House Rules

[Mightybec]

Just wodering what house rules that your gaming group may use to spice up the game. Heres one I thought up on the way to work.

 

If the attacher rolls a 3 on a combat roll, the attack becomes armor piercing. If it is already armor piercing, it becomes penetrating. If it is already penetrating, add three damage classes to the attack.

 

Thoughts?

[Blue]

Re: House Rules

 

Hey, It's Mightybec! Yer off course. The NGD forum is down south there.

 

Close to our critical rule. On a "3" you get AP -or- you get the equivalent of 2 levels of luck, depending on the situation and what makes better dramatic sense.

 

Also, if you've got a Favor and you roll a "3" on the roll for that, you don't lose the favor. Rare, but it happened.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: House Rules

 

RDU Neil's Luck Chits Rules are a great Mechanic.

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=299381#post299381

 

 

QM

[Kirby]

Re: House Rules

 

A combat roll of "3" and your attack does maximum damage. An 18 is a disaster, potentially (generally) hitting allies.

 

FLASH: I never did like the official rules, so what we've done is that whatever flash is done (say 4 pts) is what minus you are at to all your rolls (skills, perception, OCV). Every time your phase comes around, the minus is lessened by 1, so that on your next phase, you are at -3, your next phase after that -2 and so on, until you have your normal senses back. It never seemed to make sense that you'd be completely out of your sense usage and then suddenly everything is just fine.

[Edsel]

Re: House Rules

 

We use the following for our Fantasy Hero campaign. We have also used it for Dark Champions.

 

CRITICAL HITS & MISSES

A natural ‘to hit’ roll of 3 is a critical hit, so is any attack that succeeds by a margin of 10 or more. Natural rolls of 4 are always hits. Natural rolls of 17 always miss. A natural roll of 18 is a fumble and so is any attack roll that misses by a margin of 10 or more.

 

When a critical hit is rolled the character may roll an additional 2d6. Read any sixes as additional luck on the hit (Note: a critical hit is equal to 1 level of luck). By the same token, when a character rolls an 18 on his ‘to hit’ roll he must roll an additional 2d6. Read any ones as additional unluck (Note: a fumble is equal to 1 level of unluck).

 

One level of luck allows you to either count the attack as Armor Piercing, or you may choose the hit location providing the ‘to hit’ penalty for the area is -8 or less (this means you can't go for a location as specific as the eyes which are a -10 to hit).

Two levels of luck let you choose the hit location (any) and count the damage inflicted as Armor Piercing.

Three levels of luck will allow you to pick the hit location, inflict Armor Piercing damage and count the damage roll as the maximum possible.

 

One level of unluck will means you must make a STR roll or drop your weapon (Note: weapon breakage is also possible).

Two levels of unluck will cause you to fling your weapon 1d6-1 hexes in a random direction.

Three levels of unluck will force you to fling your weapon and make a DEX roll or fall down. Even if the DEX roll is made the attacker is at -2 DCV due to being off balance.

[OddHat]

Re: House Rules

 

Power Stunts - I started letting players spend one saved experience point to perform a Power Stunt a long time ago. One point gets you a critical success on any one roll and/or maximum effect with a power, and I allow it once per game session. One point will also allow you to re-distribute the points in the power any way you'd like within your special effect, up to a +1 advantage. So, for 1 XP, at the climax of a battle Doc Nova might reveal the ability to make his 12d6 Nova Blast into an 8d6 Penetrating Plasma Lance, and be guaranteed 16 Body and 48 stun with the attack. It makes for some fun Comic Bookish climactic fights and never again seen uses of a power. It could also seriously derail an adventure, and requires players who are willing to stay in-genre. It's close to the current Power Tricks skill.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: House Rules

 

FLASH: I never did like the official rules' date=' so what we've done is that whatever flash is done (say 4 pts) is what minus you are at to all your rolls (skills, perception, OCV). Every time your phase comes around, the minus is lessened by 1, so that on your next phase, you are at -3, your next phase after that -2 and so on, until you have your normal senses back. It never seemed to make sense that you'd be completely out of your sense usage and then suddenly everything is just fine.[/quote']

 

I don't know about replacing Flash, but a similar attack (which dazes the target, applying penalties as described above, whether fading 1/phase or 1/segment) would be a worthy addition to the rules.

[OddHat]

Re: House Rules

 

Just wodering what house rules that your gaming group may use to spice up the game. Heres one I thought up on the way to work.

 

If the attacher rolls a 3 on a combat roll, the attack becomes armor piercing. If it is already armor piercing, it becomes penetrating. If it is already penetrating, add three damage classes to the attack.

 

Thoughts?

 

This looks fine. I usually just say that a natural 3 is automatic max damage (vanilla default rule).

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: House Rules

 

My house rules...

 

A rolled 3 is max damage.

I run 4th ed regen with the adders from 5th.

