House Rules. Do you have them and what are they?

[Tony Misfeldt]

I'd started this topic on another, now apparently defunct, D&D website. Just as the title suggests, I want to know who's using homebrew or house rules, what they are, and how or why you came up with them. Here are some of mine...

COMELINESS: I've been using this rule since 1st edition. It was published in Unearthed Arcana, and is a 7th stat which is rolled to represent your character's physical beauty. It's rolled using 3d6, same as the other stats, then adjusted for race and Charisma. Half-orcs get a -3 penalty; gnomes and dwarves -1; Humans and halflings have no adjustment; half-elves and wood elves get a +1 bonus; gold elves, silver elves, and drow get a +2 bonus.
Then CHA: 2 or less gives a -8 penalty; CHA: 3 gives a -3 penalty; CHA: 4-5 gives a -2 penalty; CHA: 6-8 gives a -1 penalty; CHA:9-12 has no adjustment; CHA:13-15 gives a bonus of +1; CHA: 16-17 gives a +2 bonus; CHA: 18 gives a +3 bonus; and CHA:19+ gives a +5 bonus.
Anyone who sees a character with a COM score of 16 or more who's WIS score isn't a specific % of the COM score (the higher the COM, the lower the %) is automatically affected as if by the 2nd level illusionist spell Fascinate (sort of a weaker version of Charm Person) unless they make a successful save vs magic, adjusted for WIS. My old DM changed the saving throw to a save vs rods; staves; and wands as a phallic joke. We all thought it was so funny that we adopted that as the new saving throw (we were only teenagers at the time).
I continued using this rule right through 2nd edition, and it can be easily adapted for use in 3.X, and soon 4th edition (changing save vs magic to save vs willpower for example).

VOCAL COMPONENT: I have a rule that all players who are playing spellcasters (clerics, wizards, bards, etc) must speak the vocal component for any spell their character is casting. Thus, saying "I cast fireball at the oncoming orcs" and then rolling dice doesn't work. You have to say "I pull out a ball of bat guano, sprinkle some sulphur over it, and say 'LLAB ERIF!', and cast my fireball at the oncoming orcs". THEN you can start rolling dice for damage.

THE PAUL RULE: A member of my old gaming group, Paul, liked to play very intellectual type characters (wizards, rogues, bards, etc). The problem was he kept playing them in a hack & slash style. Rather than trying to think or role play his way out of situations, he'd always resort to violence. Also, whenever I'd try to add some real ROLE playing to the adventures, he'd whine and moan about talking to NPCs when they should be killing them, or even getting up from the table and going to watch TV while waiting for the "Real" part of the adventure to happen. I only put up with this crap because we were playing at his house, and he was the only one of us who had a place that could accomodate all of us. Still, he needed an attitude adjuster so I came up with this little rule. Every time he would start complaining about there being too much talk and not enough blood, or whenever he got up from the table saying "Call me when there's something to do", I'd deduct anywhere from 200 to 400 XP from his tally for the adventure. Eventually he learned to take part in the WHOLE adventure.

COMBAT XP: This rule may be obsolete with the creation of the Challenge Rating system, but I found that giving out the amount of XP listed with the monsters in The Monstrous Manual made players more hungry for hack & slash than for any real role playing opportunities. Things like my Paul Rule didn't have much effect at first because once they met a troll or giant they'd gain back any XP lost. Therefore I eliminated all monster XP (or as some of my players call them, "Kill Points") and only started handing out the class specific XP rewards (spell casting for wizards and priests, 10 XP/HD of monster killed for warriors, etc). Thus a fighter would only get 60 XP for killing a troll, not 5000 XP like the book says.

There are some of mine. Feel free to list some of yours. I look forward to reading them.

[Valdar]

I had a bunch that I proposed to my players in response to the complaints I was getting (but never got to implementing them), and was surprised to see how many of them became official rules in 4e. To name a few:

--Ranged flanking, so that you could be an effective Rogue with a ranged weapon. In 4e, you can now use a ranged weapon to flank.
--Doing away with multiclassing (with eight players, half the party had Fighter dips, so I just said screw it, play your real class please). In 4e, there are feats you can take to mimic other class abilities, but you never divide your levels anymore.
--Toning down the complexity of the skill system (I went a lot farther than 4e tho- basically you have all of your class skills and no cross-class skills, to make things easy for character generation.) 4e has less skills with broader applications.
--Getting rid of a lot of the little subsystems like Grappling and Bull Rush (the party wanted AoOs gone, so I responded by taking away all the extra moves that provoked them as well). These are now covered by an overarching rule in 4e.

