What are Your House Rules?

A parent forum for communities of specific S&W-based games, each game will have a sub-forum here.
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Persimmon
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by Persimmon »

Everything that could go wrong, did when I tried VTT. We were using Roll20. It kept freezing, people getting cut off, couldn't see the screen, couldn't hear people. Super frustrating. Hours of gaming to explore like 4 rooms. Happened two weeks in a row, then I bowed out when most of the others didn't show up for week three. I later heard they started up again, but I was soured on it. Plus, it's kind of weird gaming with people you don't know.

It could have been because I was using a MAC. I also have trouble with Discord so I won't game with that either.

I'd just rather sit around a table with friends, beer, and junk food rolling real dice.
"Behind closed eyes, realize your sight."--Blue Oyster Cult

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merias
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by merias »

Persimmon wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2022 3:15 pm
Everything that could go wrong, did when I tried VTT. We were using Roll20. It kept freezing, people getting cut off, couldn't see the screen, couldn't hear people. Super frustrating. Hours of gaming to explore like 4 rooms. Happened two weeks in a row, then I bowed out when most of the others didn't show up for week three. I later heard they started up again, but I was soured on it. Plus, it's kind of weird gaming with people you don't know.

It could have been because I was using a MAC. I also have trouble with Discord so I won't game with that either.

I'd just rather sit around a table with friends, beer, and junk food rolling real dice.
I'm sorry to hear that :( Roll20 works well if everyone involved has a stable internet connection. If you or anyone in your group are prone to slowdowns or dropouts it will be awful. For the occasional glitch, clicking 'reconnect' in the A/V panel fixes things. But one thing you can do is use roll20 just for the shared map and use discord or google meet for audio or video. Those services tend to handle flaky connections better, and of course voice-only on roll20 will use far less bandwidth. The browser also makes a difference, Firefox or Chrome are really the only two that work.

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Persimmon
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by Persimmon »

Used both Chrome and Firefox and had those issues. So I'm thinking it's a MAC thing because my internet connection is usually pretty good.
"Behind closed eyes, realize your sight."--Blue Oyster Cult

slo_matt
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by slo_matt »

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum. Happy to be here!

I'm new to Swords and Wizardry and just started up my first campaign two weeks ago. We had Session Zero, and then a TPK in Hall of Bones. Welcome to the OSR, folks!

We're starting week three with all new characters tonight (6/23/22). I don't know many OSR players IRL, so I started my campaign on Roll20. It's been great so far.

Swords and Wizardry seems like a very easy system to house rule, so I added a few.

1. I decided to allow any class except MU to have up to a +1/+1 for Strength, so I gave Fighters a +1 to damage on top of their Strength bonus. I'm considering limiting all Str to a max of +1/+1 and giving Fighters a damage bonus based on level, instead.

2. I nixed the Ranger as written and added my own version. No bonus against humanoids and giants, no spells. They get some Thief abilities like Hide / Move Silently and they can Ambush, which is like backstab except they can only use it during surprise rounds and don't need to be hidden (although hiding does make surprise more likely).

3. High Dex thieves and assassins get +10% to some abilities, and they both get D6 hit dice

4. Instead of dying outright, charters fall unconscious at zero HP and lose 1d4 HP per round until they are negative their Con score.

5. Poison and other "slow" save or die effects don't kill outright. Instead, they do either 1D6 or 2D6 damage per round for 1d4 rounds. This is still lethal for many characters but it does give some time for their buddies to get in there and save them with a neutralize poison or something.

6. Paladins get +1 to damage vs undead and demons, and it increases every odd-numbered level.

7. I don't use ability rolls very often but I'm from the "say yes or roll for it" school of GMing. If a roll is necessary the player just has to roll under the ability score in question, but penalties from +0 to +15 apply, depending on the task at hand.

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Persimmon
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by Persimmon »

Regarding poison we do something similar. If it's save or die, it drop you to zero HP and you lose d3 per round until someone attends to you with a spell, anti-venom proficiency or whatever. Death occurs at your negative level in HP, which is one of their optional rules. So still pretty dangerous, but you have a chance. We've used variations on this, like bleeding out with Con checks each round to stabilize, over the years as well. But yeah, S&W is a breeze to house rule.
"Behind closed eyes, realize your sight."--Blue Oyster Cult

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merias
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by merias »

I also prefer spell-less rangers. I call them Wardens and have created versions with animal companions and those with herbal healing poultices.

Damage for poison is, I think, a good idea especially with low-level PCs - as you say, it can can still be deadly, but not as often.

I am a bit less forgiving on HP - I do allow max HP at first level, but at zero (or less) HP the PC gets a save vs. death. If they fail, they are dead. Otherwise, they have a single HP and can continue on, but can't bind wounds or naturally heal that day. They also just get one save per day. So it's basically a "oh man I have 1hp so we better get back to town asap!" situation. They can still get magical healing, however, so that can prolong the expedition if the party has access to any.

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rredmond
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by rredmond »

Welcome s_matt!
Holy Schmidt He swears by his pretty floral bonnet...
Cure Light Wounds -- 2/3
Hold Person — 1/1
Updated: 3/23/2024
Bind wounds for 1d3 after each combat

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Persimmon
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Re: What are Your House Rules?

Post by Persimmon »

Here's our ranger tweak, somewhat cribbed from Hyperborea:
 At character creation rangers choose if they want their level damage bonus against humanoids (Path of the Warden); animals, both mundane and giant, (Path of the Huntsman); or otherworldly horrors, including demons (Path of the Guardian)

And I allow ranger spells, but they choose from the ranger spell list in Adventurers Backpack from Castles & Crusades, which combines spells from the druid, cleric, and magic-user lists
"Behind closed eyes, realize your sight."--Blue Oyster Cult

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