Messing with the Rules

After playing a roleplaying system for awhile, you start to notice where rules fall flat, where they give the players too much play, and where the rules are just too restrictive. This is when an experienced GM should start making calls of their own. In all honesty, the idea of the game is to have fun, so any GM can make the call on rules.

Here are some things to keep in mind, though, if you do want to change or tweak rules:

Is the rule truly broken? My husband is great at finding rules that are giant loop holes to jump through and break a campaign. Spells that are three levels too low, attacks that really should be for a higher level character, etc. Look at these kinda of rules closely. Are they causing your campaign to be unbalanced? Are you killing PC's with these rules more often then naught? This is a good indication if the rule is broken. If the spell is to low level, bump it up. If the ability should be for a higher level character, bump it up. That light spell is 20th level and really shouldn't be any higher then 1st, bring it down.

Are you changing the rule because it's broken or because your players are complaining? I've been known to complain about a rule or two in my time, but the husband always jumps in and says why it's that way. Look at it from both fronts. There is a reason a fireball is third level. Would you want your first level PCs casting a spell that does, on average, 3 points per level in an area when the creatures they are fighting at that level may only have 3 points of health? No, of course not.

Spells, spells, spells. This is where I have to defer to my husband. He is the spell expert, and maybe your group has one too. Listen to them. Making new spells (or tweaking old ones) can be a game buster. Make sure it is balanced for its level. Look at other spells that level to see if they do similar damage amounts or affects (granted if the system is already broken, this may not work.) And if the player has a good reason for it being a certain level, though you don't want it to be that level, make it hard for him/her to research if you don't want it busting your campaign.