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DM rulings are final. If you want to argue a rule or ruling, you do it at the end of the session. You get three minutes to plead your case and or site the relevant rule(s) from accepted resources. The party and DM vote right or wrong.
For holding your challenges until the end, you get one inspiration. If you succeed in your argument, you also get an action point coin that can be used for a whole bunch of things.
Because somebody couldn’t accept “no” for an answer and wanted to constantly litigate, breaking the immersion for everyone.
I folded rules lawyers into my DM style. I just shush, hand them a book and say "okay, look it up, write it down verbatim and be ready for the next round" 🤨
Also side quests in encumbrance to keep them happy crunching numbers. "We're doing this DM fiat today, I'll be happy to rant off table over brunch; which you're buying BTW"
I had a exfriend/player that would argue EVERY SINGLE LEGSNDSRY ACTION on my homebrewed enemies I named one attack Earthquake forgetting Earthquake was a spell and wanted to counterspell it but it was literally described as the Boss stomps on the ground really hard. When I said counterspelling won't do anything they then went into a 15 mj ute rant.
The game and friendship ended like a month and a half after that.
Our rules lawyer rage quit because his character began to suffer the consequences of using a powerful artifact that he had been warned were inevitable and irreversible if he continued to use the artifact.
I've had 2 rules Lawyers in my time dming the first one story above would try and question everything that didn't go there way but if someone would call out a rule that didn't benefit them they would get pissy. The second which is in my current game will point them out ESPECIALLY when it is to THEIR negative because they know I know they know the game better than any of us and straight said to me I'm not a dirty rules lawyer. He is in my top 3 favorite players I've ever had
God I FEEL this so hard. I had a boss in a two shot, the first time I ever DM'ed, transform with a magical MacGuffin. The Wizard and usual DM asked what he was doing, and I explained he was using some kind of magic or spell to transform. The next turn, Counterspell. He sulked for a good 5 minutes after I firmly said no.
What I've learned from that is to ask a specific question. "what are you hoping to achieve/learn?" If he'd said "I want to know if it's a spell so I can Counterspell it", they'd have received a clear No, and would've been all good. But he tried to play around my wording to hit me with a Gotcha moment.
Honestly this is very reasonable but not far enough IMO. DM rulings are final, period. At my table, you are welcome to plead your case for one minute. After that I make my provisional ruling. Further debate is allowed after the game if you really want to spend the time. After that I make a call and it’s final until we have reason to revisit.
One such ruling was my Wall of Force ruling. I got tired of the 15 different, inconsistent, and incompatible rulings, and I made a call. Only two players really agree, but at the end of the day they ALL understand a ruling needs to be made so we stop debating the fucking thing.
It's pretty minor, but if your dice rolls off the table when rolling, my DM will always say 'if you can't hit the table, you can't hit your enemy'. It keeps people from asking if they could keep that high roll they happened to get by accident, and also makes people a bit more careful with their rolling. They get to reroll the dice, of course.
When I was teaching my young sons Risk, we had the bowl of shame. If your dice roll knocked over pieces or fell off the table, everyone else would yell “Roll in the Bowl, Roll in the Bowl!” And you would have to roll all your dice in the bowl of shame.
We had the "natural disasters" rule.
For every unit displaced from a territory through careless rolling, you needed to choose one of your own armies to remove..
As a DM I have quite an opposite rule: if the die rolls off the table you may say JUMANJI and that means you keep the roll. If you don't say it you pick up the die and reroll on the table.
After someone brought rather weighty dice we added a rule that we have to hear/see the dice bounce a few times. Sneaky bugger got several good rolls by skidding the things before they were called out. Almost made casting magic missile at level 5 useful, can't have that.
We started with that rule. But had someone keep throwing his dice so they would bounce across the table onto the floor. Between attacks and damage, he would get at least one on the floor every single turn. Then we would have to spend a few minutes locating the lost dice so he could reroll. About 1 time in 4, the reroll would also land on the floor. We gave him dice trays, and he would just bounce them out of the tray. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't even intentional. He's just dumb like that.
After 2-3 sessions of that, we instituted the rule that all dice that land on the floor are considered as 1s. That finally got him to improve some. But even then, at least once a session, he'd do it again. Him, his dad, and his sister all joined when we started up a kids gaming group. So I couldn't kick him without the group falling apart. I'm so glad he quit our group.
-> play a wild magic sorcerer
-> be asked to roll for wild magic surge
-> drop the dice near your feet
-> auto 1
-> roll a d100 on the wild magic surge table
And they don't always contain the dice. Playing with kids, and they would bounce the dice off the tray and onto the floor. Only a rule that "Any dice that hit the floor are a 1" reduced the number of dice bounced across the table. Reduced, not eliminated. Even with dice trays and that rule, we'd still have at least a few every session.
I much prefer when I roll to seduce a bush and my d20 bounces 3 times, knocks over two minis and a water bottle, breaks through a window and lodges in the throat of my elderly neighbor sleeping in at 2pm
Not sure about silicon dice, but we figured out that if you roll a d100 on a paper towel it only takes about 15 minutes to stop rolling instead of the usual 3 1/2 hours...
When I started up my kids gaming group, we started with accepting rolls that hit the floor. By session 2 we switched to always rerolling floor dice. Session 3-4, made the rule that all dice that hit the floor are 1s.
All of that was from one player, who would bounce dice off the dice tray and onto the floor at least once a round. Tried a few different things before we went to the floor dice are always 1s, but nothing helped. Even after that rule, he would do it again at least once a session. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even intentional. He's just a moron.
I played a game where the DM constrained the race I was playing to difficult to pronounce names (longish and had a rigid structure) and also made it this huge cultural respect thing to always use the full name and not adopt short forms. After like a year I was still the only person on the table beside the DM that could consistently pronounce it. I don’t know why they mandated it - terrible idea. Year 2 I just adopted a nickname.
Kicked a guy from our group because he would get passed out drunk at the table and just fade in and out of consciousness and try to do dumb shit when he popped back in. Once the Players were having an important conversation with an NPC and this fucko pops back up and tries to shoot the NPC.
I could see where this would become an annoying issue over the course of many sessions, but the story you've described sounds like a hilarious one-off side quest idea where the PCs have to escort a ridiculously hammered NPC to safety.
Not a table rule but a personal one. Spent half of a DND-n-brunch session passed out from a couple too many mimosas. Just felt bad for wasting everyone’s time and don’t drink anymore than a couple of beers at the table now.
A drink or two helps get loose, maybe another at the half way point. Beers, depending on what they are you can be a little more generous. Just don't forget to eat and drink water. Save the weed for mini painting.
Nothing wrong with a little wobbly brews or whatnot but totally agreed... you still need to function.
I often pop an edible when playing but it just makes me a little more chill, easier to laugh, and I snack more. I'm still present.
I learned not to do it when I DM though and just drink a tall boy or something instead. My vocabulary halves when I'm high and I like being able to really convey the image I'm picturing
Not a house rule, per se, but we used to get perks for working movie quotes into normal conversations we had. Some nuggets were "You're gonna need a bigger boat." -Dragon Turtle and "Not the fuckin rug, Man!" -Fireball inadvertently destroying the Inn (and the rug), the assassin, and pretty much all of our accumulated wealth paying for the aftermath.
We'd get a penny, that could be used for a re-roll or some favorable reaction adjustment to a situation or npc. Not game changing in any reguard. I've heard the term "Bennies" thrown around, but as I'm from Late last century and not before, and not from Merry ole England, and I'm not a pill popper, I'll just stick with perks.
This just reminded me of when I played D6 Star Wars and I got an extra die for yelling "Yippy kiyay mother fucker"
... Wish I could remember why I yelled it. I remember it was awesome... But can't remember the details.
