House Rules in AL - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Riley37 Apr 27, 2015 13:17:31	How reasonable or unreasonable are these, as a set of "Session Zero" house rules? The "cast a spell" action is generally obvious to all bystanders, especially when the spell has material, somatic or verbal components. Exceptions are possible in certain circumstances. Sorcerors who know the Subtle Spell metamagic can use it to omit V/S components. When you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll, that is a critical hit. Standard rule: double the number of weapon damage dice, and roll them. (All other damage dice, eg from Hunter's Mark, Savage Attack, Sneak Attack, etc. are rolled normally.) Alternate option: "place" the normal weapon damage dice for maximum results. Placing damage dice is usually faster; do NOT slow down fight scenes. The conditions Restrained and Incapacitated (and therefore paralyzed, petrified, stunned and unconscious, which subsume Incapacitated) also include this penalty: "effective DEX of zero, and thus a -5 modifier, for AC, stat checks and saving throws". In combat scenes, when someone is deciding and describing their action, DO NOT INTERRUPT OR INTERFERE. I give each player only six seconds, at most, to decide their action. Don't add to the demands on that player's attention! If the player's course of action is a horrible mistake, then hold your tongue and consider what YOUR character will do, on YOUR character's action, in the wake of that mistake. When your character makes a melee attack, you may declare non-lethal intent, and take a -1 penalty, BEFORE rolling to hit. The target may still die, at DM discretion, especially if you fumble. Thanks, Riley
#2 Kalani Apr 27, 2015 13:30:46	House Rules are strictly prohibited in AL. There are no exceptions. With that being said, there is a difference between making a *ruling* and using *house rules. You are free to make a ruling on anything that the rules do not cover, and your rulings are final for that session. If the rules do cover something however, you are strictly prohibited from changing it. DMing and DM Empowerment* The current D&D rules intentionally do not cover every situation. When the situation is not covered by a specific rule, or when the rules leave a gray area, whatever the DM says is final. DMs are free to consult their players, other DMs, and the Wizards community forums at community.wizards.com/forums/132291 for guidance on the D&D rules, but are not bound by such guidance. However, where the rules do cover a situation and there is no gray area, the DM cannot vary from them. For example, the Player’s Handbook clearly indicates when players can take feats. Similarly, the Player’s Guide clearly indicates that players cannot roll character ability scores and hit points. DMs running D&D Adventurers League games cannot change or ignore those rules.
#3 Coredump00 Apr 27, 2015 13:45:44	Kalani is correct. You can't just make up your own House Rules in the sense of changing or modifying existing rules. You can have House Rules in the sense of consistent Rulings that you will make. With that in mind.... Riley37 wrote:
#4 Kalani Apr 27, 2015 13:55:30	In respect to stealth casting - I use the following *ruling* myself. Somatic/Material: You can disguise the somatic components of your spell by making a Sleight of Hand (perception) check. If the spell is 3rd - 5th level, you make this check with disadvantage. Spells of 6th level or higher are too complex to disguise in this way (no check allowed). Verbal: You can disguise the verbal components of a spell by making a Deception (Insight) check. If the spell is 3rd - 5th level, you make this check with disadvantage. Spells of 6th level or higher are too complex to disguise in this way (no check allowed). If you are hiding when you cast the spell, you must make a second hide check at disadvantage. If you fail, your spellcasting gives away your position. f you succeed on both checks (DC based on each creatures passive Perception/Insight), you can cast your spell without that creature being aware you have cast a spell. This does not prevent creatures which are the victim of a *charm* effect from knowing they were charmed, or that you were the creature which charmed them as indicated in the relevant spell descriptions. Creatures which are unaware you have cast a spell cannot cast *counterspell* in reaction to the spells casting.
#5 Pauper Apr 27, 2015 14:37:48	Riley37 wrote:
#6 imaginaryfriend Apr 28, 2015 3:12:11	Pauper wrote:
#7 Byakugan01 Apr 28, 2015 0:10:50	Last week a PC shot an opponent and knocked it to exactly 0, so i let him choose to do a non-lethal shot. I didn't need the npc to survive, i just thought the player would feel like he earned a little mini-achievment. Our last DM used death saves for every monster, which i feel only frustrated us as players. All it did was slow down combats and turn us all into habitual decapitators. I consider what i did a ruling on the spot, but what the other DM did was make a house rule.
(Reply to #7) Pauper	Byakugan01 wrote:
#9 Noctaem Apr 28, 2015 7:10:56	I think Kalani clearly stated how it works just fine Pauper and included how you can tell the difference between a ruling and a houserule. Kalani wrote:
#10 RCanine Apr 28, 2015 7:53:42	imaginaryfriend wrote:
(Reply to #10) imaginaryfriend	RCanine wrote:
#12 reddaemon Apr 28, 2015 11:44:35	In the end, some DMs are going to implement house rules. There is no way around it and everyone has their reasons. Whether people try to label their house rules as "rulings" in order to justify it or not. Any "ruling" that isnt specifically backed up by rules text that you can quote is a house rule IMO. Which isn't a bad thing. People shouldn't be discouraged from using house rules (or so called "rulings"). As long as everyone remembers that the ultimate goal of the DM is to facilitate the entire table having fun, and aren't creating the rules as a barrier to the players having fun there really shouldn't be a problem with house rules TBH. For example, I house rule when I DM that familiars act on the player's turn because I always have at least 2 players with familiars at my tables and don't want to keep track of 15 different initiative counts as it bogs down combat. For the record, I don't recall seeing in the FAQ or even the Player's Guide that house rules aren't allowed. I think this rule from the Player's Guide sums it up nicely: Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible."
