Houserules and my Beef With Them

As a life-long gamer (in my case – table-top RPG and wargames for those that don’t know me) I’ve always heard this “Just house rule it… “ when it comes to the question of whether a rule sounds like it’s not working out. I’ve been hearing that since 198-something, it’s become a trope, and it aggravates me. When I hear it as an answer to a rules-question now it just seems condescending and trite.

The latest 2 triggers to my aggravation were:

Did a big pike and shotte era wargame last weekend using the Pikeman’s Lament rules by Mersey. A derivative of his X Rampant, they are mostly well-thought out, elegant, and I like them save a few bits that are dice-dependent and, if the dice go against you, will turn the game immediately. A lot of the Grognards I play with love the rule-set so I play it too. Suffice to say, I like to play and it was a fun game regardless of my teeth getting kicked in.

A rule, an ability of a specific unit, was played wrong but we went with it. Later the host of the game brought up the rule in question on a Facebook fanpage for the rule-set and, via the magic of modern social-media, the co-author of the game himself chimed in. It was not as nice as one would think.

To wrap it up the exchange on the FB page:
1) We played the rule incorrectly.
2) A question was asked to clarify what the book said (which indeed showed us we did it wrong).
3) Many had opinions and evoked historical context (my newest pet-peeve BTW).
4) The writer of the rules chimed in, said what the book says is what it says, then states it is mis-printed thus not the intent of the writers of the rules. Further, how we played it wrong is closer to said intent.

The conversation went back and forth a bit and some feathers got ruffled. Finally, “You guys should house-rule it and play it how you like.” Was the final answer … which is funny because we want to play it as it’s written in the book but the way the conversation flowed many came from the perspective that it was not Rules As Written; house-rule to play the game by what the book says? Weird when you witness that.

The whole exchange showed me that when a mistake was found we were told to “house rule it” and that was that. Mother-Fucker… I spent money on your rule book, why do I need to house rule it? You’re just trying to shut me up and save face hunh? Sounds like a cheap and easy way out.

Next – post Dungeons and Dragons game this weekend I was doing some research for the party re crafting items. Like they got some down time and want to make horse shoes and arrows and stuff and what the rules are for that. I fell down a rabbit hole and found many Reddit, forum, and blog post conversations that all fell into the “just house rule it…” trap. In one of those conversations, date stamped in 2015, someone called out the “just house rule it…” guy and asked him (I assume gender via the forum name) “Why are you being dismissive about another’s concern?” the reply opened with. House Rule It Guy answered that the original situation was not a big deal and easy to house rule and the responder came back with:

“The original poster thought it was Big Deal enough to post a question here about it. It is a big deal to them. You say it’s not a big deal but then you went through over a dozen posts here until you finally replied it was not a big deal. Why did you do that?” … and I love that tact!

My main problems with house rules are a few:

1) Lack of consistency amongst groups or tables. When I buy rules for a game I expect those rules to be followed everywhere I go. For me gaming is a social activity (amongst others) and it is hard to enjoy myself when I go to a game not knowing what is going on and not being able to take care of my own.  Fun is a very important aspect of games but I am not having fun if I am standing at a table not knowing what is going on AND I have the rule book.

There is a full spectrum, in my opinion on the reason this happens. A prevalent one is Host/Game Master power of adjudication. I’ve been involved in “home-brew” role playing games where no one had a copy of the rules other than the GM. I did not like that. Every single one of those games the GM was the over-bearing omnipotent god that, in the end, decided all the player’s fates regardless of any rule that was played before hand and I hate that.

On the other end of the stick were some historical wargames I’ve been in where the modified rules were pretty dang modified and not even close to the rule set they were “modified” from – nor consistent in rulings. One game the cannon does 3d6 damage. The next game it’s doing 4d6. No consistency.

The above two instances are more of the upper-level and I feel most house rules are just there to keep things going. The issue is they seem to fail, Like throwing on a Band-Aid when you actually could use a stitch or two.