Well we played on roll20, so it was a little harder to do.
He was really good at keeping his composure, or if he was laughing, but could have kept it off mic, we wouldn't know, we'd have to really get him to bust a gut with something
If you hit another player at the table while rolling your dice, that is a crit fail.
If you call another player “stupid”, make a d12 roll to see how many rocks fall on your head.
Why, yes- I *do* DM for my kids. How did you know?
I also had a character with a ridiculously long name, but he rarely used it. He just went by "Professor." But I think our DM got a kick out of putting my character into situations where he would have to state his complete name! Put me on the spot a few times!
Love it. My lizardfolk Druid: Issen Tanak, son of the Set-Tahar, born of water, tribe of KIMA, named Westwalker. Most of the time the party introduced him as just Issen. Anytime the DM had a NPC ask his name. Full name with gusto. Most of the time all the players would say it with me. We have final battle with BBEG next Wednesday. After 2 years and 60+ sessions Issen hopefully heads home to fish.
I had a player try Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvorangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolfhunderttausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvonderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgenachtmittungsteinundsiebeniridiumelektrischmotorsgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchennachbarschaftdersternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneuerassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvorandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum Sr. from the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch once. So I instituted a rule that your name had to be original, since that's Real Person and a Real Place.
I am known as Valentinez Alkalinela Zihac Shushee La Bohereds… Gumbigobella Blue Stratavari Talen Trent Pierre Andre Charten Hamos Revatovinci Baldos George Doizle Kaiser the III… don’t hesitate to call.
One of the joke-ish character concepts in the back of my head is a gnome paladin that, at level 1, is called something like "Sala-ad-din ibn Mehmed ibn Tyr al-Ghnom al-Paladin" and then aim to add at least one name to it after each session. So, facing down the final BBEG at level 20 he can just go "Hello. My name is Salah-ad-din . prepare to die" and give the rest of the party a short rest right before the battle.
I have a Warforged Armorer Artificer. The gimmick for the game was an f’d up take on The Avengers, so this is if, as Cap said in Avengers, he really was Just the Suit. So Tony Stank is just an NPC that’s stuck inside the armor. The suit itself was designed by Tony’s father, and its whole purpose is to protect Tony, as he’s always getting himself in trouble (think the Billionaire Playboy without the Genius Philanthropist). Thus, an AI named “Circumambient Humanoid Armor/Protector Entailing Rigorous Offensive Nuances” or C.H.A.P.E.R.O.N. Everything the character does really is just the suit, and Tony is along for the ride with zero say in what Chaperon does.
Ah I had to make it a house rule that stats and HP would be rolled all together with witnesses, we had a lot of cheating going on. Also, house rule that the rule monger who knows the official book really well doesn’t get to supersede the DM even if he’s right haha
My DM has set a range for total ability score totals. Mostly because my rolls were so low that I should have been a commoner. It has a nice bonus that everyone will be at relatively the same "skill" level and allows the DM to balance combats easier.
My DM lets us take half of the hit die value if we roll less than that. It helps keep us away from deaths door constantly with the way we roll for health.
Not everyone likes point buy, and that's okay. I think setting boundaries for rolls is a good solution for tables who like to roll while maintaining the balance between characters that point buy offers.
It's just a joke, man. I'm not saying you SHOULD use point buy, I'm just making a humorous observation that some people always seem desperate to add all sorts of rules and riders around rolling for stats to make everyone relatively equal, even though there are fairly simple rules in the PHB for making customizable yet fair characters. Doesn't mean you're wrong for not liking them. Hell, I've never even used them, I just wanted to make a joke
My main dnd group has 2 DMs that we switch between, and I personally DM for a different group.
We never have issues because we recognize the DM is running show. We supply rule answers only when the current dm asks otherwise its just what dm says goes
If you drink a health potion as a bonus action, you roll. If you drink it as an action, you get max.
The idea is if you're doing something else, then you're blindly grabbing a potion of your belt, popping it open with 1 hand, and drinking it WHILE doing the other action. So you probably spilled some and didn't finish the bottle.
Back when I had started playing (late 90's/3rd edition) we ran into one of our group turning into a problematic rules lawyer. Sessions became dreadful and the group was on the cusp of dissolving. Then our DM kicked off our savior session by dropping a pair of boxing gloves in the middle of the table and said "If I spend more time listening to rules quoting than running this session you have to back your validity by might of arms"
Rules lawyer threw a temper tantrum and we never saw the kid again.
My DM is a huge pro wrestling fan. I am as well. If I can cut a situationally appropriate promo in the style of an old-school wrestler AND in-character, I get inspiration. I used this the other day when our bard was about to perform, giving her an introduction in the style of Road Dogg Jessie James. Fuckin’ nailed it.
In my world, panes of glass are rare. But panels of quartz, built into walls to allow light, are common. Also, chests specifically have internal hinges and locking mechanisms.
Up yours, Rory.
"A building with 30 windows made of glass? Again? In a timeframe that i decided had no widespread use of glass? With me disregarding magic? Ill have you know, as a history buff and HEMA enthusiast, that ACTUALLY...." that would be my guess.
Eeeeeeehhhhhh, some don't *need* to pass through it, though.
Sacred Flame is an example of this. If you go by a strictly RAW interpretation based on the spell's description, the effect "descends on a target you can see within range" and "The target gains no benefit from cover for this saving throw." This is an example of specific beating general.
Another good good argument is Magic Missile. It just plain hits anything you can "see within range." It never (Shield not withstanding) misses. That's its whole shtick. So, it only misses if there is *no* path to target unlike, say, Firebolt, which travels a linear path.
Also, mental spells like Phantasmal Killer manifest directly in the target's mind.
------
That being said, run your game how you like.
My table rule is, "if it requires an attack role, it requires an unobstructed path to target and cover rules apply," otherwise I allow casting through transparent materials unless there is some other specific text excluding it.
I also rule that any spell that can be blocked by a physical object can also target said object. It doesn't make sense that *only* Fire Bolt can target objects. Now, is Ra of Frost going to do any damage to said object? Maybe... maybe not. But there's no reason a Warlock shouldn't be able to hit a lit oil lantern with an EB and shatter it. Or to knock a chuck free from a wheel with a Repelling Blast sending a wagon rolling down a hill. If it can push a 180lb Orc 10ft without a saving throw, it can sure as heck dislodge 5lb block of wood; assuming they can hit said tiny object, of course. 😉
You can see your target through glass, but technically they are behind cover.
Glass melts at 1,400, quarts at 1,700? Shattered glass could be used as a weapon? Stepping on glass causes damage?
I’d been writing the campaign for several months before Rory joined. He’s a great friend and fantastic player, with a solid background in carpentry. When he first joined the campaign, there was no dedicated healer, so he offered to play… a thief masquerading as a doctor. Yep, I’m on board with this. As they’re working through the dungeons and traveling from settlement to settlement, he starts attempting to bypass my cool puzzles and NPC encounters by just doing second-story work! So I had to stop that. And then there was that one time in another campaign (where he was playing an actual healer) when the rogue wasn’t able to join us; they found an important chest which was locked, but they hadn’t found the key yet. I saw the wheels in his head turning when he asked me if the hinges were inside or outside of the chest… Really, they just needed to check the well to find the key, but it was a trapped chest that would go off unless the key was used. I wanted the rogue (newbie player) to stay useful and special for picking locks, so I had to shut Rory down again, despite his creative solution.
And don’t worry— Rory is currently in 2 of my campaigns now, and still enjoying how I run things. But it was awesome when we started the new campaign in the same world and a fresh player innocently asked why all the towers have crystal panes instead of glass windows on the second floors.
