History Main / HouseRules

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16698337460.26135400 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

'''Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly.''' For out-of-universe examples, see PopularGameVariant and NoUnifiedRuleset. For official examples, see OfficialGameVariant and AscendedHouseRules.

[[folder:Anime]]

'''Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly.''' Listing every possible way to play a game would be a meaningless exercise.

[[folder:Sports]]
* In addition to rules that apply to all its ballparks, [[{{UsefulNotes/Baseball}} Major League Baseball]] has a list of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_rules_(baseball) ground rules]] which apply to specific ballparks, as the shape and design of the field of play vary considerably between them (most notably the outfield fences, sometimes supporting infrastructure like catwalks as well). For example, the outfield walls of Wrigley Field (home of the [[{{UsefulNotes/Chicago}} Chicago Cubs]]) are covered in ivy, so special rules are in place that only apply to Wrigley Field (namely, if a batted ball gets lodged within the ivy and is no longer visible, play is dead when the fielder stops looking for it and all runner are awarded two bases). At present, of the 30 ballparks in [=MLB=] only three do not have ground rules beyond the universal ones that apply to all fields.
* UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}} has many house rules when played casually. These have hundreds of variants and different names, depending on where you live. A small sample of the more common:
** "six and out": Instead of a hit out of the field of play counting as six runs, a hit over a neighbour's fence or similar scores six runs but also the batsman is deemed to be out.
** "one bounce catch": A struck ball may bounce once and then be caught in one hand, and the batsman is out (as if caught conventionally, without bouncing).
** "electric wicket-keeper": If the wicket is set up against a wall, then a ball edged off the bat directly onto the wall is considered caught by a fielder, and the batsman is out.
** “trial ball”: Every new batsman gets one free hit where runs can be scored, but the batsman cannot be dismissed.
* Specific golf courses might come up with "local rules" to deal with rather unique terrain they either can't get rid of, or is way too much of a pain in the ass to deal with. A general example could be power lines running through part of a course. The rules for "Immovable Obstructions" allow a player free relief if such an obstruction (like the poles or towers used to hold the power lines) interferes with their stance in addressing the ball, or their swing in attempting to play a stroke. They don't allow any relief if such an obstruction is simply in the possible path of the ball after it has been struck, except on a putting green. Many courses will nonetheless have a local rule saying that any ball unlucky enough to hit a power line can be replayed as if the original stroke never happened, simply to avoid undue frustration from really, REALLY bad luck in managing to have a stroke deflected by a quarter inch thick metal wire.
** Recreational golfers playing games between themselves may also agree on rules just between themselves for the duration of whatever game they're playing. Common examples are that any putt less than a particular length (commonly set as the distance between one's putter head and the grip on the other end of the putter's shaft) is considered "good" and can be picked up as if one had tapped it in, you can roll your ball over in the fairway (usually to get out of divots), or "putt and pick up" (take one putt, if it doesn't go in, pick your ball up as if you had made the second putt) on recently "airified" greens.
** Even entire tournaments might impose a rule dealing with situations that arise. Commonly, if the tournament is being played "out of season," "winter rules" may apply, which usually means you can clean and place your ball in the fairway. Similarly, if a course had received an ungodly amount of rain, the tournament may play "preferred lies" in the fairway, allowing players to clean mud off the ball and set it on some grass if their ball lay in the fairway, often specifically restricted to ONLY the fairway of the hole they're currently playing.
* Rugby rules are mostly set in stone, but for "friendly" matches between usually amateur clubs, the rules regarding substitutions may be relaxed. "Rolling subs" sets no limit on the amount of substitutions one team can make, and allows players who have come off to come back on (provided they ''came'' off and weren't ''sent'' off). This will allow recreational clubs to substitute less in-shape players in and out as stoppages in play allow, let everyone get in on the play and have some fun, and possibly let clubs with "test" matches (matches whose results actually count for the purposes of a league table, tournament qualification, or the like) try out different players and schemes in advance of those test matches.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'' has a common house rule that when a pawn gets promoted to Queen, that Queen can be represented with an upside down rook. This can happen when the actual Queen is still on the board and no replacement is available. This house rule is actually included in the official United States Chess Federation rulebook, but not in the [=FIDE=] rules that are used in the rest of the world, and doing so under those rules will result in an arbiter coming to the table, turning the Rook back the right way up and forcing you to play on with the "Queen" becoming a Rook instead.
* Wargames suffer from this a lot. Munchkins often come up with new and unusual house rules to "improve" the game or to settle some "obvious imbalance". In reality, very few house rules of this sort were ever good; house rules are supposed to be things like "My hill with trees counts as a hill ''and'' a forest" or "The bunker is sealed and indestructible, it's just impassable." House rules should not be "All [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Eldar]] always strike first because they are cool".
** ''TabletopGame/VictoryInThePacific'' often uses a few of these when experienced players meet, because the game's balance varies at different levels of skill (newbies tend to find the Allies easier to play, casual players with some experience tend to find it evenly-matched, and serious players tend to find the Japanese favored). Most of them revolve around changing the opening turn's surprise attack to guarantee preservation of all 5 US carriers - while the chance for the Japanese to take out an American carrier is realistic, it tends to make things very difficult for the Allied player.
** The [[CharacterTiers tiers]] for this seem to go "More Fun> More Fair> More Realistic> Fluffier".
* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'', in particular, is often modified. It's intentionally created with no balance to speak of, and each power, spell, and piece of technology is written without considering how it interacts with the rest of the system. Most of the rules were initially created for other Palladium games that focused on human (or human-ish) characters: Ninjas & Superspies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Robotech, etc. Since Rifts has everything from super-powered humans to giant mecha to demons to gods in it, there aren't any guidelines for, say, when your martial arts stop being effective. (6-foot human throwing a 7-foot insect with Judo? Not mentioned, but probably okay. 6-foot human throwing a 25-foot demon? Still not mentioned.) For bonus points, the rules are (intentionally?) just slightly vague. For extra special bonus points, the entire Palladium game system (of which Rifts is a member) is supposedly cross-compatible, but each particular game uses slightly different rules. House Rules to the rescue!
** Its gotten so bad that ''the creator of Rifts'' uses house rules in his own campaign. Frustratingly, he refuses to put them in an update supplement, even as optional rules.
* Virtually all Pen and Paper roleplaying games have house rules of some kind, and in fact many games encourage a DM to alter or change rules to make for a smoother game.
** 'You are not playing White Wolf's ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', you are playing your ST's ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''.'
** One common such rule is 'no takebacks'. Once an action is declared, it is to be taken. This is generally implemented to stop players from endlessly changing their actions based on other people's actions. Intriguingly enough, White Wolf's World of Darkness (pre-reboot at least) contained an actual mechanic for changing one's action in the combat round.
*** GURPS suggests 'no takebacks' as an actual rule, with the caveat that if the player regrets their decision on a time frame that would have been fast enough in game, they can undo their action. The example they give is burning a document. If you shout "Wait!" within a few seconds, your character can probably salvage the document. If your character was using a flamethrower on the other hand...
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' suggests various possible house rules in the sourcebooks. Apparently the most popular house (that isn't suggested) is to separate the extremely broad IQ stat from also raising Perception and Will.
