Your all-time top-3 house rules

[larsdangly]

I feel like life is already tough enough in TFT, so I generally don't 'nerf' the usefulness of things you'll find in the rules. If you want to constantly cast illusions to try and get the upper hand, I say 'go for it' - it will work a few times and then you'll die with an arrow in your eye, like all the other TFT characters who develop an unhealthy taste for risk.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Kieddicus

I don't have much in the way of nerfs at the moment, but I do allow people to move their full MA and disbelieve.

I'm tempted to say you should get a chance to disbelieve at the time the illusion hits you for damage. Certainly when one kills you.

[JimmyPlenty]

Originally Posted by Shostak

I'm surprised we've not seen any nerfs of Illusion in this thread. I definitely advocate against illusions ever behaving "just like the real thing"--so no starting fires with an illusion of a flame or using an illusory axe to chop down a tree.

I would agree to this since magic is psychic on Cidri. (unless your trees have minds)

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by JimmyPlenty

I would agree to this since magic is psychic on Cidri. (unless your trees have minds)

Only the epileptic trees.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by JimmyPlenty

I would agree to this since magic is psychic on Cidri. (unless your trees have minds)

Not all magic. But illusions are.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

We discuss a wide range of optional and variant rules for TFT in this sub-forum, but I'm interested in knowing what people really feel like they need and benefit from at the table. So, if you had to winnow all your rules fiddling down to exactly three sharply defined house rules to enact at your gaming table, what would they be? I'm not counting things listed as 'optional' in legacy edition, or things published by SJG's in Hexagram or the Companion - I'm talking about your own house rules.

Here's mine:

1) +1 damage for melee and thrown weapons for every full 2 points by which ST exceeds the minimum for that weapon, up to a maximum of double base weapon damage (omitting bonuses for fine weapons, magic, talents, etc.).

2) Climbing Talent would include any kind of climbing surface, not just rough verticals. Thus a sailor on ratlines who has this could get a bonus. Tree climbers could get this. A rope hanging down could get a bonus for Climbing Talent.

3) you are dead-dead, like really dead, after 1 minute rather than 1 hour if your ST score is reduced below -5.

and here is a bonus

4) The optional 'flaws' from the Companion book can be used during character creation, but the exchange is for talent points not attribute points. I.e., 3 points of flaws yields 3 extra talent points during character creation.


Replies to previous posts
Larsingdale = The optional 'flaws' from the Companion book can be used during character creation, but the exchange is for talent points not attribute points. I.e., 3 points of flaws yields 3 extra talent points during character creation. I have actually done this. Made the Flaws use much more flexible.

Hellborn = Starting Wizard gets Aid for free and Literacy if Civilized, or Swimming/Horsemanship/Boating (pick 1) if Barbarian. I agree that just about every apprenticed wizard is going to have a master that demands that as first spell learned. Thus its almost a pre-req for learning spells. I would say that if they were not apprenticed, they should get some other magic concept for free, but what I don't know what.

Shostak = All mundane talents cost 1 point, and characters get one at zero cost curing character generation. I agree. A variation of that is 'you get three 1 point mundanes or two 2 point mundanes or one 3 point mundane.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

+1 damage for melee and thrown weapons for every full 2 points by which ST exceeds the minimum for that weapon

How about: +2 ST is +1 damage, +5 ST is +1d-1 damage. Otherwise you might end up with a damage score like 1d+7, which is weird.

Starting Wizard gets Aid for free and Literacy if Civilized, or Swimming/Horsemanship/Boating (pick 1) if Barbarian.

Do wizards deserve such freebies? Unless heroes are going to get some freebies as well, I'd be tempted to say it should be a compulsory buy, rather than free. Especially if you want to claim to be a member of the wizard's guild, and a graduate of one of their schools. And I'd add Sorcerer's Tongue to the talents, and not hand it free to high-IQ wizards.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

Hellborn = Starting Wizard gets Aid for free and Literacy if Civilized, or Swimming/Horsemanship/Boating (pick 1) if Barbarian.

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

Do wizards deserve such freebies? Unless heroes are going to get some freebies as well, I'd be tempted to say it should be a compulsory buy, rather than free. <snip> And I'd add Sorcerer's Tongue to the talents, and not hand it free to high-IQ wizards.

In days of yore, which is to say when all we had were the microgames Melee and Wizard before official Talents came along, we allowed all PCs to "know" certain things such as swimming, climbing, horseback riding, that seemed appropriate enough to their backgrounds and (this may be the important bit) they successfully demonstrated the use of during actual play. So once you survived swimming across a stream, staying in the saddle, or climbing some steep terrain without killing yourself, your characters could note on their Record Sheets they "knew" Climbing, Riding, or Swimming for future use (we had house rules for all those activities and more before Advanced Melee and ITL came along). Call it trial by fire: if you made the saving rolls to swim a pond or climb a ledge without killing or seriously injuring yourself, you could claim these skills as part of your character, for free, no points to keep track of. Alternatively a PC could claim they knew how to ride or swim because they came from communities where those activities were common, and then got a break on the related saving rolls. It was all loosey goosey, but it worked out just fine in play.

I'm sure every wizard any of us had could ride a horse. Not joust or fight from horseback (we had house rules for some of that too) but stay in the saddle without having to make saving rolls just to travel with a mounted party.

Everyone from their start also knew the languages common in their home areas, for free. And every wizard automatically spoke our world's magical language, and could read and write in it, because (by definition) that was what they were taught spells in, before the Sorcerer's Tongue was ever introduced by Advanced Wizard.

Our game stayed balanced and everything went swimmingly (pun intended) even though "knowledge was free".

Sure we saw the usefulness of the Talent rules when ITL finally came along, but on the whole we found the new regulations a bit too draconian. For example, we never required our wizards to unlearn spells to make room for talents, or forget how to ride or swim to make room for keeping their spells, and we maintained that as a house rule for new PCs going forward.

[Skarg]

Hmm, so many to choose from, but maybe:

1. Use the original Changing Options wording, overruling contradictions in the new options list. That is, you can change your option any time until you actually use it, to Attack, Dodge, Defend, or Drop, if you moved 1/2 MA or less, and any other valid action if you moved 0 or 1. This includes changing to Dodge if you come under attack from a ranged weapon and haven't acted yet. Or saying you were going to Defend or Dodge, but then no one attacks you, so you switch to Attack.

2. Physicker healing done per wound rather than per combat. If that seems like too much healing, reduce the amount by 1 point.

3. Allow learning talents up to IQ, including if you didn't take that many to start with, or increase your IQ after creation, for most talents as long as you have an appropriate way to learn them in game, and use the time and methods in original ITL and AW (generally about 3 months per talent point, with some rules about ones you're learning or recently learned).

4. Not necessarily a house rule if we consider it just different enchantments are known in the area the campaign is happening, but: Most particularly-useful magic items that don't list a ST cost or other drawback to using them all the time, should probably have at least a 1 ST per turn ST cost unless self-powered. Particularly Stone Flesh, Iron Flesh, Attribute Boosters, Blur, and maybe some others.

[Steve Plambeck]

Yes! Everything Skarg just said, but especially 1. and 3.

That post would make an excellent primer. Call it "Suggested House Rules for New Players".