I run 4th ed Instant Change.

I run 4th ed Damage Shield.

 

In my game levels are levels are levels wither combat, range or skill. I have a little chart detailing what kind of levels can be used with what, at what point cost. The structure I use also allows for defining levels that only work in a certain situation or a certain way, so you don't have to put a limitation on a level.

 

I use "quirks" little one point disads that help define something about a character. Max of 5 of them for 5 pts.

[Metaphysician]

Re: House Rules

 

In the New Sentinels campaign, we abolished the Stun Lottery. Multiplier is 3 base.

 

Critical successes and failures exist, but there aren';t any hard rules. Its just "whatever seems dramatically appropriate."

 

We also make hefty use of the "Pay XP to 'buy' abilities you always had all along" trick.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: House Rules

 

Lessee...

 

In After the Aliens, I have my only house rule:

Killing Attacks have a flat x2 Stun Multiplier on all attacks.

 

Why? Because x5 rolls are annoying, a flat x3 actually has a higher average result, and a flat x2.5 would have been annoying.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: House Rules

 

My favorite House Rule was actually "official" back in the day. I find it to be an elegant way to model an effect that the current system doesn't handle well IMHO:

 

Self-Inflicted Damage: This is a rule adapted from the original (pre-4th Ed.) Golden Age of Champions, with one modification from advice on the discussion boards (Thanks Alistair). I use it mostly for heroic level games, to simulate a normal person striking a hard, unyielding object with a part of their bodies and injuring themselves if they can't break it. It can also work as a weapon-breaker, with the damage being inflicted to the weapon you strike with instead of your own body.

 

Whenever you strike an object with Resistant Defenses (including characters), you roll your damage normally; if the Body damage you roll is higher than the Resistant Defense of the object, you take no damage. However, if you don't roll more Body than the Resistant Defense, you take the full damage yourself, modified by the multipliers for the Hit Location of the body part you used to strike with (your normal Defenses apply). If you're not using Hit Locations in your game, just apply the original form of the rule, in which the hitter takes half damage as if he had performed a Move Through.

 

So, when a character strikes a "soft" target, like normal human flesh, he never takes damage. When striking a hard object like a door, if the character does enough damage to break it (do BODY to it) he takes no damage, but if he can't do BODY, pain and injury may ensue.

 

This is a good rule to explain how trained martial artists can break boards, concrete blocks etc. without breaking their hands. It's also appropriate for that classic "normal human punches supertough hero and draws hand back in pain" scenario. Another nice thing is that it works for any object or being with Resistant Defenses, without the need to stat out a Damage Shield for every wall.

[OddHat]

Re: House Rules

 

My favorite House Rule was actually "official" back in the day. I find it to be an elegant way to model an effect that the current system doesn't handle well IMHO:

 

Self-Inflicted Damage: This is a rule adapted from the original (pre-4th Ed.) Golden Age of Champions, with one modification from advice on the discussion boards (Thanks Alistair). I use it mostly for heroic level games, to simulate a normal person striking a hard, unyielding object with a part of their bodies and injuring themselves if they can't break it. It can also work as a weapon-breaker, with the damage being inflicted to the weapon you strike with instead of your own body.

 

Whenever you strike an object with Resistant Defenses (including characters), you roll your damage normally; if the Body damage you roll is higher than the Resistant Defense of the object, you take no damage. However, if you don't roll more Body than the Resistant Defense, you take the full damage yourself, modified by the multipliers for the Hit Location of the body part you used to strike with (your normal Defenses apply). If you're not using Hit Locations in your game, just apply the original form of the rule, in which the hitter takes half damage as if he had performed a Move Through.

 

So, when a character strikes a "soft" target, like normal human flesh, he never takes damage. When striking a hard object like a door, if the character does enough damage to break it (do BODY to it) he takes no damage, but if he can't do BODY, pain and injury may ensue.

 

This is a good rule to explain how trained martial artists can break boards, concrete blocks etc. without breaking their hands. It's also appropriate for that classic "normal human punches supertough hero and draws hand back in pain" scenario. Another nice thing is that it works for any object or being with Resistant Defenses, without the need to stat out a Damage Shield for every wall.

 

That is very good. I've been doing the "You take damage as if it were a move through if you don't break it" rule for a long time when it was dramatically appropriate, but I like this more.

 

Funny part is I still have Golden Age of Champions in a box somewhere, but I don't remember this.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: House Rules

 

Lemme see here now ... I don't have many.

 

1. STUN Only attacks are not inherently No Knockback (but you can take the limitation if you want).

 

2. You can use the Power skill to spend XP on a new power application in mid-game; this becomes a permanent power rather than a one-time stunt.

