Of Homebrew and Print – Rules and Artistic License

An issue of some contention amongst my gaming group is that of homebrewed rules verses that which is written in printed media. This arises due to two very contrary opinions within my group on the subject of non-official rules, this is often an issue that must be addressed frequently. I can see both sides evenly, and as a DM, I must tread carefully.

In favour of homebrewing is the fact that it’s the spirit of d&d. Ever since first edition, players have been encouraged to make their own rules to not only make the game a more personal experience, but also to address issues that occur when there isn’t a rule to address a situation. I have found myself making some rules in order to address issues that aren’t covered adequately in the published material. One prime example of this is haggling; originally it was a completely role playing experience. This seemed like a good idea at first, but would frequently lead to exchanges like this:

NPC: This magical item is 300 gold pieces.
PC: I’ll give you fifty
NPC: I can go down to 250?
PC: I’ll give you fifty
NPC: Fine, what about 200?

…and so on, until the player either gets the item at a stupidly low price, or just walked away, making the whole exchange meaningless and tedious. Often as the dm, I would simply just cave and give them the item cheap. As such, I made a set of homebrewed rules regarding haggling that revolve around the use of Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate checks, much like a skill challenge. A PDF of the rules can be found here on my skydrive if you’re interested. I have yet to properly implement these rules, but I have a good feeling that they will work quite well.

Another set of custom rules that I am currently fine tuning is Armour Breakage for the Dark Sun setting. You see, within the Dark Sun Campaign Setting source book, there are rules for weapon breakage, but these don’t extend to armour, which seems a little absurd. How can weapon and armour both be constructed from inferior materials, yet only the weapons be prone to breakage? As such, I began translating the rules for weapon breakage over to armour. These are taking a bit more time to fine tune due to the significant affect loosing your armour can have in the heat of combat. As such, the rules found here, focus on instead lowering the AC bonus and increasing the likelihood of critical hits as the armour takes more damage.

These homebrewed rules are causing a slight upset for my more ‘strict’ who believes that homebrewed rules will ‘ruin’ the game. And in all fairness I can appreciate his point of view. If a rule is drawn up hastily and without careful thought, it can lead to either a broken situation making progression impossible, or possibly a loop hole that can be exploited by the players, ruining the balance and sense of immersion in the game.
I think the main thing to remember when dealing with homebrewed rules is that if the dm comes up with a new rule, it’s not because he’s trying to ‘beat’ the players (or at least he shouldn’t be. A good dm should be focused on keeping the players on their toes, providing fun challenges and a good story, not trying to kill them at every chance. Or so I believe). A house rule should be there to address an area that isn’t covered by the official rules, such as the above examples of haggling and armour breakage. The most important thing is that if a house rule doesn’t work, it can be as easily removed as it was included, if not easier. A good dm shouldn’t be stubborn, adamant that his or her rule is perfectly fine, the players are just playing wrong. If a rule doesn’t work, either because it’s not properly thought out or there’s an unforeseen loophole, it should be removed, and then possibly reworked.

So, in conclusion, houserules are an important part of any role playing game, but they must be carefully thought out. And any dm including such rules should be aware that these rules may not work how they expect, or work at all, and as such the dm must be willing to remove if needs be.