Different House Rules?

[OtterJethro]

What are some of the better house rules you guys have come up with? We included a system where in combat, for every 5 you beat them in combat on the difficulty adds an extra D of damage. We also changed the wound system a little also by eliminated the temporary stun..? whatever that is suppose to mean. They die by getting 15 over but within 5 is -1d, 6-10 is -2d and 11-15 is -3d to all actions.

We also modified and changed like all the force skills. It makes it fun because my GM has changed them all and reveals more as I go along, kind of like I am a Jedi learning the force rather than me knowing all the skills and the difficulty and what not. Right now with 3d control, 3d+1 sense and 2d+1 alter and I only have 5 force powers. I have a way different lightsaber combat but it is like an elementary level 1 type that just adds +2d to lightsaber and -1d to everything else when its up. The diff is 9 if I do it before the fight and 14 if the fight breaks out beforehand.

He also implemented a "feat" type system. I hear the D20 has the thing but we created all the feats. For example, My guy has been trained to fight with dual wield lightsabers and makes a 1.5 action ratio. For 3 actions, he recieves the penalty for 2 actions, the drawback is -1d to damage. We added that assuming someone swinging both hands in opposite directions just wouldn't have the same force behind the swing compared to someone swing both hands in the same direction.

Anyway, I was just wondering what are some the house rules you guys have made that have made your games more fun and balanced.

[masque]

The main house rules we use are:
We only count the wild die for skill checks, not for things like damage. This started out as a misreading of the rulebook by me, but we liked it that way, so we kept it.

We also have a rule where if you successfully use a new skill that you didn't already have (Ex: you need to con port security, but you don't have Con, so you roll default Perception, and succeed) you can get that skill at one pip higher than the default for the price of one character point, no matter what the default is. After that, of course, you have to spend the usual amount of points to increase it.

We find that it helps encourage the players to try new skills that they wouldn't bother with normally, and thus think of alternate solutions to problems, but it doesn't make the characters get too mighty, too fast.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Akari]

In our campaign we announce reactions like dodge and parries like any other actions and roll them once in the beginning of a round and they stay the target number for all attacks of that sort. If you dodge and get attacked in melee, too bad. I think this comes originally from first edition, but I'm not sure. I personally am not very fond of this one though >_<

I see a slight problem with Masques house rule though. Imagine a Verpine with 5D in technical. He can put all his starting skills somewhere else, confident that his high technical basis skill will allow him to do a task when he needs to. Then he spends 1 CP and the second time he does anything in this skill he will have 7D+1 because of the 2D Verpine bonus... I do like the flavor though, encouraging people to default seldomly used skills. Just have to be careful that some players don't abuse it.
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[masque]

The Verpine is a rather special case, though. We don't have any Verpine players at the moment, but in my experience (from past games where we did have Verpines), They're still going to put some points into technical skills at chargen so they can start out godlike. Even if they later develop some of those skills from default, the 1 CP thing only works once, and there's only so many skills to develop. More often, they're going to have to try skills that aren't in their dominant attribute, and that's where it pays off.

My player in the campaign (since I'm not currently to GM) is a fairly standard meat shield merc/demolitions guy. When the current GM took over from me, and I created my character, the party was kind of deficient in the combat area, so I specifically created him to be big on combat, but not as big in other areas where the party was already fairly dominant. Dexterity is my dominant trait, with 4D+2 or something (I'm at work, and don't have my character sheet in front of me) and so when I would try a new skill, it certainly did give me a pretty good boost to get that skill for 5D for 1 CP. However, it happened way more often that I was trying something technical, or social, where the attribute stats were much lower. I was much more inclined to broaden his skills because of that, and what started out as your basic grunt became pretty well rounded.

