History Main / HouseRules

** 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 (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."

* 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 this.

** Natural 1's and 20's 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 and saves. 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.

* In the Virtual Nightmare Arc of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Noah implemented the Deckmaster system for duels (mostly due to his desire to prove himself superior to Seto Kaiba; the idea was to improve upon Seto's favorite game); this is the best-known example of House Rules in the franchise ([[FanFicFuel and a favorite among fanfiction writers who use the franchise as a base]]).
** Ironically, Seto adapted to this new rule almost perfectly, while Yugi managed to defeat Noah using a Deckmaster that was almost worthless. Noah, on the other hand, used a Deckmaster that was likely more powerful than any other; he had to cheat in order to defeat Kaiba, and could ''not'' defeat Yugi. In short, his plan to use this House Rule to prove he was superior to his rival [[EpicFail failed miserably]].

** 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 4-card limit and play or draw started as house rules.
** ''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 cards that return to your hand a severe disadvantage.

** 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, 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.

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]].

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 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]].

* ''VideoGame/SimCity'', in all its KobayashiMario glory, is nothing but a game to be set by {{Self Imposed Challenge}}s and HouseRules. Considering you can even use real-world urban planing and rules, it's no wonder why some [[SeriousBusiness incredibly well-built cities]] awe so many people... unless they used a GameMod.

* 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 RhythmGames, FightingGames, and DrivingGames, but on LightGunGames, ShootEmUps, and some other types of games, not so much.

* People often impose restrictions on the battle system when doing battling in the ''Pokémon'' games, often based on popular tournament formats. The latest release, ''[[Videogame/PokemonStadium Pokémon Battle Revolution]]'' even allows you to hardwire in these restrictions before the match begins.

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.

** These days, [[GaidenGame 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.

*** 4 billion points? [[http://www.osamuko.com/some-random-thoughts-on-scoring/ Chump change]].[[hottip:tl;dr:11,224,332,574,701,334,411,804,299,515,261,053,590,957,561,930,055,800 points.]]

*** 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.

[[/folder]]

Welcome to Main/HouseRules. 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"). Main/HouseRules are, in a way, the Main/FanFiction of Main/BoardGames and [[Main/TabletopGames Tabletop [=RPGs=]]].

The Main/GameMaster can inflict his Main/HouseRules 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 Main/{{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.

Main/HouseRules 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 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]].

* 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 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.

** 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.