You see this debate pop every know and then or some forum. Rules As Written must be obeyed. Rules As Intended must be obeyed. Or whatever you want to call it. Blah. Blah.
Now the thing that really bugs me is the view that Rules As Written are some sort gospel that Moses brought down from the mountain. House rules and tweaks are as much as part of the hobby as writing your own adventures, world building and whatever other miscellaneous activity you end up doing to make your games better. That being said, your house rules aren’t sacred either and you most certainly are not Moses.
Here’s the deal. No game ever made or ever written will be able to cover every possible situation. It just won’t happen. Eventually, a game master will have to make a rule that isn’t written or it’s written in such that it makes absolutely no sense in the current situation. Time for a judgment call and a little house rule.
Yes, I know. Home play is different than convention and organized play. And there needs to be checks and balances in organized play just in case some jerk who gets off by reinforcing every bad stereotype ends up running the game that you just happen to end up sitting in on. But I’m also reminded of what is in just about every RPG ever published. What’s the difference between an RPG and more traditional games. Nobody “wins” in an RPG. So if nobody wins then why bitch about rules minutia.
So what if a home game is filled to the rafters with “That Guy”? Learn when it’s possible to talk it out and when you just need to pick up your dice and move on. I know some folks are challenged by having a low population density of gamers in their area. But some times you just have to ask yourself, what’s worse. No game. Or a game where you have to pack antacid and aspirin while making sure you don’t have any sharp objects in your gaming bag.
The thing is don’t be a dick (unless of course if your name is Dick) either as a player or a game master.
Just make it the game that everyone wants to play.
2 Responses to “A Rant on House Rules, Tweaks & That Guy”
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Chuck on 
Philo Pharynx on 
On the other hand, I like to see consistency in the rules. I use the rules for two main things: to tell me what chance my character has at succeeding, and to tell me how the universe operates. Inconsistently applied rules can suddenly invalidate my character build (and have in the past). Or they can take a decent strategy and suddenly make it stupid. Moreover, inconsistent rules tend to make it look like the game world has inconsistent physics. The occasional ruling isn’t a problem, especially if it makes more sense than RAW. And house rules that are both clearly communicated and consistently applied aren’t a problem. House rules made up on the spot because “there’s no way this creature should fall victim to that tactic” are infuriating.
One argument that I’ve seen, but don’t 100% agree with, is that the RAW were developed that way, presumably for a reason. A game developer is generally better than you at building a game. Theoretically, there was some playtesting that went into the ruleset. If you’re going to just override that, you’d better be pretty confident in your position. (Having been on the development side, I can tell you that there are usually excellent reasons for the choices that are made, but that developers aren’t all-knowing geniuses either.)
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I agree. House Rules need to be communicated clearly preferably before any characters are even created and have an internal logic and consistency. They should be discussed before things get rolling. On the spot rulings are very tricky and should be done with a very light hand.
Sometimes it’s obvious what a designer intended and sometimes it isn’t. This again boils down to what you are changing and why.Make the choices wisely. House rules and tweaks are really the sort of thing to adjust a game to a particular group’s play style or the particular feel of a campaign. Not completely re-write it.