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I'll admit, I'm a sucker for house rules. But then again, who isn't? So I was wondering, what're some favorite house rules that you and your gaming group prefer to employ in your games to make them easier, harder, or more realistic? Feel free to list em' here as a sort of "compiled thread".

My favorites:

Limited ammunition for all ranged weapons
Players must purchase ammo before the game at varying costs depending on the weapon in question

Dismounting vehicle crews
Note, vehicle must be immobilized or "destroyed" to occur. Cannot occur if vehicle is annihilated or destroyed by a template weapon

Creeping barrage
Artillery vehicles that choose not to move that turn all focus fire on a 2D6" straight stretch. The player rolls 1D6 to determine how many shots each vehicle will fire over the course of the "walk". Each "step" in the walk starts at the middle of the previous template, and stops at the last template without going over the 2D6". Scatter effects are halved for this ability, but the vehicle cannot move next turn, as it counts as "dug in"

Suppression fire
If a unit is falling back or running, nearby units can provide cover fire. Enemy units may not fire upon the falling back/running squad in their following shooting phase, and automatically go to ground. The squad(s) providing cover fire also may not move or fire in their following turn

Target leaders individually
Everyone knows the importance of killing officers and squad leaders over standard infantry. Players may fire directly upon any exposed squad leaders or officers if within 12" or less. If a squad containing a sergeant or an officer loses that sergeant or officer, they must take a morale check.

Booby Trapped buildings/bunkers
This will require a mediator. Players can choose to booby trap buildings that their troops are garrisoned in. These could be explosives with tripwires, grenade bouqets, a 'gaunt hiding in a roof vent, etc... The player setting the trap must disembark his units in his next movement phase. Any enemy units entering the building must take an "Awareness check" (AKA a morale check) if not equipped with an auspex or similar piece of kit. If failed, all members must take an armour save as they blunder into the trap and royally mess themselves up. Casualties are removed from the game, and the unit garrisons the building after confirming there are no further traps

If anyone would like specifics on these rules, feel free to send a PM or an Email. But enough from me, let's hear some other house rules!

One must shower before they are allowed to play at my FLGS.

Best house rule EVER!

jp400 wrote:One must shower before they are allowed to play at my FLGS.

Best house rule EVER!

A wise rule indeed, Kudos sir.

But that wasn't the intent of the forum. Keep it relevant to the topic please.

metallifan wrote:

jp400 wrote:One must shower before they are allowed to play at my FLGS.

Best house rule EVER!

A wise rule indeed, Kudos sir.

But that wasn't the intent of the forum. Keep it relevant to the topic please.

I'm a slob and even I shower before game night. Two dozen people packed into a room smaller than your average fast food restaurant? It should be included in the rulebook.

By the way, my answer for the totally gakked wound allocation rules in 40K is a simple D6 rule. Start from either the left or the right, roll 1D6, count that many models over and allocate a wound. Roll again and repeat. It's completely immune to abuse, and represents the senseless brutality of war.

Anyone else have any good house rules they'd like to add?

I think that brushing teeth before gaming might be a good house rule to institute as well.

I generally dislike house rules as they inevitably create an advantage for one player over another, and this leads to un-fun situations. If everyone just plays by the standard rules it leads to a more level playing field, because then everyone knows what they're getting into.

our FLGS has the rule that if you throw your dice off the table when rolling it fails by the most possible i.e. double 6 for ld test ...1 for armour saves ....etc

The friends that I game with generally give re rolls of dice that go off the table becasue it means everyone can see the result.
Limited Ammunition. How does this work? Do you pay in points and how is it restrcited? Is it like you pay 5 points to fire a Heavy Bolter 3 times or is there a different system?

Thanks,

The OC-D

theocd wrote:The friends that I game with generally give re rolls of dice that go off the table because it means everyone can see the result.
Limited Ammunition. How does this work? Do you pay in points and how is it restricted? Is it like you pay 5 points to fire a Heavy Bolter 3 times or is there a different system?