#13 Kalani Apr 28, 2015 11:55:51	@reddaemon: The dndadventurersleague.org website has a list of DM resource articles. The one which clarifies the intent of your highlighted passage (Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible) is the DMing and DM Empowerment article. Which states the following. I strongly recommend all AL DMs be familiar with the article, as it spells out the Do's/Don'ts of making rulings in AL DMING AND DM EMPOWERMENT In a previous article Arthur talked about playing by a common set of rules for the league, for players, and briefly mentioned DM rules. This article goes more indepth on the subject of DM rules and DM Empowerment. – Ed. *DMs Must Follow the Rules as Set Forth in the Player’s Handbook* and thePlayer’s Guide and to Generally Run Adventures as Written** DMs are expected to follow all of the rules in the Player’s Handbook and Player’s Guidewhen running games. Since the Player’s Guide permits characters to use all of the material in the D&D basic rules and Player’s Handbook, except for rolling ability scores and hit points and imposing certain alignment restrictions, and restricts characters to those rules, DMs cannot impose any additional restrictions or permit characters to use any additional rules. This requirement is consistent with the rules set forth in the Dungeon Masters Guide, which states on page five: The Player’s Handbook contains the main rules you need to play the game. … To referee the rules, you need to know them. You don’t need to memorize this book or the Player’s Handbook, but you should have a clear idea of their contents so that, when a situation requires a ruling, you know where to find the proper reference. Similarly, DMs are expected generally to run D&D Adventurers League adventures as written. DMs who create their own rules and who depart from the text of adventures significantly destroy the common experience of the game and the portability of characters. In a home game, a DM can freely depart from the rules and the text of an adventure without destroying the experience for their players. However, in organized play, players find it unfair when their characters cannot do what other characters did. They get angry and complain when their DM imposes restrictions that do not limit other characters or when their DM makes them face risks that other characters in the same situation did not face. They also get angry and complain when they hear other DMs gave other players and characters opportunities and wealth that are not generally available to everyone. Therefore, in the D&D Adventurers League, DMs are required to follow the rules and generally to run adventures as they are written. Nonetheless, DMs have a great deal of latitude in how they run games. On page five, the Dungeon Masters Guide states: The rules don’t account for every possible situation that might arise during a typical D&D session….How you determine the outcome [of such situations] is up to you. Where there are no rules, or where the rules leave something unclear, it is up to the DM to decide how to handle a situation. Page fifteen of the Player’s Guide places responsibility for such decisions on the DM, stating: [Dungeon Masters] are responsible for making adjudications . . . while running the game. A DM’s ruling at the table is considered final for the purpose of that play session. For example, a player may want his or her character to swing from a chandelier during a combat, casting a spell as the character does so. The Player’s Handbook does not have a clear rule for that situation. The DM could rule it is not possible, call for a Strength (athletics) check to hang onto the chandelier, call for a Dexterity (acrobatics) check to swing from it, and/or rule that the character has disadvantage on the spell attack (or the foe has advantage on its saving throw) due to the motion of the chandelier during the casting. The current D&D rules intentionally do not cover every situation. When the situation is not covered by a specific rule, or when the rules leave a gray area, whatever the DM says is final. DMs are free to consult their players, other DMs, and the Wizards community forums at community.wizards.com/forums/132291 for guidance on the D&D rules, but are not bound by such guidance. However, where the rules do cover a situation and there is no gray area, the DM cannot vary from them. For example, the Player’s Handbook clearly indicates when players can take feats. Similarly, the Player’s Guide clearly indicates that players cannot roll character ability scores and hit points. DMs running D&D Adventurers League games cannot change or ignore those rules. Although We Play the Same Adventures, DMs Are Empowered to Make Certain Changes DMs also have some latitude in how they run the League’s adventures. Generally, DMs should run the adventures as written to ensure that players campaign-wide face the same challenges and earn the same rewards. Wizards and the campaign staff carefully draft and playtest the adventures to make sure they are relatively balanced, that they fit the campaign, and that they introduce and handle elements that appear throughout the storyline season. DMs who change, omit, and add encounters disturb that balance, in addition to destroying the common play experience. Nevertheless, the text of an adventure does not cover every possible contingency. A player might want his character to seek out a non-player character (“NPC”) from an earlier adventure. A group might inadvertently bypass an encounter and the associated rewards. DMs can make minor changes to adventures to account for such circumstances, role-playing the encounter with the NPC if time allows and reworking the missed encounter and inserting it into the adventure at another point so the players have an opportunity to face the challenge and earn the rewards. The Player’s Guide speaks extensively to the power of DMs to alter adventures in this way. On page eleven, it reminds DMs to “Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible.” That does not mean DMs should ignore the rules or the text of the adventure, but rather that they should make decisions where there are no rules or where the text of the adventure offers no guidance, in ways that make the adventure fun for everyone. On page 12, the Player’s