 

3. Standard Effect is 3.5 points per die rather than 3, round down.

 

4. Hit Locations used for Stun Multiplier (but not Body effects or other stuff).

[Mentor]

Re: House Rules

 

Our campaign's only consistent house rule is a broad concept. Everything else being equal, SFX trumps exact rulpower description. Naturally, this assumes that all players and GM(s) are roleplaying characters in the spirit of the same campaign, which in our case is a Silver Age Four Color Comic, and not an Iron Age Graphic Novel. It requires the vetting of both players and PCs before they ever enter the game and a lot of trust that neither the GM or players are out to cheat, power game, munchkin or otherwise detract from the fun of the game.

[RDU Neil]

Re: House Rules

 

A combat roll of "3" and your attack does maximum damage. An 18 is a disaster, potentially (generally) hitting allies.

 

FLASH: I never did like the official rules, so what we've done is that whatever flash is done (say 4 pts) is what minus you are at to all your rolls (skills, perception, OCV). Every time your phase comes around, the minus is lessened by 1, so that on your next phase, you are at -3, your next phase after that -2 and so on, until you have your normal senses back. It never seemed to make sense that you'd be completely out of your sense usage and then suddenly everything is just fine.

 

On a "3" I double the damage. Tends to get more "bang for your buck" than maxing out the damage.

 

18 is a critical screw up and often creating some of the most fun/crazy events of the evening. (My Luck Chit house rule helps to avoid the 18 that is crippling or overly destructive to the story/team/adventure.)

[RDU Neil]

Re: House Rules

 

Other House Rules...

 

No SPD Chart... initiative instead. Check out the thread in forum above.

 

Luck chits as TQM posted. (Thanks for the plug, TQM!)

 

Flat x3 Stun Multiple on KAs. The slight advantage is better than totally neutering KAs with a x2.

 

20 Stun = 1 Body rule. For every 20 stun that gets through all defenses (including Damage Reduction) you take a Body. This allows for nasty bruising, cracked bones... but most importantly, it allows for fights like Hulk vs. Thing to actually do body to each other, when normally neither could ever "beath the other to death." For the most part it results in PCs coming out of fights licking a few one body wounds here and there (rarely more than 2 body taken in the course of an evening's battles.)

 

I'm sure I've got more... but some I've been using so long that I forget that they are house rules.

[Bloodshot]

Re: House Rules

 

Just wodering what house rules that your gaming group may use to spice up the game. Heres one I thought up on the way to work.

 

If the attacher rolls a 3 on a combat roll, the attack becomes armor piercing. If it is already armor piercing, it becomes penetrating. If it is already penetrating, add three damage classes to the attack.

 

Thoughts?

 

I had no coherant thoughts after seeing that picture of two chicks kissing each other...sorry

[RDU Neil]

Re: House Rules

 

I had no coherant thoughts after seeing that picture of two chicks kissing each other...sorry

 

Yeah... seeing Mightybec's name on the thread, I entered with trepidation. I was pleased that it wasn't to find his discussion on how every character of his has the following power...

 

Mind Control: AE, Persistent, Always On, One Command Only, Only vs. "Hot Chicks"... "Make out with another woman, like right now!"

 

I'd say it was also Zero END... but then even Mightybec gets tired after a while.

[Kirby]

Re: House Rules

 

I'd say it was also Zero END... but then even Mightybec gets tired after a while.

Yeah, but it's not from the mind control.

[Lord Liaden]

House Rules for Pushing

 

While I've always been pretty satisfied with the Pushing rules for Heroic-level games, since 4E I've been less than happy with the rules for Superheroic games. I'm one of those anal-retentive GMs who likes to have fairly precise guidelines as to when and how a character can use various abilities, and the "GM permission" nature of super Pushing was a little too nebulous for me. I worked out my House Rules for these circumstances over several years, and since I'm sure I'm not the only anal-retentive GM out there I thought I'd take this opportunity to share them:

 

A successful Push requires a character to make a (modified) EGO roll. If he makes it the character can Push STR or a Power by up to 10 Active Points, at an END cost of 1 per AP as with orthodox Pushing. If the character fails his first roll he may try again on each of his following Phases until he succeeds, but suffers a -2 penalty to the roll, cumulative for each subsequent failure. This cumulative penalty also applies to repeated attempts to push an Instant Power. The penalty continues to apply while the character is in essentially the same conditions (one ongoing combat, attempting to save a particular person, etc.)

 

In the case of Constant Powers and continuously-applied STR, once the character has successfully Pushed he can continue to do so as long as he has END and/or STUN to burn, without rolling again, until he voluntarily stops using the Power, if he takes damage from an attack, or if he's affected by a Presence Attack. In the first case he would suffer the -2 penalty if he attempted to Push again while in the same conditions; the latter two cases would require an EGO Roll to resume Pushing but would not have that penalty, although some other modifiers might apply (see below).

