House Rules

Custom rules and guidelines used by some of our Nerdsmith campaigns. Take what you like, leave what you don't, and feel free to make it your own!

Lines and Veils

These are safety tools for creating a barrier between players and subject matter that may be upsetting or triggering. A list of subjects was compiled during Session 0, and maintained throughout the campaign.

Veils

"Veils" are content that is agreed to never happen "on screen" in the game. This subject matter can be alluded to or the effects may be seen, but the act or situation itself is never witnessed. Examples: physical abuse, invasive medical procedures, etc. Veils are meant to help alleviate undo discomfort and upsetting material that would impact a player's safety and enjoyment of the game.

LINES

"Lines" are subject matter that the DM and party have agreed to completely remove from gameplay. This content is not intentionally brought up and does not occur in any storylines during the campaign. Examples: animal torture, alcohol abuse. Lines are meant to prevent traumatic exposure that would seriously harm a player's mental health during the game.
Lines and Veils may be updated as the campaign goes on if players discover a topic that they did not realize could be upsetting or triggering. It is a social contract between the DM and all members of the party to respect boundaries and prevent emotional trauma

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Initiative At Start of Session

At the beginning of each session, players roll for intiative, regardless of any combat currently happening or not in-game. This intiative order is maintained throughout session, even through muiltiple combat encounters. If back-to-back combat encounters occur, the DM may continue the intiaitive order where they left, or start back at the top.

Reasoning: Rolling intiative at the beginning of session, and maintaining the same intiative, simplifies a number crunching process for me as a DM. It helps me to transition into combat more seamlessly, and avoid the abrupt break in tension that "calling for initiative" can cause. It cuts the time required to start combat, which keeps sessions moving at a faster clip.
This houserule has not noticeably impacted my players enjoyment of combat encounters, and it in fact seems to add a little tension or excitmenent at the outset, because my players get to start session with an impactful dice roll, yet they don't know if they're going to get into combat.

— Angela

Power Ups

At the beginning of each session, players roll 1d6 to determine their power up. Players may use this power up bonus once per session, and must reroll a new power up each session ("use it or lose it"). Players may share power ups with each other to improve any d20 roll by any player (excluding death saves). Power ups may stack with each other.

1, 2, or 3 = +1 to any single d20 roll

4 or 5 = +1d6 to any single d20 roll

6 = Advantage on any single d20 roll

Reasoning: I use this houserule in place of Inspiration awarded by the DM, so the DM doesn't have to make subjective calls all the time to award bonuses. In my games, power ups have become a great way to build teamwork and cooperation, give all of my players a chance to interact with an important moment and contribute. My players have really appreciated getting another opportunity to help each other out in clutch moments.

— Angela

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Wearied

A condition announced during combat to indicate when a character has taken enough damage that they are in danger of falling unconscious. This replaces the "bloodied" condition that indicates a character has half of their HP left.
Individual heroes may differ in their limits for pain and damage, or in their willingness to show weakness to their comrades. Therefore, players have control over when their character shows that they "weary". This allows for a more personality-based decision of when a hero thinks that they've "had enough" or they want to ask for help.
On the Countless Heroes campaign stream, our players displayed a beating heart icon over their character's portrait to indicate that their character has become visibly weary.

Reasoning: I use this houserule in place of the bloodied condition, to better express what HP is meant to represent: all the aspects of a hero that contribute towards them staying in a fight physically and mentally. HP includes your health, yes, but also the luck you experience in a fight, your windedness, your courage and stamina.

Heroes in my games are not walking hit bars; taking grevious mortal wounds one after the other but then just one too many and they get knocked unconscious. When a hero reaches 0 HP, that is the culmination of all the the battlefield stress they have experienced, and this is the point at which life threatening wounds are most likely to be dealt. The hero has run out of luck and strength, and can't quite seem to shake off or fight the physical or mental strain being place on them, and they "go down", however the DM rules that to looks like.

— Angela

Critical Success or Failure

Skill Checks

Nat 20 = An automatic success in some form of the action attempted. Complications are still possible, but a sheer twist of fate made it happen.
Nat 1 = Automatic failure. The reason for the failure may be bad memory, clumsiness, lack of skill, etc, or it can be the result of something external to the PC, such as distractions or obstacles. DM fiat.

Initiative

Nat 20 = Extra action on their first turn, placed in initiative as normal
Nat 1 = Aw, that's sad. Nothing happens, placed in initiative as normal

Saving Throws

Nat 20 = DM may allow assist to another player's save, if possible
Nat 1 = you are knocked prone

Attacks

Nat 20 = Roll max + modifiers, and add reroll damage
Nat 1 = The attack misses regardless of any modifiers or target AC
When a player scores a critical hit on an attack, they max out the damage for the attack, and then reroll any damage die (no modifers), adding that to the maxed damage.

