What are House Rules, and why do we need them?

Even though some DMs will say they use only rules-as-written (RAW), pretty much every table has them. Experienced DMs often lay them out at Session Zero, but sometimes a DM has to make rulings ad hoc when RAW leaves room for ambiguity compared to the rules-as-intended (RAI), or when there’s simply no rule available for how to handle a specific scenario (e.g. throwing a dwarf as an improvised weapon).

While a number of House Rules were established prior to Session Zero for WWBS, the mid-game switch to 5e2024 introduced a number of new wrinkles. Likewise, as the DM has gotten more comfortable with the 5e rules in general, she’s relaxed some of her “…but I liked this better in 3.5e!” love of mathy-ness and charts. Some of those House Rules became obsolete because they were incorporated into 5e2024 rule changes—Drinking potions is now a Bonus Action! You can now smite with an unarmed attacked!—while others were removed because they were more trouble than not—3.5e-style movement rules of every-other-diagonal-space is 10 feet. To make sure the DM is being fair (and so that players can call her out if she’s not), WWBS hopes to codify all House Rules so that they can be consistently applied and referenced.

“Why make House Rules at all? Why not play only the rules-as-written and then make ad hoc rulings only when you have to?”

One usage of House Rules is to codify a table ruling for consistency, but another is to address perceived gaps in the rules or to address imbalances. In the case of WWBS, the DM is a 25-year veteran of the third edition rules, but is still finding her comfort zone with 5e (it’s so much less mathy!) She also wants to give players more options when it comes to creating their characters, while still making sure those characters fit within the established lore of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

“Some of the House Rules change the game in a way I don’t like.”

Am I your DM? If so, let’s discuss. If not, feel free to ignore them.

“I really like some of these House Rules! Can I use them in my game?”

Absolutely! Credit me if you want, but it’s not required: any material mentioned within this site is subject to the SRD, as indicated in the site footer, therefore I claim no ownership of derivative works. 

“If a game requires House Rules at all, it’s fundamentally flawed and shouldn’t be played. In this essay I will—”

Hold up on your bad take, champ: game systems are ever-evolving to meet the needs of the people who run and play them, and I’d argue that a game which doesn’t evolve from constructive feedback is one which is a failure! 

House Rules from many tables from 5e2014 ended up becoming official rules in 5e2024, such as potions requiring only a Bonus Action to consume whereas they previously required an action. “Unearthed Arcana”/”Sage Advice” has been a part of Dungeons & Dragons since the days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, even before the publication of the second edition of AD&D! 5e2024 had official “Sage Advice” updates to it within a month of the publication of the Monster’s Manual, clarifying rules and monster stat blocks for all three core rulebooks, so why wouldn’t DMs do the same for their own tables?