What house rules do you use?

[Mordante]

I'm interested in what house rules people are using especially when it comes to combat 

Please could you share these both combat and non combat rulings.

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Mordante
Spelling mistake

[David Scott]

Combat 

• Descriptive roleplaying usually trumps any die rolling unless it's an important scene and failure is an interesting story branch
• I often ignore strike ranks and just go round the table clockwise and use player order.
• If it's an online game, I usually order the player windows by DEX and use that order.
• I often base results on player descriptions from roleplaying - I punch the troll with all my might to knock them back into the wall. You hear the crack of his head on the wall, Zurlajas laughs and smiles, rubs the back of his head and says "That was Fun!"
• Given the average hit points of a foe (plus armour), I treat any damage roll over half that as a major wound and they are out of the fight (running, dying or being dragged away) (per BRP, Major, Minor and Fatal wounds). I only roll hit locations on adventurers.

Non-combat

• I rarely roll dice for NPCs, I just decide what it is they should or shouldn't achieve for the story given their ability.

[Nick Brooke]

I don't bother rolling for Rune magic recovery between sessions: every adventurer starts each seasonal adventure with all their Rune points.

[David Scott]

4 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

I don't bother rolling for Rune magic recovery between sessions: every adventurer starts each seasonal adventure with all their Rune points.

Me too.

[Squaredeal Sten]

For me, as few house rules as possible.  I would like a new player to be able to come in and play without a lot of surprise "no, that failed, we do it a different way".  

Not to say that I won't do GMing shortcuts: I will handle individual players' one on one combats sequentially by player rather than skipping back and forth among players  by strike rank.

I have announced one house rule for learning languages: if you are surrounded by and daily dealing with speakers of a language you don't know, first time around at season end I will give 1D3% in that language.  Even without an  instructor or "research".

Edited December 31, 2022 by Squaredeal Sten
Rule shown

[Bill the barbarian]

6 hours ago, Mordante said:

I'm interested in what house rules people are using especially when it comes to combat 

Please could you share these both combat and non combat rulings.

 

I am very much a minimalist when it comes to house rule... luckily a few of my house rules have been confirmed as actual rulings in the WoD. Here's is my stndard intro to the players...
 

Quote

 

House Rules

To start I intend to use the rules as written, but...Keep an eye peeled here for changes to this policy.

The following are house rules we used for my old game.

 

Attack/Parry Table

Any references to hitting adjacent areas on this table are removed. Please roll random Hit Location instead. Always hated this... harder to remember and the RAW actually make the critical hits vs standard parry successes actually weaker than standard attack success vs standard parry success as entered in the table (weapon arm only is hit with a crit vs normal success as opposed to possible deadly body, chest or head hits possible with a random D20 Hit Location roll one would get on a successful hit and a successful parry). 

 

Skill Checks/a

As per WoD, an adventurer should (not by default, but ideally) be able to adventure 3 weeks per season and accumulate skill ticks for each skill successfully used in a gain/loss pressure situation, work in a field for 5 weeks and accumulate 4 relevant Occupation skill ticks, and train or practice one skill to gain a tick. Please provide an SOI to reflect the training, or occupation ticks. One sentence per tick will suffice. 

Most importantly, one tick per Season.

Well of Daliath now concurs... but we had it first! Yay!

 

Skill Checks/b

Skills can be increased in a similar way for the two weeks of Sacred time as they can be with occupations above with the following caveat. The full two weeks will be needed to add 4 cult skill ticks or ticks that in some way influence your Sacred Time Experience (check with GM for last). POW as per standard rules (See WoD for clarification) gets one tick if Sacred Time worship is successfully observed.

 

Animals and Experience. 

Some experience ticks are possible.

This was a response Scotty made to one of my questions in RQ Q&A and I believe it has made it to the WoD. Bottom line, use common sense and MGF.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, David Scott said:

• Descriptive roleplaying usually trumps any die rolling unless it's an important scene and failure is an interesting story branch
•  

I would love to  institute this but find most GMs and players I have played with seem to like the randomness of dice rolling. But I do love this!

