Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 blackplauge Sep 24, 2008 15:54:58	Now, I'm not talking house rules as in variations on the basic mechanics of the game (as those are clearly not allowed), hence the quotes in the title, but rather as in the rules one uses to manage the table. For instance: Imposing time limit on a player's turn in an encounter to keep things moving. Rolling initiative during non-combat/skill encounters in order to establish precedence of actions (something the errata removed from the official rules). Not letting players hide loot from each other when searching for it by announcing everything that is found at one time to the whole group. Not letting the party split up to pursue two courses of action at once. Does the RPGA have a problem with these kind of table rules (you can assume that I will make them clear to players before play begins)?
#2 WolfStar76 Sep 24, 2008 16:43:08	Now, I'm not talking house rules as in variations on the basic mechanics of the game (as those are clearly not allowed), hence the quotes in the title, but rather as in the rules one uses to manage the table. For instance: Imposing time limit on a player's turn in an encounter to keep things moving. Rolling initiative during non-combat/skill encounters in order to establish precedence of actions (something the errata removed from the official rules). Not letting players hide loot from each other when searching for it by announcing everything that is found at one time to the whole group. Not letting the party split up to pursue two courses of action at once. Does the RPGA have a problem with these kind of table rules (you can assume that I will make them clear to players before play begins)? I suspect you'll find table variation on most of these (which is indicative that these sort of "procedural preferences" are okay). That said, my take is: 1) While I don't impose a "hard limit" on players, there has to be a limit when they hem and haw too long. I find that letting people know who's "on deck" and going nxt helps so players have a chance to prepare. If they just sit, staring at their character sheet for "too long" I tend to offer them a delay, then move on (so they know they aren't being skipped). 2) I tend to just take actions in a "round the table" fashion if it matters out of combat. I do this mostly so everyone gets a chance to act, instead of one or two people hogging all the action. 3) LFR rules give the same loot choices to everyone at the end of the module, so hiding is irrelevant for the most part. Standalone modules are standalone so it usually matters even less here. I'd try to make this clear to the players if they wanted to be covert unless I knew they had a definite reason for doing so. As a rule of thumb, while I wouldn't dissallow it, I'd also remind people that D&D is a teamwork game. and strongly discourage it. 4) Another one I try to discourage - partly because it slows the game down, and partly because, again, it's a teamwork game. The party does best as a single cohesive unit.
#3 kenobi65 Sep 24, 2008 21:18:12	One big distinction is going to be who your players are, and what you're running. If you're running a home campaign (that is, not RPGA-written adventures) for your home group for RPGA credit, you can probably use whatever table rules you want, assuming your players are cool with them. If you're running RPGA-written adventures (such as LFR) for your home group, then there are certain things that you probably shouldn't be imposing (such as the example WolfStar noted with treasure distribution, since your table rule would directly contradict an LFR campaign rule). If you're running for an "open to the public" game day or convention, you should expect some serious push-back from players, since your table rules aren't RPGA-standard.