Guide enumerates some things DMs are empowered to do in these circumstances: You are empowered to make adjustments to the adventure and make decisions about how the group interacts with the world of this adventure. This is especially important and applicable outside of combat, but feel free to adjust the adventure for groups that are having too easy or too hard of a time. Don’t make the adventure too easy or too difficult for a group. Never being challenged makes for a boring game, and being overwhelmed makes for a frustrating game. Gauge the experience of the players (not the characters) with the game, try to feel out (or ask) what they like in a game, and attempt to give each of them the experience they’re after when they play D&D. Give everyone a chance to shine. Be mindful of pacing, and keep the game session moving along appropriately. Watch for stalling, since play loses momentum when this happens. At the same time, make sure that the players don’t finish too early; provide them with a full play experience. Try to be aware of running long or short. Adjust the pacing accordingly. Give the players appropriate hints so they can make informed choices about how to proceed. Players should be given clues and hints when appropriate so they can tackle puzzles, combat, and interactions without getting frustrated over lack of information. This helps to encourage immersion in the adventure and gives players “little victories” for figuring out good choices from clues. Note that Player’s Guide does not empower a DM to ignore any rules. Similarly, while the Guide does go on to say “being the DM isn’t about following the adventure’s text word-for-word,” it does not empower DMs to just ignore the adventure or even substantively depart from the adventure. Instead, the Player’s Guide gives DMs the power they need to adjust adventures to keep the challenge level appropriate to the group that is playing and to keep the adventure moving and fun. In conclusion, to give DMs some guidance in determining when it is appropriate to modify an adventure, here are some examples of things DMs may do and some things they must not do. Dos and Don’ts of Modifying Adventures Adding and Subtracting Foes: Do add or subtract foes of the same type from a combat to keep the challenge level appropriate to the group. Don’t add foes of a different type or switch out combat encounters entirely. Different types of foes have different abilities that can make combats much harder or much easier than substituting one foe for another of the same challenge rating may otherwise indicate. D&D Expeditions explicitly states which monsters can be added or subtracted for each encounter, however, D&D Encounters/Casual Games are a bit looser and rely on the DM to modify the encounters per the guidelines in the Dungeon Master’s Guide on encounter building. Changing the Intended Difficulty of a Combat: Do try to keep combats at the intended level of difficulty when modifying them; make sure combats written to be easy for the group remain easy and combats written to be difficult remain difficult. Making an early easy combat too difficult uses party resources, turning later difficult combats into bloodbaths. Similarly, making an early hard combat too easy preserves resources, making later combats too easy. Adding Encounters: Be very careful when adding encounters. Most adventures are written to be played in a certain amount of time. If you add encounters, you run the risk that the players will not have time to finish the actual adventure. Add only those encounters that the characters actually trigger, such as being confronted by the town guard after they break the law or speaking to an NPC whose assistance the characters seek. When you add encounters, be very conscious of the time. Play them out only if there is time; narrate past them if there is not. Cutting-off Encounters: Similarly, be very careful when cutting-off encounters. If you are pressed for time, such as when a convention slot is ending or a store is closing, you can waive the last few rounds of a combat that the characters will obviously win or narrate through an encounter. However, doing so deprives the players of the chance to play the game by deciding what their characters do and by roleplaying their characters. It can also deprive them of the feeling of success that follows a combat or the opportunity to interact with an NPC. To avoid taking the game out of the players’ hands that way, don’t cut encounters short or narrate through them unless you must. Eliminating Encounters: Don’t eliminate encounters. As a DM, you don’t know what later events the designer and the campaign staff are setting up by introducing an NPC, a foe, a location, or an object in an adventure. The material you eliminate could be very important later in the campaign. Modifying Encounters: For the same reasons, avoid modifying encounters. However, do modify them to account for the characters’ actions. If the characters befriend someone, make an enemy, or come up with a creative solution, reflecting that fact in the encounter gives the players a sense of accomplishment. As noted above, if players somehow inadvertently miss an encounter or a reward, you may modify the adventure to insert the encounter or reward later in a way that makes sense in context. Such a change is often a good way to get an adventure that has gone far off track back in the intended direction. Subtracting Rewards: Do reduce awards if circumstances warrant doing so. If a character does something that would anger his or her faction, you may choose not to award renown that the character otherwise would have earned. Similarly, if characters take actions in an adventure that would result in them spending time in jail or on the lam, reduce or eliminate downtime awarded to reflect that fact. Be careful in reducing wealth and magic items, as tempers can run high when that happens. However, if circumstances warrant, NPCs can withhold rewards, and the authorities can fine characters. Adding Rewards: Don’t add any rewards to adventures, and don’t award rewards that the characters did not earn. The level of experience, wealth, magic items, renown, and downtime in the campaign, and the particular magic items available have been intentionally set by the designer and the campaign staff. You cannot change them. Moreover, characters must earn their wealth and advancement. If a character steals from an NPC or otherwise obtains extra wealth, reduce wealth found in other parts of the adventure so characters don’t receive more wealth than the adventure permits. Similarly, if an adventure is subject to limits on experience rewards, such as D&D Encounters and D&D Expeditions, make sure you don’t award experience in excess of the applicable limit.