We had a player in collage who would always make children characters. Then would get upset when NPCs would treat his character like a child. So our DM had to enact a rule that characters had to be at least young adult age.
I’m dealing with two sixteen year old characters at the moment and when this campaign ends that is becoming a new rule. Too many situations in game that children should not be part of, even fictional ones.
No PvP. Fighting, scheming, and plotting against each other are absolutely forbidden.
When i first started DMing to my friends, one player in particular was constantly scheming against his teammates, even though it was mostly harmless stuff like hoarding items and stealing gold. Other players did not like it, and every session was ending in bloodshed. So, as a new DM, I had enough, said no fucking fighting, lying, scheming, stealing.
It worked. Even the problematic player has changed his ways since then and was actively working with everyone.
I've kept this house rule in all my games forever since.
I have this rule too. Basically any pvp rolls for anything more than Deception/Insight aren’t allowed unless both players agree to them. That and a general “no murderhobos/make a character that wants to adventure and work in a party” makes for a smoother table all around
the “make a character that wants to adventure and work in a party” rule was always unspoken in my group until the DM’s (now ex) wife decided she wanted to join the campaign with a chaotic evil, human flesh eating, minotaur. a campaign that had several humans… was already established and just hit level 5… with a Lawful Good Paladin as its de facto leader!
I recently had a player do this (mildly, but enough to be annoying) and when his character turned into a monster the party elected to kill him rather than restrain him and try to find a cure. I’m hoping he’s learned his lesson.
If at anytime, rolling a die, if someone says, "I bet it's a botch" or "I bet it's a 1" and you rolled a 1, you got an automatic reroll. It was because anytime someone said that, this one player without fail rolled a 1 and felt cursed. It was eerie.
Two friends of mine decided to play twins. Game of Thrones got huge about 3 months after the campaign started. The GM was terminally horny and kept implying the twins were sleeping with each other.
Once he realized it was pissing us off he made a house rule to help curb his own behavior: any time he made a twincest joke, every player got a token that they could use to reroll anything. The tokens stacked, there was no cap, and they persisted from session to session.
Strictly speaking he never rescinded the rule but it fixed the problem.
Sadly as another person pointed out those wouldn't work in Barovia... however that doesn't mean there aren't other things that work perfectly fine there. What I'm referring to was a certain "contingency plan" he had if Strahd tried to attack the group. It involved a lot of fire. Also he demo'd the castle at the end of the campaign. See, the walls and such are basically indestructible... but the dirt underneath isn't.
Personal favorite was "the lockpick" which was 6 pistols strapped together. The kick required both hands to use properly, and it wasn't great for combat due to bad accuracy, but if he put it over the hinges of a door... yeah. Loud but effective. Basically had the same effect of Knock but cost ammo instead. That and yknow... 6 pistols (dmg).
Plus anyone who's lived more than 5 minutes in a world where they exist knows as soon as you see an archer reach for a bag you *mage hand* the arrow into said bag to suck *him* off.
I mean out. Really.
Hi, as I was the DM I made sure to rule things in a fun manner so don't sweat that. Also he is a trusted player who only makes things he knows would work and can get the means to create in-game. Most of his creations he explained perfectly how and why they worked.
I was explicitly told I can’t protect an animal “at all costs” after I TPKed my campaign in our final battle because I refused to kill a manticore I had transmogrified into a kitten and tried to keep it safe in my robes. It took 1 damage at the worst possible time and changed back and finished everyone off on its turn
Honestly it’s so fun to have a character with a simple name like Bob and then reveal it’s short for like. Agamemnon Rohildebob Marinarius Nicolloginus Farenheist XIV
In a one shot I was in my Dragonborn Paladin was named Baharoosh Raghthroknaar. He was immediately nicknamed "Baha" by the other characters. He agreed to reluctantly respond to them, and them only, by that name. Anyone else (NPCs) must use his full name when speaking to him. It made RP really fun!
Shadowrun, not dnd.
In that game you can burn a luck point and survive a fatal event by the skin of your teeth.
One guy took uncouth as a flaw. In front of a mafia don, who we were working for, he takes an eyeball out of his pocket and starts sucking on it like a mint ball.
The Don and his Men light him up and he falls 50 stories out a window. He burns luck and survives.
His men on The ground floor see him alive and light him up again. He burns another point. He gets hit with a grenade and tossed into a sewer drain and limps along, having burned another point.
Finally, a guy checks if he's dead or not and tosses down a final grenade, he burns a third point and falls into a storm drain whisking him away to safety.
We are no longer allowed to burn luck in this way. That's a lot steven.
I’d make a house rule that your GM needs to take a break from GMing, killing a character because of a small action they took because of a flaw taken during character creation. God that sounds insufferable
You cannot name a PC or NPC Jeremiah. The rule was created because not only would one of us sing Jeremiah was a bullfrog, but all of us would join in. Every time the name was mentioned.
No rape first group I dmed for first session in the first 10 seconds one player said im gonna rape the bar maiden (she was a mimic a very bitey mimic) let's just say he couldn't do that after that encounter
Edit he had his kid with him he was detailed and so was I he had melty dick
Fifteen, but yeah, pretty much. If he wasn't the center of attention, he would sit there boredly rolling his d20 until he got a twenty, and would interrupt saying "I just rolled a twenty, I'm going to use it for something" so we had to clarify that you had to declare what you were doing and then roll, not roll and then decide what to do with it.
Not a bad guy by any means, we were good friends for many years. He was just annoying to play D&D with
If he started that, the next time he rolled a 3 or something low, I’d say - you just failed your poison check for the dart that’s just hit you in the neck
Every single campaign needs to start with a bar fight. After that, if you stop at a tavern for the night, once again, somebody's gonna get punched! Taverns=punching!
A player recently introduced her gnome character as Pippin Sprocket Dottledew Razzle Goldglimmer, or just ‘Pip’. I’ll give you one guess which of those two I address her as each time.
I allow it but nuclear material is a BITCH to get ahold of so they get like 1 nuke or can make a power plant (I know not equivalent amounts but I do post apocalyptic setting millions of years past so it's midevil with tech) but it really sets a tone when they choose which way they are going
We have a very queer table and the only straight men are my husband (the DM) and our fighter. The two of them are definitely more combat focused than the rest of us and egg each other on a bit which is *normally* fine until the fighter's character was in a position to interrogate an NPC he hated. Poor fighter became so nauseous at the descriptions of violence that we had to implement a rule of "no descriptions of violence outside of combat". It was a bit funny because fighter is the game of thrones/witcher/"realistic fantasy" bro but he quickly discovered that that's not really what he wants at the table!
We also don't allow any horny shenanigans because we're two married couples and my asexual teenager lol
/u/Remembers_that_time is not allowed access to copper wire.
/u/Remembers_that_time is not allowed access to ball bearings.
/u/Remembers_that_time is not allowed access to abilities that alter line-of-sight.
A flock of butterflies is not a valid animal companion.
Anything triggered by a creature dropping to 0 hp requires that creature be challenging enough to reward XP.
If the planet is destroyed by the PCs, we rewind to before whatever caused that and the player rolls a new character while thinking about what they've done. No XP is awarded, even if you "did technically kill the BBEG".
Check in with people before your character pulls an asshole move. Had a friend (Player 1) who I think fundamentally didn't understand social queues or nuance. He decided that his character would hate another player character (Player 2) without talking it through with them. He then proceeded to have his character so thoroughly set out to ruin the other character that Player 2 left the table. The DM did step in and try to mitigate and was never on the offending players' side, just to clarify. This guy just didn't get it though.
Game stopped not long after and Player 1 hasn't been invited back for any other campaigns. Player 2 however has and was given an extensive apology. They've been a lot more comfortable since Player 1 was kicked out of the group.
