Restoring your Game to its Original Specs

Take a good hard look at your game with all of its bells, whistles, and shiny splat books. Do you really need all of that to play a good game? What if we peeled all of it back and restored it to its original table specs? The rules that you just need to play the game. Throw out those house rules and extra bits and just got back to the business of gaming.

Restoring the Original Coat

My playing group gets a bit caught up in house rules. We’ve been tweaking 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons until it barely resembles its original self. Adding extra skill rules here, different builds there, and throwing out all the junk we just didn’t like. My game on the other hand, we got back to basics. I dusted off my Player’s Handbook and said, “Here. This is the rules were using.” We rolled up some characters and played.

Buffing in a Good Shine

When we removed all of the original changes I found that the rules didn’t bother me as much. Referencing became a simpler task. Pick up the book, find the rule, and enforce it. No more scrambling for our notes or debating for an hour which way we decided to run it last time, only to change our minds once more. Using the original rules was a simpler task. My players were able to quickly pick up the game and started enjoying it faster.

Enjoying the Work

It’s not to say that I’m ready to throw out house rules, far from it. A small amount of them leaked back in as we continued play, but a fraction of what was used then before. Sometimes clearing the table, and bringing everything back to square one is what’s needed.

As I write this writing challenge my dear readers I challenge you to this. The next time you run your game, throw out all house rules and all splat books. Just for a game or two. How does this change your game? What rules could you live without?

And that’s it for me for a bit. As Jeff mentioned yesterday I’m getting married this weekend, and will be on my honeymoon through next week. Jeff will be taking over the reins for the week, but we have a guest poster or two that might help out with the heavy lifting. I will see you all in April.