I thought I'd post of few of the general house rules that evolved over the years our little group has gathered. I'm always interested in other such rules and stealin- err, I mean incorporating them for ouselves.

Rule the first: When we meet, we eat. Everyone brings a little something. It could be store bought, but its usually more fun to have more than one home-cooked treat. Beverages fall under a different catagory. There is usually a pot of tea on the stove, but harder stuff has been known to make an show at a session or two. While the food is always pot-luck, the harder beverages tend to be BYO (Unless I've another batch of home-made wine I wish to test, but that's a whole other thread... perhaps forum).

Rule the next: There shall be NO electronic devices at the game table. No computers, calculators, pda's, or cell phones are to bee seen or heard. The Gamemaster has control of the music, either via stereo remote or notebook on a side table ( this was a major group concession). Family and/or significant others have the number and address of the the game location in order to get hold of any player/GM. Cell phones can be kept on person, but must be set to vibrate and must be answered in seperate room from the game (another major concession) after excusing oneself from the table.

To foster really good role play we've come up with an XP rule: At the end of a seesion, each player shall be given a fixed number of experience points to award to any other player. The amount of XP is set be the GM to make sure someone doesn't get all broken amount of XP. The player awarding the XP also must state to the group why they have chosen the player they wish to award.

And then there comes The Storyteller rule which, to be honest, has not been universally accepted by our group: "...the best place by the fire was kept for..." the gamemaster. This one has not been followed strictly to the letter as someone might be too cold, too warm, too sore, too tired, or too comfortable to give the GM said seat. Though rest assured sometimes game play has a habit of making such players regret such selfish actions.

So any other such rules/traditions out there anyone else wishes to share?

The Blessed Hourglass and Celestial Lightning. It's a form of rocks fall, everybody dies but with a worrying warning. I've yet to implement it but it's part of my master plan as a GM.

Equipment Required:

One "Boulder Trap" hourglass

One "Celestial Lightning" hourglass

One "General Purpose" hourglass

One "End of the World" hourglass

Instructions for Use:

The "Boulder Trap" hourglass is placed on the table when an event such as fast-paced combat, or the springing of a trap (such as a boulder trap) takes place and the Players are taking too long to decide what to do. If a Player does not declare his turn's actions before the hourglass then you can assume that his/her character has momentarily lost his/her wits and has done nothing but stand dumbfounded (or remain in cover, or whatever).

The "Celestial Lightning" hourglass is a last resort weapon for the GM to employ when Players stop listening to him, turn their attention to something other than the game (mobile phones, mp3 player, contents of pockets, etc.) The hourglass is wordlessly put on the table. Any Players not back in the game by the time the last grain falls will likely have their characters run over, fall down a giant pit, eaten by a grue, or simply hit by Celestial Lightning. Yes this is Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies . Hopefully you'll never even touch this one.

The "General Purpose" hourglass can be used to speed decisions which are not as threatening as boulder traps, volcanic erruptions, sudden decompression, or a grenade thrown through the PCs' cabin window. Maybe the Players are having their characters search an office while their host is in the bathroom, or they only have a limited time to pull files from an encrypted database before an administrator or security program notices their intrusion.

The "End of the World" hourglass should take the longest time to run. Use this when the Players have something like twenty or thirty minutes in which to perform multiple tasks (knock out the guards, pick a lock, install a bug, hide from a patrol, open the bathroom window, then remove their stealth gear and change into their tuxedos before re-entering the mayor's Christmas party just as he finishes his speech and calls the Players' characters up to the stage to accept their medals). Some cruel GMs might put the "End of the World" hourglass on the table without explanation, indicating that the Players might be in more danger than they think... or it might just be to instil paranoia.

Headhanger said:

Fantastic! That's the kind of thing I was hoping to see. It reminds me of the unwritten rule of the cheeseplate . Mind you this was several years ago and it was never a rule that had to be used mre than once, but I might as well share since you were so good as to jog my memory, Headhanger.

The rule sprung from a campaign where there was one player that decided to pursue his own agenda at the expense of the rest of the group. Sometimes these little side tracks can be fun, but six sessions in and there was progress for anyone else but this one selfish player. It was decided that the rest of the gorup would leave him to his own devices so long as the GM (me) agreed. It wasn't too long that group quietly split from him to find a pantry(in game) and he was left alone to face horrors unimagined and therefore unprepared to survive against... All the while the rest of the group was insight of him, doing nothing to come to his aid. In fact, they found themselves a lovely cheeseplate (in game) to snack upon to the sounds of his screams and rants.

Fast forward to the following week: A new character freshly rolled, a group made whole, and a cheeseplate (see w hen we meet we eat above) waiting to the side of the game table. Cheese was enjoyed by all and no one individual dared openly shank the group again. I think it had been decided that should such a thing happen again, the cheeseplate (much like your houglass) would be placed at the centre of the game table.

I must say it was one of the most interesting uses of cheese in an RPG I've ever experienced.

You hit my top 4 there Vespers.

Except i tend to run 'dry' games, so no alcohol...except a wee drop of port maybe.

Aother i use is the table is in character . If you're at the gaming table (or space), you're in character. If you want to go OOC, leave the arena (just leaning back or sliding the chair away will do). I tend to run timeouts, say 10 mins every hour, or whenever needed. If OOC-chat breaks out, i'll halt the game to let everyone blow off steam (and will always have a haklf hour chat-time at the start of the session.

