Drama Moments
Drama moments are an aspect of a house rule that you’ve probably used or witnessed at least once in your gaming career, though you may not have known it.
Drama moments are those moments in a game where all the rules are thrown out or bent for a moment so that, in a moment of GM Fiat, the right thing can happen. Drama moments are often employed to match excellent role-playing, to ensure that the story continues on the right path or that the story ends on the right note and in general to ensure that the over-all enjoyment isn’t compromised.
Some examples of drama moments include:
- A character casting a spell they do not know or do not have access to
- A character taking extra actions
- A character shrugs off damage
- A character automatically accomplishes something that normally requires dice to be rolled
- A character over-comes a powerful magical effect
But why include drama moments when GM Fiat is generally considered a bad thing? Drama moments are not random or in place solely to gratify one individual - they serve the story and the communal enjoyment of the game.
If you’re not sure if a given situation is appropriate for a drama moment, ask yourself the following questions:
- If the wrong thing happens, can the game still be fun?
- Does it affect the entire group?
- Can the game/story continue if the wrong thing happens?
- Can they try again?
- If the wrong thing happens, does that prevent the right thing from happening later?
- Is the wrong thing primarily left up to chance?
If the answer to most or all of these questions is yes, then you’ve most likely encountered a drama moment where GM Fiat is acceptable.
Some things to keep in mind with drama moments:
Try not to let the player’s know it’s happening. By keeping it hidden, the players enjoy it more because it feels natural to them. If the situation would normally call for dice to be rolled, roll them behind your screen so that players cannot see them.
Make the players feel responsible. If you’re ensuring that an unlikely turn of events plays out in the game, present the players with something they can do to “improve the odds.” By doing so and having the players do this, they will not only feel more responsible for the events, but they will be more accepting of the unlikely turn of events because they “made [the events] likely.”
Have a reason handy as to how and why things worked differently. If the player accessed an unusual level of magical abilities, a new source of magical power that was tapped and run dry during the drama moment is sufficient to explain what happened. Similarly, outside intervention, luck, favor of the gods, adrenaline are all acceptable excuses.
Remember, the worst thing that can happen from a drama moment is the players trying to futilely to re-create the circumstances or accomplish the same phenomenal task.
Changing Your Game’s Alignment
Alignment is one of those tricky substances that can make or break a game, and I have yet to meet someone who feels about and defines the alignments the same way as the next person. Here are some house rules you can implement your game to help make alignment run a bit more smoothly and feel more meaningful when it comes into.
Detecting alignment does not detect the alignment of anything that does not have the Evil/Good/Lawful/Chaotic/Whatever descriptor on it. It is, however, able to detect current intentions and thoughts, so that a person contemplating an evil act would show up to Detect Evil. This solves the problem of a lawful good society declaring it illegal to be evil and simply executing everyone who glowed red when Detect Evil was cast. Additional story lines may-be weaved in involving sleeper agents, a la the Manchurian Alignment.
Alignment detection only detects the alignment relative to the person detecting it, so that the detection will only detect evil/good/law/chaos as defined by the character. This creates more roleplaying opportunities and allows characters to be blinded by their prejudices, while simultaneously reducing the concreteness and definitiveness of alignments.
Allow players to declare no-alignment, meaning that they do not gain any alignment based DR and they are unable to overcome alignment based DR, or be the subject of any alignment based spells. Doing this causes alignment to become special again, and someone with a Good alignment or Lawful Good alignment is someone special and someone who is especially dedicated to those beliefs. An added benefit is that when doing this, sorting out the proper alignment for a character is far easier - if it is clear, then the alignment choice is easy, but if not then Null Alignment seems the best choice.
An additional benefit from implementing the two rules above is that it stops players from engaging in combat simply because of alignment, which stops a lot of mindless slaughtering and encourages actual roleplaying.
What house rules have you introduced to deal with alignment in your game?
General House Rules
In a previous post, I discussed a new set of house rules I was going to introduce for the start of a new d20 Dark Matter campaign. Today, I’m going to share with you some of my longer standing house rules.
Critical Roleplaying. Any time a character makes an interaction-based skill check, and the player appropriately role-plays his character, a critical failure is treated simply as a one, and the player suffers no additional penalties.
Roleplaying Re-rolls. Any character who role-plays sufficiently to earn a bonus to any roll may instead choose to re-roll after seeing the results of the original roll. Regardless of the new result, the player is stuck with it.
Cell Phones Are Silenced. Once gaming actually begins, the most disruptive thing that can happen is an unexpected phone call, which the player either takes or doesn’t. Even the simple ringing of the phone can be enough to throw people off, especially if they were in the middle of role-playing. Scheduled calls or taking a break at an appropriate time to make a phone call is perfectly acceptable, however.
One Man, One Job. Everyone at the table has a job, and for the most part they may be swapped around freely so long as everything gets done. Examples of common jobs include:
- Party Leader
- Note Taking
- Initiative/Combat Tracking
- Referencer/Researcher
- Cleaning Up
Participate Even When You Can’t Help. If the party encounters a puzzle or similar situation in which not all the players are adept at dealing with the situation, do not walk away from the table or put your head down - your character almost certainly isn’t doing so; he’s learning HOW to deal with the situation, or at the least doing everything he can to assist those who are good at dealing with it.
Secrecy. Ninety-five percent of the time, I keep all my players at the table, including times when the party is separated. I trust my players to maintain the line between In-Character and Out-Of-Character knowledge; but those who are repeatedly unable or unwilling to respect this line will be sent away from the table. Additionally, any player may call for the group to be split up according to the division of characters for the purposes of secrecy, character development, or a dramatic element of the story.
What house rules do you generally employ at the gaming table?
New House Rules
With the new cinematic campaign about to get started, I thought I would institute some new house rules, on a trial basis.
Private Character Generation. Players may create their character sheets, in their entirety, prior to play, and without Narrator supervision. This includes the rolling of stats, HP, and the like. I trust my players, and realize that they will be the only ones to enjoy the game any less should they cheat. Players are encouraged to take their time creating their character, and are still welcome to do so in my presence and with my consultation.
Stat Re-rolls. After rolling their stats, and recording the result of each individual die, players may choose to re-roll a single die, with the new value replacing the die’s old value.
The Assured Death Rule. Players may, at any time, ask if the course of action they are pondering or pursuing will result in any sort of assured death, or any situation which is nearly impossible to survive.
The 80% Rule. In the event of PC death, retirement, or write-out, the new character may be created with starting XP equivalent to 80% of the party’s average XP total
Highlander Trench Coats. I believe I’ve seen another name for this, but I cannot recall it. In Highlander, swords as big as claymores are often stored in trench coats, cloaks, or something equivalent. They may be carried around for a near endless period of time, without revealing themselves or proving any real hindrance. Similar restrictions will be waived for PCs when appropriate.
The Respec Rule. Characters may, when appropriate time and training is available between adventures, lose the benefits of old feats in exchange for new ones which may be selected. Skill ranks may be re-assigned similarly.