One thing I never came up with a solution for is how boring the non-combat rules are. Combat was richly detailed, but everything out of combat came down to a single die roll. I like the new rules in 4e for non-combat encounters a lot.

Your Paul rule looks like it's no longer necessary- if someone went away to watch TV, I'd be tempted to throw several noncombat encounters at them and call it a day.

[Shadow Dweller]

VOCAL COMPONENT: I have a rule that all players who are playing spellcasters (clerics, wizards, bards, etc) must speak the vocal component for any spell their character is casting. Thus, saying "I cast fireball at the oncoming orcs" and then rolling dice doesn't work. You have to say "I pull out a ball of bat guano, sprinkle some sulphur over it, and say 'LLAB ERIF!', and cast my fireball at the oncoming orcs". THEN you can start rolling dice for damage.

I can't see this working in most groups. I personally would never play a caster under this system because while I do enjoy the roleplaying very much, this is sorta overboard.

[tesral]

All kinds. I edited the whole set of books to my standard. Everything from a subtle change in a spell to adding the Psi stat.

Pis. the main problem with psionics in D&D is it is always an add on. That makes using it rather difficult. My solution was to move it into the core in a real and meaningful way. All PCs have Psi. Most don't have a functional amount, that is they can't do psionic things. However the Psi stat determines their Psionic Defense number, a Mental Armor Class against psionic effects. Psions are also not "just another spell caster" under my system.

Fire but don't forget. Major change to Magicians. They do not forget spells. They still have casting limits on the number per day, but can keep a wide variety of magic available. I get to see a variety of magic used, not just fireball. The main reason I never took up the Sorcerer class.

No cross class skills: Skills are skills. Everyone gets five per level x4 at First. Thief and Bard class abilities are moved back to being class abilities. I always considered that 3e make the skills important, then nerfed nearly everyone on the number of skills you get. I want the characters to have the wide variety of skills you see in life, not hoard their precious points for the handful that are a must in game,. spot, search and so forth.

Starting money is even across class.

I maintain the old XP tables. Why? XP riders. I found a system that allows me to balance the power of certain races and class adjustments, the XP rider. An adjustment based on a constant chart to your XP table. So I get to say "yes" more often. Yes you can play a rogue with a fighter BAB, but it will cost you. Yes you can play a powerful race, but it will cost you. Sure the player can pile on the goodies, but by the time they are done they might need 10,000 XP for second level. The XP rider also spreads out the pain where ECL dumps it on you all at once. (I have also found over the years that the idea of paying for kewl toys upsets munchkins more than being denied them. Sure you can have the character than does everything well, but they will fall behind on level to the point of uselessness.)

XP awards. Story based awards that are based on a percentage of an average level.

I don't have easy multiclassing. It is too much like "Oh I lost my Computer Programmer job so this level I'll be a Tool & Die Maker". I never figured that any one of the classes was that easy a study. The magic classes more than most. I don't have the glut of prestige classes or even a glut of core classes. I have two classes particular to my game, the Healer and the Craft. I also make adding class features you want easy, if costly.

You have to say "I pull out a ball of bat guano, sprinkle some sulphur over it, and say 'LLAB ERIF!', and cast my fireball at the oncoming orcs".

Agreed, way over the top. The D&D rules state that a magician simply states his action and the spell is cast. Do you make fighters describe the defensive and ofensive manuevers they take or just "I strike the Orc." Fair is fair. If one class has to detail actions why not all of them? Better get those lazy thieves giving you exact actions on how they plan to disable that device.

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

If and when I do run the occasional D&D game I always adhoc whatever rule that comes up that I don't like or is troublesome. So I make up house rules on the fly. I don't have any of them because it has been years since I ran a D&D game. There is too much information in the 3 core books for me to be able to absorb it all and rework it to how I think it should work. I learn by doing, hence I have to play the game in order to be able to tweak it.

[InfoStorm]

About the only 4 "house rules" I've run with for a long time:

1. We're here to have fun.

2. What's done is done. If we disciver we did something wrong and have already moved past it... Oopps we'll know better next time. Players haven't complained, because we've all made mistakes that have gone both for and against players. (forgetting to add +1d6 from the rogue backstab in a fight, thinking Hachling's Flame maneuver was 15' cone instead of 30')

3. HP's: 1st level = Max, 2nd level = 3 dice & take best, 3rd level = 2 dice & take best, 4th and up reroll 1's (I hate 1's)

4. If you want to use something from a source book, that's fine, but the DM get's to use it too. I normally stick to the core books for DM'ing, but readily pull in from any source the players use.

