Quick, without thinking, what is your most commonly used house rule? Me? I regularly throw Reign's company rules into other games, because they are so solid and map that so well. There are as many answers as blades of grass in a lawn, but like grass, is it necessarily good for us to be cultivating this instead of something else?
In a word? No.
I don’t believe you should change a single rule in any ttrpg until you can explain to me why it is there.
You shouldn’t swap out a weapon damage for anything else, you shouldn’t craft on sanity systems or new ways of doing anything, no modified talents or feats, none of it, until you can look me1 in the eyes and explain why that rule/mechanical greebly exists. This doesn’t take any answer either, you can’t just say “Because the designers wanted it that way.” You have to be able to say “X rule is this way because it impacts the following places.” or “Y rule only exists to enforce genre conventions.” or “Z Rule genuinely has no place in the system, I don’t know why it is here and I hate it.”
If you can’t figure this out, you shouldn’t change it. If you can’t tell me why this directly improves your game, you shouldn’t change it. You are screwing with something just to change it, you aren’t attempting to improve it or make it a better experience for your playgroup, you are indulging your ego.
Before you change a single rule, you should sit down and ask “Why are we using this system?” because by running into a rules snag, you have proven that this game may not, in fact, be right for your group, or your campaign.2 You should sit with your answer and decide if you should consider other worthwhile options, there are so many of them.
If you don’t see a problem with your system, and you can explain why the rule needs to change, you can prove to the group that this directly improves the game, and that you shouldn't change systems, then you can houserule it. You are now allowed and have the Brad From Split/Party Approval Sticker. 3
But Why?
Why? The answer is simple. Why the hell are you changing the game? Genuinely, why did you change how crits work? Why did you remove a stat? Why did you add combat maneuvers? You were eager to change these things, and surely there must be a reason.
It was more fun for my group! Was it? Did you ask them? Was it fun even though it lengthened combat or shortened it? Did you even give the engine an honest try, or did you decide that the only food you like is fast food, and refuse to try anything else?
The Rule Didn’t Work! Are you sure? Did you give it the full try, use it as intended instead of simply as written? 4 or was it different from what you are used to, and so you abandoned it?
It Was Complicated! It made the game too hard! I couldn’t remember it! Fine, Homebrew it, but do the work. You wanted to run this game, in this system, in this setting. Why did you bother at all if you didn’t want to put in the work? It is totally acceptable to fail, it is morally correct to alter rules if your group is not having fun with them, if your group finds them inaccessible, or if it would improve someone’s enjoyment of the game, and it’s okay to homebrew in those cases.
But did you change it for that reason? Or did you change it just to change it? Because let me tell you, I have fallen victim to rules changes for change’s sake. I have failed to use provided for social systems because “Oh, my group doesn’t need those.” I have made choices that made both the system and my game in it worse! Because I didn’t do it the way I should have, I didn’t consider the system as a whole.
But all Homebrew is Game Design?
That’s fine then, let’s accept that. Every single game designer I know thinks these things all the way through, if you point at a specific aspect of their system and ask “Hey, why does X do Y” they can and will answer happily. That’s the crux, they aren’t just slapping things together and hoping they work. Consideration for even the simplest change to a game system goes through most designers minds and then they test it to make sure it works.
If we are to accept that every person who has ever made a house rule is a game designer then we hold them to the same standard, a standard that asks that they be able to explain, why a rule change happened and how it effects the game’s engine. Because and I do reiterate Every mechanical change will effect the whole game, changing something as small as a single damage bonus will change how your entire party interacts with the game.
In Conclusion
Homebrew isn’t inherently bad, but there is a time and place for it, and I’m just getting sick of “Oh well, you can always change it.” “RULE ZERO!” “This game doesn’t have to be about this!.” Someone designed this, they made it, and I think rather than opening the box and trying to get freeform with it from the beginning, we should follow the instructions at least once.
If you do all that, and still can’t make the rule work, fine, change it. I sure hope you don’t get food poisoning from all that homebrew though.
Or yourself in a Mirror, or the friend you have with the most Brad-ish qualities.
I know, there is no greater shame in the world.
But I am going to demand your answers to the above. MLA format.
“Oh but Rules as Intended Sounds like homebrew to me.” Pay attention, you aren’t listening.