Here's the strange thing: I never thought of myself as a big "House Rules" person. I mean, when I could find a pithy one I added it. I have a collection of rules from the community that I have assimilated. So I don't think of them as "House Rules" in the fashion I do, say, our silly Monopoly variants.
I have some GMing tricks and rules I re-use. The "three questions" I want to know of each character:
1. What are the character's greatest hopes and fears?
2. What circumstances would turn the character into a hero?
3. What makes this character interesting enough to play?
The rule, "What someone pays attention to develops." The maxims noted in this and these old WISH responses.
I have personal rules. "I play with people who can separate fantasy from reality."
I have goals.
I use the Communist Trump rules (and by the way, people buy Trump Decks using this rule...)
I use Ginger's Rule of Game Design.
I use Arref's Rule of Three for Shadowshifting.
I use the Sarah Bear Rules of Epic Amberites.
I use the Odekirk d10 method of Patternwalk Risks.
A d10 is used to see if you die on the Pattern, each time. Note, I've never actually utilized this, but I reserve the right.
I use the Epoch rule of Automatic Trump Blocking.
If the person receiving the call doesn't accept the call in the first place, the person making the call has next-to-no ability to put the call through. "Not accepting the call," is something that takes little or no concentration. It is something you can do while swordfighting, for example.
But what are my house rules? Do I use them when I introduce people to the game?
I think, using this round of development as an example, that the answer is, "Heck, yeah."
So I'm considering House Rules, and I've come up with one that I want to poke at:
- 1) The rule of limited resources in Amber.
- I talk a lot about how Amber gaming isn't about limiting your resources; you have your lower hierarchy of needs taken care of, you have jabs in the second level, but now you have the opportunity to take care of the kinds of things that can only come of interacting with other people. So why limit any resources?
- The resources I limit are threefold:
Time, Trump, and Personal Energy.
- Time
- Time is limited and it only moves forward. Personally, it has to be an awesome time travel story for me to be interested, and there's just not enough awesome out there. "Fast Time" and "Slow Time" shadows are wearing on a person - the form is based on a Pattern-norm. Enough of either and you can age your form past your recuperative capabilities.
- Trump
- Trump must be created: it cannot just be "found," although Trump-like magics certainly exist in Shadow. I have reasons for this in every world I develop. Part of the problem is that they're a pure reflection of the crossroads of Time and Personal Energy, just like any other unique magic. What's Dworkin's secret? He doesn't have to invest his Personal Energy into Trumps.
- Personal Energy
- Which isn't to say that this isn't the best reason in the world that Endurance is the Most Important Attribute, but Personal Energy is what powers most things of interest. It's most of what we play out. So I have no compunction looking at someone and saying, "Shame you didn't buy up in Endurance. You can do it, but it will take Time, and it will take Time to recover your Personal Energy."
- Why limit these? Because they create conflicts that interest me as GM to give to the players to get the most out of their players. "You have limited time, and energy for maybe one more spell before the demon eats your face. How are you going to spend it?"
Is, "Looking for more time," an Awesome Answer? Only if it's what the Players really want to do.
- The resources I limit are threefold:
Thoughts?