Realistic house rules for role-players
Ujehmox
Member Posts: 3
Hello everyone!
I take this opportunity to say hello and make my first post in the community, although I have been checking the forum in the shadows for quite some time
I wanted to share some of my house rules, they are not configurable in the game (like insane, 100% dmg...) or not so obvious things such as talking to enemies before attacking them as the game proposes instead of frying them with fireballs, summoning an army or launching all the buffs before approaching
Definitely applying them to your game will make it more enjoyable and realistic!
Some of them are a bit hardcore, do you dare to try them?
ARMORS
REST
"COSMETICS"
FIGHTS
RESPECT THE ROLE OF EACH CHARACTER
create a UNIQUE main character
GOLD RULE - HAVE FUN
I hope you liked it and that you can share your favorites with me
Regards and keep enjoying!
I take this opportunity to say hello and make my first post in the community, although I have been checking the forum in the shadows for quite some time
I wanted to share some of my house rules, they are not configurable in the game (like insane, 100% dmg...) or not so obvious things such as talking to enemies before attacking them as the game proposes instead of frying them with fireballs, summoning an army or launching all the buffs before approaching
Definitely applying them to your game will make it more enjoyable and realistic!
Some of them are a bit hardcore, do you dare to try them?
ARMORS
- They are custom-made, so they are bought for a certain character or obtained as loot from an enemy. You can take advantage of a break to adjust it for another character but only if this one is of similar race or constitution, for example a gnome can't wear the armor of a half-orc, but you could take it to a blacksmith - not just any store - to have it adjusted, you can justify the cost of the service by spending an amount of gold (for example by selling and buying back a cheap item).
- A versatile character (like a F/T or a ranger) can wear light armor for scouting and hiding. A strong teammate can carry a heavy one for him to use in combat, but they are not fast to wear so I don't re-equip them if I can be attacked.
- Sleeping in armor should at least give fatigue, it is very uncomfortable to sleep in metal armor. In fact a full armor underneath the plates should have a padded or leather armor, so the characters with armor of this type, will carry in their inventory a light leather armor, which they can wear to sleep and thus not be completely unprotected in case of being attacked.
- A versatile character (like a F/T or a ranger) can wear light armor for scouting and hiding. A strong teammate can carry a heavy one for him to use in combat, but they are not fast to wear so I don't re-equip them if I can be attacked.
- Sleeping in armor should at least give fatigue, it is very uncomfortable to sleep in metal armor. In fact a full armor underneath the plates should have a padded or leather armor, so the characters with armor of this type, will carry in their inventory a light leather armor, which they can wear to sleep and thus not be completely unprotected in case of being attacked.
REST
- When sleeping in dangerous areas it is better to do it in turns to do guard duty, a character that can be kicked out of the group without repercussions or going elsewhere can do the guard duty, so the rest of the group will rest and when recruiting him again his fatigued state will persist since he will not have slept.
-This can be used to learn a spell from a scroll, as it is a slow process, although a very skilled mage could learn even two low level spells or one higher level spell.
- Divine spells recharge when praying, this they do at a certain time depending on the deity they workship to. For example a paladin of Lathander will do this rite at dawn while a cleric of Shar will probably do it at nightfall, they could even have other requirements, for example the devotees of Bhaal must assassinate once a day at night, in case of not being able to do it this assassination is accumulated for the next night, perhaps ignoring it on successive occasions, may cause your god will not be willing to give you his favor.
- Assuming you have supplies for two days or three days of travel, from here you will have to find rivers to recharge your canteens and hunt animals for food.
- A thief can take the opportunity to take a walk through the rooms of the inn the day before leaving and empty the pockets of a client or rob one or two houses (not the entire town) and sell the loot in another town.
-This can be used to learn a spell from a scroll, as it is a slow process, although a very skilled mage could learn even two low level spells or one higher level spell.
- Divine spells recharge when praying, this they do at a certain time depending on the deity they workship to. For example a paladin of Lathander will do this rite at dawn while a cleric of Shar will probably do it at nightfall, they could even have other requirements, for example the devotees of Bhaal must assassinate once a day at night, in case of not being able to do it this assassination is accumulated for the next night, perhaps ignoring it on successive occasions, may cause your god will not be willing to give you his favor.
- Assuming you have supplies for two days or three days of travel, from here you will have to find rivers to recharge your canteens and hunt animals for food.
- A thief can take the opportunity to take a walk through the rooms of the inn the day before leaving and empty the pockets of a client or rob one or two houses (not the entire town) and sell the loot in another town.
"COSMETICS"
- Keep or equip any item you like, you don't need to turn it in on a quest for a few xp you can get elsewhere, or just dress up with amulets and silver rings because they are your character's favorite jewelry, or because you think that will protect you in the battle against the lycanthropes.
