House Rules

House Rules are the common homebrew rules that are always in place at the campaign table. These should be discussed, debated, and agreed during Session Zero.

• Fractions of ½ always round up, rather than down. (Otherwise, 1d3 from a d6 divided by 2 gives possible results of 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3 rather than 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.)
• You can change your mind, but only until dice have been rolled, or the result of the action (or subsequent action by somebody else) has been announced.
• Retrying a check once adds a DC penalty of +5. Each subsequent attempt doubles the previous penalty. (First retry: +5, second retry: +10, third retry: +20, etc.)
• Assisting somebody takes the form of two people (only) each rolling their own check with their own bonuses simultaneously (thus must be declared before the first die is rolled). This is basically a split advantage roll, as the best total result will be taken, but each total result has the modifiers of the individuals taking part.
• Re-roll results of 1 when rolling for hit points when gaining a new level.
• Any stat can be used for a skill check as long as there is a compelling reason given for it within the context of the story, the characters, and believability. For example, an Intimidation check can nearly always be made with either Strength or Charisma, as each are components to intimidating someone. But if you're attempting to intimidate somebody by making them look foolish with your superior knowledge of their job (and you have a trained related skill) then maybe Intelligence could be used, such as a Paladin skilled in Religion intimidating a Cleric by pointing out that they've been displaying their holy symbol upside down for years, thus shouldn't be telling the Paladin where she should or shouldn't go in the temple.
  • This rewards players choosing skills that aren't geared to gaming the system (min-maxing), allows for more creative roleplay, and makes encounters more memorable and rewarding.
• This is RAW, but observed: 1s don't always fail, 20s don't always succeed. 20s for attacks only always hit and crit, however, unless superseded by another rule.
  • There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is that it's silly that the impossible can happen (good or bad) 10% of the time.