another.

Have a look at this and let me know:
A) what is missing, and
B) if you would be interested in seeing a pdf of the finished file.

Thanks!

(Warning: It's a bit long. I tried to be thorough.)


House Rules Format (in no particular order)

Combat:

[ ] Chainmail
[ ] Alternate
[ ] Greyhawk
[ ] Other

# of Attacks

[ ] One per round
[ ] per Chainmail
[ ] Modified Chainmail
[ ] Per FAQ, SR 2
[ ] per Greyhawk (for monsters)
[ ] Other


Hit Points

[ ] Roll all each level
[ ] Different from book
[ ] Gary's 2005 rule
[ ] Other

Death

[ ] At 0 HP, no exceptions
[ ] Unconscious at 0, dead below
[ ] - char level
[ ] - Constitution
[ ] - 10
[ ] Other

Thieves

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Paladins

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Assassins

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Monks

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Druids

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Illusionists

[ ] Yes, from SR
[ ] Yes, from SR and TD
[ ] No

Rangers

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Bards

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Alignment

[ ] L, N, C
[ ] LG, LE, N, CG, CE
[ ] All nine
[ ] None
[ ] Other

Demi-Human Level Limitations

[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] No limits
[ ] Other

Human Level Limitations

[ ] None
[ ] Top of list from Men & Magic
[ ] Other

Multiclassing

[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk (approx)
[ ] per Holmes Basic
[ ] other

Magic-User Spells

[ ] Knows all by level
[ ] Knows some by level

[ ] May duplicate
[ ] May not duplicate

[ ] Must memorize
[ ] Cast at will
[ ] Spell Points
[ ] Other

[ ] to level 6
[ ] to level 9
[ ] Other

Clerical Spells

[ ] Must memorize
[ ] Spell Points
[ ] Other

[ ] Need spellbooks
[ ] No spellbooks
[ ] Other

[ ] to level 5
[ ] to level 7
[ ] Other

Infravision

[ ] Per Chainmail
[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] Other

Weapon Damage

[ ] 1d6 each
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] per Holmes Basic
[ ] Other

Psionics

[ ] No
[ ] Yes, per Eldritch Wizardry
[ ] Yes, from other source
[ ] Other

Critical Hits

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Experience from Combat

[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] Other

Experience from Treasure

[ ] Yes
[ ] No
[ ] Other

Roleplaying

[ ] Character is Everything!
[ ] When we're in town
[ ] Between combats
[ ] Why are you talking funny?
[ ] Shut up and roll the dice
[ ] Other

Initiative in Combat

[ ] Individual
[ ] Group
[ ] Other
[ ] None

[Finarvyn]

An interesting concept. If I understand you correctly the intent is to have a doccument where a GM might check boxes which pertain to his/her own campaign, and then could pass this around for players to look at when the campaign begins in order to better understand which rules are used?

If nothing else, this is a nice summary of what options are out there. I may use this for myself even if I don't specifically share it with my players. I find that I tend to just play and decide "on the fly" which rules I want to use, and having this in advance would help me decide in advance which ones to apply to which campaigns.

And, yes, I would find a PDF of the final draft interesting. (Or, I can simply steal your ideas from your post.....)

[Finarvyn]

Oh, and for the "other" option you might include a blank ___________ for a person to fill in a specific rule so that the player knows how it's done.

[badger2305]

It's a nice idea, not unlike the eaglestone.pocketempires.com/imtu.html or Traveller Geek Code.

Because I have lots of house rules, I'm more inclined to put together a supplement to the original booklets, and let things go from there. But I like the idea of a check list.

[crimhthanthegreat]

note: I took this out of the quotes in order for it to appear full size, my additions off the top of my head are in bold and I would like your pdf when it is done.

House Rules Format (in no particular order)

Combat:

[ ] Chainmail
[ ] Alternate
[ ] Greyhawk
[ ] Blackmoor
[ ] The Strategic Review
[ ] The Dragon
[ ] Other

# of Attacks

[ ] One per round
[ ] per Chainmail
[ ] Modified Chainmail
[ ] Per FAQ, SR 2
[ ] per Greyhawk (for monsters)
[ ] the Monster Manual (for monsters)
[ ] Other


Hit Points

[ ] Roll all each level
[ ] Different from book
[ ] Gary's 2005 rule
[ ] Max 1st level fixed, Roll all each additional level
[ ] Other

Death

[ ] At 0 HP, no exceptions
[ ] Unconscious at 0, dead below
[ ] - char level
[ ] - Constitution
[ ] - 10
[ ] Other

Thieves

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Paladins

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Assassins

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Monks

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Druids

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Illusionists

[ ] Yes, from SR
[ ] Yes, from SR and TD
[ ] No

Rangers

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Bards

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Alignment

[ ] L, N, C Only
[ ] LG, LE, N, CG, CE
[ ] All nine
[ ] None
[ ] Other

Demi-Human Level Limitations

[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] No limits
[ ] Other

Human Level Limitations

[ ] None
[ ] Top of list from Men & Magic
[ ] Other

Multiclassing

[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk (approx)
[ ] per Holmes Basic
[ ] None permitted
[ ] other

