You're doing D&D house rules wrong.

[@jordanw2741]

Like all Ginny Di videos, this boils down to one simple point: TALK TO YOUR PLAYERS. Solves so many issues. I've made the mistake of letting homebrew rules ruin gameplay for me and becoming disengaged as a result. Could have solved a lot of grief if I just talked to my DM about how one change massively buffed a player and made the rest of us irrelevant in combat. Lesson learned... Just got to get comfortable with a little conflict. We're all playing this game to have fun. If you aren't having fun... Something needs to change.

[@alexwright5419]

One that Ginny actually bright up in the video was death rules being changed. Our DM did not tell us we’re using 3E rules (-10 is instant death, lose 1HP from bleeding out per round), until HALFWAY through the campaign. It actually kind of hurt the campaign. And I wouldn’t have minded if I knew going in

[@felipeuseche332]

It's amazing how most of the best advice when dealing with issues with people is talk to people about those issues. MIND BLOWING. hahaha.

[@PurpleYoshiEgg]

Hmmm, but what if I just lay down the authoritarian hammer and be nasty instead when people push back? (I kid, I kid) Seriously, though, it feels like not enough GMs talk or listen to the players.

[@isaacgraff8288]

"Hey guys I am thinking of adding ______ rule. What do you think? Here is how it would work." BAM! Problem solved!

[@druid_zephyrus]

Yes the best advice is talking to each other. It always is. But exactly the correct words, or recognizing WHAT the issue is is what Ginny adds

[@shybard]

Is Ginny finally beginning her villain arc? This is fantastic. I love it. An instant classic.

[@gabebaum6527]

either that or the "fuck it we ball" arc, which is equally classic

[@Zamun]

Exactly my thought!

[@DarkAvatar1313]

Or maybe slowly embracing her inner Wednesday...

[@Magus_Union]

Therapist: "Gothic Dark Ginny isn't real, she can't hurt you" Gothic Dark Ginny:

[@joereilly7082]

My therapist uses a different approach. Therapist: "gothic Dark Ginny is real and she is standing right behind you." That is why I like Gothic dark Ginny.

[@Khailward]

@@joereilly7082 "Run, Joe, run!"

[@Drudenfusz]

I am so mad at Rowling now again, Ginni pulls off the perfect Ravenclaw look but I doubt this could lead to a remake of her old Ravenclaw song.

[@theokayishgamer]

@@Drudenfusz Being mad at Rowling is the norm. I have heard way too god damn much about her in these past couple weeks.

[@JH-cp8wf]

There's something weirdly funny about this opening with Ginny seriously informing us she has more then one friend.

[@GinnyDi]

LISTEN,,,,, IT HAD A DEPENDENT CLAUSE

[@braindeadserenity2962]

I always forget that Ginny can sing, so when she slapped us with a falsetto flip on “character sheet”, I wasn’t ready

[@kpdubbs7117]

She does so many creative things with her talents it's easy to forget. I first started being a fan because of her songs. I love going back and re-watching her music videos several times a year.

[@evanbell]

I knew Ginny in college -- she sang in the vocal jazz groups there, so that type of song is specifically up her alley lol

[@Drudenfusz]

My first thought was about her singing seeing her new look, since those are perfect Ravenclaw colours and reminded thusly on her old song she once did. Back before the dark times of author revealing herself as the horrible person she is.

[@rpavlik1]

I found her through her feature on a Yahzick tune. 🤣

[@Tanglangfa]

@@Drudenfuszhorrible?

[@weadonator5712]

Ginny's hair, makeup, and just overall aesthetic in this is just chef's kiss 10/10 slay queen

[@alexwright5419]

I just want to say normally I skip over sponsors, but Ginny Di makes me watch every single one because of her sheer creativity. Kudos Ginny!

