House Rules, Ideas and the Like

[Sir Bedivere]

Pretty interesting, Smoot.

I wonder if these are the rules you use for GMing your kids. I'd be interested if you have any special house rules that are specifically for GMing kids because I hope to eventually run a game for my nephews. They're too young now, but one day ...

Anyway, my comments as I go through the supplement are:

I guess I should look at the New Character Races supplement. There are several intriguing races in your house rules. On the Elf, how much smaller are they? I'm not really sure what 'more fey-like' means. Come to think of it, I guess I don't know much about the fey, really.

I didn't realize the Fey-Mage is still an unreleased supplement. You've done a lot of work on that, haven't you?

I notice your 'general equipment' and 'armor and shields' tables are empty.

I like how you handle the number of cantrips castable per day. It makes me think that I messed up when I was making the 'Magic-User Options' supplement. I'll have to go check.

Why did you include the Necromancer spell lists? Are they different from those in the Necromancer supplement, or just for reference?

I like the d20 instead of d6 initiative. I've thought about going to d10 for the same reason.

Thanks for posting these!

[Maliki]

Looks good, very similar to changes I would/will make if I ever run another game.

[SmootRK]

Pretty interesting, Smoot.

I wonder if these are the rules you use for GMing your kids. I'd be interested if you have any special house rules that are specifically for GMing kids because I hope to eventually run a game for my nephews. They're too young now, but one day ...

The initiative rule is directed at kids... simultaneous action is not well understood by young... "taking turns" is well understood.

I guess I should look at the New Character Races supplement. There are several intriguing races in your house rules. On the Elf, how much smaller are they? I'm not really sure what 'more fey-like' means. Come to think of it, I guess I don't know much about the fey, really.

basically a little less like Lord of the Rings and a little more like what Disney would make them. Hard to pin down really. I have changed the INT requirement to CHA.

I didn't realize the Fey-Mage is still an unreleased supplement. You've done a lot of work on that, haven't you?

I hope to do a bit more with Fey-Mage, then send to Solo for a release. What I produce for a Supplement is done to be universal by anyone who plays BFRPG (catered to fit into Core Rules with minimal referencing of other supplements)... how they appear in my HR Doc may be slightly different.

I like how you handle the number of cantrips castable per day. It makes me think that I messed up when I was making the 'Magic-User Options' supplement. I'll have to go check.

actually I plan to change that... probably use a regular progression starting at 2 or 3, but otherwise same as other spells progression.

I notice your 'general equipment' and 'armor and shields' tables are empty.
Why did you include the Necromancer spell lists? Are they different from those in the Necromancer supplement, or just for reference?

some stuff is just place holders for more stuff to come. Armor will be pulled from the Armor and Shields Supplement, and the Spells Section will become expansive as I pull from all the supplements (and perhaps the core rules too) to make one reference source for all spells. I used the Necromancer Supplement as the starting point for my writing (as a Document Template), so that is why that stuff already appears here.

Thanks for your comments. Of course, I have a lot of work to do with this and it will be living changing document for me for a long while. I actually need to look into some of your MU ideas to be inserted. A lot of stuff has yet to be inserted...

[SmootRK]

Looks good, very similar to changes I would/will make if I ever run another game.

Thanks... even though in the end it looks like a lot of stuff, the changes are minimal. Mostly it is just more character options, compiled together, and presented much like a Player's Handbook or Player's Manual for my campaigns.

[Nekron99]

I am running a campaign with my children (9 to be exact, but the 9 month old just tends to chew on the dice), four ranging in ages from 17-7, then I also run a very Basic Basic game with my three little ones (5-3, well the little three year old doesn't do much more than yell "Kill the Orcs" and roll his dice.) so I have several house rules that I have implemented, based on years of playing AD&D. Skills come to mind, but I never really got into the feats thing, kinda lost interest in playing AD&D when the books started to cost more than my home mortgage. Some of my house rules are really just there to assist my boys in learning the game without having to roll up characters every 5 rounds. After they have the hang of it they will be weaned out and more realistic rules will be put into place. Here is where I differ with some of the newer roleplaying games, I think that to many rules ruins the role and makes it to much into a roll playing game. The DM should be the one to paint the picture of what happened, the cinematic moves, talked about earlier, are up to the DM to address filled in by the players imagination. Played a game last night, where the boys and the wife fought and defeated a Bone Dragon, while balancing on the edge of a pool of acid. It got real late (stupid work) and the combat almost boiled down to the basics (I swing, I hit, I got hit kinda verbage). So climatic end wasn't really there. But afterward, as papers and pencils were being put away, they began to talk about the fight and it became more animated with each action. I could really picture them doing the things they described, even thought here wasn't any dice rolling, or feats to check. A good time was had by all.