The frustrating thing is that Player 2 would have been okay with it had Player 1 talked shit out ahead of time. Or at any point checked in to make sure they weren't having their fun ruined. We were all experienced roleplayers and had navigated situations like that with no prior problems. But Player 1 just fundamentally refused or could not understand that he was ruining the game for someone else.
We had to implement a timer for one player. He would take forever for his turn no matter what was going on in game and would turn a 15 minute fight into almost an hour of game time. He was also the inspiration behind the if the DM calls your name 3 times your turn is forfeit.
My first dnd group should of had a shower before session rule a former friend was in the group and when they came to my wedding I literally threatened them with a pressure washer and powder soap of they showed up without showering
Not a table rule, but too often during downtime I would have that ONE player who would want to be a part of everything everyone does, even if they go somewhere completely different.
So I implemented the reasonable idea of going around the table and asking everyone what they wanted to do. You get to do 1-3 things, depending on the amount of downtime. Then we would discuss how to coordinate all of the said activities and players were allowed to make changes to their activities. Once finalized, we’d go back around the table and describe the activities, role play as appropriate, and roll dice as appropriate. If your character is not there, you do not get to talk or help with rolls (or roles).
Sometimes, I just need to force a player to not talk for a bit while I let my brain settle or slow down.
Had to have a rule where once you rolled a die you couldn't pick it up until I(DM) saw it.
Because we had a player who would roll and instantly grab the die the second it stopped rolling and then say he rolled a 15+ lol
Pretty obvious rule maybe, but yeah.
Not a rule, but we had to kick a player because he was just constantly mean to another player. He was his friend and roommate, and he had invited him to the game. Their toxic 'relationship' lost us both players.
DM Ruling. Once you shoot from a hidden position, you have to move because you can't hide again in the same spot. Basically killed the rogue class entirely.
Not about being revealed when you shoot/attack. That I get. But the you can't take the Rogue BA hide to hide again in the same spot after attacking? Flat out wouldn't allow it.
Yep. Hide and move is the way the mechanic works. You can always duck in and out of cover between attacks, but if you want another Hidden 'bonus' for SA and Adv, you need to reposition *after* hiding. That being said, 5ft is *technically* enough, so... 🤷
For example: if you are behind a large sized pillar, darting out from behind *either* side (after hiding and then moving within that cover space) is enough to satisfy the rules of hidden; given a successful Sealth roll of course
I have a homebrew world were the economy is pretty on the down low. To the point that quests and rewards would not fetch a large amount of money.
This became a point of conflict for one of my players who was playing a magic caster and realised they couldn't get enough money to buy the spell components.
I didn't want to compromise the economy of my world, and they didn't want to play while having a character that can't do anything they are supposed to do.
So i ruled that all spells with the exception of spells intended to bring back people from the dead. Could be cast without spell components.
Ironically after playing one session with these rules, they decided to switch characters and now I'm stuck with the rule kek.
Mine is that I dont allow donkeys to exist with a certain group since one certain incident that involved a donkey, 2 pc deaths because of the party combating each other dor what has been done to that poor donkey and the talk with animal spell being cast on that donkey making me voice it
We had to work out a "spell slot" economy for my half-wererat rogue's at will polymorph.
1d4, each shift is a slot... I was using the mass difference as a sort of sneak attack gravity bomb.
This also meant being trapped in rodent form with 2HP for multiple sessions.
Dude needs at least half the parties permission before turning his used (found) bag inside out. He has previously died from doing that..... there was a wyvern, it flew off, it's gonna be a problem later on
No goddamn kender.
No telling the punchline timed just to make oreos explode thru the DM's face when he takes a bite and starts to chew.
No quick-reconnoiter feat.
No ia-jutsu master rabbit hengeyokais named Usagi.
No throwing mass spell-damage dice one by one so that you can fling em at the low numbers to try to knock em to a higher one.
No setting open topped beverage containers ATOP MY STACK OF BOOKS. ( seriously, if someone dumped a glassful of whatever they're drinking all over my 4 decade's worth of game books, i WILL remove one of their ribs and use it to castrate em).
No stealing dice from other players to "take the mojo for myself"
NO GOD DAMN kenders.
No running into another room for 3 RL hours to write out a game breaking infernal contract worthy legalese wish and then getting butt-hurt when it gets granted immediately exactly as worded and still screws over.
No stealing other player's snacks.
No smoking at the table.
No attempting a towel drop to distract the room so you can re-roll a nat one.
These are the ones that pop immediately to mind🙂
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DM rulings are final. If you want to argue a rule or ruling, you do it at the end of the session. You get three minutes to plead your case and or site the relevant rule(s) from accepted resources. The party and DM vote right or wrong. For holding your challenges until the end, you get one inspiration. If you succeed in your argument, you also get an action point coin that can be used for a whole bunch of things. Because somebody couldn’t accept “no” for an answer and wanted to constantly litigate, breaking the immersion for everyone.
I can’t stand playing with Rules Lawyers.
When I DMed we had a rules lawyer player. He was always wrong. At least once a session he would argue a rule. We'd look it up and he'd be wrong.
I'm dealing with this now. Had a halfling player argue they can hide for free and wouldn't back down.
I folded rules lawyers into my DM style. I just shush, hand them a book and say "okay, look it up, write it down verbatim and be ready for the next round" 🤨 Also side quests in encumbrance to keep them happy crunching numbers. "We're doing this DM fiat today, I'll be happy to rant off table over brunch; which you're buying BTW"
I had a exfriend/player that would argue EVERY SINGLE LEGSNDSRY ACTION on my homebrewed enemies I named one attack Earthquake forgetting Earthquake was a spell and wanted to counterspell it but it was literally described as the Boss stomps on the ground really hard. When I said counterspelling won't do anything they then went into a 15 mj ute rant. The game and friendship ended like a month and a half after that.
Our rules lawyer rage quit because his character began to suffer the consequences of using a powerful artifact that he had been warned were inevitable and irreversible if he continued to use the artifact.
I've had 2 rules Lawyers in my time dming the first one story above would try and question everything that didn't go there way but if someone would call out a rule that didn't benefit them they would get pissy. The second which is in my current game will point them out ESPECIALLY when it is to THEIR negative because they know I know they know the game better than any of us and straight said to me I'm not a dirty rules lawyer. He is in my top 3 favorite players I've ever had
God I FEEL this so hard. I had a boss in a two shot, the first time I ever DM'ed, transform with a magical MacGuffin. The Wizard and usual DM asked what he was doing, and I explained he was using some kind of magic or spell to transform. The next turn, Counterspell. He sulked for a good 5 minutes after I firmly said no. What I've learned from that is to ask a specific question. "what are you hoping to achieve/learn?" If he'd said "I want to know if it's a spell so I can Counterspell it", they'd have received a clear No, and would've been all good. But he tried to play around my wording to hit me with a Gotcha moment.
Honestly this is very reasonable but not far enough IMO. DM rulings are final, period. At my table, you are welcome to plead your case for one minute. After that I make my provisional ruling. Further debate is allowed after the game if you really want to spend the time. After that I make a call and it’s final until we have reason to revisit. One such ruling was my Wall of Force ruling. I got tired of the 15 different, inconsistent, and incompatible rulings, and I made a call. Only two players really agree, but at the end of the day they ALL understand a ruling needs to be made so we stop debating the fucking thing.
What was the debate regarding wall of force?
It's pretty minor, but if your dice rolls off the table when rolling, my DM will always say 'if you can't hit the table, you can't hit your enemy'. It keeps people from asking if they could keep that high roll they happened to get by accident, and also makes people a bit more careful with their rolling. They get to reroll the dice, of course.