Thanks,

The OC-D

the rule was implemented cos we got sick of teeny sproglets hurling dice across the table and reading the result off the floor (generally making it up in there favor) so now if they try that ....they fail ...simple
stoped that trick dead

Enfilading fire/Friendly fire- FS: Friendly shooter FU: Friendly unit TU: Target unit EU: Enemy unit

If units are positioned like this:
FS-> TU -> EU
or
FS-> EU -> TU
You roll to-hit the closest unit then roll your misses at the next unit and continue on as long as there are enemy units, allowing you to twin- triplet- or quadruplet-link your weapons through careful maneuvering
If units are positioned like this:
FS-> FU -> TU
or FS-> TU->
you roll to-hit the closest unit with misses counting as hits against friendlies. Thus punishing you for firing through friendlies.

themandudeperson wrote:Enfilading fire/Friendly fire- FS: Friendly shooter FU: Friendly unit TU: Target unit EU: Enemy unit

If units are positioned like this:
FS-> TU -> EU
or
FS-> EU -> TU
You roll to-hit the closest unit then roll your misses at the next unit and continue on as long as there are enemy units, allowing you to twin- triplet- or quadruplet-link your weapons through careful maneuvering
If units are positioned like this:
FS-> FU -> TU
or FS-> TU->
you roll to-hit the closest unit with misses counting as hits against friendlies. Thus punishing you for firing through friendlies.

In the hands of mature, agreeable players, this would work fine. There should be exceptions for massive Ork mobs, Tyranid swarms and other big units.

These ones.

The friends that I game with generally give re rolls of dice that go off the table becasue it means everyone can see the result.
Limited Ammunition. How does this work? Do you pay in points and how is it restrcited? Is it like you pay 5 points to fire a Heavy Bolter 3 times or is there a different system?

Generally there's no preset points cost for ammo, as different gaming groups might decide one weapon should be more restricted than others. It also prevents really shooty armies with lots of very powerful weapons from obliterating weaker shooty, or non shooty armies before they get a chance to fight back. Plus it makes for some really good cinematic CC scenes, where a squad uses up it's ammo, then drop their weapons and draw their knives/swords/whatever and fling themselves at the enemy.

Essentiallly buying ammo is like buying grenades. You buy it by the magazine for the whole squad, and the players agree how many shots one would contain. Generally this is kept to a low number so that each mag only lasts a couple turns (it's imagined that even though you have your "shooting phase", the units would still be shooting at the enemy throughout the game). This means you have to be more tactical in your use of ammo, and can't just stand there and rapid-fire any poor bugger that gets too close.

We came up with this rule for the cinematic map campaign between my Guard/SM, and my cousin's CSM. It's obviously intended to be used in longer games, rather than the standard "D6 turns" type. We found it works fairly well outside Apoc. We haven't gotten into any Apoc games yet, but I have just under a full company of SM so if I get to playing one, I'll post any good adjustments to the rule that'll make it more Apoc-friendly.

Another one I forgot to put that works in conjunction with this rule:

Looting weapons/ammo
If an allied unit/squad falls in battle, other allied troops can move to procure the weapons or ammunition that unit or squad carried. Any special weapons can be added to the squad's loadout, and they can take any remaining ammo for their weapons, provided the fallen unit/squad carried the same standard weapons. This increases the threat standard infantry, especially armies with weaker standard weapons (Eldar, IG, LatD, etc...), could pose. Again, hasn't been Apoc tested so if anyone feels like giving this one a shot in an Apoc game, let me know how it works out.

Hmm,
That sounds interesting. What was it, the 3rd edition rulebook that actually had a fluff box that had around 6 different mags with different ammo amounts in each??

my gaming club sometimes does fundraisers, wither for ourselves to make our board for Games Day or for cancer organizations and such. These fundraisers include pay 10 cents to re-roll a die. In this manner Saruman in LoTR really is invincable...for about $5. It's a great way to raise money and doesn't hinder game play all that much because both sides of the board end up using it. But things like leadership roles can only be re-rolled for a cost of 25 cents per dice. You can also pay 25 cents for your opponent to re-roll dice, which comes in handy but then your oppenent can pay 10 cents to re-roll that dice. If a dollar is paid to make your opponent re-roll he may not re-roll that value with a donation. (of course we make exceptions if they pay a dollar as well, this can sometimes lead to $20 in a single round of combat).

Though house rules like these sounds interesting, they all benefit certain armies more than others, which makes the game (more) imbalanced. The only "house rule" we play with is that all dice rolled off-table must be rerolled.

3rd and 4th had all the bolter rounds listed, but I think it was 3rd that listed a bolter mag, HB drum, Lasgun mag, Autogun mag, Storm Bolter mag, and one more that I don't remember. Usually we go about 30 rounds per standard armament mag, represented by 3 rounds per mag in-game. HB's get 60 rounds per clip (6 shots per drum in game), 90 if belt fed (9 shots per ammo pack in game) Assault cannons get 80 per box (8 shots per box in game) or 120 (12 shots per ammo-pack in game) if Vehicle/Building/Dread mounted, etc...

