What are your houserules?

My only real House rule that I am using (and am aware that is indeed a house rule):
-1 Action Point per fight. Use it or its gone till the next fight.

I have seen Players not using APs at all cause they were afraid to not have one, if they were in dire need of one. So with this, they are at least used.

Lindeloef wrote:

My only real House rule that I am using (and am aware that is indeed a house rule):
-1 Action Point per fight. Use it or its gone till the next fight.

I have seen Players not using APs at all cause they were afraid to not have one, if they were in dire need of one. So with this, they are at least used.

I'm curious about when/how you implement this? You say they have to use it or its gone. At what point is it taken away? Are you saying they can't carry it over into the next combat? Do they get one reset every encounter?

Yes they get one for an encounter and for that encounter only.
It is gone after that encounter (either spend or it will be deleted) and in the next encounter they have a new one.

I do pretty much the same thing: Each extended rest resets your AP total to zero, and each encounter grants 1 use-it-or-lose-it AP. Less tracking, no AP hoarding, and players have a real reason to push on rather than taking six-hour snoozes at every opportunity.

I'm not sure why the players are hoarding action points. They can only spend 1 per encounter at most so even if they've accumulated more, they won't be able to spend them anyway.

And there are standard rules that prevent the party from taking an extended rest whenever they want.

There's nothing wrong with that house rule, I'm just curious as to why players would ever hoard their action points. There's really no benefit to it.

skwyd42 wrote:

I'm not sure why the players are hoarding action points. They can only spend 1 per encounter at most so even if they've accumulated more, they won't be able to spend them anyway.

Some players are strongly tempted to hoard APs because they don't know how many more encounters they'll have before the next extended rest, and they want to be sure to have one for the presumed big boss fight.

skwyd42 wrote:

And there are standard rules that prevent the party from taking an extended rest whenever they want.

'At every opportunity' =/= 'whenever we want.'

"Well guys, we could push on, but our goal isn't time-sensitive so...let's just chill for a day, and head out fully-loaded tomorrow!" Time-sensitive goals often make sense, but just as often feel forced, so I appreciate a house rule that gives the players some small carrot for pushing on that's completely independent of plot.

I guess my players don't seem to focus that much on the AP. I have one player that almost always uses his within the first round or two. And another that rarely remembers she has one. But I figure it's up to them to use them or not.

As for the extended rests, I tend to always have some noticeable effect for time passing. It may be good or bad or indifferent to the characters, but it's there and they'll see that effect.

That house rule basically boils down to 1AP per fight, no more, no less. It's simple and easy to remember, which is good for a house rule.

Yeah, that's the reason. My players just hoarded them out of fear to not have them in the "Boss-fight". Even if i told them, that this is indeed the boss fight.

I am only DMing, so I have not a Player mindset and cannot answer you that question from a player standpoint.
Maybe my players are just special...

Lindeloef wrote:

Yeah, that's the reason. My players just hoarded them out of fear to not have them in the "Boss-fight". Even if i told them, that this is indeed the boss fight.

I am only DMing, so I have not a Player mindset and cannot answer you that question from a player standpoint.
Maybe my players are just special...

No, it's a valid concern; my players too, are worried about action points and possibly not having them for the "big fight", the same reason why dailies are hoarded like crazy.

[ I once shoved the "big fight" into the start of the adventure rather than the end of the adventure, and even when the characters were SO close to a TPK, it took a lot of effort on the players' part to let go of even one daily, as well as spend even just one action point. ]

That's an excellent houserule by the way, something I'd seriously consider for my next campaign. I may even houserule it into my 13th Age campaigns too

Synopsis of this house rule.

Ignore tracking action points and hand everyone this New encounter power


Dynamic Action: You may perform an extra standard action this round this counts as using an action point for purposes of triggering effects and powers. (now just create a card for it so those who use cards) 


Did I miss anything? 

Just note that it is a free action that can only be used on the player's turn. Maybe some verbiage to clarify that it can only be used once per encounter (i.e. it can't be recharged).

skwyd42 wrote:

Just note that it is a free action that can only be used on the player's turn. Maybe some verbiage to clarify that it can only be used once per encounter (i.e. it can't be recharged).

Well its an encounter power... they dont normally get used more than once per encounter. But yes specifying its use as a free action only on the players turn seems needed.

I do believe there are a few items and abilities in the game that allow a character to regain the use of a spent encounter power. Plus it just puts the phrasing in line with the AP rules of only using one per encounter.

skwyd42 wrote:

I do believe there are a few items and abilities in the game that allow a character to regain the use of a spent encounter power. Plus it just puts the phrasing in line with the AP rules of only using one per encounter.

Nods, thus preventing the possibility of somebody double dipping... via combinations.

skwyd42 wrote:

That house rule basically boils down to 1AP per fight, no more, no less. It's simple and easy to remember, which is good for a house rule.

I usually houserule a straight up 1AP per good-sized encounter,