** That got suggested in Compendium I, before the shift to the newest edition.
** And one that became basically AscendedFanon was the change to hit and fatigue points. Formerly, fatigue points (tiredness) was based on Strength, while hit points (being cut to pieces-ness) was based on Health. ''Compendium I'' suggested reversing them; after all, muscles can help stop injury, while someone who's fit should have more endurance in a marathon, right? As of 4th edition, that's official. (Also helps mages from trying to get 12 ST to help get the FP needed for their magic..)
** Another notable line in GURPS: if a spellcasting roll critically fails, "the GM is free to impose any backfire he finds amusing, so long as he doesn't actually kill the caster. If this sounds unfair, it is! ''Magic is fickle.''"
* ''TabletopGame/TheFantasyTrip'' specifies that characters die when they reach 0 hit points, no exceptions. Most players find this a bit harsh, especially since player characters start with an average of 10 hp and rarely get much above 16, and healing is pretty severely limited. So most campaigns either have an "official house rule" allowing characters to survive having their hit points reduced to 0 or below, or the GM does a lot of fudging.
* Actively condoned by the rulebooks of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', which generally operates by the idea that if you and your opponent agree to the house rule, why not?
** The "snake eyes on a Leadership test means an automatic pass" rule was taken from 40K and absorbed into the Warhammer Fantasy house-rule pool so spectacularly that a) many people were convinced it was an actual rule and b) with the latest edition these people became right.
** Fans of TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy got tired of waiting for Games Workshop to publish rules for armies from the parts of the world map that [[FantasyCounterpartCulture approximately correspond to North Africa and Asia]], and set out to create their own army books. To date, Cathay, Albion, Araby, Nippon, and Estalia have got fan-made army books.
** TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} has got an expansive group of house rules floating around on the internet, including among other things rules for fighting battles set during the Horus Heresy, a fan-made 5th edition Inquisition Codex, rules for designing your own Special Characters, rules for designing Land Raider variants, and Apocalypse formations for large numbers of [[MacrossMissileMassacre Exorcist tanks]].
** These days, TabletopGame/{{Mordheim}} has been abandoned by GW, so a variety of sources have put together a series of campaigns and variant rules for taking the system out of the ruins of the titular city.
** By far the most ambitious attempt is [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Waffle_Edition_40K Waffle Edition 40K]] which is trying to re-balance the WHOLE GAME after 6th edition produced little of value while screwing up the balance even more. Progress has been slow though and a lot of people have given up on it.
* Playing ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition'' without House Rules is nowadays pretty much unheard of.
** In fact, what ended up in ''3.x'' that wasn't in ''2E''?
*** Critical hits and misses. Critical hits in (A)D&D ''were'' house rule territory. A natural 20 might always hit regardless of the target's armor class, but that hit itself was still a perfectly normal one dealing standard damage with no additional effects by the rules as written. (Now, some ''magic items'' like wounding and vorpal weapons would have abilities going off on certain high to-hit rolls, but that was just part of their magic, not the overall combat rules.) Then in AD&D 2, critical hits became an "optional" rule in the book. Unfortunately, one of the suggested options for critical hits was that a natural 20 always hits and deals double damage, so anyone who could only be hit on a 20 effectively had half as many total hit points!
*** So "AD&D 2.5" (Player's Options) got ''two'' critical hits options, one of them being a reasonably detailed and unified way to use both SubsystemDamage and HitPoint systems. To handle ''really big'' critters (giants vs. zaratan sort of thing) "believably" it needed expansion of size categories, but its uniformity made this trivial.
*** "Confirming" critical hits. PO did it via victim's saving throw. D&D 3 did it via requiring a second attack roll -- many players took the opportunity to house rule that part out since it slowed down play.
** A number of late-run 3.0 books were designed to be easily adapted to 3.5, but still require certain degrees of interpretation.
** The 3.5 book ''Unearthed Arcana'' was nothing but a collection of common house rules as official variant rules. Since it was released under the OGL license it's available as part of the SRD online.
** Natural 1s and 20s are very frequent house rule targets across the board. Many [=DMs=] consider them automatic success/failure on almost any sort of roll, and sometimes add additional effects to be rolled on a natural 20. By default, the only normal rolls affected in any special way by a natural 1 or 20 are attack rolls, saves, and the Use Magic Device skill. (In fact, some books explicitly state that 1 and 20 are not special on skill checks, but many [=DMs=] make them special anyway) One solution made a better use of the "exploding dice" probability regression mechanics AD&D2 had for firearms. Another used extra condition "and beat the target number by X", used in PO.
** Rather than simply an automatic hit or miss, there are numerous homebrew tables for adding extra effects to critical hits and fumbles. Opinions are divided on these, though, as while they might make a fight more colorful, they tend to disproportionately affect the martial characters who make far more rolls than the mages. Some [=DMs=] split the difference and prefer to just narratively describe the action (or encourage the player to do so) without mechanically altering the outcome.
** The 3.x Diplomacy rules are particularly conspicuous, as, by the book, a focused character can persuade a horde of bloodthirsty enemies he does not share a language with to "take risks to aid" him in approximately six seconds. Unfortunately, some common house rules result in things like noblemen refusing to accept taxes from peasants because the deal of "I give you money for nothing" isn't rewarding enough to overcome the level difference.
** Probably one of the most popular house rules in the ''3rd Edition'' is adding experience points after each accomplishment (eg. defeating a monster) instead of at the end of each adventure (as suggested in Player's Handbook). Obviously the limit of one level-up per adventure is usually omitted as well.
*** The complete inverse is popular, too: ignore all of the math around tracking experience points, and everyone levels up when the GM says so. Removing that bit of accounting saves sanity for both [=GMs=] and players. It does, however, interact problematically with magic item creation, spells, and other systems that involve spending experience points.
*** Lots of house rules, in fact, revolve around ignoring unwieldy rules or not tracking cumbersome equipment.
** Original D&D was so convoluted it required much interpretation. Effectively each different interpretation was a house rule. It also expected that you'd have a copy of an earlier game Chainmail and a game from another company, Outdoor Survival. While the ''Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia'' got all necessary rules within one roof, there were still a few things left undefined but either mentioned in other rulebooks or implied as knowledge in some other random rule. (e.g. Does drawing a weapon require 10 seconds, or does it cause you to lose initiative?)
** Many groups also implement more generous ability score generation methods than the defaults listed in the book or allow rerolls when a character is stuck with nigh unplayable stats. This was more common in earlier editions when HonestRollsCharacter was the default (six ability scores rolled in order with no rerolls). With ''3rd Edition'', the rules were changed to favor above average rolls (since the main characters are heroes) and to allow a complete set of rolls to be thrown out if they didn't meet certain minimum criteria. Point buy is also an official rule variant. So now, the HonestRollsCharacter is a house rule.
** Different groups have different rules on when you are allowed to reroll dice. Some say that you have to take the roll regardless of whether the die falls in the toilet, while other groups say that if the die hits something on the table (and you don't like the result) you can reroll it. Of course, the latter rule requires honest players who don't deliberately throw dice at obstacles.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition'' has received such a plethora of House Rules that it would take a dedicated page just to list them all. All that can be said for now is that it has led to tales from players and [=DMs=] alike, and even the famous ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' show.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' is particularly suited for house rules as the players are not supposed to know the rules and the GM is encouraged to remove, add or change the game any way they see fit. The GM can even change things as the game is progressing and the players are supposed to praise the decision.
** Then again, half the time Paranoia is played without any rules as the GM pulls shit out of his ass, rolls dice behind a screen, and pretends to consult charts that don't exist. Typically this is for the best.
** Players knowing the rules is treason.
* ICE's ''TabletopGame/{{Rolemaster}}'' system is designed to be very flexible and encourages the use of house rules.
* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' is ''built'' on this trope. In a game where it's very easy (and surprisingly affordable) to get infinite attacks in a round, the core rule book spends a great deal of time letting the GM know that they have every right to disallow certain 'legal' actions. It's also not uncommon for certain rules to be ignored if they'll slow down the game.
* House Rules for most ''TabletopGame/HeroSystem'' campaigns were more about the flavor of the setting than modifying the actual game, though there were always additions to the already long list of Advantages and Disadvantages.
* ''TabletopGame/BigEyesSmallMouth'', having been built with the entire anime genre in mind, requires House Rules and various GM fiats to keep the vaguely-written, easily [[RulesLawyer exploitable]] phrasing on the book rules in check. While most of them are internally consistent, conflicts between opposing Attributes can very quickly devolve into shouting matches.
* ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'' despite being the first FATE game to hit the market had a notoriously bad stress system that was almost universally house ruled over. There are still a great many variations out there.
** When Dresden Files came out it used one of these variations to have consequences be conditional, but mostly left things the same save for decreasing just how much stress characters could take. Well, without getting into Toughness Powers.
** To wit, pretty much ''any'' incarnation of the Fate system post-''[=SotC=]'' handled stress differently from it, and not all of them even did it the same way -- Evil Hat's own ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' shortened the stress track as above, Creator/Cubicle7's licensed twins ''TabletopGame/StarblazerAdventures'' and ''TabletopGame/LegendsOfAnglerre'' kept the length but turned the tracks strictly linear so that each ''point'' of damage would take off a box...
** In addition, pretty much every incarnation of the Fate system invites players and {{Game Master}}s to create their own stunts as needed, though earlier versions with their extensive stunt shopping lists could make this task look rather daunting. The ''TabletopGame/FateCoreSystem'' released in 2013 explicitly puts the responsibility of customizing the system to their own needs more into each playing group's own hands -- tweaking the skill list to taste, creating new stunts and other add-on "extras", it's all on the table, usually complete with guidelines, explanations, and examples.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' second edition has had ''many'' rules issues that led to everything from minor tweaks to massive mechanical rewrites to get rid of the problems. For example, some groups issue XP at character creation instead of the normal point-buy or hand out bonus points instead of XP, since the character creation system has flat costs for attributes and abilities while XP-based advancement has each dot cost progressively more, leading to people who failed to optimise being left in the dust due to the higher cost of reaching the same levels as their more min-maxed peers. Others have engaged in enormous projects to rewrite the more catastrophically broken material, such as most of [[CanonDiscontinuity Scroll of]] [[OldShame the Monk]].
* ''TabletopGame/StarWarsD20'' has a common house rule regarding Force Points[[note]]Force points allow, among other things, players to roll a given number of six sided dice and add the best one to an attack roll or skill check, or fall unconscious from an attack that should kill them[[/note]]. Normally, players gain a certain amount every time they level up but a common house rule is to gain a smaller amount every day instead. Likewise, because Destiny Points are ludicrously overpowered (allowing things like making an attack automatically crit or an attack against the player automatically miss), a common house rule puts a cap on how many players are allowed to have at one time[[note]]Unlike Force Points which have a set maximum equal to the amount a player gains when they level up, Destiny Points have no cap but players only get one with each level up[[/note]].
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' tends to be fairly firm in its ruleset, though there are a few recurring types of house rules that turn up.
** Relaxed restrictions on wheeled vehicles, allowing them to enter rough ground at a movement penalty rather than cutting them off entirely.
** Ultra autocannon unjam rules similar to the rotary autocannon unjam rules.
** Relaxed restrictions on Land-Air 'Mech construction rules. Normally the Land-Air 'Mech unit class is not permitted to use highly desirable weight-saving technologies that would permit them some relevance in 3050-onwards (ostensibly as a balancing measure, but mostly to keep the notoriously litigious Harmony Gold from honking out another lawsuit). Fans of Land-Air 'Mechs tend to ignore these restrictions so that the class is not fully relegated to obsolescence.
** Anti-infantry rules for [=PPCs=], which are canonically charged particle weapons with an explosive impact. This allows PPC-armed 'Mechs such as the ''Awesome'' to sweep away pesky infantry with ease rather than constantly firing its main battery at a single infantry platoon for several rounds on end just to be rid of it.
** Headshot ejection rules. Normally headshots that decapitate a 'Mech instantly kill the pilot. Some tables permit a roll for ejection chance to save the pilot. Very common for games where pilots are actual characters in the infantry-scale ''Mechwarrior'' RPG played alongside the tabletop wargame.
** Reactor explosions occurring if a fusion engine suffers three critical hits in one turn; normally this would cause an instant shutdown of the reactor and count as the (salvageable) destruction of the unit, but some tables use the cinematic reactor explosion option based on the Expanded Universe novels. This house rule is unique in that it has a universally accepted name: Stackpoling, based on author Michael Stackpole, who was fond of writing reactor explosions into the various battles in his novels, far more often than 'Mechs should explode normally.
** There's also "Cinematic Battletech" which doubles all weapon damage (except for shots that strike the head) and forces all critical hit rolls to add +1 to the result (meaning greater odds for critical damage). This makes the game much more dramatic in the 3025 timeframe and ''frighteningly'' lethal in any era after 3050 (a Gauss rifle will stove in most medium 'Mechs on a single center torso hit!).
* ''Fanfic/ThatGuyDestroysPsionics'' is the infamous tale of a ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' player [[OffTheRails derailing a campaign]] by single-handedly killing off the BigBad mere hours in, ''three times'' (as the GM kept vetoing his death), [[HoistByHisOwnPetard by abusing the GM's own house rules]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Board Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' has a plethora of house rules, many of which are so ubiquitous that people are surprised when they find out that they aren't the official rules. Many of them are misguided attempts at an AntiFrustrationFeature, as the game has a [[EndingFatigue particularly grinding endgame]], but many such rules turn out to be counterproductive, as just make the game longer by preventing losing players from going bankrupt. Others are just designed to spice things up or resolve disputes, especially among players who play regularly; as Creator/VictoriaWood once put it (in the context of spending Christmas with a friend's family), never play ''Monopoly'' with people who've been playing it together for decades, because everything you do will be wrong. [[http://www.playagaingames.com/games/monopoly_home_rules This page]] lists some of the most popular over the years, but to summarize here:
