House Rules, Lemmie Hear Them

[Sanctaphrax]

2. I don't know if this is a house rule or not, but you get an extra stress box for every odd rank in a skill.

That is a house rule. Canon says that you get consequences instead of stress boxes at skill 5 and 7.

[Viktyr Gehrig]

+6 Skill cap!

I got stuck in a game like that. After awhile it's like "I'm a +6 Athletics that means I would win every event in the Olympics"

Yeah but my games aren't, strictly speaking, Dresden Files games. These were fantasy RPGs converted to the Dresden Files system from name-level D&D. Characters that would win every event in the Olympics are actually fitting for the genres I'm playing in.

[Crion]

This is why my set of houserules have evolved into. I may be missing something because it's just a standard thing, but this is what I know my group and I have worked with:

1) Characters can acquire extra "story aspects" over the course of the game to match actions they have performed (i.e. reputation, friends, etc; Important for a game in Victorian England). They come and go as needed.
(This is a recent addition my players are looking forward to)

2) Having multiple items of power may still warrant the refund per item at GM Discretion (this has not come up...yet. The party is searching for relics, so this may only be a matter of time).

3) You do not have to pay a Fate Point to resist a compel (but you will not be paid the FP if you act it anyway). If I ever escalate, that is the sure sign you should accept.

4) If I hand you a Fate Point for a compel to act to a situation (e.g. "Man of Honor"), you are to act according to that compel until the situation warrants otherwise (i.e. not at the end of the scene).

5) If you can't make it and give enough warning (and a viable reason), you can write your own actions on the sideline to aid the party and possibly net bonuses for your return. Otherwise, you are "sidelined" at the whim of the GM.

6) The game uses the DFRPG rules, but will incorporate the following ideas from FATE Core and other games: Armor has stress tracks you may use, Weapons have one Aspect of their own, the "Extras" chapter is valid for magical items, implementing the "Success At A Cost" idea, and "spin" is replaced by "Boosts."

7) If you describe something in awesome enough detail, I will not make you roll for it unless there was already a slim chance of success or if it was dramatically appropriate.

If we aren't having fun, we're not doing it right.

9) I will bend the rules to fit your concept, but you'll have to work with me to make it happen.

10) No other houserules will be implemented without being pitched to the group for approval.

[blackstaff67]

If the group does something that may merit a bonus in the future, instead of temporary Aspects (like a debt), I may hand over a poker chip that says, "Good for a +2 to your next Resources/Contacts roll" or the like.

[Theonlyspiral]

1. We play fast and loose with Sponsor Debt. If you want something, there is a good likely hood you can get it. The amount of debt you'll take might be hairy though...
2. Currently we allow concession up to the point of a defense roll. We might be changing that, but while we were getting in tune with the game we wanted to try and keep things a little soft.

[jybil178]

One house rule I've been mulling over for a while now.

Control ratings from Focus Items and Specializations don't assist the Magic user with hitting an opponent, only to actually control the spell itself.  Basically, someone would only use their Discipline on the aiming portion of the roll, thus eliminating the whole 6+ athletics issue.  One of the side effects of this is it would make Control more in line with the usefulness of Power.  Both have always been fairly useful, but seriously,  Control has always been, by far, the most powerful of the available options.

One of the arguments some people I've spoken with in my group voice against this, is how expensive and limited spellcasting already is.  It would be a bad to make it more difficult to hit an opponent with a spell, thus easier to waste the limited resource.  I've always understood on that, but I've still thought it over trivialized, when you are practically guaranteed to hit every time, unless the GM has some crazy NPC, or the player completely and utterly botch their roll.

The biggest reason I thought this one up, is I never understood why spellcasters should be able to get a constant roll of 8+ easy, without spending a single fate point.  They are the only people in the entire system that have access to a bonus like that, and I've never really understood why that was.  With how the system was built, it felt like it broke it to me, and I just thought of a way I thought would be easy to try and fix it.

[Magicpockets]

Spellcasters run out of juice pretty fast. At best, you've got 4 casts, and after that, it's consequences. Unless you run exclusively boss-level fights with numerically inferior, higher quality opponents, sustainability becomes an issue.

[Taran]

How many fights last 4 rounds?

House Rule:  The templates are a suggestion...although this is probably standard in most peoples games.

[Magickal_Grenadier]

Spellcasters run out of juice pretty fast. At best, you've got 4 casts, and after that, it's consequences. Unless you run exclusively boss-level fights with numerically inferior, higher quality opponents, sustainability becomes an issue.

My old GM got around this by allowing us to cast equal to our Discipline score without taking mental stress. Of course that didn't keep me from tossing around some serious mojo when I had to. Slagged a noob Denarian with a bolt of lightning after I rolled a true +4 on the dice.

[Deadmanwalking]

How many fights last 4 rounds?

Depends on the game and the GM...but I've never had one last less than that. Most go more.

House Rule:  The templates are a suggestion...although this is probably standard in most peoples games.

This...is actually pretty much official, what with them explcitly stating 'make up your own templates" an all.

[Theonlyspiral]

Depends on the game and the GM...but I've never had one last less than that. Most go more.

I don't have as much experience as some other people on here, but our shortest combat has been 7 exchanges.

[fantazero]

Depends on the game and the GM...but I've never had one last less than that. Most go more.

This...is actually pretty much official, what with them explcitly stating 'make up your own templates" an all.

I've had fights go on FOREVER with 6+ people playing. (I wasn't gm-ing)
I think a lot of GMs don't get this isn't Shadowrun, it's not a Slug Fest.