 

A character trying to Push mental powers (not just those in the "Mental Powers" category, but any with a "mental" Special Effect) will usually take an additional -2 penalty to the roll, since mentalists generally buy their EGO higher than other archetypes.

 

Some other situational modifiers may also apply. For example, a character trying to Push for a routine task with little at stake would suffer up to -5 to the roll, while one who was trying to accomplish a vital task (save the world, rescue his one true love from certain death, etc.) would receive up to a +5 bonus. In my games I've also used several of the modifiers listed for Presence Attacks, with each +/-1D6 translating as +/-1 to the EGO Roll. (Note that some of the negative modifiers for Presence Attacks might translate to positive ones in the context of making an EGO Roll, or vice versa.)

 

In extreme circumstances I sometimes allow characters to Push their Powers or STR beyond the 10 Active Point limit; for every +1 that they exceed their EGO roll by, they make Push up to an additional +5 AP, at 1 END per AP.

 

Of course increasing or decreasing the size of the modifiers to the EGO Roll will make Pushing easier and more common, or more difficult and rarer, as the GM prefers.

 

I hope someone finds some of that interesting and useful.

[CBikle]

Re: House Rules

 

Two we've had for awhile:

 

- DEX ties were settled by highest PRE and then INT scores.

 

- Only allowing half-phase actions to be saved.

[CBikle]

Re: House Rules

 

Another is that Pushing uses Long Term Endurance.

[RDU Neil]

Re: House Rules

 

Oooh... Pushing... that's another house rule I have.

 

Standard, must make Ego roll to push... but if you make the roll, you can push up to HALF AGAIN the active points of the power.

 

10d6 EB can become 15d6.

 

Costs you 1 END for 1 AP... so you can spend a ton of END doing this... but it allows characters to do that "one huge desperation shot!" or whatever.

 

We've had great fun with this... as it allows players to really feel super (Wow, I can dish out serious damage!) without ramping up everyone's base attack to over 80 active points. It also makes for great drama, as I've had character injure/knock themselves out going for that big shot to try and put down the villain. The classic "hero collapses, exhausted, after last might attempt to stop villalin!" It's a lot of fun, this one!

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: House Rules for Pushing

 

Our group has rarely used Pushing, so we haven't adopted any formal rules.

 

A successful Push requires a character to make a (modified) EGO roll.

 

We do use this, with waiver possible for dramatic license. For example, I might allow a player who failed the Ego roll to push nonetheless, perhaps paying an extra 2 END per point he missed by, in an especially appropriate situation.

 

In the case of Constant Powers and continuously-applied STR' date=' once the character has successfully Pushed he can continue to do so as long as he has END and/or STUN to burn, without rolling again, until he voluntarily stops using the Power, if he takes damage from an attack, or if he's affected by a Presence Attack.[/quote']

 

I like that - he can keep holding the building up, for example.

 

A character trying to Push mental powers (not just those in the "Mental Powers" category' date=' but any with a "mental" Special Effect) will usually take an additional -2 penalty to the roll, since mentalists generally buy their EGO higher than other archetypes.[/quote']

 

On the one hand, I agree it's generally easier for a mentalist to push. On the other hand, he paid for his ego. It's easier for the team brick to lift a truck, and no one penalizes his STR rolls. I might see this differently if pushing were more common in our games. But then what prevents a Brick who plans on pushing a lot from buying up his Ego?

 

Some other situational modifiers may also apply. For example' date=' a character trying to Push for a routine task with little at stake would suffer up to -5 to the roll[/quote']

 

I would go so far as to say "Pushing is limited to truly earth-shaking events (the way we've basically used it) and call the penalty (hmmm..say) -20. And not autosuccesses for rolling a 3 either But again, we've always viewed pushing as a very rare occurence.

 

If you really want to penalize it, a failed roll could actually srain the ability. "Sorry, Brute, not only did you fail the Ego by 5 and be unable to push your STR, you have also pulled a muscle and are now -5 STR. Care to try again?" This would curb powergaming abuses pretty quick.

 

while one who was trying to accomplish a vital task (save the world' date=' rescue his one true love from certain death, etc.) would receive up to a +5 bonus.[/quote']

 

Bonuses and/or autosuccess in my case (possibly with extra costs as noted above).

 

In my games I've also used several of the modifiers listed for Presence Attacks' date=' with each +/-1D6 translating as +/-1 to the EGO Roll. (Note that some of the negative modifiers for Presence Attacks might translate to positive ones in the context of making an EGO Roll, or vice versa.)[/quote']

 

I LIKE this!

 

In extreme circumstances I sometimes allow characters to Push their Powers or STR beyond the 10 Active Point limit; for every +1 that they exceed their EGO roll by' date=' they make Push up to an additional +5 AP, at 1 END per AP.[/quote']

 

In extreme circumstances, I have no issue with this (so it's basically automatic in our games, where no one pushes outside extreme circumstances).

 

Good stuff!