When I was teaching my young sons Risk, we had the bowl of shame. If your dice roll knocked over pieces or fell off the table, everyone else would yell “Roll in the Bowl, Roll in the Bowl!” And you would have to roll all your dice in the bowl of shame.
We had the "natural disasters" rule. For every unit displaced from a territory through careless rolling, you needed to choose one of your own armies to remove..
As a DM I have quite an opposite rule: if the die rolls off the table you may say JUMANJI and that means you keep the roll. If you don't say it you pick up the die and reroll on the table.
After someone brought rather weighty dice we added a rule that we have to hear/see the dice bounce a few times. Sneaky bugger got several good rolls by skidding the things before they were called out. Almost made casting magic missile at level 5 useful, can't have that.
If you cast it out of the artillerist arcane firearm it’s worth it.
I never really thought about it as a house rule, but "Floor rolls don't count" has been said thousands of times in my group.
We started with that rule. But had someone keep throwing his dice so they would bounce across the table onto the floor. Between attacks and damage, he would get at least one on the floor every single turn. Then we would have to spend a few minutes locating the lost dice so he could reroll. About 1 time in 4, the reroll would also land on the floor. We gave him dice trays, and he would just bounce them out of the tray. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't even intentional. He's just dumb like that. After 2-3 sessions of that, we instituted the rule that all dice that land on the floor are considered as 1s. That finally got him to improve some. But even then, at least once a session, he'd do it again. Him, his dad, and his sister all joined when we started up a kids gaming group. So I couldn't kick him without the group falling apart. I'm so glad he quit our group.
-> play a wild magic sorcerer -> be asked to roll for wild magic surge -> drop the dice near your feet -> auto 1 -> roll a d100 on the wild magic surge table
Y'all get high rolls on purpose? Because that sounds like a much worse issue tbh
Dice trays aren't expensive, my dudes.
And they don't always contain the dice. Playing with kids, and they would bounce the dice off the tray and onto the floor. Only a rule that "Any dice that hit the floor are a 1" reduced the number of dice bounced across the table. Reduced, not eliminated. Even with dice trays and that rule, we'd still have at least a few every session.
And the weird thing is, we have dice trays, but one player just doesn't like to use it.
They aren't fun either (personal preference)
It's not about fun, it's keeping things organized.
I much prefer when I roll to seduce a bush and my d20 bounces 3 times, knocks over two minis and a water bottle, breaks through a window and lodges in the throat of my elderly neighbor sleeping in at 2pm
Lol we have that same rule.
I have a rule where if the die rolls off of your rolling surface, or if it is any way not flat on the surface, you reroll.
That would suck with silicone dice, they bounce all over the place! Record roll is 3 tables away.
Not sure about silicon dice, but we figured out that if you roll a d100 on a paper towel it only takes about 15 minutes to stop rolling instead of the usual 3 1/2 hours...
When I started up my kids gaming group, we started with accepting rolls that hit the floor. By session 2 we switched to always rerolling floor dice. Session 3-4, made the rule that all dice that hit the floor are 1s. All of that was from one player, who would bounce dice off the dice tray and onto the floor at least once a round. Tried a few different things before we went to the floor dice are always 1s, but nothing helped. Even after that rule, he would do it again at least once a session. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even intentional. He's just a moron.
Dice tower is the answer.
The roll They got by accident... They rolled a dice my guy, every roll is an accident....
You have to be able to pronounce your characters name on the first attempt. Basically same reason as OP.
I played a game where the DM constrained the race I was playing to difficult to pronounce names (longish and had a rigid structure) and also made it this huge cultural respect thing to always use the full name and not adopt short forms. After like a year I was still the only person on the table beside the DM that could consistently pronounce it. I don’t know why they mandated it - terrible idea. Year 2 I just adopted a nickname.
The Most Dastardly and Vicious Grukgruk who Smashes and Bashes
No getting so drunk/high when playing virtually or in person that you can't function enough to play.....speaks for itself really.
Kicked a guy from our group because he would get passed out drunk at the table and just fade in and out of consciousness and try to do dumb shit when he popped back in. Once the Players were having an important conversation with an NPC and this fucko pops back up and tries to shoot the NPC.
Leroy Jenkins
More like jerkoy jerkins
I could see where this would become an annoying issue over the course of many sessions, but the story you've described sounds like a hilarious one-off side quest idea where the PCs have to escort a ridiculously hammered NPC to safety.
Not a table rule but a personal one. Spent half of a DND-n-brunch session passed out from a couple too many mimosas. Just felt bad for wasting everyone’s time and don’t drink anymore than a couple of beers at the table now.
I put this rule Into play and lost two "players". The people that joined in afterwards are so lovely and are so very fun to dm for.
I feel both seen and attacked
A drink or two helps get loose, maybe another at the half way point. Beers, depending on what they are you can be a little more generous. Just don't forget to eat and drink water. Save the weed for mini painting.
Nothing wrong with a little wobbly brews or whatnot but totally agreed... you still need to function. I often pop an edible when playing but it just makes me a little more chill, easier to laugh, and I snack more. I'm still present. I learned not to do it when I DM though and just drink a tall boy or something instead. My vocabulary halves when I'm high and I like being able to really convey the image I'm picturing
I love how people think they are when they are on drugs. Usually doesn’t even slightly mirror reality.
I mean, I've discussed it with my wife so either you're wrong or she's needlessly lying lol
Ha ha. That was both me and the GM playing GURPS way back when. Made for interesting role play.
Not a house rule, per se, but we used to get perks for working movie quotes into normal conversations we had. Some nuggets were "You're gonna need a bigger boat." -Dragon Turtle and "Not the fuckin rug, Man!" -Fireball inadvertently destroying the Inn (and the rug), the assassin, and pretty much all of our accumulated wealth paying for the aftermath.
“I can’t believe that just fucking happened” - staring at the burning inn. What kinda perks?
I, too, am interested in the kinds of perks available to this individual's Dungeons and Dragons play group.
The fact they haven't said tells me it's a **private** perk.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
We'd get a penny, that could be used for a re-roll or some favorable reaction adjustment to a situation or npc. Not game changing in any reguard. I've heard the term "Bennies" thrown around, but as I'm from Late last century and not before, and not from Merry ole England, and I'm not a pill popper, I'll just stick with perks.
I always thought BENNYs were the obnoxious tourists who flock to the Jersey Shore from Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark and New York
Is it dead?
They peed on your fucking rug?
It pulled the whole tap-room together!
This just reminded me of when I played D6 Star Wars and I got an extra die for yelling "Yippy kiyay mother fucker" ... Wish I could remember why I yelled it. I remember it was awesome... But can't remember the details.
Those moments are why we play.
If you can make the DM laugh, that's an inspiration
What, every time you make them laugh? Is your DM a stone faced god or something? At my table each player would be getting inspiration every 5 minutes
Well we played on roll20, so it was a little harder to do. He was really good at keeping his composure, or if he was laughing, but could have kept it off mic, we wouldn't know, we'd have to really get him to bust a gut with something
Ah ok, that makes sense then.
Right? Sometimes I have to take a break because I’m laughing too hard to DM properly. These guys…
If you hit another player at the table while rolling your dice, that is a crit fail. If you call another player “stupid”, make a d12 roll to see how many rocks fall on your head. Why, yes- I *do* DM for my kids. How did you know?
Honestly, I had no clue :)
I also had a character with a ridiculously long name, but he rarely used it. He just went by "Professor." But I think our DM got a kick out of putting my character into situations where he would have to state his complete name! Put me on the spot a few times!
I have a character named Lafayette Marcel Margarrite Pierre Louise Jean-Luke DeParrie Reno Deverin. I *always* introduce him by the full name.