#14 imaginaryfriend Apr 28, 2015 12:41:52	While essentially a good set of guidelines, I wish the myth of catch-all design was not perpetuated by it. But that may just be my pet peeve.
#15 reddaemon Apr 28, 2015 16:32:47	@Kalani That is a great article. It should help standardize things so people can expect to play under pretty much the same rules no matter what table they go to. I'd rather look at the article as a guideline than a strict rule however. Not every DM is going to be able to adhere to the entirety of what this article described. DMs will make mistakes, some will do whatever they want anyway regardless of what the rules say even if they know they are going against the rules (like my position on handling familiars in combat). I have played Pathfinder Society for several years and I would argue that they have a much more strict "Run as written" policy than Adventurer's League does, yet so many DMs put their own spin on the rules, despite this fact, whether it was a new DM or a Regional Coordinator. You learn very quickly to choose your battles regarding rules disputes. At the end of the day, no matter what the rules say, you have a table of friendly people gathering around to play a game. Sometimes unexpected situations come up and in order to enhance the fun at the table, you have to bend the rules a little bit. I tend to err on the side of simplicity and so any change I make is usually to make things go faster without being bogged down by arbitray things. If DMs try to adhere to every little rule and every action gets dragged out, that's when people start whipping out their ipads and phones and checking their facebook, etc. At the same time, nobody wants to have to learn every DM's houserules for whatever part of the sytem they think needs changing. For that reason, I believe any houserules should be very minor or something that sort of makes sense and is easy to adjust to so as to not surprise players or completely invalidate their build when they play at your table. Balancing these things is what I think makes for a fun game, and making sure everyone is having a good time is what it's all about really. For example, referring to my stance on familiars: it is a chore to keep track of every player's familiar and it speeds up combat to make them act on the player's turn rather than having the player essentially take two turns in the initiative order (one for their character, and one for their familiar). It is very easy for the player to adjust to this rule and since it is very minor and changes very little about the game, it doesn't invalidate anyone's build. Not every table is the same, and DM's need the freedom to implement house rules to suit the environment they are in. Like your stealth spellcasting example (sorry if you don't agree but to me it is a houserule), I don't know the context in which you created that rule, but I'm sure it was in response to something happening at your table that your players were doing. The ultimate goal is to make sure everyone has as much fun as possible, and being able to change minor parts of the game is one of many tools that accomplishes this.
#16 CahPahkah Apr 29, 2015 8:08:49	reddaemon wrote:
#17 reddaemon Apr 29, 2015 9:04:55	CahPahkah wrote:
#18 CahPahkah Apr 29, 2015 9:32:01	reddaemon wrote:
(Reply to #17) Ainulindalion	reddaemon wrote:
#20 Pauper Apr 29, 2015 13:49:24	I was prepared to consider this discussion fairly arcane, until I reviewed the rules and noted that, in Fifth Edition, there is no way to modify one's position in initiative order using the rules in the Player's Handbook -- the 'delay' action from previous editions does not exist, and the 'ready' action causes a creature to use its reaction without resetting its initiative count. (Edit: The reason this is significant is, if there is a 'delay' action, then it's trivial for a player to get his character and that character's familiar acting on the same initiative count, or at least very close to the same count. With no explicit way to do this within the rules, it's literally a roll of the dice as to whether a familiar has an initiative anywhere near its master's.) The expected ruling should be that familiars have their own initiative count, as noted under the description of the find familiar spell. DMs who feel that players are abusing their familiars are encouraged to target those familiars in combat, noting that casting the spell requires an hour of casting time and 10gp worth of specific expensive material components. -- Pauper
#21 reddaemon Apr 29, 2015 13:03:42	Hmm, in that case, perhaps it would be better to amend it to "familiars act on your initiative but before you do". This leaves familiars open to attack when delivering a spell as intended. Though I don't see them used for that very much anyway. The goal is to keep initiative orders short and simple so that combat flows quickly. I'd rather have players resolve everything that they control on their turn to make it easier to keep track of things. Like I mentioned before, I have seen other DMs handle familiars on the player's turn as well, acknowledging that it is not the way the rules are written but they do it to speed things up. When 3 players show up at the table with familiars, it only takes running it by the book one time to realize how tedious it is to keep track of. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to house rule familiars to the players' turns. My general stance on houserules in Adventurer's League is that: as long as house rules are very minor, have an obvious or easy to justify reason for being implemented, and don't have any permanent affects, and doesn't invalidate someone's build, it shouldn't be an issue. Houserules shouldn't be added to the game lightly, and I don't believe this is a frivolous rule to have. For the record, I'm not advocating for people just making up whatever rules they feel like (some people are going to do that anyway).
(Reply to #10) Riley37	RCanine wrote:
#23 RCanine Apr 29, 2015 20:33:56	Riley37 wrote:

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Riley37

Apr 27, 2015 13:17:31

How reasonable or unreasonable are these, as a set of "Session Zero" house rules?

The "cast a spell" action is generally obvious to all bystanders, especially when the spell has material, somatic or verbal components. Exceptions are possible in certain circumstances.

Sorcerors who know the Subtle Spell metamagic can use it to omit V/S components.

When you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll, that is a critical hit. Standard rule: double the number of weapon damage dice, and roll them. (All other damage dice, eg from Hunter's Mark, Savage Attack, Sneak Attack, etc. are rolled normally.) Alternate option: "place" the normal weapon damage dice for maximum results. Placing damage dice is usually faster; do NOT slow down fight scenes.

The conditions Restrained and Incapacitated (and therefore paralyzed, petrified, stunned and unconscious, which subsume Incapacitated) also include this penalty: "effective DEX of zero, and thus a -5 modifier, for AC, stat checks and saving throws".

In combat scenes, when someone is deciding and describing their action, DO NOT INTERRUPT OR INTERFERE. I give each player only six seconds, at most, to decide their action. Don't add to the demands on that player's attention!

If the player's course of action is a horrible mistake, then hold your tongue and consider what YOUR character will do, on YOUR character's action, in the wake of that mistake.

When your character makes a melee attack, you may declare non-lethal intent, and take a -1 penalty, BEFORE rolling to hit. The target may still die, at DM discretion, especially if you fumble.

Thanks,

Riley

Kalani

Apr 27, 2015 13:30:46

House Rules are strictly prohibited in AL. There are no exceptions.

With that being said, there is a difference between making a ruling and using house rules. You are free to make a ruling on anything that the rules do not cover, and your rulings are final for that session. If the rules do cover something however, you are strictly prohibited from changing it.

DMing and DM Empowerment
The current D&D rules intentionally do not cover every situation. When the situation is not covered by a specific rule, or when the rules leave a gray area, whatever the DM says is final. DMs are free to consult their players, other DMs, and the Wizards community forums at community.wizards.com/forums/132291 for guidance on the D&D rules, but are not bound by such guidance.

However, where the rules do cover a situation and there is no gray area, the DM cannot vary from them. For example, the Player’s Handbook clearly indicates when players can take feats. Similarly, the Player’s Guide clearly indicates that players cannot roll character ability scores and hit points. DMs running D&D Adventurers League games cannot change or ignore those rules.

Coredump00

Apr 27, 2015 13:45:44

Kalani is correct. You can't just make up your own House Rules in the sense of changing or modifying existing rules. You can have House Rules in the sense of consistent Rulings that you will make. With that in mind....

Riley37 wrote:

Kalani

Apr 27, 2015 13:55:30

In respect to stealth casting - I use the following ruling myself.

Somatic/Material: You can disguise the somatic components of your spell by making a Sleight of Hand (perception) check. If the spell is 3rd - 5th level, you make this check with disadvantage. Spells of 6th level or higher are too complex to disguise in this way (no check allowed).

Verbal: You can disguise the verbal components of a spell by making a Deception (Insight) check. If the spell is 3rd - 5th level, you make this check with disadvantage. Spells of 6th level or higher are too complex to disguise in this way (no check allowed). If you are hiding when you cast the spell, you must make a second hide check at disadvantage. If you fail, your spellcasting gives away your position.

f you succeed on both checks (DC based on each creatures passive Perception/Insight), you can cast your spell without that creature being aware you have cast a spell. This does not prevent creatures which are the victim of a charm effect from knowing they were charmed, or that you were the creature which charmed them as indicated in the relevant spell descriptions.

Creatures which are unaware you have cast a spell cannot cast counterspell in reaction to the spells casting.

Pauper

Apr 27, 2015 14:37:48

Riley37 wrote:

imaginaryfriend

Apr 28, 2015 3:12:11

Pauper wrote:

Byakugan01

Apr 28, 2015 0:10:50

Last week a PC shot an opponent and knocked it to exactly 0, so i let him choose to do a non-lethal shot. I didn't need the npc to survive, i just thought the player would feel like he earned a little mini-achievment.

Our last DM used death saves for every monster, which i feel only frustrated us as players. All it did was slow down combats and turn us all into habitual decapitators.

I consider what i did a ruling on the spot, but what the other DM did was make a house rule.

(Reply to #7)

Pauper

Byakugan01 wrote:

Noctaem

Apr 28, 2015 7:10:56

I think Kalani clearly stated how it works just fine Pauper and included how you can tell the difference between a ruling and a houserule.

Kalani wrote:

#10

RCanine

Apr 28, 2015 7:53:42

imaginaryfriend wrote:

(Reply to #10)

imaginaryfriend

RCanine wrote:

#12

reddaemon

Apr 28, 2015 11:44:35

In the end, some DMs are going to implement house rules. There is no way around it and everyone has their reasons. Whether people try to label their house rules as "rulings" in order to justify it or not. Any "ruling" that isnt specifically backed up by rules text that you can quote is a house rule IMO. Which isn't a bad thing. People shouldn't be discouraged from using house rules (or so called "rulings"). As long as everyone remembers that the ultimate goal of the DM is to facilitate the entire table having fun, and aren't creating the rules as a barrier to the players having fun there really shouldn't be a problem with house rules TBH. For example, I house rule when I DM that familiars act on the player's turn because I always have at least 2 players with familiars at my tables and don't want to keep track of 15 different initiative counts as it bogs down combat. For the record, I don't recall seeing in the FAQ or even the Player's Guide that house rules aren't allowed. I think this rule from the Player's Guide sums it up nicely: Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible."