FIGHTS
- Don't abuse switching between a set of melee and ranged weapons or between multiple weapons just for buffing.
- Do not use projectile weapons against enemies that are fighting close our teammates.
- Do not use certain items that could put you in danger, or ranged weapons, or drink potions when you are very close to the enemy.
- Do not use projectile weapons against enemies that are fighting close our teammates.
- Do not use certain items that could put you in danger, or ranged weapons, or drink potions when you are very close to the enemy.
RESPECT THE ROLE OF EACH CHARACTER
- In addition to being your tank or dps, each character has a role and background. For example, if you travel through the forests with a druid and an explorer, respect nature, try not to harm the animals to do so, charm the animals if possible, put them to sleep, distract them to avoid fighting or killing them except for some occasion when be unavoidable.
- If your character is legal, has some common sense, or is just not too stupid, he won't do contradictory things just because it benefits him, for example, when we are asked to kill the spiders in Beregost, we enter the house and also retrieve the bottle of wine and boots, but we don't have to steal the little gem on the table.
- Not all the rules are strict, for example you can metarole when it is useful to roleplay in your game, without abusing it, for example, a shaman could go to a location that in principle would not make sense to go at that moment or prepare to a battle, at least in a generic way, not with specific buffs, if the spirits have told him to watch out for something or to search a place.
- If your character is legal, has some common sense, or is just not too stupid, he won't do contradictory things just because it benefits him, for example, when we are asked to kill the spiders in Beregost, we enter the house and also retrieve the bottle of wine and boots, but we don't have to steal the little gem on the table.
- Not all the rules are strict, for example you can metarole when it is useful to roleplay in your game, without abusing it, for example, a shaman could go to a location that in principle would not make sense to go at that moment or prepare to a battle, at least in a generic way, not with specific buffs, if the spirits have told him to watch out for something or to search a place.
create a UNIQUE main character
- Create a background and write it in his biography, you can include all kinds of things from his subrace, his career, his family, origin... dreams, phobias, ambitions, tastes... you should be able to have two characters with the same level, class and race and would have nothing to do with each other.
GOLD RULE - HAVE FUN
- This means finding the balance and fun in things like no reload rules .... do not reload the game, it is not necessary to take it in the strict sense of the word, either because the game crashes, because of a bug, because you didn't know a mechanic of the game Or you just missed a click! It is a video game, made to enjoy not to stress and frustrate you! Don't let that spoil your fun, that's fine not be doing quicksave every two steps and not reloading the game all the time, but you can afford to reload the game if something doesn't go as expected like returning that man turned into a chicken to his human form or you don't beat Shar-teel the first time in single combat with your warrior.
I hope you liked it and that you can share your favorites with me
Regards and keep enjoying!
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Comments
For myself, I do consider it for story issues, not as much for physical/mechanical things.
Although a couple of minor rebuts. Every DM I ever played with assumed magic armors had some sort of auto-sizing ability. So although fitting is a legit issue with non-magic types, and really may require some money spent at an armorer. But the magic sorts aren’t really at issue.
And for nightwatch, I always just assume a proper campaign camp lasts 12 hours, not 8. That’s so you can rotate 1/3 of the party being “on watch” all through the night. Er, or day; I’ve played in several groups that preferred to be active at night and rest in the day.
My own role playing-ism has been mentioned here before, and is at odds with most strategy guides and whatnot. But since the printed 2E books suggest that summoned creatures do NOT like being summoned (and summoning undead or demons is innately evil) that good-aligned characters will not use summoning magic.
Powergaming vs Roleplaying. Though it could be called cheesing versus roleplaying. Still a very thoughtful essay!
Excellent article. This is related to discussions I've had at other sites recently, so it got me thinking...
Okay, the article draws a distinction between gamers who value wholly the character/story elements vs those who are determined to "win at all costs", even when it clearly involves exploiting some things that clearly weren't "meant to be that way".
As the author mentions, most gamers are clearly somewhere in between. For myself, I've played various forms of D&D for over 45 years; and actually have far more time in as a DM than as a player. For starters, I would completely agree with the author's overall premise. These are two different aspects of gaming, and most players are somewhere in between.
As a DM, I actually WANT the players in between. Its good to care about story and character; its good to keep things YOU know, separate from what your character knows at any given time; its also good to know HOW TO PLAY the game and make intelligent decisions related to equipment/weapons you use, spells you cast, even who (within the party) will do WHAT. The reality is, some players don't really care much about the game mechanic details, and others don't really care so much about the story or the "reality" of other characters.
