House!

[Sean Waters]

Given the monstrous expansion of the 6e thread, I thought I'd just ask this: what do you house rule on?

 

I'm not so much interested in the specific house rules, although I'm always pleased to chat about such stuff - perhaps on another thread.

 

What I'm after is an idea of the bits of the existing system that you actually change for the games you run. Personally I change almost nothing*, most of the time. If you change bits of the system for some genres but not others, please indicate that in your post.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

*Ironic, huh?

[lemming]

Re: House!

 

The big changes:

-1/3"

3x Stun Mod

No need to harden Damage Reduction

Penetrating works differently with killing attacks. Still just leaks stun through.

The existence of piercing, though rare.

Old style Regen.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: House!

 

6 segment turn

 

Average damage with the base per die being 4 if rolled 5 under and 5 if rolled 10 under.

 

Damage reduction does not decrease your chance of being stunned

 

Hit location giving specific DC pluses based on the penalty to attack. -2 to hit gives +1 DC just like skill levels.

 

Everything else is more campaign guidelines than house rules. This is the least I have EVER house ruled a game system

 

 

 

I just learned about piercing so I may be converting AP attacks to that. As I understand its not a house rule so much as an extra that showed up in 3rd ( the one I missed) and reappeared in Dark Champions.

[nexus]

Re: House!

 

4th Regen and Instant Change

 

Ambidexterity 3 points

 

x3 Stun Multiple

 

Major characters make a Con roll if they take damage over their con to resist stunning

 

Sexual/Romantic Seduction can use Comeliness as a base

 

Some PS based on Com and adopting some of the suggestions from "base on the Com"

 

Megascale movement can only be used out of combat unless the character actually accelerates up to it in combat time Teleportation is an exception and requires a turn in combat to use.

 

Negative Comeliness imposes a penalty on Interaction skills (-1 per 2 points below 0) but does not count anything.

 

For "realistic" games, human characters are DCV 3 vs firearms and other high tech ranged attacks but can Dive for Cover to either drop prone or get behind cover

 

DFC doesn't automatically make non area attacks miss. It essentially just allows a character to abort to movement and the attack is calculated as if they were in that new position if they're successful. If an HTH attacker has enough movement to close with them they can on a successful dex roll but suffer a -2 OCV for that attack.

 

Successful use of Acrobatics (-3) can reduced DFC to a 1/2 phase action.

 

I use Quirks and Hero Points in more cinematic games.

 

Interaction skills have enforced results, varies between games depending on how "social" I want them to be.

 

Varying according to lethality, certain amounts of Stun that get through Def cause a point of Body.

 

There's probably more but that's off the top of my head.

 

Considering:

Killing will become an Advantage (+1) similar to AVLD. The face value on the dice will be the Body done by the attack and Resistant Defenses will stop the Body and Stun. Stun will be generated either by a x3 stun multi or 1d4.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: House!

 

4th Regen and Instant Change

 

Interaction skills have enforced results, varies between games depending on how "social" I want them to be.

 

Varying according to lethality, certain amounts of Stun that get through Def cause a point of Body.

 

 

Forgot about that. I don't really have to enforce the results with my group fortunately.

 

Forgot about that too. Each 20 points of stun that gets through from a single does 1 body.

[nexus]

Re: House!

 

Vulnerability: The value of this Disadvantages varies according to how obvious its nature is:

 

+5 Vulnerability is obvious due to common sense, widely know legend or simple deduction Ex: Fire to Water, Lycanthrope to Silver

 

+0: Standard level that can be deduced by simple tests, observation or specific knowledge: Demons to holy items, Electricity to Cold based attacks

 

-5: Vulnerability is strange or seemingly random and can only be deduced via intense testing/research, very specific knowledge or chance. A psionicist that is vulnerable to cold based attacks

 

Enraged/Berserk can create other emotional effects besides rage such as fear, lust or greed

 

Distinctive Features: Generally just more available than it seems to be in "official" champions material.

 

Followers, Multiforms, Summoned Beings and Duplicates have Disadvantages and these do reduce their cost. The minimum is one the max diads are equal to the campaign limits without GM permission

 

Mental Attacks are not automatically "visible" to their targets, that is they don't reveal the location and identity of the attack. Mental Awareness can reveal some of this information as can certain Ego and Int based skills.

 

Mental attacks can be targeted through vision enhancements and clairvoyance brought as Targeting.

 

Powers in EC are considered to be one power for the Purpose of Drain, Suppress and other Adjustment powers.

 

Considering:

 

Replacing the current Bleeding rules with something based on Con rolls. No details yet.

 

Splitting Dex into three different stats as per the Ultimate Speedster

 

Changing the calculation for Skill rolls and Combat values.

[Sean Waters]

Re: House!