#13

Kalani

Apr 28, 2015 11:55:51

@reddaemon: The dndadventurersleague.org website has a list of DM resource articles. The one which clarifies the intent of your highlighted passage (Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible) is the DMing and DM Empowerment article. Which states the following.

I strongly recommend all AL DMs be familiar with the article, as it spells out the Do's/Don'ts of making rulings in AL

DMING AND DM EMPOWERMENT

In a previous article Arthur talked about playing by a common set of rules for the league, for players, and briefly mentioned DM rules. This article goes more indepth on the subject of DM rules and DM Empowerment. – Ed.

DMs Must Follow the Rules as Set Forth in the Player’s Handbook and thePlayer’s Guide and to Generally Run Adventures as Written

DMs are expected to follow all of the rules in the Player’s Handbook and Player’s Guidewhen running games. Since the Player’s Guide permits characters to use all of the material in the D&D basic rules and Player’s Handbook, except for rolling ability scores and hit points and imposing certain alignment restrictions, and restricts characters to those rules, DMs cannot impose any additional restrictions or permit characters to use any additional rules.

This requirement is consistent with the rules set forth in the Dungeon Masters Guide, which states on page five:

The Player’s Handbook contains the main rules you need to play the game.

…

To referee the rules, you need to know them. You don’t need to memorize this book or the Player’s Handbook, but you should have a clear idea of their contents so that, when a situation requires a ruling, you know where to find the proper reference.

Similarly, DMs are expected generally to run D&D Adventurers League adventures as written. DMs who create their own rules and who depart from the text of adventures significantly destroy the common experience of the game and the portability of characters.

In a home game, a DM can freely depart from the rules and the text of an adventure without destroying the experience for their players. However, in organized play, players find it unfair when their characters cannot do what other characters did. They get angry and complain when their DM imposes restrictions that do not limit other characters or when their DM makes them face risks that other characters in the same situation did not face. They also get angry and complain when they hear other DMs gave other players and characters opportunities and wealth that are not generally available to everyone. Therefore, in the D&D Adventurers League, DMs are required to follow the rules and generally to run adventures as they are written.

Nonetheless, DMs have a great deal of latitude in how they run games. On page five, the Dungeon Masters Guide states:

The rules don’t account for every possible situation that might arise during a typical D&D session….How you determine the outcome [of such situations] is up to you.

Where there are no rules, or where the rules leave something unclear, it is up to the DM to decide how to handle a situation. Page fifteen of the Player’s Guide places responsibility for such decisions on the DM, stating:

[Dungeon Masters] are responsible for making adjudications . . . while running the game. A DM’s ruling at the table is considered final for the purpose of that play session.

For example, a player may want his or her character to swing from a chandelier during a combat, casting a spell as the character does so. The Player’s Handbook does not have a clear rule for that situation. The DM could rule it is not possible, call for a Strength (athletics) check to hang onto the chandelier, call for a Dexterity (acrobatics) check to swing from it, and/or rule that the character has disadvantage on the spell attack (or the foe has advantage on its saving throw) due to the motion of the chandelier during the casting.

The current D&D rules intentionally do not cover every situation. When the situation is not covered by a specific rule, or when the rules leave a gray area, whatever the DM says is final. DMs are free to consult their players, other DMs, and the Wizards community forums at community.wizards.com/forums/132291 for guidance on the D&D rules, but are not bound by such guidance.

However, where the rules do cover a situation and there is no gray area, the DM cannot vary from them. For example, the Player’s Handbook clearly indicates when players can take feats. Similarly, the Player’s Guide clearly indicates that players cannot roll character ability scores and hit points. DMs running D&D Adventurers League games cannot change or ignore those rules.

Although We Play the Same Adventures,
DMs Are Empowered to Make Certain Changes

DMs also have some latitude in how they run the League’s adventures. Generally, DMs should run the adventures as written to ensure that players campaign-wide face the same challenges and earn the same rewards. Wizards and the campaign staff carefully draft and playtest the adventures to make sure they are relatively balanced, that they fit the campaign, and that they introduce and handle elements that appear throughout the storyline season. DMs who change, omit, and add encounters disturb that balance, in addition to destroying the common play experience.

Nevertheless, the text of an adventure does not cover every possible contingency. A player might want his character to seek out a non-player character (“NPC”) from an earlier adventure. A group might inadvertently bypass an encounter and the associated rewards. DMs can make minor changes to adventures to account for such circumstances, role-playing the encounter with the NPC if time allows and reworking the missed encounter and inserting it into the adventure at another point so the players have an opportunity to face the challenge and earn the rewards.

The Player’s Guide speaks extensively to the power of DMs to alter adventures in this way. On page eleven, it reminds DMs to “Make decisions and adjudications that enhance the fun of the adventure when possible.” That does not mean DMs should ignore the rules or the text of the adventure, but rather that they should make decisions where there are no rules or where the text of the adventure offers no guidance, in ways that make the adventure fun for everyone.