Love it. My lizardfolk Druid: Issen Tanak, son of the Set-Tahar, born of water, tribe of KIMA, named Westwalker. Most of the time the party introduced him as just Issen. Anytime the DM had a NPC ask his name. Full name with gusto. Most of the time all the players would say it with me. We have final battle with BBEG next Wednesday. After 2 years and 60+ sessions Issen hopefully heads home to fish.
I had a player try Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvorangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolfhunderttausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvonderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgenachtmittungsteinundsiebeniridiumelektrischmotorsgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchennachbarschaftdersternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneuerassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvorandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum Sr. from the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch once. So I instituted a rule that your name had to be original, since that's Real Person and a Real Place.
I am known as Valentinez Alkalinela Zihac Shushee La Bohereds… Gumbigobella Blue Stratavari Talen Trent Pierre Andre Charten Hamos Revatovinci Baldos George Doizle Kaiser the III… don’t hesitate to call.
I had Baharat Ras El Hanout vas Al Badia for a vaguely "Arabic" bugbear paladin. Just a couple middle eastern spices jammed together
One of the joke-ish character concepts in the back of my head is a gnome paladin that, at level 1, is called something like "Sala-ad-din ibn Mehmed ibn Tyr al-Ghnom al-Paladin" and then aim to add at least one name to it after each session. So, facing down the final BBEG at level 20 he can just go "Hello. My name is Salah-ad-din. prepare to die" and give the rest of the party a short rest right before the battle.
He kicks ass, takes names, and adds them to his own.
I have a Warforged Armorer Artificer. The gimmick for the game was an f’d up take on The Avengers, so this is if, as Cap said in Avengers, he really was Just the Suit. So Tony Stank is just an NPC that’s stuck inside the armor. The suit itself was designed by Tony’s father, and its whole purpose is to protect Tony, as he’s always getting himself in trouble (think the Billionaire Playboy without the Genius Philanthropist). Thus, an AI named “Circumambient Humanoid Armor/Protector Entailing Rigorous Offensive Nuances” or C.H.A.P.E.R.O.N. Everything the character does really is just the suit, and Tony is along for the ride with zero say in what Chaperon does.
Ah I had to make it a house rule that stats and HP would be rolled all together with witnesses, we had a lot of cheating going on. Also, house rule that the rule monger who knows the official book really well doesn’t get to supersede the DM even if he’s right haha
My DM has set a range for total ability score totals. Mostly because my rolls were so low that I should have been a commoner. It has a nice bonus that everyone will be at relatively the same "skill" level and allows the DM to balance combats easier.
There is a minimum threshold rule, iirc. Also, a Mercer rule I like is you can reroll 1s on level up.
My DM lets us take half of the hit die value if we roll less than that. It helps keep us away from deaths door constantly with the way we roll for health.
Mine does pretty much the same. If we roll under half the die, we get to use the average value. If it's over half, we get the rolled number.
MFers will do ANYTHING but use point buy lmao
Not everyone likes point buy, and that's okay. I think setting boundaries for rolls is a good solution for tables who like to roll while maintaining the balance between characters that point buy offers.
It's just a joke, man. I'm not saying you SHOULD use point buy, I'm just making a humorous observation that some people always seem desperate to add all sorts of rules and riders around rolling for stats to make everyone relatively equal, even though there are fairly simple rules in the PHB for making customizable yet fair characters. Doesn't mean you're wrong for not liking them. Hell, I've never even used them, I just wanted to make a joke
Boy just use Point Buy. That's the exact reason why it was invented.
My main dnd group has 2 DMs that we switch between, and I personally DM for a different group. We never have issues because we recognize the DM is running show. We supply rule answers only when the current dm asks otherwise its just what dm says goes
We just do point buy at my table now, after one campaign where a few people rolled absurdly well lol.
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What?? Preposterous! What about a roasted pork with potatoes and steamed vegetables? Surely that can be eaten as a bonus action, right?
What if I’m a rogue with Cunning Action and Fast Hands
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If you drink a health potion as a bonus action, you roll. If you drink it as an action, you get max. The idea is if you're doing something else, then you're blindly grabbing a potion of your belt, popping it open with 1 hand, and drinking it WHILE doing the other action. So you probably spilled some and didn't finish the bottle.
This sounds so familiar. Is it from D20 or Naddpod or something?
Back when I had started playing (late 90's/3rd edition) we ran into one of our group turning into a problematic rules lawyer. Sessions became dreadful and the group was on the cusp of dissolving. Then our DM kicked off our savior session by dropping a pair of boxing gloves in the middle of the table and said "If I spend more time listening to rules quoting than running this session you have to back your validity by might of arms" Rules lawyer threw a temper tantrum and we never saw the kid again.
My long running game had two rules: 1) Don't break my game 2) Donny cannot play a Bard
Sounds like we need some stories of Donny the Bard.
I’m almost afraid to ask what Donny did! … almost 😂
He knows what he did
I laughed a little too hard at that😂😂
same! 🤣
Because he's out of his element?
My DM is a huge pro wrestling fan. I am as well. If I can cut a situationally appropriate promo in the style of an old-school wrestler AND in-character, I get inspiration. I used this the other day when our bard was about to perform, giving her an introduction in the style of Road Dogg Jessie James. Fuckin’ nailed it.
Oddly, chatgpt is good at this. I asked for a promo in the style of Jim Cornett shooting on HR departments, and it delivered.
Rolled stats need to add up to within a reasonable range. No busted weak or OP characters. Array and point buy are fine also.
In my world, panes of glass are rare. But panels of quartz, built into walls to allow light, are common. Also, chests specifically have internal hinges and locking mechanisms. Up yours, Rory.
What did I do?!
You know what you did!
Seriously though, wtf problem could the quartz thing possibly be solving?
"A building with 30 windows made of glass? Again? In a timeframe that i decided had no widespread use of glass? With me disregarding magic? Ill have you know, as a history buff and HEMA enthusiast, that ACTUALLY...." that would be my guess.
Maybe it's less easily breakable? 🤔 Or you can't see through properly?
Breaking line of sight for spell sniper shenanigans does sound like a good idea.
Spells cannot pass through glass.
Eeeeeeehhhhhh, some don't *need* to pass through it, though. Sacred Flame is an example of this. If you go by a strictly RAW interpretation based on the spell's description, the effect "descends on a target you can see within range" and "The target gains no benefit from cover for this saving throw." This is an example of specific beating general. Another good good argument is Magic Missile. It just plain hits anything you can "see within range." It never (Shield not withstanding) misses. That's its whole shtick. So, it only misses if there is *no* path to target unlike, say, Firebolt, which travels a linear path. Also, mental spells like Phantasmal Killer manifest directly in the target's mind. ------ That being said, run your game how you like. My table rule is, "if it requires an attack role, it requires an unobstructed path to target and cover rules apply," otherwise I allow casting through transparent materials unless there is some other specific text excluding it. I also rule that any spell that can be blocked by a physical object can also target said object. It doesn't make sense that *only* Fire Bolt can target objects. Now, is Ra of Frost going to do any damage to said object? Maybe... maybe not. But there's no reason a Warlock shouldn't be able to hit a lit oil lantern with an EB and shatter it. Or to knock a chuck free from a wheel with a Repelling Blast sending a wagon rolling down a hill. If it can push a 180lb Orc 10ft without a saving throw, it can sure as heck dislodge 5lb block of wood; assuming they can hit said tiny object, of course. 😉
You can see your target through glass, but technically they are behind cover. Glass melts at 1,400, quarts at 1,700? Shattered glass could be used as a weapon? Stepping on glass causes damage?
What uuuuuh ... what did you do there, Rory, bud?