 

OK, this is interesting stuff. I'm keen to get a bunch of posts and look for common themes. Keep 'em coming!

[Fearghus]

Re: House!

 

Movement...

 

I house rule that you can move in one round no farther than twice your non-combat movement. In heroic games I also allow characters to buy as a talent x4 Non-combat movement so that if they have alot of actions (not normally in a heroic game... but still)

 

I made these changes because during one of the pulp games I was running there was a character who was playing a professional athlete (specifically a runner) so he bought his running speed up to 10. There was another character who spent almost all his points on Dex and extra actions, so he had 4 phases. Well do the math. in a foot chase. the guy who was the professional athlete was SLOWER than the guy with more actions.

[prestidigitator]

Re: House!

 

EVERYTHING!

 

Actually, not that much, and the house rules I use tend to vary a lot from campaign to campaign. I'd say they often center around Skills, actually. Not that I don't like the skill system, but I often see great opportunities for enhancing it (flexible combinations of Characteristics and Skills, more interesting Skill vs. Skill contests and extended actions, etc.). Sometimes I use alternate rules for the Stun Multiplier, Bleeding, etc.

 

I think that old poll about how much of the rules we change might have good answers to this already. It is kind of hard to differentiate IMO between what optional rules and rule interpretations we use and what our "house rules" are. And I rather like that the "tool kit" adds that blurriness.

[lemming]

Re: House!

 

DFC doesn't automatically make non area attacks miss. It essentially just allows a character to abort to movement and the attack is calculated as if they were in that new position if they're successful. If an HTH attacker has enough movement to close with them they can on a successful dex roll but suffer a -2 OCV for that attack.

 

Successful use of Acrobatics (-3) can reduced DFC to a 1/2 phase action.

 

Forgot about my dive for cover rules.

 

Dive for cover do not cause an auto-miss with Non-area effect attacks. The character gets a dodge bonus (and whatever levels appropriate) and will move. Further attacks will take under consideration any cover, etc...

 

Characters that dive for cover can do multiple DFCs at -2 for subsequent ones.

 

If a character has a held phase, they can "Walk" for cover. They may roll first to see how far they can go. No need to be prone afterwards.

 

If a HTH haymaker is being performed and the target is moved, the attacker can convert to a non-haymaker immediatly keeping all penalties from haymaker.

 

Acrobatics can be used with DFC to avoid prone, etc...

[Xotl]

Re: House!

 

Ego instead of Dex as the stat that determines initiative when using mental powers.

 

Piercing as a standard rule, with no Armour Piercing allowed for Real Weapons.

 

No Elemental Controls allowed.

 

Use of the Ultimate Brick Expanded Strength Table and Ultimate Energy Projector Vulnerability Frequency rules as standard.

 

And in my new game that's about to start up (again) we've decided eliminate kill attacks as a separate power and go with a unified damage mechanic.

[nexus]

Re: House!

 

Considering:

Breaking Pre down into smaller components but I'm not entirely sure what they could be.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: House!

 

Forgot another one Conversation is used for making friends and Seduction is used for...seduction

[Guest steamteck]

Re: House!

 

Piercing as a standard rule, with no Armour Piercing allowed for Real Weapons.

.

 

That's my ultimate goal now I know the secret of piercing.

[nexus]

Re: House!

 

Non End using powers can be included in Elemental including charactertics (subject to intensive GM review).

 

This thread has shown me one thing. I've slowly accumulated allot of House rules

[Alibear]

Re: House!

 

I've scrapped end.

4th gen Regen and instant change.

Natural 3 means max damage.

Hero points.

Realistic games mean pd is limited to 4.

In Six I'll be adding that PD doesn't stop stun from killing attacks without resistant pd.

Summon can't summon a beastie with more active points than the character without express GM permission and a bloody good reason. I'm not inclined to grant that permission.

 

Oh, and I ditched Com last year.

 

edit: full move dodge doesn't mean attacks automatically miss. You just get 4 extra dcv and get to move if you aren't stunned or knocked back.

[Mr. R]

Re: House!

 

[quote=Xotl;1851814

And in my new game that's about to start up (again) we've decided eliminate kill attacks as a separate power and go with a unified damage mechanic.

 

 

How does this work?

[prestidigitator]

Re: House!

 

How does this work?

 

See http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72871 ...if you are brave.

[McCoy]

Re: House!

 

4th Regen and Instant Change

 

Non End using powers can be included in Elemental including charactertics (subject to intensive GM review).

 

Natural 3 means max damage.

More an optional rule than a house rule, PC's and NPC's have the option to speed up combat by "taking the 11" (assuming an 11 rather than any actual 3d6 roll) and/or taking standard damage (3 pips per die, slightly less than average, but usually good enough against Agents or Mooks).