In practice, we found it works well. Abuse isn't really an issue as none of our players are too prone to that kind of behavior, and I generally wouldn't play with the kind of people who would try to abuse it.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Tupteq]

House rules? I have plenty of them, they are mostly small tweaks of original rules or are created because of lack of original rules. The biggest change is total reorganization of skills system (blaster is used for firearms too, lot of changes in technical and mechanical). I removed many skills, I added some untrained modifiers (for specializations like blaster: sniper) i added simple specializations (specializations not increasing skill code, but only removing untrained modifier). I have new rules for upgrading items (requiring small amounts of CPs), I adapted following rules from D6 Space: related skills, rushing/preparing, reviving, advantages/disadvantages (plus added many home brew a/d) and damage bonus rules. I changed wounds table and added "scratched" wound level (replacing stunned for deadly weapons), I changed throwing rules (ranges depend on object weight, shape and thrower's strength), I changed the way to use shields (and removed ... shields and replaced it by more general system control skill), I changed missile/torpedo rules, I added Space Transport scale (8D), I changed dodge/parry rules (now even the best dodger is not able to dodge 100 shots in a round, but maybe 15). I changed rules for repeaters (to allow attacking of many targets), I created hit location/damage table for starships, I changed sensor rules, I created (or adapted) two weapon fighting rule, and simple action-holding rule. I removed Force powers (Jedi don't need to learn them and is not limited to use Force in standard way) and greatly weakened lightsaber combat Force aid (now even Yoda is not able to cut through an ISD hull).

It looks like I made lot of changes, but my rulebook is in permanent "work-in-progress" state and because of that I haven't publish it yet.

[garhkal]

2. For force users, if play is during the time of the Clone wars (ROTS) to the end of Return of the Jedi, go by the following:
A) When the force user hits a target number of 40 for their first time in the session, they become Known to the Jedi Hunters of the empire.
B) The second time in that same session, OR the first time in any following sessions, they hit a target number of 35 (for force skill activation), they receive a force hunter vision, starting at 1 and working its way up.
C) Once they have received a vision, they have to hit the trigger number 2 more times, then they receive a force hunter team after them, who’s job it is to capture the user. ANY other characters who decide to stand their ground with the force user, are expendible.
3. To learn a Skill or specialty, the teaching character MUST have 2D in that skill higher than what the student will have once learnt. Learning a new skill, puts it to 1 pip higher than the base attribute

5. Characters that start play with the light saber skill DO NOT automatically start with a light saber (unless it is listed on the template), and also do not have the skills of light saber construction or repair.
6. Characters CAN start play with a ship, even if the template they use does not have one listed. Either they can work it through the background (get with the DM), or be in ‘hock’ to a crime lord
8. If a character gains cybernetics, use the Shadow run cyber-ware book. For every 2 points of essence the cyber-ware is worth, the user has 1 essence value. Every time he gains a DSP, roll 1D6, and if the number is less than or equal to his essence value, he gains an additional DSP. Also, force users, to access their force powers roll their skill(s), against a gm difficulty rolled with 1D for each essence value point. EG john has 4 essence value points, when he wishes to use his control skills (this is all he has for force powers), he rolls his control against the gm who rolls 4d. If the Gm gets higher, his cybernetics have impeeded his use of the force this round.
9. For weapons that contain acid or other substances, if the strength roll (PLUS) armor is more than the damage, the ‘weapon’ does not spill its contents. If the damage is higher then the strength roll but not above the armor, then it does break, but only the armor can be affected. If the target does not have any armor, then ignore this rule.
10. Change to Multiple actions; If a character declares more than one action but all are the same, he/she takes them all at the same time. If there are different types them each gets taken in order as normal.
11. In ship to ship combat with Ion cannons, chart out the systems of the ship beig hit. Each time an Ion cannon damages the ship, for every 4 over the hull roll the Ion cannon gets, 1 system is affected. Roll 1d6 for each system affected, which is the number of rounds it is down. Each additional time that same system is hit, add 1d to the number rolled. EG life support has been hit twice. The first hit shuts it down for 1d6 rounds giving a result of 2. THe second hit, gets 2d6, giving a total of 7 more rounds for a total of 9.
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