Basically it's just averaging out batteries/magazines, power packs/ammo boxes, and battery/ammo packs to a multiple of 10 for capacity based on the weapon's role, then dividing them by 10. That's how our group gets clip capacity for limited ammo games. Again, there's no real -set- capacity, as other groups that wish to try this may want more or less ammo per weapon. This just touches on how to use the rule in the game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Though house rules like these sounds interesting, they all benefit certain armies more than others, which makes the game (more) imbalanced. The only "house rule" we play with is that all dice rolled off-table must be rerolled.

I haven't really noticed these rules causing any imbalance, for one thing they can be applied pretty universally to any army, and as well most gaming clubs have a condition wherein if one player wishes to play a house rule, the other player is also allowed to play one. Rules obviously must be reasonable and have pros and cons to each of them. Combining some of these rules also helps create balance. IE: Limited ammo means that infantry in a shooty army will need to be more careful in the placement of their fire, giving Melee armies an advantage. At the same time, any artillery units in the shooty army's force can use creeping barrage to hit groups of the melee army's toughest units thus giving the PBI a bit of respite.

Plus, as I said, the opponent might want to throw in some rules of his/her own to make it a bit more fair (What's the fun in house rules if only one person is supplying them really?) which is what the game's all about. 5th Ed is all for tossing in house rules, as reflected by it's "back to basics" style, so we should be using that every opportunity we get.

Rerolling fallen dice is a pretty universal houserule and I gotta agree, definately one that should become an official rule.

darkangels_rule wrote:our FLGS has the rule that if you throw your dice off the table when rolling it fails by the most possible i.e. double 6 for ld test ...1 for armour saves ....etc

I like this one. Kudos.

Have to drop the dice more than a foot, and they have to stay on the table. People rolling dice out of the side of their hand to get 6's is so annoying.

Heres one.

What happens when a leader dies, the army goes into disarray, representing the lack of order, and so one part of the army is isolated from the other. The rule could be that when the last HQ unit dies, maybe the squads on the board are demoralized and take leadership tests. If failed, they immediately go to ground, to represent the lack of orders making the army stop dead.

Here is another that would fit with this rule.

When a leader dies, what does the second in command do, takes over of course, select 1 elite unit, and they become your new HQ unit, making the leadership roles required above Null and Void.

These rules will make you think more strategically about how you use your HQ choices.

I really dislike the limited ammunition rule.
It gives CC focused armies like orks a MASSIVE advantage. They'll fire their sluggas, what, once or twice per battle before getting stuck in?

Compared to, say, sisters of battle, fire warriors, guardsmen, etc, who are doing something horribly wrong if they get into CC. a Tau player would have to buy LOADS of ammunition, especially for a game lasting longer than 5-6 turns.

Canonness Rory wrote:I really dislike the limited ammunition rule.
It gives CC focused armies like orks a MASSIVE advantage. They'll fire their sluggas, what, once or twice per battle before getting stuck in?

Compared to, say, sisters of battle, fire warriors, guardsmen, etc, who are doing something horribly wrong if they get into CC. a Tau player would have to buy LOADS of ammunition, especially for a game lasting longer than 5-6 turns.

As stated, these rules are simply suggestions for players that wish to use them. Personally our gaming group likes having a more realistic feel by adding rules such as limited ammo. And I as a guard player (and a sucker for tough matches) love this rule. As do the other three in our current group. However, others may not. And while these rules are quite open to debate and opinion (After all, feedback is the only true way to perfect a rule), it'd be much appreciated if this thread were used for it's intended purpose. Do you have any house rules you'd like to share? If you have any C&C's on a rule you spotted, Maybe pop it in a PM?

I don't mean to seem rude or abrupt. I just don't like seeing topics run off-course.

warpcrafter wrote:

themandudeperson wrote:Enfilading fire/Friendly fire- FS: Friendly shooter FU: Friendly unit TU: Target unit EU: Enemy unit

If units are positioned like this:
FS-> TU -> EU
or
FS-> EU -> TU
You roll to-hit the closest unit then roll your misses at the next unit and continue on as long as there are enemy units, allowing you to twin- triplet- or quadruplet-link your weapons through careful maneuvering
If units are positioned like this:
FS-> FU -> TU
or FS-> TU->
you roll to-hit the closest unit with misses counting as hits against friendlies. Thus punishing you for firing through friendlies.