** A particularly common house rule is to put various fines and taxes (which, by strict rules, would go to the bank) in the center of the board and giving all the money to whomever lands on "Free Parking". It's not part of the official ruleset because of the above-mentioned EndingFatigue. Monopoly Junior, however, does use this as a rule, turning Free Parking into "Uncle Pennybags' Loose Change".
** One rule is to remove the limit on houses and hotels that can be on the board. By official rules, once they're gone, they're ''gone'' unless someone decides to sell them. The house rule allows you to just keep building more and more, marking them with pennies or other random tokens. Again, while it seems like it would make the game more fun, it ends up just forcing the same few players to trade around the same few thousand dollars with no end in sight, turning the endgame into an interminable LuckBasedMission.
** One rule to make things more interesting is "double money for landing on GO". Like most rules that increase money in circulation, it tends to stretch out the game. It's also the source of epic debates about what happens when you draw a card that says, "Go directly to GO; collect 200 dollars": does it mean you only get $200 (because that's what the card says), or does it mean you get $400 (applying the house rule or ExactWords), or does it mean you get ''$600'' (applying both: the card says $200, but not that the $200 ''comes'' from GO, so you get it in addition to the $400 from the house rule)? This is how [[SeriousBusiness friendships are destroyed, families are broken, and lives are lost]].
** One rule (or perhaps common misconception) is that when a player lands on an unclaimed property but chooses not to buy it, it's just left alone (and not collecting rent) until the next person lands on it. By official rules, when a player chooses not to buy the property, it goes immediately to auction, so ''someone'' has to buy it. Most people ignore this because they can't be arsed with auctions (or perhaps because they don't know how to run one smoothly). [[note]](A common problem associated with auctions is that they often degenerate into +$1 pissing contests, which can be solved by instating a minimum between bids, usually $5 or $10.)[[/note]] The problem is that the house rule can cause more expensive properties to go unowned until near the endgame, which again needlessly lengthens the game.
** A different rule is a twist on the above rule; when a player lands on an unclaimed property, it immediately goes to auction, regardless of whether the player who landed on it wants to buy it at face value. This is the sort of rule popular with more serious gamers who would otherwise turn their noses up at ''Monopoly''.
** One rule prevents players from buying property on their first lap around the board. It's intended to balance out the advantage gained by going first, but in practice there's often at least one player who lands on Chance on their first roll and draw "Advance to GO" or "Take a ride on the Reading" while another player constantly ends up in Jail to their increasing frustration, making the game even more unbalanced.
** One rule prevents players from collecting rent while in jail. It's supposed to be an ObviousRulePatch to prevent players from trying to go to jail intentionally and staying there for as long as possible, racking up rent money without the risk on landing on someone else's powerful monopoly.
** One rule allows players to form alliances and trusts. While it's certainly in the spirit of the game, it's not part of the official rules. Similarly, the official rules prohibit players from lending money to each other; this prohibition is often lifted by house rule (or evaded by [[LoopholeAbuse players making equivalent but separate gifts of money to each other]], although this is [[SchmuckBait difficult to enforce and open to abuse]]).
** The ''Screamsheet'' {{parodied|trope}} the phenomenon with its "[[https://web.archive.org/web/20120114171630/https://screamsheet.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/epic-monopoly/ Epic Monopoly]]" variant, which adds bizarre random encounters including Nazis, streetwalkers, and Creator/OrsonWelles.
* In the Finnish classic board game ''TabletopGame/StarOfAfrica'', it was possible to have a situation where nobody can win the game; players required money to move across sea, and if the Star was on an island and nobody had money, or the players were stuck on the islands without money, the game was unwinnable. After more than 50 years of various house rules to prevent this, a re-release finally fixed it by making it possible to move across the sea for free.
* The rules of ''Tigris & Euphrates'' say that in an external red conflict, temples with leaders next to them aren't removed. But really, isn't that a bit lame? The obvious alternative, however, that they're all removed, is simply too powerful. One compromise is to remove as many temples as possible in such a way that each leader still has at least one temple next to him.
* TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}}, especially the Japanese variant, has many house rules. Common house rules include:
** ''Yakuman'' stacking: A few very special hand types (known as ''yakuman'') are automatically worth the {{Cap}} of 32,000 points (subject to the x1.5 multiplier if the player who is holding the dealer button wins, for 48,000 total). On the even rarer occasion that someone completes a hand which fulfills more than one ''yakuman'' condition, this rule allows them to win 32,000 points ''per ''yakuman'' condition'' the hand fulfills. This makes it possible, albeit extremely improbable (the odds are better of winning the lottery twice in the same month), to form a hand worth 336,000 points.
** ''Wareme'': When someone wins a hand, whoever is sitting behind the broken tile wall (''i.e.'' the wall where the initial draw started) wins and loses double.
** ''Doukasen'': When someone wins a hand, whoever is sitting behind the tile wall the last tile was drawn from wins and loses double.
** ''Open Riichi'': Upon declaration of Riichi, a player can reveal their entire hand (or just the portion that's relevant to what they need as the last tile to win), so that opponents can figure out what they need to win and avoid discarding those tile(s). 1 extra ''han'' (hand point) for winning the hand after doing so. An additional house sub-rule can make it worth a yakuman (the {{Cap}} of 13 ''han'', converts to 32,000 ScoringPoints) if the Open Riichi player gets the last tile from someone else's discard, and the losing player could have legally discarded a different tile that wouldn't have let the winner win from their discard.
** ''Kuitan Nashi'': The Tanyao yaku only counts if the hand is closed (formed without called discards). This is an ObviousRulePatch to prevent players from calling tiles left and right to try and finish their hand with Tanyao to fulfill the 1-yaku requirement just to claim bonus points for ''dora''.
** ''Aotenjou'' ("Skyrocketing"): The exponential score formula that's normally used for hands worth less than 8,000 points is used for ''all'' hands, without the 8,000-point soft {{Cap}}. This means, for example, that a hand with 13 or more han is worth over ''2 million'' points at a bare minimum, instead of the usual 32,000 hard cap. This is usually combined with a separate house rule for dealing with ''yakuman'' stacking (as seen above), although some variants ''add'' to the absurdity: the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' fangame ''Touhou Unreal Mahjong'' has an ''Aoutenjou'' mode where yakuman are worth 13 han and multiple yakuman stack ''multiplicatively'', with a hard cap of 4 billion points (without the cap, you get [[http://www.osamuko.com/some-random-thoughts-on-scoring/ even more absurd results]] like 1.12x10[[superscript:52]] points).
** Later installments of the ''Mahjong Fight Club'' arcade series add a mode which uses one of several creative house rules (with which house rule being used rotating depending on the date). Some of the house rules include:
*** Each player can see the entire hand of the player on his/her left.
*** Each player can see what he/she will draw on his/her next turn assuming nobody takes another player's discard (which shifts the order).
*** Each player's starting hand is visible to everyone and those tiles remain visible for the hand; only drawn tiles are concealed.
*** Each player starts with only 13,000 points, making it much easier to bankrupt a player. Busting another player yields a bonus, deducted from the busted player(s).
*** Each player is timed on how long he/she takes for each turn. At the end of the match, if the player with the highest score has the fastest average time, they get a bonus, deducted from the player with the slowest average time.
* Both TabletopGame/CandyLand and Sorry! have basically the same rule variation to make the game more interesting[[note]]It's an official alternative play method for Sorry!, you can find it in the game's rules[[/note]]. Both games usually involve just picking a card from the top of the deck, and you have to play it. The variation involves the players holding a hand of 3-5 cards, and choosing which one to play each turn, then drawing a replacement. Especially important in Candyland, where you otherwise are unable to affect the game at all (Sorry! has multiple tokens on the board, so which one you move ''does'' affect the game).
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pandemic}}'', the player roles are supposed to be randomly distributed, but a large number of players prefer to let people choose their roles, or otherwise create a draft system that gives players a greater degree of control over what role they end up with. A few of the spin-offs adapt this into the official ruleset; ''Reign of Cthulhu'' for example gives the first player a choice of two roles, with the unselected role being passed to the next player alongside a new one for them to choose, repeating until everybody has selected their role.