Magic-User Spells

[ ] Knows all by level
[ ] Knows some by level

[ ] May duplicate
[ ] May not duplicate

[ ] Must memorize
[ ] Cast at will
[ ] Spell Points
[ ] Other

[ ] Need Spellbooks
[ ] Does not need Spellbooks
[ ] Other

[ ] to level 6
[ ] to level 9
[ ] Other

Clerical Spells

[ ] Must memorize
[ ] Cast at will
[ ] Spell Points
[ ] Other

[ ] Need spellbooks
[ ] No spellbooks
[ ] Other

[ ] to level 5
[ ] to level 7
[ ] Other

Infravision

[ ] Per Chainmail
[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] Other

Weapon Damage

[ ] 1d6 each
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] per Holmes Basic
[ ] Other

Psionics

[ ] No
[ ] Yes, per Eldritch Wizardry
[ ] Yes, from other source
[ ] Other

Critical Hits

[ ] Yes
[ ] No

Experience from Combat

[ ] per Men & Magic
[ ] per Greyhawk
[ ] Other

Experience from Treasure

[ ] Yes
[ ] No
[ ] Other

Roleplaying

[ ] Character is Everything!
[ ] When we're in town
[ ] Between combats
[ ] Whatever feels good at that moment
[ ] Why are you talking funny?
[ ] Shut up and roll the dice
[ ] Other

Initiative in Combat

[ ] Individual
[ ] Group
[ ] Other
[ ] None



Just a few very quick thoughts!

[coffee]

Thanks for the comments, guys! I appreciate it.

[crimhthanthegreat]

You're welcome, if I had more time I would give it a deeper look. I love seeing people create things. It looks like an easy way to give a new player a quick orientation, might be fun to combine it with the Dave Arneson, D&D index we are talking about elsewhere in the forum.

[Finarvyn]

I've been thinking about this and it occurs to me that there are a couple of ways you can approach this:
1. A master list of all possible options (sort of what Crim's list has expaned into)
2. A shorter list of options you actually use in your campaigns.

In other words it seems like having a master list is great at the start, but I know that some of the options presented are ones that I will never use in a campaign that I run. While I can certainly present a longer list to players with only specific boxes checked, I wonder if it would be better for me to customize the list to trim out the options I won't use. It would take up less space on the page and perhaps be less intimidating to a potential player.

[crimhthanthegreat]

admin said:

I've been thinking about this and it occurs to me that there are a couple of ways you can approach this:
1. A master list of all possible options (sort of what Crim's list has expaned into)
2. A shorter list of options you actually use in your campaigns.

In other words it seems like having a master list is great at the start, but I know that some of the options presented are ones that I will never use in a campaign that I run. While I can certainly present a longer list to players with only specific boxes checked, I wonder if it would be better for me to customize the list to trim out the options I won't use. It would take up less space on the page and perhaps be less intimidating to a potential player.

Fin, I think that is what coffee may be aiming for, right now we are just brainstorming so that we don't miss anything so I added a few things to his master list. In practice if I were going to use it I would just give my players the house rules, and I imagine that that is what coffee would do. I think it would be benefical to format it like this so the players quickly know what your house rules are and what part of the rules they effect.

[coffee]

Yeah, this isn't meant to provide players with all the options they don't get to use -- that breeds rebellion and discontent. It was originally intended to catalogue all of the myriad ways D&D can be played, depending on which rules you're using.

My own house rules document is quite short: I think I've outlawed exactly one thing from Men & Magic (alignment language, in case you're curious; it never made any sense to me).

I was trying to remember all the things we've discussed here and also list them out in a (somewhat) coherent fashion. It's mostly for my own use, but I figured somebody else might like it as well, so I posted it.

(And there are a couple of things I wrote down somewhere and can't find! Aaagh!)

[ffilz]

I do see a value of presenting how your game stacks up against the master list of options, not so much so that players can compare what their game is "missing," but more so that should they be moving from one OD&D group to another, that there is increased clarity about the house rules. Knowing group B DOESN'T use the same variant hit point rule as group A will help the player move from group A to B more that just being told what the hit point rule in group B is - because he can realize that the decision was conscious and not that group B was being lazy or mis-interpreted something.

Of course if the comparison list grows too big, it might be a problem. To address that concern, I think the wise thing would be to primarily keep the areas where options exist to areas covered by the 3LBB plus supplements. For example, don't include a section on "hero points" or a section on "secondary skills" because these are areas OD&D doesn't cover at all. But a section on options on how to handle hit point rolling, and even 0 or less hit points are good.

Now a longer list that does include all the additional options might be of value for GM's planning a new campaign, so I could see two lists. I could also see value to having some sections be longer in the expanded list (for example, don't include options that split hit points into real wounds and "the other stuff" in the short list - because such a system is a very big step away from OD&D, but having some kind of negative hit points or unconscious zone or whatever isn't as far away).

Frank

[casey777]

OD&D House Rules Format sheet

Nothing fancy, 2 col. 2 pages. Text from the 2nd posting, so full on options. I didn't rearrange anything, just bolded the sections. I think it could use some reorganizing but I don't have a clue where to start.

.doc
PDF