I do want to share here one of the best examples of pure role-playing I ever saw however. It started with an NPC in a game I was running called Grok. Grok was a single class fighter, who was quite stupid. He fell short of my house-rule requirements to specialize in ANY weapon (I required a 10 Intelligence, Grok was a good 5 points short of that). The party met him as the henchmen/muscle of the villain of the week. The party decided their paladin would try to talk Grok down without hurting him (he was True Neutral, too stupid I reckoned to have an actual alignment). The combination of the Paladin, and an almost as charismatic woman in the group, won the day. Grok switched sides happily. At this point, I put his character sheet in the middle of the table and told the players he was now a group character, belonged to all of them as long as they ran him honestly.
Oh my I created a monster. They loved this. They decided Grok's club was his "lucky" club and he wouldn't take to using anything else. They tried to convince him it would often be better to use his magic sword. But no, they all decided this was no fun and Grok would only use his favorite piece of wood. The party had a pretty intense discussion if they could get the club enchanted without Grok's knowledge. The talk got intense! Is this a betrayal of Grok? Or is this truly helping him? It was so funny, and Grok became everyone's favorite comic relief. I don't believe he ever made it past 4th or 5th level. But the whole party was pretty low level, so the whole "enchantment" argument was more theoretical than actual. But the players all took to calling him "the Home Team", they laughed and cheered together when things went well for Grok, and consoled the big lug when things didn't go well... or he got a booboo.
That really was an example of almost pure role playing. The character's stupidity disallowed almost any effort to play him intelligently, and kudos to the whole team of players who ran him true to that. But almost none of us really want to play the complete moron as our own character. And we shouldn't play that way usually anyway. Our characters are well trained professionals who KNOW their business. A fighter understands what weapons are best, and what the trade offs are between fighting styles. A mage knows what his spells do and what their effects are likely to be in any situation. A thief knows if a situation right for sneaking, or if there "ought to be" a trap in that location ahead. Play the characters like the smart professionals they are.
But for all that, its really the hard core power gaming I have the most problems with. As a DM, a player, and a computer gamer I often find the hard core power gaming problematic. Especially when it relies on meta-knowledge. Play your character well to the full extent of their knowledge and ability. But I keep those limitations, and try to avoid overtly gamey decisions. Especially those based on things the character couldn't actually know, or things that bend the game world's own reality.
And I guarantee those last couple sentences would shock my old gaming buddies. I was always the guy who knew all the math and got the most out of every character. Typically I had the most powerful PC in the party, even if scores didn't suggest it. But I'm not really "repenting" of that, I like to play smart. But so many gamers seem to be comfortable crossing lines that seem like cheating to me. I suppose in many ways that's silly. Seriously, I'll mod the game for convenience (unlimited stacking, I don't care if 900 arrows is unrealistic...) or even to alter certain plots to my liking. But then I WILL try to play my character true to the world they live in. So why does it irk me a little when someone talks about trap exploits or "the most powerful" dual class?
Maybe a bit of a double standard? I don't know. I suppose in the end, like most gamers, I'm somewhere in between. Play smart (or as smart as the character should actually be!) and keep it real.
TRUE, but even with that in mind I just feel like I'm cheating but it's just me
Very cool tips, I'll write it down for my next PnP game!
I could have sworn I read this a million years ago xD, it's a great writing, thanks for rescuing it.
Sometimes players create memorable characters with good anecdotes, but there are definitely some npc's that are also memorable and now I'm in love with Grok and his lucky club hahaha, I really enjoyed reading that.
As I said above, I guess I tend to worry more about the role playing exploits (“no way, my LG cleric will NOT do THAT!”) than I do about some of the more mechanical ones (“I don’t care if carrying 9 suits of plate mail seems ridiculous, they’re worth a lot of money and I’m NOT making 9 trips to get them all!”). I mean, if the game wants to abstract horses into totally static set dressing I’m fine with abstracting how I lug all this stuff around…
I think the bottom line will always be that there are so many different sorts of gamers. What you and I may enjoy, might not work for many others.
And it pleases me that Grok lives on! Ironically, I tried to recreate him once in the game (I used a half-ogre sprite, it seemed fitting) but I didn’t have much fun with it. Maybe as part of a team in IWD? Oh I’m liking this idea…
Spoiler
- In addition to being your tank or dps, each character has a role and background. For example, if you travel through the forests with a druid and an explorer, respect nature, try not to harm the animals to do so, charm the animals if possible, put them to sleep, distract them to avoid fighting or killing them except for some occasion when be unavoidable."
Spot on , likewise, if you are really evil, you arent gonna snitch on Neb, you should ruin anomen test, end keldorn marriage, hell you should even help evil foes. Roleplaying should be taken all the way.