 

4 hours ago, David Scott said:

• I often ignore strike ranks and just go round the table clockwise and use player order.
•  

Does it work well?

 

4 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

I don't bother rolling for Rune magic recovery between sessions: every adventurer starts each seasonal adventure with all their Rune points.

Sounds much simpler... I think I prefer a touch of crunchy ol' skool strategy here.

3 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

For me, as few house rules as possible.  I would like a new player to be able to come in and play without a lot of surprise "no, that failed, we do it a different way".  

 

My main reason for keeping house (really should be table rules, I like the players to bring forth great ideas too) rules simple. 

[soltakss]

I would use Special Criticals, for personal and historic reasons.

Criticals do normal damage, ignoring all armour.

POW Gains would be 1D3 not 1D3-1 (I manage to overcome POW and manage to roll a successful POW Gain roll and get 0 POW - Aaaargh).

Spirit Magic Matrices do not need a POWx5% roll and go off at SR1 + DEX SR.

POW/CHA/Skill requirements for cult statuses are applicable as thresholds in order to reach the new status, but you do not lose the status if they fall below the thresholds

 

[Arcadiagt5]

I allow a POW gain roll for succeeding in casting Spirit Magic in combat, I don’t require success at a POW vs POW (not everyone has Disruption or other offensive spells).

I grant an extra HP or two for the more expensive shield materials, otherwise why pay for them? I think that makes Wood shields (the most expensive but a significant multiplier ) +2 HP, and encourages Medium shield use in particular by making them tougher than broadswords.

I think that’s the two main ones I use.

[Rodney Dangerduck]

We generally don't give checks for using a skill.  Instead, end of session, everybody gets the same amount - a die roll, usually 2D6 or so. 

Avoids check grubbing and let's you build up your weaker skills.  You do have to put the checks into "reasonable" skills.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Rodney Dangerduck

[Kloster]

10 hours ago, Mordante said:

I'm interested in what house rules people are using especially when it comes to combat 

Pure RQ3.

[Kloster]

7 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

I don't bother rolling for Rune magic recovery between sessions: every adventurer starts each seasonal adventure with all their Rune points.

Same now.

[Chao]

I just give every player a POW roll each season, regardless of whether they cast any spirit magic or penetrated any magic defense. There's a section in the rules that mentions that players gain a POW roll on the holy day of their god, and we also abstract that out to every god has a holy day each season (so that everyone recovers their rune points at the start of each season).

I give experience rolls for failed skill attempts as well as successful ones, because why not. On the topic of experience, we also never apply negatives to the gain dice whenever it's mentioned, as soltakss mentioned the experience of succeeding the experience roll to then increase by 0 is a terrible one.

I've also been playing around with the idea recently of having failed attacks still hit, but as a grazing blow that doesn't get any strength bonus. I instituted this after one particular session where a non combat focused character got into a fight with a trollkin, both having fairly low weapon skill, and they spent the whole time thoroughly missing each other. Failed ranged attack rolls do of course still miss. Haven't been using it long enough to determine whether it's a good change or not, but so far it's been interesting.

[David Scott]

16 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

 

20 hours ago, David Scott said:

• Descriptive roleplaying usually trumps any die rolling unless it's an important scene and failure is an interesting story branch

I would love to institute this but find most GMs and players I have played with seem to like the randomness of dice rolling. But I do love this!

We used to have a lot of players who started any activity with I'm going to roll my [skill name], or I roll to see if I... I also say yes but please describe what you adventurer wants to do, what do they say, how are they saying / doing it. Gradually they start to describe their actions rather than roll-play. We've played a lot of HeroQuest and DramaSystem at the club, so for many, the dice get in the way.

16 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

20 hours ago, David Scott said:

• I often ignore strike ranks and just go round the table clockwise and use player order.

Does it work well?

Yes. 

[Soccercalle]

20 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

I don't bother rolling for Rune magic recovery between sessions: every adventurer starts each seasonal adventure with all their Rune points.