We've had other house rulings, mainly for balance of play, but I doubt I could remember them all. I've been told I make the same decisions when things are brought up again.

[mrken]

Since I don’t play DnD of any version or sub division I guess all of the rules I do use are “house rules”. I sort of don’t know where to start.

This game uses d100. We do have skills but each skill has it’s own level. Like your character might have a 58% in Combat (melee) while a 27% in Ride (mount). All new skills a player might want start out at 00 points.

Players get a tick mark in whatever skill they use, success or fail. At the end of the game I give ten points to each skill per tick, crits get more than ten points.

We don’t have classes. Anyone can do anything they want to. Physical or mental abilities might favor a “type’ of character but does not exclude them from doing what they want to do.

Creating a character is fairly simple. They get 45 points (NPC’s get 35 generally) to spread out over the seven abilities, I have added looks to the “normal” ones. Their Luck score starts at 5. This fluctuates going down on a successful roll and up on a failure. I give them 3500 xp to spend on skills, then when they are finished I give them another 1000 xp for hero points where an NPC gets 3500. They also can age their character by adding 200 xp for every year. At 35 years old the character must roll on their Constitution to see if they begin to loose physical stats.

Each encounter has a number of XP assigned to it. The players get those points if they succeed within the encounter (sometimes they can succeed by avoiding it), and I do place encounters in the way of the characters to enforce the idea that the world is dangerous. The points are divided between those who participate there. I will give a character a bonus if the solution was clever or entertaining. You would be surprised to see how clever and wise players are when they know their character can actually die. It has been years since I have had a problem with characters charging every encounter to kill something.

Most of the points players get are from role-playing, I give them ticks for it. These points can be spent wherever the player wants them to be applied. The ticks they get for using skills are spent in the skill with the tick.

Another bonus I hand out is to the best role-player. The players choose one in a secret ballot that I tally and apply and I choose one. One of my players tends to get picked more than the others, but I find it is a strong incentive to the others to strive to play better.

[cplmac]

For Combat XP, I take the XP in the Monstrous Compendiun and divide by the number of characters that took part in fighting it, and that is the ammount of XP that each character recieves (any fraction of a whole point is not used). I also watch not to include too many monsters that have high XP values. Also, just because the treasure list says that a particular item would be with the "pile" of treasure, doesn't mean that it always is or it might be there but is rusted or somehow beyound repair.


For magic users and clerics, if they take damage in a round of combat before they cast a spell, they lose their concentration and can't cast a spell during that round.


In my games, each action that a character, npc, or monster takes during combat is considered a turn. A round is when each character, npc, or monster has taken their turn.

[Tony Misfeldt]

All kinds. I edited the whole set of books to my standard. Everything from a subtle change in a spell to adding the Psi stat.

Pis. the main problem with psionics in D&D is it is always an add on. That makes using it rather difficult. My solution was to move it into the core in a real and meaningful way. All PCs have Psi. Most don't have a functional amount, that is they can't do psionic things. However the Psi stat determines their Psionic Defense number, a Mental Armor Class against psionic effects. Psions are also not "just another spell caster" under my system.

This sounds an awful lot like the 2e psionics rule, except there it's a "chance" at having a psionic score.

Fire but don't forget. Major change to Magicians. They do not forget spells. They still have casting limits on the number per day, but can keep a wide variety of magic available. I get to see a variety of magic used, not just fireball. The main reason I never took up the Sorcerer class.

This puts your earlier posts on other threads into better perspective. I'd always thought you used both wizards and sorcerers (I guess I should ask next time).

No cross class skills: Skills are skills. Everyone gets five per level x4 at First. Thief and Bard class abilities are moved back to being class abilities. I always considered that 3e make the skills important, then nerfed nearly everyone on the number of skills you get. I want the characters to have the wide variety of skills you see in life, not hoard their precious points for the handful that are a must in game,. spot, search and so forth.

Interesting rule. Makes a certain amount of sense. I might adopt this one if I ever get around to using the Skill Point system from 3e (I'm still using the Character Point system from 2e Skills & Powers which I find works just fine).

Starting money is even across class.

I do this when I allow my players to start at levels higher than first. I usually give them 400 gp (double the max amount for fighters). Otherwise for first level characters I give them the max amount for their class..