[[folder:Card Games]]
* The game ''One Thousand Blank White Cards'' is almost nothing but house rules; it's part of what makes it fun. To clarify, it's played like this: each player receives a hand of completely blank cards (five or seven, usually). At any time, a player may take a blank card and write its rules on it (along with drawing a picture of stick figures). Once a card has been written on, it can be played, and the rules written on it take effect. The house rule "no cards that allow one player to win instantly" is usually declared up front.
* All the manner of alternate cooperative dueling rules exist for ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
** Once upon a time, house rules were the ''only'' way to have a [=M:tG=] game with more than two people. Also, rules taken for granted today like the limit of 4 of each card and "play or draw" (the choice between going first or being able to draw an extra card) started as house rules.
** ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' can be quite interesting with or without a "draw seven when you run out of cards" rule -- the two require vastly different strategies, of course, since such a rule can make emptying your hand a good thing and make cards that return to your hand a severe disadvantage.
** One particular unofficial multiplayer format that evolved for ''Magic'' is the Five Colour Format, which has massive 200 (or 500) -card decks that require all 5 colours to have at least a minor presence in the deck.
** One way to create a new variant is to add "Alara" to an old variant. In the Alara variant, you can have one color and its two allies, and the other Commander rules apply as well. This bans all four-color and five-color cards, including cards like the Skyship ''Weatherlight'' (for costing one mana of each color to activate), and any color that requires mana of one color and both its enemies.
** A particularly popular House Rules format, Elder Dragon Highlander, has its own official unofficial rules put together by people outside of Wizards of the Coast.
*** And now it's been renamed Commander and been given a multiplayer set themed around it, while still not being an official [=WotC=] format.
** A multi-player "Wargames" variant exists, named and themed after an old Wrestling/DustyRhodes\Wrestling/{{WCW}} event. Play begins after the participants choose lots and are seated in order, first to last, with turns proceeding in order. For the first interval, typically two or three rounds, only players one and two may attack or affect one another, while later players and their cards/hands/creatures/etc cannot be targeted, nor can players "not in play" affect other players, in play or otherwise, in any way.. After the first interval has passed, player #3 becomes a valid target and may himself begin to target others. Intervals proceed until all players are in play, and only after all players are in play can players be eliminated from the game. Before that point, players can have empty libraries or a life total of zero and still be in play until the last player joins, but once he does and he is in a losing condition, he or she is eliminated immediately. The rules are easily modifiable for team play, with all odd- and even-numbers players competing on the same side and randomly determining who gets the numerical advantage as the intervals progress. Obviously, these variants are heavily based around luck of the draw, as later players in large games have a huge advantage in building up lands and armies without interference until he or she is put in play, though instants and other targeting spells have a large chance of being discarded, since as the players not in play cannot target others, these spells can go to waste due to discarding due to hand limits. A common house rule to make things easier on early entrants is allowing players to reshuffle their graveyard back into their library once their library is empty, eliminating the empty library loss condition.
*** An additional variant, sometimes termed "Royal Rumble", is also played, with the only change being that players can be eliminated before all players are in play. Or even that there is a maximum number of players in play at any given time, with the next player in line being put in play once an existing player is eliminated.
* The card game ''Hex Hex'' specifically states that whoever wins the game gets to make up a house rule which applies for the rest of the session. Popular ones include not being allowed to say the word "hex" and swapping the definitions of left and right.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Uno}}'':
** Three house rules have gotten to the point that in many minds they have displaced the real rules. Most people don't play with the official rules, to the extent that they won't even announce which house rule sets they play with when the game begins.
*** Omitting the score mechanic. In the official rules, the first player to get rid of their cards in a round receives points for all of the cards left in their opponents' hands (number cards are worth their number; Skip, Reverse, and Draw Two are all worth 20, and Wilds are worth 50), and the winner is the first to get 500 points. Alternatively, you can score each player according to the cards they have left, with the lowest score winning once someone hits 500 points. Most players cheerfully ignore this and just declare the first player to get rid of their cards the winner. The remaining players may or may not keep playing for 2nd, 3rd, etc.
*** Allowing a Draw Four to be played at any time. The official rules state that you can't play one if you have another card in your hand that matches the ''color'' on the discard pile, and that anyone can challenge a Draw Four play. If someone gets busted for an illegal Draw Four play, they have to draw four instead... but if the play turns out to be legal, the challenger faces a six-card penalty.
*** Allowing Draw Two/Draw Four cards to be stacked, which the official rules do not. Those who do know the original rules, though, will sometimes use this to their advantage - particularly if "stacking" is called but removing the limitation on Draw Fours is ''not''. More than one person with an incomplete grasp of the Uno rules has been challenged on their Draw Four play in a stacking sequence, gotten a quick refresher of the rules, and acquired a new {{Rival}} after being crushed with [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill a Draw Thirty-Two]].
** The official instructions suggest three house rules:
*** ''Jump-in Uno'': If you have the exact same card as the top of the discard pile, you may play it immediately -- even if it isn't your turn. Play resumes from the player who "jumped in".
*** ''Seven-O Uno'': Like regular Uno, except that playing a 0 forces every player to pass their hand to the next player in the direction of play, and that playing a seven forces you to trade your hand with a player of your choice.
*** ''Progressive Uno'': Allows Draw Two and Draw Four cards to be stacked on top of cards of the same type, but does not let you stack Draw Twos on Draw Fours, or vice versa.
** And now there's an Uno edition that includes three customizable wild cards with blank white centers, and a fourth with a "swap hands" rule on it. The blanks are specifically for writing house rules on, preferably in pencil so they can be erased and rewritten as desired.
* ''TabletopGame/ApplesToApples'' has several popular house rule addendums, including that everyone gets to submit one red card, and that once per game a judge can swap green cards during the judging phase without warning anyone.
* There are certain card games that are entirely based on house rules. For example, one game called ''TabletopGame/{{Mao}}'' has only one real rule at the start; it's exactly like Uno with regular playing cards (no draw cards or wildcards), and the winner of a hand can make up a rule for all future rounds, so long as it doesn't favor anybody in particular. It generally starts with at least one or two extra rules so that you can trip people up. An even more crazy version of this was a game where you could make a rule any time you played an 8 card, and the rule could do anything besides make you win instantly without playing a card.
** In most variants of Mao, ''you don't have to tell anyone what the new rule you just made up is'', just that there is one. The first time the new rule is broken, you give a penalty card and explain the penalty. This is still fair, because the penalty name is usually descriptive enough for other players to deduce the rule, and once they have figured it out, they can then call it.
** It's worth noting that it's illegal to talk about the rules of Mao. If you do, your punishment can range from card penalties to a permanent ban (a ban being for explaining the majority of the rules to someone who does not know how to play). You can also not alter the base rules of Mao without winning a hand first. The official statement is "The only rule I can tell you is this one." If the variant of Mao is named (e.g. untraditional Cambridge 5 card Mao), that specifies a set of base rules which anyone else who has played that variant will know.
** A simpler variant of Mao has one person making a rule (which can be as perversely complicated as they like) about which cards can be played on which other cards, and not telling anyone what it is. Then, everyone else takes turns putting down cards. If their card doesn't fit the pattern, they have to take it back and lose their turn.
* ''Nomic'' and similar games consist of nothing ''but'' house rules; that is, in fact, the point - they're an entire class of games where the point is that the rules are altered continuously throughout the game. Needless to say, these games tend to get far more complicated than mere humans can cope with. Several have been running continuously since 1993.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Fluxx}}'' already has card types that add rules and goals to the game. You can buy Fluxx Blanxx to get the same cards with no text on them.
* From the publisher of Fluxx comes ''TabletopGame/{{Icehouse}}'', a bunch of plastic pyramids that can be put on their sides to indicate facing. Then they started publishing game after game that used those pieces. House rules ensued.
* ''Crazy Eights''. The basic rules are a discard while following suit or value. This is the ''only'' thing that people can agree upon. The following are but a small example of the house rules one may come across.
** Eights: Usually wild. Sometimes, they change the suit to their own suit. Sometimes, the player gets to choose the suit they become. Other variants have it as skip a player.
** Twos: Pick up two. Stacking them usually means the next person picks up 4, then 6, then 8.
** Jacks: Skip a turn or reverse the rotation of players.
** Aces: "Drop the bomb." This allows you to play every other card of that suit on top of your ace.
** Queens: Pick up four. Stacking them might be additive, like with twos. Sometimes, you can add the twos to the run. Sometimes, only the Queen of Spades means picking up, and it usually means pick up 5. May or may not stack.
** Sixes: "Silent Six". Talking results in gaining two cards.
** King Of Hearts/Five Of Hearts: Dropping the King results in the next player taking five cards, unless they counter with the Five. If this happens, the player who used the King has to take ten cards.
** Multiples. Do you have -tuples of the same value? Why not play them all at once!
** Knock to declare your last card.
** And that doesn't even begin to cover Crazy Eights variants, like Crazy Eight Countdown.
* Similar is ''Last Card''. The usual rules are Ace is wild, 2 is pick up two, 5 is pick up five and 10 skip a turn. Optional rules include Jack is reverse, 7 'blocks' a 2 or 5, or bounces it back to person who put it down. Sometimes pick up cards can be passed on by the recipient by stacking another one on top to add the effect, regardless of whether it is the same number as the original pick up. There can be disagreements over whether someone's win was legitimate if they didn't call 'Last card' one turn, then emptied their hand next turn by putting down several cards of the same number.
* Being a game with countless "official" variations and even more unofficial ones, TabletopGame/{{Poker}} is replete with house rules. Some popular ones:
** Chase The Hammer: Only used in Texas Hold 'Em games, you win a small number of chips from every player if you win a hand having been dealt a seven and a deuce of different suits, the worst possible hand you can be dealt and nicknamed The Hammer.
** "No check-raising" was a popular one for a while, but it's currently out of favor for making the game (especially limit games) more mechanical.
** Bad beat jackpots: Players who suffer particularly bad beats are given a large consolation prize, often larger than the value of the hand itself. Common in casinos.
** In home games, it's becoming popular to give each player one "Show Me" chip at the beginning of the night, which can be used once after a hand is completed to force a player to show whether they were bluffing or not.
** The straddle bet: If you're sitting under the gun (i.e. to the left of the big blind, where you normally have to act first), you may place a bet equal to double the big blind before looking at your cards. This essentially turns you into the new big blind position (i.e. you get to act last in the first betting round) while simultaneously doubling the stakes for the first betting round. Some variations of the straddle bet rule allow the player to the left of a straddle bet to re-straddle for double the straddle bet, and some allow this doubling to continue until the player to left of the last (re-)straddle bet doesn't have enough money to re-double.
** "The Rock": a player (either the first to deal or the winner of the first hand of the night) is given a specially-marked chip called "the rock." When the holder of the rock is in the under the gun position (left of the big blind, first to act), they ''must'' straddle as described above, and the rock is placed in the pot as well, to go to the winner of the hand, who is forced to straddle when ''they'' are next under the gun.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Chrononauts}}'', a purely-for-flavor house rule is that whenever you change a linchpin, you have to explain how you're changing it. If someone changes it back, they need to explain how they changed what you did. This can lead to some very amusing chains of events.
** Hitler was killed by an orbital laser cannon. Then he wasn't, because Bob stole the power source. Then he was, because that was a decoy power source. Then....
* Also very often in the most popular German card game, ''TabletopGame/{{Skat}}''. Many of these help to drive the score SerialEscalation (and note that Skat is often played for money, albeit not that much, depending on the score).
* TabletopGame/{{Spades}}: How Blinds (bidding X books before the cards are dealt) are supposed to work, or even if said gambit is available. Whether you can call for one at any time or only after you're down X points. Do you automatically get them if you go into negative points? Standard scoring for failed blind or double-points? Is the highest card the Ace of Spades, 2 of Spades, or a Joker? How these all work usually depends on who you play with.
* [[TabletopGame/HoylesRulesOfDragonPoker Hoyle's Rules of Dragon Poker]]: There are "only" around 250 conditional modifiers, but the rules provide a mechanism for players to invent more.
* ''TabletopGame/CardsAgainstHumanity'' has many:
** When playing more than one card at a time, are cards read from top to bottom, or bottom to top? Better establish in advance whether you're playing with a bunch of dirty bottom-to-top heretics....
** Many groups allow players to take a pass and spend a turn [[DiscardAndDraw discarding as many cards as they like and drawing back up to a full hand]].
** Since MurphysLaw dictates that the card you draw to replace the one you just played will ''always'' be better than the one you played, some groups let you "bet" a black card to play that card as well. If either of your cards win, you win your black card back; if someone else wins, they get your black card.
* When playing Jungle Speed, engaging in a tug-of-war over the totem is, according to the rules, a foul, and should result in the player who starts it collecting all the cards on the table. Many older players disregard this rule, and in fact encourage fighting over the totem.
* TabletopGame/TwentyTwo has several house rules meant to either balance the game or make it more volatile. Here are some of the most common:
** Hand size: Instead of dealing at a constant hand size, the size of the next hand is equal to the score taken from the previous round.
** Skip the trades: The portion where cards are traded in is ignored - what you are dealt is what you get.
** Face cards: Instead of face cards having sequential score penalties, Jacks, Queens, and Kings all net a penalty of 10 points, while Aces only inflict 11. (Order still applies for trick-taking purposes)
** Optional heading: Heading the trick is optional. This means, just because a player is able to match or beat the highest card does not mean they have to.
** Straights: If a player has a run of cards in direct ascending value, this may be used to lead a hand. A minimum length, maximum length, or requirement to match suit may or may not be imposed.
** Reshuffling the point card: Traditionally, players hold onto their point card as a way to keep score. However, if paper and pencil (or equivalent) are on hand, this may be unnecessary, and the players may agree to shuffle them back into the deck.
** Dealer: If multiple people have the highest card on the last trick, the role of dealer is decided between them through random selection. Alternatively, the role of dealer simply passes counterclockwise throughout the game.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In one issue of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' Molly argues with Victor and Gert over these while the three are playing a game of ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}''. She's used to using the "Free Parking Jackpot" rules when playing with her family, while they're going with the baseline rules.