Post-match wind down . After the session, there's always a discussion about how things went. what worked, what didn't. How the players feel about things.

I ve just had the pleasure of reading Headbanger's Blessed Hour Glass and Celestial Lightning post and wanted to thank him. Genius, pure genius!

Vespers said:

If you had four players, perhaps there might only be three slices of cheese on the cheeseplate? The unruly player being cheeseless and therefore doomed to lose his/her character if they do not remedy their behaviour.

whisperer in the vault said:

The pleasure really comes from seeing the flinches and panicked expressions on the players' faces whenever they see an hourglass in a shop window in real life.

Luddite said:

We usually aim for sober as opposed to 'dry.' A little social lubricant goes a long way/ everything in moderation... and all that. However, IHO sticks and their ilk (we used the term "Battons of Confusion +2" ) are a "no-no" as we've found they inhibit rather than enhance game enjoyment. I'm making no moral judgement here ( I suppose one could argue there is a time and place for all activities); but for the purposes of gaming, we made a group decision to keep what few wits we may have about us.

You all have some pretty good rules

Me and my friend who game are only 14 so we dont have beer and that stuff but we do go by the we meet we eat rule also with my friends i tend to have a packet of pringles and any one who is in the game or roleplays get some pringles any one who dosnt roleplay or takes part in the game who takes a pringle gets punched once by every one in the room I call this the Stuff killing ya character..... well kill you instead rule

also instead of the hourglass rule when the players have to make a desicion quick (like what to do in combat or avoiding a rock fall) if they take to long or sit there and think about it with a daydreaming look on their face i just say "To late" and then tell them the consiquences of being slow if the Player argues everyone in the room gets to punch the person. I know it sounds imature but thats all that works with 2 of the gamers cause you kill off thier character when thier low rank or have crap gear(which applys to most of them most of the time cause they keep dying while the other 2 have really good characters) They dont care .

I can see the "when we meet we eat" and "no electronic devices" being useful rules for gaming groups that need them, I even kinda like the "end of the world" stuff, but seriously... hourglasses to make the players keep paying attention, or force them to listen to the GM? If your players aren't paying attention and are arguing with you, maybe you need to work on your GM skills!

Bitterman said:

I actually think those hourglass ideas are very unique, I have never heard of that before. Usually the GM's I have just say "hurry up" and it doesn't really get the message across. And to work on his GM skills?! psh! I think he is doing fine. Sometimes people just get "overly social" and lose character and start BS'ing about non-game related stuff and it snowballs into a social hour. I can almost see how it would be hard for the GM to not join in on these talks...so an hourglass placed on the table would sure get everyones attention and make them think "oh crap...what is going to happen to us?!" kind of thing. But to each their own!

I was reading Vespers' post on "General Rules for Any Role Playing Sessions" and his first house rule brought one of our tables' own to mind that I thought some of ya'll might find useful. I figured I'd post this in it's own thread to avoid hi-jacking Vespers' thread.

Our group has been playing pretty much everything for well over 10 years now and the one rule that stuch which everyone has always seemed happy with is what we call "Food XP".

If you bring food or drinks for the entire table or otherwise pitch in to help pay the cost to the person who did, then you get awarded Food XP for the session. Food XP is always small, but decent, and can only be awarded once per session. For instance, a 10% XP bonus is the standard for whatever game we're playing, but in Dark Heresy (and the Warhammer Fantasy RPG) the Food XP is a simple 50xp. In Storyteller games it's 1xp. This means that, for most games, if you show up and do something to gain food XP every session, then you will gain an extra level over everyone else after 10 sessions. In Dark Heresey it means you can get a free 100XP skill or talent every two sessions.

Basically, it started as XP for food, but has since migrated to any sort of benefit to the entire table. If someone brings extra paper for the printer so everyone can print out more character sheets and the like, then they get Food XP. If someone ran a game for everyone last week and get to actually play in one this week, then they get Food XP. Again, it's only awardable once per session, so none of this bonus XP stacks for those players with an eye for exploits.

Some people always bring food or sodas, but since we implemented the Food XP rules, everyone pitches in alot more, and even the people that normally wouldn't pitch in, now pitch in every other week or so. Players that aren't getting food XP don't mind, because the person getting food XP brought them food or some-such. If they get jealous enough of the bonus XP, then they'll give the person who brought food $5 and share in the Food XP. After numerous years of playing, it's always been a win-win situation.

Gah... of course, I used my initial reply as a template in this thread and then accidentally posted it here anyway. Go me! Yay... anyhoo, I did re-post this in it's own thread in this same forum. Sorry for the double-post. (:

I really like the Hourglass rule, I may have to steal that <.<

My group NEEDS to have their attention focussed on current events :/

Food: we do this, but I have lately found that spending a whole afternoon snacking can end up being a bit unpleasant. My group have taken to breaking halfway in for a proper meal, with (relatively) little eating otherwise.

Hourglasses: I say, whatever works for you. Myself, I find a suitably authoritative clearing of the throat does the trick without the need to resort to threats of violence. For slow decision-makers I have occasionally had to say "decision now or your turn ends" but I don't usually find it necessary.

Other rules: We don't tend to have rules as such (none that I can think of) but there are plenty of unspoken ones, like stay in character where possible, don't fool around too much, thank the GM for their game at the end. I've had to have words with players before about lateness and it is generally understood that you turn up on time (sort of - we have a start time which is half an hour before time in, and nobody gets frowned on for turning up for time in), but I've never had rules to go with that.