I maintain the old XP tables. Why? XP riders. I found a system that allows me to balance the power of certain races and class adjustments, the XP rider. An adjustment based on a constant chart to your XP table. So I get to say "yes" more often. Yes you can play a rogue with a fighter BAB, but it will cost you. Yes you can play a powerful race, but it will cost you. Sure the player can pile on the goodies, but by the time they are done they might need 10,000 XP for second level. The XP rider also spreads out the pain where ECL dumps it on you all at once. (I have also found over the years that the idea of paying for kewl toys upsets munchkins more than being denied them. Sure you can have the character than does everything well, but they will fall behind on level to the point of uselessness.)

This is an interesting rule. Maybe in the future you can post the actual tables for it so we can have a look.

XP awards. Story based awards that are based on a percentage of an average level.

This is similar to what I do. I don't actually have a "level percentage system" per se, but I hand out XP for adventure completion at the end of every adventure. The amount increases as the characters level up and the quests become more challenging, and I start at about 1000 XP and go up from there.

I don't have easy multiclassing. It is too much like "Oh I lost my Computer Programmer job so this level I'll be a Tool & Die Maker". I never figured that any one of the classes was that easy a study. The magic classes more than most. I don't have the glut of prestige classes or even a glut of core classes. I have two classes particular to my game, the Healer and the Craft. I also make adding class features you want easy, if costly.

I never really liked the "Everybody Can Multiclass" rule of 3e, which is one of the reasons I've never fully switched over. I agree that it takes alot more than waking up in the morning and saying "I'm tired of being a fighter, I think I'll be a barbarian today." Maybe I've read the rules on multiclassing wrong, but it just seemed too easy to me. Also, it takes more than donning a fur loincloth and a horned helmet to make you into a barbarian. It should take months, even years, of living in complete isolation from all human contact (like Drizzt Do'Urden in Exile), or months or even years of living with a barbarian tribe (like Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves).

Agreed, way over the top. The D&D rules state that a magician simply states his action and the spell is cast. Do you make fighters describe the defensive and ofensive manuevers they take or just "I strike the Orc." Fair is fair. If one class has to detail actions why not all of them? Better get those lazy thieves giving you exact actions on how they plan to disable that device.

Well, I've used this rule before and have never had any complaints. Besides, this thread is for posting "House Rules". What the rules say in the Player's Handbook or other sources is irrelevant. Besides, I do ask my players who are playing rogues to describe how they're disabling the traps found on doors, in dungeons and such. I go into alot of detail when creating traps, and if they aren't disabled just right, you set them off. And I only ask fighters to describe their attacks if the player wants his character to do something fancy (characters get extra XP and ChP for doing this).

I try to adopt rules from all D&D systems. I take what works and throw away the rest. I have not fully converted to 3.X because I find many of the new rules undesirable. Not necessarily unplayable, but undesirable. Here are the rules that I play under, and their sources.

1st Edition

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Monks are now a standard playable PC class. The new monk class is a combination of the 1e and 3.Xe versions of the class.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Half-Orc is now a standard playable PC race. Stats on half-orc PCs are found in The Complete Book Of Humanoids.

SOURCE: Unearthed Arcana
RULE: Barbarians are a standard playable PC class. The new barbarian class is a combination of the typical barbarian fighter listed in The Complete Barbarian's Handbook and the barbarian kit listed in The Complete Fighter's Handbook.

SOURCE: Unearthed Arcana
RULE: The additional ability score of comeliness, which determines your character's level of physical beauty. This stat is used exactly as written in Unearthed Arcana.

2nd Edition

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Ability scores work exactly as written with the following exception, wizards get bonus spells for high INT scores. The chart for bonus spells for priests with high WIS scores is used to determine number and level of spells.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Racial limitations regarding class are closely observed to an extent (some "forbidden classes" are available to some races). Most notably, ONLY HUMANS CAN BECOME PALADINS. Racial limitations regarding levels are ignored.

SOURCE: Players Handbook
RULE: THAC0 is still being used.

SOURCE: Players Handbook
RULE: Still using old Saving throw system.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Cleric spells are categorized by Spheres Of Influence.

SOURCE: The Entire Character Handbook Series
RULE: Kits from virtually any available handbook are available with DM's approval.

SOURCE: The Complete Fighter's Handbook
RULE: Players can become proficient in weapon groups (Tight Group Bows, Broad Group Blades, Tight Group Crossbows, etc).

SOURCE: Skills & Powers
RULE: Character Points are used to develope weapon and nonweapon proficiencies. This works in a fashion very similar to Skill Points in 3.Xe.