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* A RunningGag in ''ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward'' is Ted coming up with increasingly absurd house rules for Monopoly, until it isn't really Monopoly any more. He has tried to introduce zombies, time travel, and giant robots, amongst other things.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Cass in ''Film/TheGamersDorknessRising'' argues with Lodge's House Rules frequently. Of course, he is a {{Munchkin}}.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/KeasFlight'': As an adolescent, Kea becomes obsessed with chess. She invents dozens of sets of rules for between one and eight players. Nobody wants to play House Rules Chess with her, so she spends hours playing by herself.
* ''Literature/{{Stim}}'': When Chloe and Robert play Monopoly, they add extra features to make the game more realistic, like "printing" new money to simulate inflation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* The [[{{Calvinball}} faux-game]] ''[[Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue Mornington Crescent]]'' consists almost ''entirely'' of the players "arguing" about which house rules are in effect for the particular game. Minutiae such as what day of the week it is, whether the House of Lords is in session at the time of play, and how many buttons are on the shirt being worn by the player to your right can all potentially be [[Main/SeriousBusiness of significance]]. [[spoiler:Rumors that the actual gameplay just involves shouting the names of Tube stations until time runs out or someone says "Mornington Crescent" are to be dismissed without comment.]]
** At least once they've tried to play it for a city other than London, [[{{Unwinnable}} before "remembering" that no other city has a Mornington Crescent]] (although the Edinburgh variant "Morning''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morningside,_Edinburgh side]]'' Crescent" has proven popular).
* The radio panel show ''Radio/TheUnbelievableTruth'', where four panellists each give a short lecture on a subject that is entirely false save for five true facts which the other panellists have to try and spot, has established two "unofficial" rules over its lifetime. The first is that a panellist can guess that the ''next'' thing the current speaker is going to say is true before it's actually said (although the rule that you lose points for an incorrect challenge still applies, so it's a risk), and the second is that panellists can get bonus points from truths the speaker accidentally included apart from the five they were given (which tend to be examples of ExactWords or LoopholeAbuse more than anything).
[[/folder]]