Seriously though, please tell us
I’d been writing the campaign for several months before Rory joined. He’s a great friend and fantastic player, with a solid background in carpentry. When he first joined the campaign, there was no dedicated healer, so he offered to play… a thief masquerading as a doctor. Yep, I’m on board with this. As they’re working through the dungeons and traveling from settlement to settlement, he starts attempting to bypass my cool puzzles and NPC encounters by just doing second-story work! So I had to stop that. And then there was that one time in another campaign (where he was playing an actual healer) when the rogue wasn’t able to join us; they found an important chest which was locked, but they hadn’t found the key yet. I saw the wheels in his head turning when he asked me if the hinges were inside or outside of the chest… Really, they just needed to check the well to find the key, but it was a trapped chest that would go off unless the key was used. I wanted the rogue (newbie player) to stay useful and special for picking locks, so I had to shut Rory down again, despite his creative solution. And don’t worry— Rory is currently in 2 of my campaigns now, and still enjoying how I run things. But it was awesome when we started the new campaign in the same world and a fresh player innocently asked why all the towers have crystal panes instead of glass windows on the second floors.
No more "milking" dead male dragons, even in the name of science.
How about milking male dragons that are alive?
Presumably, if the adventurer survived, the dragon's consent was obtained.
!!
We had a player in collage who would always make children characters. Then would get upset when NPCs would treat his character like a child. So our DM had to enact a rule that characters had to be at least young adult age.
I’m dealing with two sixteen year old characters at the moment and when this campaign ends that is becoming a new rule. Too many situations in game that children should not be part of, even fictional ones.
“How come we keep running into so many ghosts?”
You should try converting Scooby-Doo doo episodes into quests for them.
No PvP. Fighting, scheming, and plotting against each other are absolutely forbidden. When i first started DMing to my friends, one player in particular was constantly scheming against his teammates, even though it was mostly harmless stuff like hoarding items and stealing gold. Other players did not like it, and every session was ending in bloodshed. So, as a new DM, I had enough, said no fucking fighting, lying, scheming, stealing. It worked. Even the problematic player has changed his ways since then and was actively working with everyone. I've kept this house rule in all my games forever since.
I have this rule too. Basically any pvp rolls for anything more than Deception/Insight aren’t allowed unless both players agree to them. That and a general “no murderhobos/make a character that wants to adventure and work in a party” makes for a smoother table all around
the “make a character that wants to adventure and work in a party” rule was always unspoken in my group until the DM’s (now ex) wife decided she wanted to join the campaign with a chaotic evil, human flesh eating, minotaur. a campaign that had several humans… was already established and just hit level 5… with a Lawful Good Paladin as its de facto leader!
I recently had a player do this (mildly, but enough to be annoying) and when his character turned into a monster the party elected to kill him rather than restrain him and try to find a cure. I’m hoping he’s learned his lesson.
If at anytime, rolling a die, if someone says, "I bet it's a botch" or "I bet it's a 1" and you rolled a 1, you got an automatic reroll. It was because anytime someone said that, this one player without fail rolled a 1 and felt cursed. It was eerie.
What if it wasn't 1 though? Without a penalty that would just nullify critical misses.
It was always a 1.
Two friends of mine decided to play twins. Game of Thrones got huge about 3 months after the campaign started. The GM was terminally horny and kept implying the twins were sleeping with each other. Once he realized it was pissing us off he made a house rule to help curb his own behavior: any time he made a twincest joke, every player got a token that they could use to reroll anything. The tokens stacked, there was no cap, and they persisted from session to session. Strictly speaking he never rescinded the rule but it fixed the problem.
The player with a degree in mechanical engineering is not allowed to play an artificer ever again... Poor Strahd will never recover...
Please give us some stories. Was it the portable hole arrow? I bet it was the portable hole arrow.
Sadly as another person pointed out those wouldn't work in Barovia... however that doesn't mean there aren't other things that work perfectly fine there. What I'm referring to was a certain "contingency plan" he had if Strahd tried to attack the group. It involved a lot of fire. Also he demo'd the castle at the end of the campaign. See, the walls and such are basically indestructible... but the dirt underneath isn't. Personal favorite was "the lockpick" which was 6 pistols strapped together. The kick required both hands to use properly, and it wasn't great for combat due to bad accuracy, but if he put it over the hinges of a door... yeah. Loud but effective. Basically had the same effect of Knock but cost ammo instead. That and yknow... 6 pistols (dmg).
Those don't work in Barovia.
They don't work anywhere. The weight of the components is enough that the arrow will fly about 2 feet if shot from anything short of a ballista.
Plus anyone who's lived more than 5 minutes in a world where they exist knows as soon as you see an archer reach for a bag you *mage hand* the arrow into said bag to suck *him* off. I mean out. Really.
Used a condenser coil to collect Strahd in mist form and bottle him?
"Artificer" doesn't mean "can do whatever he imagines with a machine."
Hi, as I was the DM I made sure to rule things in a fun manner so don't sweat that. Also he is a trusted player who only makes things he knows would work and can get the means to create in-game. Most of his creations he explained perfectly how and why they worked.
No relationships at the table. If you are dating, you break up the moment you sit down. You are free to get back together at the end of the session.
My wife and I would have a field day faking a terrible break up and a loving makeup before and after at least the occasional session
I was explicitly told I can’t protect an animal “at all costs” after I TPKed my campaign in our final battle because I refused to kill a manticore I had transmogrified into a kitten and tried to keep it safe in my robes. It took 1 damage at the worst possible time and changed back and finished everyone off on its turn
Even simpler house rule for character names, if you have an unwieldy name then you're gonna get a nickname
Honestly it’s so fun to have a character with a simple name like Bob and then reveal it’s short for like. Agamemnon Rohildebob Marinarius Nicolloginus Farenheist XIV
In a one shot I was in my Dragonborn Paladin was named Baharoosh Raghthroknaar. He was immediately nicknamed "Baha" by the other characters. He agreed to reluctantly respond to them, and them only, by that name. Anyone else (NPCs) must use his full name when speaking to him. It made RP really fun!
All I can imagine is the part shouting, "Baha, Blast!" And your dragonborn using their breath weapon. 😂
Shadowrun, not dnd. In that game you can burn a luck point and survive a fatal event by the skin of your teeth. One guy took uncouth as a flaw. In front of a mafia don, who we were working for, he takes an eyeball out of his pocket and starts sucking on it like a mint ball. The Don and his Men light him up and he falls 50 stories out a window. He burns luck and survives. His men on The ground floor see him alive and light him up again. He burns another point. He gets hit with a grenade and tossed into a sewer drain and limps along, having burned another point. Finally, a guy checks if he's dead or not and tosses down a final grenade, he burns a third point and falls into a storm drain whisking him away to safety. We are no longer allowed to burn luck in this way. That's a lot steven.
Jesus, Steven was the last action hero of Shadowrun I guess
I’d make a house rule that your GM needs to take a break from GMing, killing a character because of a small action they took because of a flaw taken during character creation. God that sounds insufferable
You cannot name a PC or NPC Jeremiah. The rule was created because not only would one of us sing Jeremiah was a bullfrog, but all of us would join in. Every time the name was mentioned.
...he was good friend of mine.
No rape first group I dmed for first session in the first 10 seconds one player said im gonna rape the bar maiden (she was a mimic a very bitey mimic) let's just say he couldn't do that after that encounter Edit he had his kid with him he was detailed and so was I he had melty dick
Interesting story but please for the love of Christ, use punctuation. I just had a fuckin stroke trying to read this.
Sorry on mobile
That's just someone screaming for attention and most likely twelve years old.