SOURCE: Skills & Powers
RULE: You can gain extra Character Points by choosing minor Disadvantages or spend them on Character Traits.

SOURCE: Skills & Powers
RULE: Characters can spend extra character points to become proficient in a weapon normally forbidden to his class (Example: a wizard can spend 5 character points to become proficient in longsword).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Critical hits are made on rolls of a natural 18-20, but only if you hit your opponent by at least 5 points (so if you need to roll an 18 just to hit, then a natural 20 isn't a critical).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Characters hit with a critical must roll a Save vs Death. If they make it they only take double damage. If they fail they suffer a critical effect. This could be anything from a minor inconvenience (blood getting in your eyes from a scalp wound) to lethal (decapitation).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Levels of proficiency for weapons. There's non-proficient (same as in Players Handbook); Familiar (weapon is similar to one character is proficient in, thus providing less of a penalty); Proficient (same as in Players Handbook); Expertise (available to classes not normally allowed to take weapon specialization, improved number of attacks/ROF as specialization, but with no hit or damage bonuses); Specialized (same as in Players Handbook, except that missile weapons get a +1 to hit bonus on all ranges not just Point Blank); Mastery (only available at 5th level or higher, bonus to hit & damage improves to +3 respectively, missile weapons get an additional +1 to hit bonus at short to long range for a total of +2); High Mastery (only available at 9th level or higher, critical hits are on rolls of natural 16 or better if hits by at least 5 points, missile weapons have a 5th range category "extreme range", which is 50% farther than long range and made at a -10 penalty); and Grand Mastery (only available at 13th level or higher, one additional attack per round, weapon does damage with the next largest dice, example a great sword will do 1d12;3d8 in the hands of a grand master).

SOURCE: Combat & Tactics
RULE: Classes other than fighters can take weapon specialization. They must first take weapon expertise, then upgrade after using the weapon at that level of proficiency for at least one level.

SOURCE: Spells & Magic
RULE: Magic Points. Spellcasting is very physically taxing on a character. Casting spells uses up spell points, and if too many spell points are used the spellcaster becomes fatigued or even exhausted from overexertion (kind of like Willow in seasons 5 through 7 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer).

3rd Edition

SOURCE: The Player's Handbook
RULE: Barbarians and monks are now available as PC classes (see 1st edition entry above for more details).

SOURCE: The Players Handbook
RULE: Sorcerers are now available as a PC class. They get the same THAC0 and saving throws as wizards, but they get the same number of character points to spend on weapon proficiencies at first level as rogues and priests. They also have a better selection of weapon proficiencies to choose from than wizards do. Their number of spells and spell progression is the same as in 3.X.

SOURCE: The Player's Handbook
RULE: All classes get extra attacks per round at higher levels. Priests and rogues get 3 attacks/2 rounds at 8th to 14th level, and 2 attacks/round from 15th level up. Wizards get 3 attacks/2 rounds from 12th level up. This of course changes if they get weapon expertise.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Half-orcs are now available as a PC race. See 1st edition entry for more details.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Wizards get bonus spells for high INT, and sorcerers get bonus spells for high CHA. Use the Bonus spell chart for clerics with high WIS scores to determine the number and level of spells.

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Rangers can be of ANY NONEVIL ALIGNMENT (rather than any alignment like in 3e or only good alignments like in 2e). Druids can be of ANY NONEVIL PARTIALLY NEUTRAL ALIGNMENT (LN, N, CH, or NG ONLY).

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Saving throws vs spells are more difficult when the spells are cast by higher level wizards. Characters suffer a -1 penalty to their saving throws for every 3 levels the caster is above the minimum level he has to be in order to cast that spell (thus a Charm Person spell cast by an 18th level wizard would have a -6 penalty to it's save).

SOURCE: Player's Handbook
RULE: Priest's Cure Wounds spells (Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, etc) use the 3.Xe descriptions and levels rather than the 2e versions. These are the only priest spells being transferred from 3.X at this time.

SOURCE: The Slayer's Guide To Amazons by Mongoose Publishing
RULE: Amazons are now an available PC race. Their society is a mixture of that described in The Slayer's Guide To Amazons as well as those suggested in The Complete Fighter's Handbook.

SOURCE: My Imagination
RULE: All spellcasters casting spells with vocal components must actually speak those vocal components OR THE SPELL WON'T WORK.