[@BinaryGleam]

Literally watched it all just because she said she did put a lot of effort into making it. I was surprised that, even if I didn't care much for the product, found the ad quite fun :p

I always watch Ginny's and DndShorts' ads, they're both so much fun at it. I love them. ❤️

[@slashandbones13]

Same for me.

[@docopoper]

Ginny's fey pact to only cover 5e has been broken. That pact is what was making her hair fully green. Now she's covering 5e and other games, so it's a mixed colour. It looks really nice like this btw.

[@seanmcgcostumes]

LOVE the new hair! Also, the color blocking of the eyeshadow that matches your hair being repeated *but flipped* on your *EYEBROWS* looks so cool! I've never seen someone do that and I genuinely loved it!

[@leohahn5835]

Came here to say this as soon as I noticed!

[@ccswelding1599]

find yourself a partner that looks at you like Ginny looks at Ginny

[@CrimpyPlate]

My friends and I have a house rule: if a magic user (mainly wizards) picks a spell to copy into their spell book thinking it'll be really cool and useful, but ends up never using it at all, they can quietly swap it out for one that they think would be better. However, if they've used it even once, it's now considered "canon" that they know that spell, and have to keep it

[@glenndallas7171]

Very good rule!

[@shounenda4291]

That's awesome!

[@jstir6437]

That’s really smart! Also, your profile picture… I approve.

[@DominoPivot]

I understand the motivation, but I don't like that rule for a simple reason: a new player will need to use a spell to get a feel for how good it is. If they know they won't be able to replace it once they've used it, that might make them anxious to use it. Plus, sometimes you realize you don't like a spell because of the way the DM interprets is rules.

[@Rylomon_TCG]

I like this defenetly good for non new players

[@ignaciodebucco]

Ginny changing her hair after many years is like changing your low level character art after hitting lv 15

[@thegrimmestreaper44]

You're so right haha! I think the original light brown was the low level Ginny, and then she hit lv 15 and went with the blues and greens, and now she's hit another level milestone and got this new look!

[@jasonreed7522]

Or when the party leaves the starting nation/biome and has to find a look other than "stock medieval european" because they are now in a desert, the arctic, a jungle, or just a different culture with new fashion and they stand out as "outsiders".

[@consolescrub4031]

Or this is the culmination of the villain arc where the player has to take some time off and just hands the character sheet to the dm only to come back months later when you corner the mysterious villain to reveal their new twisted mini/art. (We all have that one friend who starts all their friendly Suggestions with "Would you kindly" and encourages you to speak to the boss about unsafe working conditions right? )That said, I love the look 10/10 would go evil for the fashion benefits.

[@laurenawebb]

I am loving the hair! Also the noir ad is top tier!

[@Mark-ki7ic]

Her cigarette holding skill has approved

[@The-0ni]

02:31 This was me and my players when it came to darkvision. When I started to actually enforce darkvision/darkness rules people thought I had made up house rules to nerf darkvision and purposefully make the game harder.

[@danieldonnert3747]

One thing I would add: get feedback on house rules after you've put them in place too. Sometimes problems crop up that neither you nor the players predicted, and friends like to feel heard.

[@danlbug]

Yes! I second this.

[@Eyerleth]

OH yes. This is something I did in my last campaign I DMed. Also, if a situation came up where the rules weren't clear, and I had to make a ruling, sometimes I would actually stop play to ask the players. For instance: one of the PCs, an artificer, had a construct that the PCs were riding on. Another one, the bard, wanted to try casting "Tiny Hut" while they were on the construct's back. That way, they could take their long rest while riding, and would make better time. I was honestly not sure if this was doable, according to the spell description: can you cast "Tiny Hut" on the back of a moving construct? It seemed obvious that you could do it on, say, a ship, and maybe even on a wagon. But how about a small rowboat or canoe? And this construct was only Large, and barely fit everyone, so how to rule? I polled the players, and we discussed it for a few minutes, before we agreed that, in that game at least, the rule should be "Tiny Hut can't be cast on any surface of something smaller than Huge". So, the construct idea was out, and they had to stop for a long rest. It wasn't a big deal, but the important thing was, I got all the players involved because the rules weren't clear.