In the hands of mature, agreeable players, this would work fine. There should be exceptions for massive Ork mobs, Tyranid swarms and other big units.

Well, the fire only continues out to the weapon's max range and ends. In addition, Green Tide orks only have 6 large mobs in 1 FOC and they typically have a massive 18" circle or larger of a footprint. Meaning most weapons will only rake through 2-3 units. Also, we've modified it so units firing at an upward or downward angle by pass this. So, a squad in the second floor can fire over a friendly squad into an enemy squad but there's no fire going into units in between the shooters and the target or any units behind the target. You're only hitting each squad once, it's just that your chances of scoring a hit increase as you get more squads in line and that your shots get scattered between the units.
It really encourages maneuvering instead of hunkering down. Hunker down and you get outmaneuver and instead of one squad finding themselves in a pickle, your whole army may find itself in trouble.

Heroic actions

In my house we like to play a story. If a IC or special character can get them selfs into or near a heroic situation we allow it to happen. For example...

IC happes to be at back of sqaud against a blod thirster, by Raw he has to sit and twiddle his thumbs as the rest of the squad gets butcherd... we will allow the IC to move that extra inch to get into BTB and duke it out with the Demon.

It basicaly allows a little leway in the game to create Heroic situations for the main participants thust creating a memorable battle.

AtraAngelis wrote:IC happes to be at back of sqaud against a blod thirster, by Raw he has to sit and twiddle his thumbs as the rest of the squad gets butcherd... we will allow the IC to move that extra inch to get into BTB and duke it out with the Demon.
.

You mean let the IC move that extra inch to get beat down before his turn in initiative, right?

The only house rule we use at my gaming club is the "reroll floor dice" thing. Course, I didn't even realize it wasn't in the rules till I read this thread.

Oh hey, I've got one.
Cover saves from intervening units.
Say a Carnifex is getting a cover save from the gaunts in front of him. I shoot my lascannon at the carnifex. It hits and wounds, but the carnifex gets, and passes, his cover save. I then roll to wound for the gaunt instead.

This is just because otherwise the bullets just disappear, causing no harm to the Carnifex 50% of the time, even though the only reason that happens is because there are meat shields in front of him.

Oh hey, I've got one.
Cover saves from intervening units.
Say a Carnifex is getting a cover save from the gaunts in front of him. I shoot my lascannon at the carnifex. It hits and wounds, but the carnifex gets, and passes, his cover save. I then roll to wound for the gaunt instead.

This is just because otherwise the bullets just disappear, causing no harm to the Carnifex 50% of the time, even though the only reason that happens is because there are meat shields in front of him.

You could do that, though I think you'd have to account for the blocking unit's size in the process. If you're shooting at a Carnifex, obviously gaunts won't do much to hide it

You could say that the blocking creature needs to be at least 2/3's the height of the creature it's covering in order for the shielded unit to recieve the cover bonus. IMO, that makes more sense than the Lascannon somehow hitting the gaunts while aiming at the massive 'Fex behind them.

metallifan wrote:

Oh hey, I've got one.
Cover saves from intervening units.
Say a Carnifex is getting a cover save from the gaunts in front of him. I shoot my lascannon at the carnifex. It hits and wounds, but the carnifex gets, and passes, his cover save. I then roll to wound for the gaunt instead.

This is just because otherwise the bullets just disappear, causing no harm to the Carnifex 50% of the time, even though the only reason that happens is because there are meat shields in front of him.

You could do that, though I think you'd have to account for the blocking unit's size in the process. If you're shooting at a Carnifex, obviously gaunts won't do much to hide it

You could say that the blocking creature needs to be at least 2/3's the height of the creature it's covering in order for the shielded unit to recieve the cover bonus. IMO, that makes more sense than the Lascannon somehow hitting the gaunts while aiming at the massive 'Fex behind them.

Or you could just follow the rules, and realize that a monstrous creature needs to be 50% covered by intervening units, terrain, anything in order to be able to claim a cover save.

Gaunts on their own wouldn't give a 'fex a cover save. They just aren't big enough. Remember, a MC or vehicle still has to have 50% of its model covered to get a cover save.

Edit- Damn you Willy!