Dungeon Master: Rules are Guidelines

As a tabletop RPG Game Master, Dungeon Master, or whatever else you want to call me, I spend a lot of time reading rules, making rulings on rules and making house rules. Rules are an important part of games. They have consequences on how the game feels and what kinds of themes are expressed. Extremely relaxed healing rules take away from a game built around survival. However, at the end of the day, the rules in the books we buy are really just guidelines. This is especially important for newer people who have never made a house rule before.

Rules are Tools

The rules we use are tools to allow us, as the Dungeon Master or Game Master, to create the games we want. That means that we can change them however we wish in pursuit of that vision. However, players should be aware of rule changes we might make at the start. They might not like our changes, they might have better alternatives, or they will just need to know in order to make properly informed decisions. You can express a surprising amount about your world through the rules you use. 

This also means that not all rules have to hold in certain situations, just like in typical fantasy/science fiction. In space people can float around. Who's to say that a parallel dimension will have fall damage or not grant everyone spider climb? The rules should be appropriate to the situation. They should also allow your players to have fun. The main goal is to run a game your players enjoy. In some cases, it may be a very deadly game where characters spend weeks recovering from combat. In others, it may be the kind of game where your players go through armies before lunch, at which time they go on a new epic adventure. Regardless of the vision you choose, the rules you use should help further it and make it more enjoyable.

From Campaign to Campaign

There is nothing saying that each campaign has to have the same rules. You can add new rules as you see fit in order to bring the world you want to life. The most common modification I've seen so far is that people change the duration of rests and methods of healing. Having faster rests makes things more “heroic” and having longer rests with more restrictive healing meaning that combat becomes something to fear as well as to avoid. In political or horror based games, this has a large impact on the game.

Most Common Changes (According to Me)

• Rest duration
• Potency of healing
• Spell lists
• Classes (added, removed, gutted, etc.)
• Extra bonuses (everyone gets bonus at character creation)
• Weapons (adding new gunpowder weapons, removing longswords and similar later era weapons, etc.)

So don't be afraid to add some rules, modify some rules or even completely remove some rules. They should serve your game, make sense, and be fun for your group.

Also, happy new year!