On page 12, the Player’s Guide enumerates some things DMs are empowered to do in these circumstances:

You are empowered to make adjustments to the adventure and make decisions about how the group interacts with the world of this adventure. This is especially important and applicable outside of combat, but feel free to adjust the adventure for groups that are having too easy or too hard of a time.

Don’t make the adventure too easy or too difficult for a group. Never being challenged makes for a boring game, and being overwhelmed makes for a frustrating game. Gauge the experience of the players (not the characters) with the game, try to feel out (or ask) what they like in a game, and attempt to give each of them the experience they’re after when they play D&D. Give everyone a chance to shine.

Be mindful of pacing, and keep the game session moving along appropriately. Watch for stalling, since play loses momentum when this happens. At the same time, make sure that the players don’t finish too early; provide them with a full play experience. Try to be aware of running long or short. Adjust the pacing accordingly.

Give the players appropriate hints so they can make informed choices about how to proceed. Players should be given clues and hints when appropriate so they can tackle puzzles, combat, and interactions without getting frustrated over lack of information. This helps to encourage immersion in the adventure and gives players “little victories” for figuring out good choices from clues.

Note that Player’s Guide does not empower a DM to ignore any rules. Similarly, while the Guide does go on to say “being the DM isn’t about following the adventure’s text word-for-word,” it does not empower DMs to just ignore the adventure or even substantively depart from the adventure.

Instead, the Player’s Guide gives DMs the power they need to adjust adventures to keep the challenge level appropriate to the group that is playing and to keep the adventure moving and fun. In conclusion, to give DMs some guidance in determining when it is appropriate to modify an adventure, here are some examples of things DMs may do and some things they must not do.

Dos and Don’ts of Modifying Adventures

Adding and Subtracting Foes: Do add or subtract foes of the same type from a combat to keep the challenge level appropriate to the group. Don’t add foes of a different type or switch out combat encounters entirely. Different types of foes have different abilities that can make combats much harder or much easier than substituting one foe for another of the same challenge rating may otherwise indicate. D&D Expeditions explicitly states which monsters can be added or subtracted for each encounter, however, D&D Encounters/Casual Games are a bit looser and rely on the DM to modify the encounters per the guidelines in the Dungeon Master’s Guide on encounter building.

Changing the Intended Difficulty of a Combat: Do try to keep combats at the intended level of difficulty when modifying them; make sure combats written to be easy for the group remain easy and combats written to be difficult remain difficult. Making an early easy combat too difficult uses party resources, turning later difficult combats into bloodbaths. Similarly, making an early hard combat too easy preserves resources, making later combats too easy.

Adding Encounters: Be very careful when adding encounters. Most adventures are written to be played in a certain amount of time. If you add encounters, you run the risk that the players will not have time to finish the actual adventure. Add only those encounters that the characters actually trigger, such as being confronted by the town guard after they break the law or speaking to an NPC whose assistance the characters seek. When you add encounters, be very conscious of the time. Play them out only if there is time; narrate past them if there is not.

Cutting-off Encounters: Similarly, be very careful when cutting-off encounters. If you are pressed for time, such as when a convention slot is ending or a store is closing, you can waive the last few rounds of a combat that the characters will obviously win or narrate through an encounter. However, doing so deprives the players of the chance to play the game by deciding what their characters do and by roleplaying their characters. It can also deprive them of the feeling of success that follows a combat or the opportunity to interact with an NPC. To avoid taking the game out of the players’ hands that way, don’t cut encounters short or narrate through them unless you must.

Eliminating Encounters: Don’t eliminate encounters. As a DM, you don’t know what later events the designer and the campaign staff are setting up by introducing an NPC, a foe, a location, or an object in an adventure. The material you eliminate could be very important later in the campaign.

Modifying Encounters: For the same reasons, avoid modifying encounters. However, do modify them to account for the characters’ actions. If the characters befriend someone, make an enemy, or come up with a creative solution, reflecting that fact in the encounter gives the players a sense of accomplishment. As noted above, if players somehow inadvertently miss an encounter or a reward, you may modify the adventure to insert the encounter or reward later in a way that makes sense in context. Such a change is often a good way to get an adventure that has gone far off track back in the intended direction.

Subtracting Rewards: Do reduce awards if circumstances warrant doing so. If a character does something that would anger his or her faction, you may choose not to award renown that the character otherwise would have earned. Similarly, if characters take actions in an adventure that would result in them spending time in jail or on the lam, reduce or eliminate downtime awarded to reflect that fact. Be careful in reducing wealth and magic items, as tempers can run high when that happens. However, if circumstances warrant, NPCs can withhold rewards, and the authorities can fine characters.

Adding Rewards: Don’t add any rewards to adventures, and don’t award rewards that the characters did not earn. The level of experience, wealth, magic items, renown, and downtime in the campaign, and the particular magic items available have been intentionally set by the designer and the campaign staff. You cannot change them. Moreover, characters must earn their wealth and advancement. If a character steals from an NPC or otherwise obtains extra wealth, reduce wealth found in other parts of the adventure so characters don’t receive more wealth than the adventure permits. Similarly, if an adventure is subject to limits on experience rewards, such as D&D Encounters and D&D Expeditions, make sure you don’t award experience in excess of the applicable limit.