''The rules of any given tabletop game do not have to be limited to what is listed in the rulebook.''

The rules of ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' are good and fun. But really, the auction rules are lame, Free Parking needs something to make it more exciting, and shouldn't you be able to ''travel'' on railroads you own?

Welcome to House Rules. Any rule that players add to or change in a standardized game is a house rule, named after the varying rules used in casinos (where you bet against "the house"). House Rules are, in a way, the FanFiction of BoardGames and [[TabletopGames Tabletop [=RPGs=]]].

The GameMaster can impose his House Rules on the gaming group whether they want him to or not. This can be a recipe for social disaster if done poorly, or a welcomed improvement. In fact, some table top games encourage House Rules, and offer advice for how to make them fit with the rest of the game. However, attempting to impose your rules on the rest of the world may get you labeled as a {{Scrub}} or as the [[StopHavingFunGuys Stop Having Fun Guy]], depending on the tone you use. If there is any ambiguity in a house rule, particularly with how it stacks with other rules, a RulesLawyer may try to take advantage.

House Rules are not the same as errata, which are released by the publisher and are used nearly everywhere that knows about them. Errata are small corrections, or updates that the developers made before the game was officially published, but after the game has gone to print and can't be altered, while 'house rules' often fall under the category of 'whatever's convenient', either for gameplay reasons or [[ObviousRulePatch to fix a broken aspect of the game system]]. Deliberately ignoring the errata, however, would be an example of house rules. Sometimes they can end up canon when [[RunningTheAsylum former players start making the game]] and include their own favorite house rules in the errata or in newer editions.

Please note that while ''Series/{{House}}'' does, in fact, rule, [[JustForPun this is entirely unrelated]]. Also is not directly related to (but may be used to tweak) a HouseSystem. Not to be confused with the book ''Literature/HouseRules'', which is about a murder trial involving an eighteen-year-old with Asperger's Syndrome, or with ''Literature/TheCiderHouseRules''. Nor, for that matter, with PlayingHouse.