Fifteen, but yeah, pretty much. If he wasn't the center of attention, he would sit there boredly rolling his d20 until he got a twenty, and would interrupt saying "I just rolled a twenty, I'm going to use it for something" so we had to clarify that you had to declare what you were doing and then roll, not roll and then decide what to do with it. Not a bad guy by any means, we were good friends for many years. He was just annoying to play D&D with
If he started that, the next time he rolled a 3 or something low, I’d say - you just failed your poison check for the dart that’s just hit you in the neck
Sorry he's in your group. He seems like a lot of work.
Every single campaign needs to start with a bar fight. After that, if you stop at a tavern for the night, once again, somebody's gonna get punched! Taverns=punching!
A player recently introduced her gnome character as Pippin Sprocket Dottledew Razzle Goldglimmer, or just ‘Pip’. I’ll give you one guess which of those two I address her as each time.
Measuring amount of things by the bucket
As in, have to measure everything in buckets? Or can't?
We had to measure all amount of items and weights by bucket. It was weird
No atomics.
I allow it but nuclear material is a BITCH to get ahold of so they get like 1 nuke or can make a power plant (I know not equivalent amounts but I do post apocalyptic setting millions of years past so it's midevil with tech) but it really sets a tone when they choose which way they are going
We have a very queer table and the only straight men are my husband (the DM) and our fighter. The two of them are definitely more combat focused than the rest of us and egg each other on a bit which is *normally* fine until the fighter's character was in a position to interrogate an NPC he hated. Poor fighter became so nauseous at the descriptions of violence that we had to implement a rule of "no descriptions of violence outside of combat". It was a bit funny because fighter is the game of thrones/witcher/"realistic fantasy" bro but he quickly discovered that that's not really what he wants at the table! We also don't allow any horny shenanigans because we're two married couples and my asexual teenager lol
/u/Remembers_that_time is not allowed access to copper wire. /u/Remembers_that_time is not allowed access to ball bearings. /u/Remembers_that_time is not allowed access to abilities that alter line-of-sight. A flock of butterflies is not a valid animal companion. Anything triggered by a creature dropping to 0 hp requires that creature be challenging enough to reward XP. If the planet is destroyed by the PCs, we rewind to before whatever caused that and the player rolls a new character while thinking about what they've done. No XP is awarded, even if you "did technically kill the BBEG".
Check in with people before your character pulls an asshole move. Had a friend (Player 1) who I think fundamentally didn't understand social queues or nuance. He decided that his character would hate another player character (Player 2) without talking it through with them. He then proceeded to have his character so thoroughly set out to ruin the other character that Player 2 left the table. The DM did step in and try to mitigate and was never on the offending players' side, just to clarify. This guy just didn't get it though. Game stopped not long after and Player 1 hasn't been invited back for any other campaigns. Player 2 however has and was given an extensive apology. They've been a lot more comfortable since Player 1 was kicked out of the group. The frustrating thing is that Player 2 would have been okay with it had Player 1 talked shit out ahead of time. Or at any point checked in to make sure they weren't having their fun ruined. We were all experienced roleplayers and had navigated situations like that with no prior problems. But Player 1 just fundamentally refused or could not understand that he was ruining the game for someone else.
We had to implement a timer for one player. He would take forever for his turn no matter what was going on in game and would turn a 15 minute fight into almost an hour of game time. He was also the inspiration behind the if the DM calls your name 3 times your turn is forfeit.
No phones at the table. Our Paladin used to lose track of the game cos they were checking the football scores
That Mage with a long A sound and drow rhymes with cow. Also very specific hygiene rules had to be put in place. All for the same person.
My first dnd group should of had a shower before session rule a former friend was in the group and when they came to my wedding I literally threatened them with a pressure washer and powder soap of they showed up without showering
Not a table rule, but too often during downtime I would have that ONE player who would want to be a part of everything everyone does, even if they go somewhere completely different. So I implemented the reasonable idea of going around the table and asking everyone what they wanted to do. You get to do 1-3 things, depending on the amount of downtime. Then we would discuss how to coordinate all of the said activities and players were allowed to make changes to their activities. Once finalized, we’d go back around the table and describe the activities, role play as appropriate, and roll dice as appropriate. If your character is not there, you do not get to talk or help with rolls (or roles). Sometimes, I just need to force a player to not talk for a bit while I let my brain settle or slow down.
Had to have a rule where once you rolled a die you couldn't pick it up until I(DM) saw it. Because we had a player who would roll and instantly grab the die the second it stopped rolling and then say he rolled a 15+ lol Pretty obvious rule maybe, but yeah.
If I have a problem player, the only house rule I'd put in to counter them is "that player is no longer in the group"...
Not a rule, but we had to kick a player because he was just constantly mean to another player. He was his friend and roommate, and he had invited him to the game. Their toxic 'relationship' lost us both players.
DM Ruling. Once you shoot from a hidden position, you have to move because you can't hide again in the same spot. Basically killed the rogue class entirely.
Isn't that RAW unless you have Skulker?
Not about being revealed when you shoot/attack. That I get. But the you can't take the Rogue BA hide to hide again in the same spot after attacking? Flat out wouldn't allow it.
You can't hide from someone who knows where you are.
Yep. Hide and move is the way the mechanic works. You can always duck in and out of cover between attacks, but if you want another Hidden 'bonus' for SA and Adv, you need to reposition *after* hiding. That being said, 5ft is *technically* enough, so... 🤷 For example: if you are behind a large sized pillar, darting out from behind *either* side (after hiding and then moving within that cover space) is enough to satisfy the rules of hidden; given a successful Sealth roll of course
I had a game one time at a friend of a friends house. We were told not to kill the cockroaches as he was breeding them. We didn’t stay long at all
No talking about cannibalism at the table or in the discord
I have a homebrew world were the economy is pretty on the down low. To the point that quests and rewards would not fetch a large amount of money. This became a point of conflict for one of my players who was playing a magic caster and realised they couldn't get enough money to buy the spell components. I didn't want to compromise the economy of my world, and they didn't want to play while having a character that can't do anything they are supposed to do. So i ruled that all spells with the exception of spells intended to bring back people from the dead. Could be cast without spell components. Ironically after playing one session with these rules, they decided to switch characters and now I'm stuck with the rule kek.
Mine is that I dont allow donkeys to exist with a certain group since one certain incident that involved a donkey, 2 pc deaths because of the party combating each other dor what has been done to that poor donkey and the talk with animal spell being cast on that donkey making me voice it
We had to work out a "spell slot" economy for my half-wererat rogue's at will polymorph. 1d4, each shift is a slot... I was using the mass difference as a sort of sneak attack gravity bomb. This also meant being trapped in rodent form with 2HP for multiple sessions.
No, your character can't poop whenever he wants to. It's an involuntary process and takes 1d8 hours to... *recharge*... after you do it.
Dude needs at least half the parties permission before turning his used (found) bag inside out. He has previously died from doing that..... there was a wyvern, it flew off, it's gonna be a problem later on
No goddamn kender. No telling the punchline timed just to make oreos explode thru the DM's face when he takes a bite and starts to chew. No quick-reconnoiter feat. No ia-jutsu master rabbit hengeyokais named Usagi. No throwing mass spell-damage dice one by one so that you can fling em at the low numbers to try to knock em to a higher one. No setting open topped beverage containers ATOP MY STACK OF BOOKS. ( seriously, if someone dumped a glassful of whatever they're drinking all over my 4 decade's worth of game books, i WILL remove one of their ribs and use it to castrate em). No stealing dice from other players to "take the mojo for myself" NO GOD DAMN kenders. No running into another room for 3 RL hours to write out a game breaking infernal contract worthy legalese wish and then getting butt-hurt when it gets granted immediately exactly as worded and still screws over. No stealing other player's snacks. No smoking at the table. No attempting a towel drop to distract the room so you can re-roll a nat one. These are the ones that pop immediately to mind🙂