#14

imaginaryfriend

Apr 28, 2015 12:41:52

While essentially a good set of guidelines, I wish the myth of catch-all design was not perpetuated by it. But that may just be my pet peeve.

#15

reddaemon

Apr 28, 2015 16:32:47

@Kalani

That is a great article. It should help standardize things so people can expect to play under pretty much the same rules no matter what table they go to. I'd rather look at the article as a guideline than a strict rule however. Not every DM is going to be able to adhere to the entirety of what this article described. DMs will make mistakes, some will do whatever they want anyway regardless of what the rules say even if they know they are going against the rules (like my position on handling familiars in combat).

I have played Pathfinder Society for several years and I would argue that they have a much more strict "Run as written" policy than Adventurer's League does, yet so many DMs put their own spin on the rules, despite this fact, whether it was a new DM or a Regional Coordinator. You learn very quickly to choose your battles regarding rules disputes. At the end of the day, no matter what the rules say, you have a table of friendly people gathering around to play a game. Sometimes unexpected situations come up and in order to enhance the fun at the table, you have to bend the rules a little bit.

I tend to err on the side of simplicity and so any change I make is usually to make things go faster without being bogged down by arbitray things. If DMs try to adhere to every little rule and every action gets dragged out, that's when people start whipping out their ipads and phones and checking their facebook, etc. At the same time, nobody wants to have to learn every DM's houserules for whatever part of the sytem they think needs changing. For that reason, I believe any houserules should be very minor or something that sort of makes sense and is easy to adjust to so as to not surprise players or completely invalidate their build when they play at your table. Balancing these things is what I think makes for a fun game, and making sure everyone is having a good time is what it's all about really.

For example, referring to my stance on familiars: it is a chore to keep track of every player's familiar and it speeds up combat to make them act on the player's turn rather than having the player essentially take two turns in the initiative order (one for their character, and one for their familiar). It is very easy for the player to adjust to this rule and since it is very minor and changes very little about the game, it doesn't invalidate anyone's build.

Not every table is the same, and DM's need the freedom to implement house rules to suit the environment they are in. Like your stealth spellcasting example (sorry if you don't agree but to me it is a houserule), I don't know the context in which you created that rule, but I'm sure it was in response to something happening at your table that your players were doing. The ultimate goal is to make sure everyone has as much fun as possible, and being able to change minor parts of the game is one of many tools that accomplishes this.

#16

CahPahkah

Apr 29, 2015 8:08:49

reddaemon wrote:

#17

reddaemon

Apr 29, 2015 9:04:55

CahPahkah wrote:

#18

CahPahkah

Apr 29, 2015 9:32:01

reddaemon wrote:

(Reply to #17)

Ainulindalion

reddaemon wrote:

#20

Pauper

Apr 29, 2015 13:49:24

I was prepared to consider this discussion fairly arcane, until I reviewed the rules and noted that, in Fifth Edition, there is no way to modify one's position in initiative order using the rules in the Player's Handbook -- the 'delay' action from previous editions does not exist, and the 'ready' action causes a creature to use its reaction without resetting its initiative count. (Edit: The reason this is significant is, if there is a 'delay' action, then it's trivial for a player to get his character and that character's familiar acting on the same initiative count, or at least very close to the same count. With no explicit way to do this within the rules, it's literally a roll of the dice as to whether a familiar has an initiative anywhere near its master's.)

The expected ruling should be that familiars have their own initiative count, as noted under the description of the find familiar spell. DMs who feel that players are abusing their familiars are encouraged to target those familiars in combat, noting that casting the spell requires an hour of casting time and 10gp worth of specific expensive material components.

Pauper

#21

reddaemon

Apr 29, 2015 13:03:42

Hmm, in that case, perhaps it would be better to amend it to "familiars act on your initiative but before you do". This leaves familiars open to attack when delivering a spell as intended. Though I don't see them used for that very much anyway. The goal is to keep initiative orders short and simple so that combat flows quickly. I'd rather have players resolve everything that they control on their turn to make it easier to keep track of things. Like I mentioned before, I have seen other DMs handle familiars on the player's turn as well, acknowledging that it is not the way the rules are written but they do it to speed things up. When 3 players show up at the table with familiars, it only takes running it by the book one time to realize how tedious it is to keep track of. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to house rule familiars to the players' turns.

My general stance on houserules in Adventurer's League is that: as long as house rules are very minor, have an obvious or easy to justify reason for being implemented, and don't have any permanent affects, and doesn't invalidate someone's build, it shouldn't be an issue. Houserules shouldn't be added to the game lightly, and I don't believe this is a frivolous rule to have. For the record, I'm not advocating for people just making up whatever rules they feel like (some people are going to do that anyway).

(Reply to #10)

Riley37

RCanine wrote:

#23

RCanine

Apr 29, 2015 20:33:56

Riley37 wrote:

Although We Play the Same Adventures, DMs Are Empowered to Make Certain Changes

Dos and Don’ts of Modifying Adventures

Although We Play the Same Adventures,
DMs Are Empowered to Make Certain Changes