RPG-A-DAY 2015 Day 24: Favorite House Rules...The Bogie Table And Order Of The D30

24. FAVORITE HOUSE RULE...

I have two house rules that I've loved to use at the table over the years -- one from my younger days and one that is currently in play.

The Past: The Bogie List -- Back in my AD&D days, my friends and I were total munchkins, always looking for ways to max out our characters and give them every advantage. We were also horribly unimaginative, as all of characters had zero quirks, traits, backgrounds, or personalities. One of our gaming group had Fantasy Wargaming and within was a "quirks table" -- a list of various personality traits, minor mental and physical abilities, etc. Taking that as a basis, he wrote up his own d100 table which was dubbed "The Bogie Table." Upon rolling up a character, you were allowed an optional 1d4 rolls on The Bogie Table. There were benefits (Freakishly Strong -- Add 1d4 to STR); there were penalties (Clumsy -- Permanent -2 to all To Hit rolls); and there were role-playing prompts (Wanted to be a gardener instead of an adventurer; talks about plants and lawncare all the time). The Bogie Table was a fun way to prompt us into more role-playing and less die rolling. We also, surprisingly, looked forward to detrimental quirks as it gave us something fun to act out.

The Present: The Order of the D30 -- Nowadays, with any d20-based game I play, I always have a d30 on hand as well. Spearheaded by Richard LeBlanc, The Order of the D30 encourages use of the oft-overlooked die. The d30 houserule The Order introduced to me is as follows: "Once per game session, a player may choose to roll the d30 in lieu of any other dice roll. This cannot be used during character creation, however, nor for hit point rolls." I use this at convention games all of the time, as everyone loves the chance to roll 1d30 for dagger damage. Or perhaps using it for their To Hit Roll, knowing I multiple any damage done for every number over 20 they roll. (I once had someone roll a 28 to hit, so I let them roll 8X damage. That 10 hp sword hit became an 80 hp critical OMG hit. Many epic games have hinged on the devastating roll of the d30!