House Rules

Piperdog · 09-16-2017, 06:45 AM

Too soon for DF box set house rules yet? Just wondering what folks are changing for their table. Me, the only thing I have house ruled is negative hit points and dying rules. In our campaign, characters die at negative 1xHT, so if they have a 12 HT they die at -12. A little more brutal perhaps, but seems old school in feel to me.

Anybody else have some house rules they care to share?

corwyn · 09-16-2017, 01:33 PM

HT? or Hit Points?

Piperdog · 09-16-2017, 07:15 PM

My bad. Its negative Hit Points! I just feel normal rules are...long-winded. It's a lot of book keeping. I feel that going to negative hit points is both more sobering to players and easier as well.

malloyd · 09-16-2017, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Piperdog

My bad. Its negative Hit Points! I just feel normal rules are...long-winded. It's a lot of book keeping. I feel that going to negative hit points is both more sobering to players and easier as well.

So are you planning to substitute anything for Hard to Kill? I don't believe it's a required trait anywhere, but it is an option for several templates, and this makes it useless.

ericbsmith · 09-16-2017, 09:53 PM

Generally, Characters dying is a bad thing. It can **** people off and takes time to rectify by creating a new character. It can throw party balance off or result in replacements with cookie-cutter look-a-likes (my Cleric died... guess I need to make another Cleric or else the party won't have a healer).

I'm not saying that character deaths should never happen - especially when a party or player does something extremely stupid or heroically sacrificial - but changing the rules specifically to increase PC deaths just seems utterly counter-productive to me.

Rasputin · 09-16-2017, 10:49 PM

If you want a gritty, old-school feel, use DF 15's 125-point templates instead. (I've long used them.) The DFRPG templates are supposed to be pretty tough, as, in D&D terms, they're about 6th level characters.

Most characters won't do too much below 0 HP anyways. At -HP, they're almost all down for the count and knocked out. I don't see the value of making that level outright death all the time.

lachimba · 09-17-2017, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Generally, Characters dying is a bad thing. It can **** people off and takes time to rectify by creating a new character. It can throw party balance off or result in replacements with cookie-cutter look-a-likes (my Cleric died... guess I need to make another Cleric or else the party won't have a healer).

I'm not saying that character deaths should never happen - especially when a party or player does something extremely stupid or heroically sacrificial - but changing the rules specifically to increase PC deaths just seems utterly counter-productive to me.

There are raise dead spells and items.

Also mortal wounds could be left in to allow everyone the chance to come back from death with a lucky roll.

09-16-2017, 06:45 AM	#1
Piperdog Join Date: Aug 2008	House Rules Too soon for DF box set house rules yet? Just wondering what folks are changing for their table. Me, the only thing I have house ruled is negative hit points and dying rules. In our campaign, characters die at negative 1xHT, so if they have a 12 HT they die at -12. A little more brutal perhaps, but seems old school in feel to me. Anybody else have some house rules they care to share?

09-16-2017, 01:33 PM	#2
corwyn MIB Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Saskatoon, SK	Re: House Rules HT? or Hit Points? __________________ MiB 7704 Playing: GURPS Nordlond Dragons of Hosgarth Running Savage Worlds Tour of Darkness (Vietnam + Mythos)

09-16-2017, 07:15 PM	#3
Piperdog Join Date: Aug 2008	Re: House Rules My bad. Its negative Hit Points! I just feel normal rules are...long-winded. It's a lot of book keeping. I feel that going to negative hit points is both more sobering to players and easier as well.

09-16-2017, 09:53 PM	#5
ericbsmith Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.	Re: House Rules Generally, Characters dying is a bad thing. It can ** people off and takes time to rectify by creating a new character. It can throw party balance off or result in replacements with cookie-cutter look-a-likes (my Cleric died... guess I need to make another Cleric or else the party won't have a healer). I'm not saying that character deaths should never happen - especially when a party or player does something extremely stupid or heroically sacrificial - but changing the rules specifically to increase PC deaths just seems utterly counter-productive to me. __________________ Eric B. Smith GURPS** Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya.

09-16-2017, 10:49 PM	#6
Rasputin Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA	Re: House Rules If you want a gritty, old-school feel, use *DF 15's 125-point templates instead. (I've long used them.) The DFRPG* templates are supposed to be pretty tough, as, in *D&D* terms, they're about 6th level characters. Most characters won't do too much below 0 HP anyways. At -HP, they're almost all down for the count and knocked out. I don't see the value of making that level outright death all the time. __________________ Cura isto securi, Eugene. My GURPS blog.