Me to. But I usually run 2-3 scenarios each season. And sometimes I use their need to recovee RPs to get them to a place.

[Nick Brooke]

28 minutes ago, Soccercalle said:

Me to. But I usually run 2-3 scenarios each season. And sometimes I use their need to recovee RPs to get them to a place.

Same here. Once the game’s afoot, I use the rules as written. It just seems petty to start a new game saying “You don’t get to have all your usual Rune points this session” (unless there’s a good reason for it: I wouldn’t just do it randomly).

[PhilHibbs]

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

Same here. Once the game’s afoot, I use the rules as written. It just seems petty to start a new game saying “You don’t get to have all your usual Rune points this session” (unless there’s a good reason for it: I wouldn’t just do it randomly).

I like to use the cult holy day calendar as a way to draw the players into the setting, giving them a reason to be interested in what their associate cults are and when the various holy days are because they can sometimes get a top-up of rune points on the road.

But that's not a "house rule", that's rules as written as Nick says. And I don't see it as munchkinnery either. Everyone knows how much I hate munchkins.

[Akhôrahil]

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

I like to use the cult holy day calendar as a way to draw the players into the setting, giving them a reason to be interested in what their associate cults are and when the various holy days are because they can sometimes get a top-up of rune points on the road.

Normally, the PCs will start off with all their Rune Points just from their regular by-the-book Worship. But sometimes someone might have an obscure cult they have problems with replenishing from, or they have a huge pool in one cult that doesn’t always fil up from one Holy Day’s worth of Worship, or they have to do multiple things in a season. I find the standard rules to do a good job here.

My house rule instead is to remove RP regain from minor holy days worship, because that causes enormous amounts of it and a lot of rolls and tracking.

[Squaredeal Sten]

1 hour ago, PhilHibbs said:

I like to use the cult holy day calendar as a way to draw the players into the setting, giving them a reason to be interested in what their associate cults are and when the various holy days are because they can sometimes get a top-up of rune points on the road.

But that's not a "house rule", that's rules as written as Nick says. And I don't see it as munchkinnery either. Everyone knows how much I hate munchkins.

Yes, and the associated cult holy days  really help to make minor cults playable too.  If you're going to play Argan Argar away from Uz lands, keep an eye on the Ernalda temples around you.  

[Akhôrahil]

27 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Yes, and the associated cult holy days  really help to make minor cults playable too.  If you're going to play Argan Argar away from Uz lands, keep an eye on the Ernalda temples around you.  

Although remember that this only works if AA is an established husband-protector  there. 

[Kloster]

9 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

Me to. But I usually run 2-3 scenarios each season. And sometimes I use their need to recovee RPs to get them to a place.

Same.

[Jose-san]

I use quite a few house rules, I like to tweak them. My combat system is mix of RQG and Mythras, but closer to the lastest. I left the magic system almost untouched tough.

[Rodney Dangerduck]

We are considering limiting stackable spells.  Protection 6, Bladesharp 7, and Shield 6 are becoming pretty common (as we get higher level) and make the game difficult to GM.  One idea is that most spells top out at 4, with exceptions for certain cults get a "cult special": Humakti can go higher in Bladesharp, Eurmali higher in Shimmer (perhaps?) etc...

Has anybody tried this and have feedback?  Thanks.

[radmonger]

• common rune magic is added to the list of spells taught by most cults, rather than being inherently castable without learning it.
• the number of magic points that can be used to boost a rune spell is limited by the size of the rune pool
• pow vs pow spells don't require an additional roll to cast.

 

 

 

 

[HreshtIronBorne]

55 minutes ago, radmonger said:

pow vs pow spells don't require an additional roll to cast.

I really like this one. Spells like this are basically required kit to generate POW ticks so you can gain POW. This makes it far less painful to be in the region of POW where you are actually mathematically likely to go up and not waste all your rounds just trying to throw a single Disruption. 

[Rodney Dangerduck]

2 hours ago, HreshtIronBorne said:

not waste all your rounds just trying to throw a single Disruption

A prime reason we award checks (see above) and don't use the rules.