Example:
A fighter who crits on 19 or 20 rolls a natural 19 on an attack roll. Their attack damage would normally be 1d8+4.
Calculate Critical Damage: 8+4 (maxed out dmg, or 12) + 1d8 (rerolling their damage die)
Total Critical Hit Damage = 12 + 1d8

Reasoning: I use this houserule for the sake of making crits always feel special. If you only roll double dice, you still run the risk of underrolling (ex, 2d8 but you roll two 1's), which disrupts the feeling of a better-than-normal strike against a target. By adding max damage to a normal roll, you are garaunteed a little extra oomph no matter how the die rolls.

— Angela

Moments

The DM calls for players to describe heroic (or tragic) moments to enhance the power of a scene. Players are able to craft a moment in the spotlight for their character to perform feats of great skill or luck that may fall outside the boundaries of the D&D ruleset.

Reasoning: Moments are often used to wrap up an encounter that's running too long or when success is guaranteed. They add cinematic beats to the roleplay in our game. "Rule of Cool" and all that.

— Angela

Determination

When a hero fails repeatedly during a fight, they grit their teeth and become determined to succeed.
A method of compensation for when a player has spent TWO rounds of combat with no successful rolls or visible contribution to the encounter. On their third round, the PC is granted "determination", which gives them Advantage on all attacks made on their next turn.

Reasoning: I know all too well the frustration that the dice can give on a bad day. A combat encounter can easily last an entire session, and a crummy combat encounter can ruin a player's entire experience. This isn't a solution to just plain bad luck, but it hopefully lessens the sting just a tad, and helps the player get back into the swing of things after a few unfortunate rounds.

— Angela

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Outsiders

Spells that use the phrase “Evil and Good” now use the term “Outsiders”.
Examples of Spells affected:

• Detect Evil and Good is now Detect Outsiders
• Dispel Evil and Good is now Dispel Outsiders
• Protection from Evil and Good is now Protection from Outsiders

The notion of "Evil and Good" within D&D is always debated and always in flux. Alignment doesn't matter much to me as a DM to begin with, but this phrasing, a holdover from older editions of D&D, just serves to confuse players and DMs alike with regard to what creatures they actually affect.

Creatures that are referred to by these spells include celestials, fiends, fey, undead, and elementals. Most if not all of these creature types can trace their origins to the Outer Planes in the D&D cosmology model. Therefore, this house rule helps to prevent the confusion that these spells have anything to do with alignment or traditional definitions of evil and good, but rather have more to do with creatures who tend to have a predetermined nature based on their Realm/Plane's alignment or morality (angels, devils, demons, fae). Check out D&D's reference for the outer planes for more resources on the subject.

— Angela

Standing Up From Prone

When standing up from prone, it takes either 15ft or half of your movement speed, whichever is less.

Got this rule from Anne of Qyjari's Curious Crafts. I don't like the idea of penalizing players who are technically way faster than average, like monks and such with 40+ walking speeds.

— Angela

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Previous House Rules

"That's Two"

(As seen on campaign one of Shenanigoons: Fires of Valdara)
When a player (or the DM) makes the second reference of the session to a pop culture property (film/tv/etc), the offending person is affected by a randomly rolled Wild Magic Surge. Gods help us when Monty Python gets thrown in the mix...

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Hero Dice

(As seen on Countless Heroes
If a player rolls a natural 1 on a d20 roll, they may choose to take a "catastrophic failure" in exchange for a Hero Die to use later to help them in a moment of need. The DM introduces additional complications or severity to the failure in this case.
A player may also earn a Hero Die if they fail to successfully attack or impact combat even after earning advantage via Determination. Any Hero Dice earned in this way must be used in the next round or be lost.
There is no maximum for how many Hero Dice a player may have at one time.
A Hero Die can be used in the following ways:

• Automatically succeed on a single d20 roll, before or after the roll is made
• Maximize Damage Dealt on a single non-critical hit
• Maximize Healing Given/Received on a single healing effect
• Prevent a declared attack on yourself or an ally. Hero die must be spent before the results are revealed
• (Spellcasting) When casting a second spell in the same round of combat, you can cast a second spell during your turn
• Add a Grapple or Shove effect, or a Disarm attempt to a single melee OR ranged attack. Grapple and Shove are an automatic success, Disarm R.A.W.
• Earn a Moment: accomplish something heroic