Granted, there are degrees to this. In my game daggers only cost 2 gold pieces but per the RAW daggers are 4 gold pieces. That is not a big deal. It is not a house rule that would trip up a new person if they came to the game not knowing the house rule. Critical attacks happening on natural rolls of 19 or 20 house rule? That’s a big deal because that may usurp a whole character concept if they did not know about the house rule.

2) The Big Brush-Off: Sometimes it just seems like people say it to show you they don’t care.
*Long, well researched, honest question about rules as written*
“House rule it.” << the answer you get.
It’s like being a player that house-rules everything is somehow a mark of skill or experience. Very rarely is that so in my own experience but stating it marks you as someone that has “imagination” and is in it for the fun!

I’ve been at this long enough to be able to tell when it’s an honest and earnest “house rule it” or not. I find most replies like that are just a person brushing people off. It’s kind of rude and trite.

I know, I was all negative and stuff and some may feel put off by all this. Just remember that part of “fun” is consistency and fairness. We play games with codified rules so that we can play with each other with said consistency and fairness. Further, for some of us, rules are hard to learn and memorize (me) and when we do get them memorized it’s nice to be able to use that. It is very uncomfortable, and slightly embarrassing, to be standing at a table not knowing what is going on or what to do.

I know of many people who do not “game” as they feel not adequate enough to stand at a table. Many “bad experience” horror stories I have heard revolve around a misunderstanding of what is a house rule.

End of Year 2017 List

I have spent the last two weeks typing away into a doc that was to be a "2017 best of..." post and it evolved into so many different things it got ridiculous and I got overwhelmed and gave up on it.

I played a lot of games, mostly Saga but plenty of X Rampant variations and some "bigger" games most of which are from Warlord sets of rules like Hail Caesar and Pike and Shotte, in 2017. Some of these games I painted pretty large amounts of models for. I cannot accurately tell you the number of games as I did not keep track in a log or some such and I'd have to check my blog, my Google calendar, a few Facebook pages, and a few other blogs to come up with that number.

So, one of my reasonable resolutions for 2018 is to keep an actual log and/or journal of my games. Nothing too insightful - date, game, era, rule-set. If something extraordinary happens I'll jot it down.

Suffice to say I've a few focused plans for 2018.

Enfilade this year will be my fourth and I plan to be 100% "customer" at this one. I will not run one game of any kind. My plan is to play games and maybe volunteer some time at the Bring and Buy either while it's open or, if need be, as security after hours. That's my big 2018 Enfilade Plan.

I want to host a big Battle of Lechfeld 955 game at Ambuscade III in December. That means a lot of Normans and Magyars. I've already got a lot of Normans. I have until December to paint up about 70 or so Magyars. I also plan to paint up more Normans than I have now as I have three different (and distinct) painting styles in my Norman collection as my style has evolved the more I did in the craft.

If Battle of Lechfeld is well-received at Ambuscade III than I plan to run it at Enfilade in 2019.

Also in the pipe for me are some plans for a modern era game using Black Ops rules. I've got bikers and SWAT miniatures in various degrees of not done to done. I'm also interested in some post-apocalyptic gaming.

Even further up the pipe is my interest in some tricorn era models and game. Leaning towards American Colonial times and some mix of French and Indian to American Revolution. As of yet no solid plans there.

Something that, if I applied myself, I could table soon would be my interest in the Winter War - Finland vs. Soviet Union. I've a good Finnish collection of models for some Bolt-Action that never took off. Just need some Soviet masses in winter coats to put on the table and be mowed down by skiing commandos and white smock clad snipers.

2018 is also the year I've decided to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for the first time in 3-4 years... maybe longer?? I am running one of my old groups, The Blue Ribbon Company (all the original players from 2003 too!), on the infamous Curse of Strahd adventure. I hope to run it for a full year. This, too, will involve some minis painting. Right now I've trying my hand at some "scare crows", my idea being based off jack-o-lanterns. A blog entry will follow soon.

So, a year from now, let's see what happened!

I hope your 2017 was enjoyable for you and may 2018 be better.

Edit 1: some spelling and grammatical errors - I have no doubt there is more.