When I get the 3.X DMG and Monsters Manual, I'll eventually switch from the THAC0 combat system to the d20 system. I'll also change saving throws to WILL, REFLEX, and FORT, adopt the Challenge Rating system for combat XP, and the Difficulty Check system for Non Weapon Proficienvies/Skills. But those will be all the additional changes I'm willing to make. I won't be using feats, prestigie classes, or the new system for clerics.

MAGIC POINTS: All spell casters have Magic Points equal to their number of Hit Points. For every spell cast, you spend one MP per spell level (1st = 1, 2nd = 2, 3rd = 3, etc, all the way up to 9th level spells = 9 MP). From 0 MP to -50% a spellcaster is fatigued and must successfully check vs WIS in order to maintain the mental consentration needed to cast the spell. He also suffers a -3 penalty to all skill checks, his movement rate, his AC, his saving throws, and his attack rolls. Once his MP has dropped below -50%, he's exhausted. He suffers a -6 penalty to attacks, AC, saving throws, and skill checks. Also his movement rate is dropped to half, he can't move faster than a slow walk, he must make constant CON checks or stop to rest, and all of his stats are at one half until he recovers sufficient MP. MP are recovered at a rate of 1 per hour of complete rest (can't do anything more strenuous than riding a slow moving horse). Without sufficient rest he recovers no MP. If the spellcasters MP ever reaches -100%, after every spell successfully cast spell he must roll a successful Save vs Death. If he fails, he falls unconcious and then must roll a successful System Shock Survival roll or die of exhaustion.

[tesral]

SOURCE: My Imagination
RULE: All spellcasters casting spells with vocal components must actually speak those vocal components OR THE SPELL WON'T WORK.

Where are you getting the vocal component? It isn't in the books.

Do fighters now have to wear actual armor and thieves pick actual locks? It's going to get fun when the clerics have to make their actual sacrifices. Have you tried finding a virgin these days?

Why the special attention for Magicians? Did a Magician kick you cat?

[Valdar]

VOCAL COMPONENT: I have a rule that all players who are playing spellcasters (clerics, wizards, bards, etc) must speak the vocal component for any spell their character is casting. Thus, saying "I cast fireball at the oncoming orcs" and then rolling dice doesn't work. You have to say "I pull out a ball of bat guano, sprinkle some sulphur over it, and say 'LLAB ERIF!', and cast my fireball at the oncoming orcs". THEN you can start rolling dice for damage.

Well, if you're going to rip off Zatanna's schtick for spellcasting, are you going to make the magic users wear tophats and fishnets too?

Also, visual rep of the fix to the Paul rule in the webcomic I recently started:

http://www.worldsedge.org

[Dimthar]

We had a house rule called the Hero Point: “Not to do Heroic Deeds, but to do Deeds only Heroes can Do” (something tells me the grammar is not right, but who cares!)

For all purposes you get 1 single point per story / adventure. That point will allow you to do something really extraordinary (e.g. save someone from a Dragon’s breath by removing him out of the way, jump a big chasm, cut a rope with an arrow, you know, very Hollywood stuff). It can only be used once for 1 single action and of course requires a dramatic description of the action taken. No roll needed, success is automatic.

.

[Tony Misfeldt]

Well, if you're going to rip off Zatanna's schtick for spellcasting, are you going to make the magic users wear tophats and fishnets too?

Also, visual rep of the fix to the Paul rule in the webcomic I recently started:

http://www.worldsedge.org

Players can choose whatever vocal components they want, as long as they say them. They can rip off Harry Potter "Occulus Reparem!", Sesame Street "Abra-Peanutbutter-Sandwitches!", make up ryming couplets, use the spell name to come up with an anagram, say the spell name in elvish, dwarven, drow, French, Polish, Russian or whatever foriegn/imaginary language they wish.

[Valdar]

Players can choose whatever vocal components they want, as long as they say them. They can rip off Harry Potter "Occulus Reparem!", Sesame Street "Abra-Peanutbutter-Sandwitches!", make up ryming couplets, use the spell name to come up with an anagram, say the spell name in elvish, dwarven, drow, French, Polish, Russian or whatever foriegn/imaginary language they wish.

Aha- that makes more sense. That would make things a lot more fun.

Rhyming couplet spells were one of the coolest things about the old D&D cartoon...

[Tony Misfeldt]

Aha- that makes more sense. That would make things a lot more fun.

Rhyming couplet spells were one of the coolest things about the old D&D cartoon...

I liked those too. I just used the old "Say The Spell Name Backwards" thing as an example because it's easy to come up with on the spur of the moment. Personally, whenever I play a mage I always use ryming couplets for the vocal components for my spells.