 

Levels cannot more than double base CV. (ie, you have a base OCV of 3, you may appy up to 3 levels to bring your OCV to 6, cannot apply more without buying up DEX). This applies specifically to levels, not combat maneuvers. Simularly, characteristic-based skills cannot apply more levels than (CHA/5). (Again, applies to levels, skills may be purchased with dedicated points without limits).

 

"Unpublished" rules (I run my games this way, I try not to call the player's attention to it):

 

 

Any attempt to stabilize a dying character is automatically sucessful.

 

Only "name level" villians get REC's, not Agents or Mooks.

 

Mooks have DEF on charges, and the third or fourth hit, no matter how light, will put them down. (Can still be put down on the first or second hit if hard enough, but by that fourth hit it's a gimme.) BTW, unless that is a reason to have them resistant/vunerable to a particular Sx, Mooks have DEF (PD=rPD=ED=rED).

 

[Vondy]

Re: House!

 

4th Damage Shield and Regen, but the Limbs/Organs and Ressurection adders are available.

 

I use the hit locations option and thus remove the stun lotto. Barring stray rounds and random shots, I usually assume a hit location of "chest" unless the character is making a called shot.

 

Grabs are adjudicated as ST vs ST rolls with manuevers and damage classes factoring into the roll - not as entangles. The result is MoS driven.

 

Presence Attacks are adjudicated as Presence vs. Presence or Ego with results being based on a little MoS chart I use. You can use Resistance with a relevant FX to increase your defense roll.

 

I use the languages as INT skills option from TUS.

 

All skills have the same cost structure.

 

Expert is the only skill enhancer (the current enhancers are all just versions of it at this point).

 

I don't use megascale. I do, however, allow the "supersonic flight" power from the iteration of hero that shall not be names. This works nicely for "flight multipowers."

 

I don't really use ECs, and don't approve them very often. Instead, I allow powers to take a common "drain one drain them all" disad if they have a unified concept.

 

I love VPPs, but players have to work-up a list of pregen powers for me to approve before play. It keeps things moving.

 

I don't give points for disadvantages. Instead I give more base points. I don't call them disadvantages, either. I call them narrative tropes. I have a hero-point system that goes along with this (and some limits). Also, because of the open ended nature of this, sometimes these things can work in the players favor. As a rule, if it works against them they get a hero point. If they want it to work for them they pay a hero point.

 

I calculate 1" = 1M.

 

Allow mentalists to go on their ego rather than dex for mental powers, not physical actions.

 

No armor piercing. Piercing is available. Also, Find Weakness gives a level of piercing, not AP.

 

I don't apply penalties to paramedic rolls to stabalize dying people. I do require the roll.

 

A mook who takes a stunned result is "down for the count."

 

I add new skills whenever I darned well feel like it. I've also expanded some skills.

 

I ignore Weapon and Transport familiarities in a lot of games. For transportation I've expanded the driving, riding, and pilot skills to have subcategories, and added diving, parachuting, and boat handling (also with subcategories).

 

In some games I allow the polygot talent from Shelly's Regency Hero, but with an assoc. INT roll.

 

Pick Locks is now Open Lock with the subcategories: combination, electronic, and tumbler.

 

I think Combat Sense is way overpriced, but don't know what to do about it.

 

I prefer to use high skill rolls, and even tailored skills, to creating super-skills with powers. I generally use the TUS option for this.

 

Characters don't lose Fake ID points if their cover is blown. It just has to be replaced in game.

 

There may be more.

[secretID]

Re: House!

 

Adding damage

PRE

KB

[Xotl]

Re: House!

 

How does this work?

 

It's for a game of Mechwarrior converted to Hero, so I only have to worry about Real Weapons rather than power builds. That having been said, we just converted the Kill Attack dice of a weapon into an near-equivalent amount of Energy Blast dice, and only allow Resistant Defences to stop the Body damage from it. Stun damage is handled the same as always.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: House!

 

Grabs are adjudicated as ST vs ST rolls with manuevers and damage classes factoring into the roll - not as entangles. The result is MoS driven.

Maybe I'm just tired, but how is this different then how grabs are usually handled?

[prestidigitator]

Re: House!

 

Maybe I'm just tired' date=' but how is this different then how grabs are usually handled?[/quote']

 

I suspect the idea is a Str vs. Str roll in the same sense as a normal Contested Skill Roll. In other words, both roll 3d6 rather than the standard method of rolling Str damage dice and using the "Normal Damage Body Count."

[Sean Waters]

Re: House!

 

I can see a couple of common threads emerging. I'm going to try and make some overall sense of this and see if I can list the common threads so we can see what areas tend to get house ruled most often. I'll post it when I'm done