For the video game equivalents, see SelfImposedChallenge (undertaken within the mechanics of the game) and GameMod (altering those mechanics themselves). See VariantChess for a fiction-based trope with narrative uses. Can also be applied to create unofficial SoloTabletopGame rules. Also see {{Calvinball}}, which may be a result of a liberal application of this trope.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with]] the House ending to VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Competitive {{speedrun}}ners as a whole make frequent use of house rules, as very few video games are designed with speedrunning in mind. They are used first to ensure that runs are timed fairly and consistently, and second to keep things [[RuleOfFun as fun as possible]]. (For example, the consensus that a game's long, boring ForcedTutorial can be skipped.)
* A pretty common feature in most multiplayer games is to include options in multiplayer game configuration screens is to remove specific elements, be they maps or items, from play, either for challenge reasons or because they were seen as annoying {{gamebreaker}}s in a [=PvP=] situation.
** {{Game Mod}}s could be considered the opposite of restriction house rules, as they are also in essence house rules, but typically add things or fix balance issues.
** Players of most [=MMORPGs=] tend to forbid using health potions during [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] as they immediately turn a skill and/or gear contest into a war of stock attrition.
* People often impose restrictions on the battle system when doing battling in the ''Pokémon'' games, often based on popular tournament formats. ''[[Videogame/PokemonStadium Pokémon Battle Revolution]]'' even allows you to hardwire in these restrictions before the match begins.
* ''VideoGame/SimCity'', being an EndlessGame with no real goal besides expanding, is commonly set by {{Self Imposed Challenge}}s and House Rules. Considering you can even use real-world urban planning and rules, it's no wonder why some [[SeriousBusiness incredibly well-built cities]] awe so many people... unless they used a GameMod.
* RealTimeStrategy multi-player games often have an agreed "5 minutes no rush" rule, if the game doesn't support it itself.
** Is sometimes taken to extremes. In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'', No Rush agreements can stretch as high as 45 minutes, even though the game includes the ability to start with extra resources or later in the tech tree specifically to avoid this issue.
** ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' actually made this official with the "Treaty Mode", which prevents all combat until a time limit is reached.
*** It can even go further, some games have common rules amounting to "no subterranean/airborne/warping units can be used until you pass a "gate" or other arbitrary barrier around the enemy base" with ground units. Such rules are designed to prevent base building being a race to build said rapid-transport units to bring in engineers/monks/converters/other capturing units before the enemy can build effective defenses. While it's a noble intent, the rules can be so specific as to be annoying, and often unbalance games where one faction relies on traditional firepower and the other faction relies on stealth/trickery/speed/etc.
** ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' has its own "no rush" mechanic that can be enforced before players reach a certain age, typically the [[TheCavalierYears Gunpowder Age]]. Outside of games using this mechanic, rushing is considered an acceptable strategy, due to its inherently high risk.[[note]]A player that attempts to rush, but fails, will be far behind in both resources and technology.[[/note]]
* Most if not all electronic versions of ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' have selectable house rules built-in.
* ''VideoGame/MarioParty'':
** If you want to make the games even more chaotic than they already are, try skipping all the minigame explaination screens.
** Some ''Mario Party'' games allow you to pick and choose which minigames come up in the board game mode, allowing you to more tailor the game to your liking.
* Certain multiplayer features of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' get this treatment. In fact, Forge mode, originally introduced in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', is designed so that players can [[InvokedTrope invoke this trope]].
** The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Living Dead]]/Infection gametype started out as a juggernaut variant in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}''. Creator/{{Bungie}} [[AscendedMeme officially made it a gametype]] in ''Halo 3'', and Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries even made unique skins for the zombies in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}''[='s=] version of this, Flood.
** This was also the beginning of Grifball (basically rugby with swords and hammers), as well as numerous other games in the Action Sack playlist.
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront II'', assault on Mos Eisley has these unofficial rules: 1) The arena is for dueling, 2) Interfering in a duel is a bannable offense, 3) Ayla Secura is cheap, 4) No Yoda either.
* The Ur-Quan Masters (''VideoGame/StarControlII'') has a few for online games, mostly because the game itself doesn't enforce any standards:
** Both players are limited to a number of "points" (which indicate how strong each ship is), usually 200.
** Players pick their teams before connecting. No peeking at the other player's selection.
** No more than one of any given ship is allowed. Without this rule, one player would be able to get a huge advantage by having multiple copies of tough-to-counter ships, like the Chmmr and Kohr-Ah. A variation is to allow duplicates, but only for ships that are worth less than 30 points (the largest number of points any ship has in the game).
** Thraddash is banned. The main reason, other than it being a GameBreaker, is the way to use it properly drags out games way too much (staying away from the opponent with the afterburner while slowly draining the other ship's crew with the peashooter).
** If a stalemate happens, whoever controls the fastest ship at the time is responsible for breaking the stalemate.
* ''VideoGame/{{Culdcept}}'' allows for players to set a large number of house rules in multiplayer mode, including banning or limiting certain cards in decks, just like a judging board for a physical card game would.
* In many arcades, players often line up coins or markers on the cabinet to set up a queue, and whenever the current player's turn ends, they must get off the machine so that the player whose marker is at the front of the queue goes next. This is usually the case for {{Rhythm Game}}s, fighting games, and driving games, but on {{Light Gun Game}}s, {{Shoot Em Up}}s, and some other types of games, not so much; most people who play such games tend to keep feeding credits unless someone else asks if they want to have a turn.
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': Due to the customizability of the matches, house rules are easy to implement. And due to the Smash series being random and chaotic by default, they are widely deployed in competitive TournamentPlay scenarios to remove chaotic elements and create order and fairness to ensure that the winner is determined solely by show of skill. The tournament ruleset is varies slightly by installment and is too complex to list here but always restricts play to a limited subset of levels and requires that the random appearance of items be turned off.
** The developers began to wise up to this around ''Brawl,'' gradually adding more and more options designed to appeal to the tournament crowd without detracting from the game's default fun, random and chaotic nature. It came to a head in ''Ultimate,'' which has an entire online lobby dedicated to competitive players, slightly alters fights with only two players to facilitate quick matches, and offers alternate versions of every stage that make them look like Battlefield and Final Destination as well as the ability to disable stage hazards in order to allivate AbridgedArenaArray.
** Outside of tournament play, players have come up with many different ways to play matches, such as going the complete opposite direction of the above and creating matches where everyone is metal, has bunny ears, and items are set to high but the only items are explosives, and also the match is set to 2x speed on Mario Bros. (a stage notorious for extremely long matches due to the barriers allowing players to survive to comically high damage percentages), or "King of the Hill" games where the objective is to be the person who claims a certain point on the map when time runs out.
* ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' has the infamous "No Oddjob" calling whenever the game starts. Oddjob, being shorter than everyone else, is at an advantage over the other characters. It's also not an uncommon rule to allow a player to use Oddjob [[MercyMode if they lose several times in a row]].
* The HD re-release of ''VideoGame/GuardianHeroes'' gives players the options to create their own set of rules for a Versus Mode match. These can range from, but not limited to: the minimum and maximum level of any character, the damage scale, alter a character's moveset, whether or not elemental attacks apply, MP consumption, and much more.
* Organized scrimmages in ''[[Videogame/MechWarrior MechWarrior Living Legends]]'' often had a rule preventing the usage of the Shiva "Echo" variant, a GameBreaker SpacePlane that could handily OneHitKill anything flying and then rain death upon ground forces with impunity thanks to its heavy armor and speed; matches without the rule were in many cases decided by which team had enough pilots to [[GameplayDerailment field as many Shivas as possible]]. The game's final update nerfed the Shiva "Echo". Various other rules were implemented for the sake of fun and brevity; in no-respawn matches, PoweredArmor and aircraft couldn't "carry" the team, so if all the teams' ground vehicles (tanks and HumongousMecha) were destroyed, the team would lose to prevent endless games of "hunt the last battlearmor" or enemy aircraft spinning in circles in the sky past weapons range to force a draw.
* On [[VideoGame/GrandChase Grand Chase]] [=PvP=], it was a common house rule that if a player was disconnected early on, that the team with more players would have the number of players that left sit out until a teammate was eliminated. To a lesser extent, some players would do the same thing if the other team had eliminated players, but it usually ends with the worse team winning because the best player could beat anyone on the other team 1 on 1.
* Even players who don't follow ''Website/{{Smogon}}'' rules in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' battles generally agree to ban any moves that increase evasion or lower accuracy so as to keep matches from turning into [[LuckBasedMission Luck-Based Missions]].
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' has "draft"-style play, a common houserule for people playing together, where the players pick characters one by one, then play games side-by-side using only the characters they picked (similar to a sports draft). How exactly the draft shakes out can vary, but usually [[CantDropTheHero both players can use the Lord]], and particularly centralizing or overpowered characters (i.e. a very strong CrutchCharacter) will be limited in some way, such as both players being allowed to use them early on, and then them being banned afterward. Characters with utility that far imbalances the gameplay if left alone to one player (namely Dancers) are also usually allowed for everyone.
* Spend a notable amount of time on ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' and you'll find a number of house rules people expect others to play by. This can include not chasing survivors immediately after they've been rescued, always give the last survivor the hatch or other way of winning the game, not leaving survivors to bleed out, not camping captured survivors, and other similar things. Failing to do these things can cause players to be upset. Very often though many of said rules can be difficult to follow given certain circumstances, up to and including how certain killers play, and said house rules are often mockingly referred to as "The Survivors Handbook For Killers".
* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'' has a "Ratio" ruleset inspired by ''VideoGame/CapcomVsSNKMillenniumFight2000'', which became popular in the 2020's; in it, you are given a 7-point budget to build your team, with the amount of points each character is worth being roughly proportional to where they rank on the [[CharacterTiers tier list]]. It is a direct response to the game's well known horrible balance, with the budget not allowing players to use any of the infamously good teams common in competitive play. This results in players being a lot more encouraged to use mid- and low-tier characters, be it either whole teams of them or coming up with clever ways for them to be part of good teams containing top tier characters (in particular, the infamous four Gods, Sentinel, Storm, Magneto and Cable, all cost five points and this instantly makes your options for who to pick with them very limited should you want to use any of them; inversely, Roll is seen as so ''awful'' she doesn't even cost anything to pick and if you pick her you could use a slightly better character along with one God).
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* In the Finnish classic board game ''TabletopGame/StarOfAfrica'', it was possible to have a situation where nobody can win the game; players required money to move across sea, and if the Star was on an island and nobody had money, or the players were stuck the islands without money, the game was unwinnable. After more than 50 years of various house rules to prevent this, a re-release finally fixed it by making it possible to move across the sea for free.

[[folder: Comic Strips]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* In the Finnish classic board game ''TabletopGame/StarOfAfrica'', it was possible to have a situation where nobody can win the game; players required money to move across sea, and if the Star was on an island and nobody had money, or players were stuck the islands without money, the game was unwinnable. After more than 50 years of various house rules to prevent this, a re-release finally fixed it by making it possible to move across the sea for free.

* In the Finnish classic board game ''TabletopGame/StarOfAfrica'', it was possible to have a situation where nobody can win the game; players required money to move across sea, and if the Star was on an island and nobody had money, the game was unwinnable. After more than 50 years of various house rules to prevent this, a re-release finally fixed it by making it possible to move across the sea for free.

* In the Finnish classic board game [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikan_tähti Star of Africa]] it was possible to have a situation where nobody can win the game. After more than 50 years of various house rules to prevent this, a re-release finally fixed it.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Crazy Eights''. Oh, ''Crazy Eights''. The basic rules are a discard while following suit or value. This is the ''only'' thing that people can agree upon. The following are but a small example of the house rules one may come across.

** It's worth noting that it's illegal to talk about the rules of Mao. If you do, your punishment can range from card penalties to a permanent ban (a ban being for explaining the majority of the rules to someone who does not know how to play). You can also not alter the base rules of Mao without winning a hand first (plural, there are more than one in every game I've played). The official statement is "The only rule I can tell you is this one." If the variant of Mao is named (e.g. untraditional Cambridge 5 card Mao), that specifies a set of base rules which anyone else who has played that variant will know.