[@Xacris]

Every house rule we use is developed by the table as a whole (pitched by one person and refined by the rest). My favorite of ours is "Contrivance Points". Every player gets one per session and can spend it to do something narratively that isn't supported by the rules, or cause something very convenient to happen, or flashback to some prep they did earlier. Basically they get to take over narrative control for a tiny bit. Been using it for years now, it's been great fun

[@murphieslaw6932]

That is a very interesting idea- I might STEAL THAT ! Of course, me being an old Terry Pratchett fan, I have to rename them to "Narrativium" points +g+

[@underthependulum3484]

Just got here but I love the new hairstyle! A house rule I've used before was fixing True Strike by making it a bonus action but also making it a 1st level spell for balance.

[@Veelofar]

You may add that as an optional upcast mechanic. Keeping it as a cantrip but letting it be cast as a bonus action as a first level. I moved it to a Move action, which is weird to put in mechanical phrasing, but was fairly intuitive for my players. It meant it wasn’t an every time spell, but still very useful for slugfests and acted as a reward for cornering an enemy.

[@StinkerTheFirst]

That's not a bad idea! That makes it useful but not spammable. I've considered making it a class feature for Divination Wizards, making it a touch-spell for them and increasing in casting distance as they increased in level as wizards (so it can't be a first level dip). They can do this a number of times per long rest equal to their INT modifier. The idea was for them to support the melee fighters instead of nuking themselves. I haven't tried this out. What do you think?

[@catsole9652]

Love the hair!!!! Our favorite house rules: 1) Flanking gives a +2 to hit, not advantage 2) The help action can only be given by someone proficient in the ability 3) Death rolls are done secretly, and only the DM and the player know what was rolled

[@keithhorton4990]

100% agree with all three. I haven't been able to convince my groups to do these

[@LithNeo]

So first thing: Your hair is super cute and looks great! Second: Thank you for helping to voice this again about, talking to your players and making sure that they are all on board about everything and that you are always upfront with changes. Dont blind side people and keep your players informed and collaborate with your players because its not just YOUR game, its everyones game and story. This is important for both new players and vets alike so everyone knows what to expect going forward.

[@ThiagoKnoner]

I can't express how weird it is to me that as opposed to other channels where I just skip the sponsorship, here I actually get excited by them

[@CliffEdge87]

Love the new hair! Also love the accent coloring on the eyebrows and eye shadow! Looks great. Content related: I feel so called out by this video. I implemented numerous house rules for my horror campaign to make it more deadly and dangerous. Definitely makes things more dangerous, but also makes my players more annoyed than scared, sometimes.

[@Michael-bn1oi]

Try a new system instead. Many are built explicitly for horror! Call of Cthulu for example

[@CliffEdge87]

@Michael I'm running the Rime of the Frostmaiden pre-written campaign but I wanted to up the survival horror and isolation themes while not having to overhaul the module to a different rules set.

[@Michael-bn1oi]

@@CliffEdge87 Cthulu has its own modules as well.

[@TilleyYT]

My favorite house rule is that the session is not over until we schedule when we will be playing again. Makes scheduling really easy!

[@spudsbuchlaw]

GM: Nobody leaves this house till Mark responds to our DM! A few years later... Mark: cant come, sorry

[@barswa]

That opening make-up. So good. *Goes back to listening to the rest.*

[@barswa]

Yes! Noir is back!

[@barswa]

Ooo. Good call on introducing house rules in session zero when possible. I've seen players leave tables/groups when its done poorly mid-campaign.

[@MarcusBeirne]

That look is 🔥🔥🔥

[@Squidbush8563]

I use critical fumbles but I also sometimes make them happen to the player's advantage. That swing may have completely missed AND your sword flew out of your hand, but it also may have 'accidentally' impaled the orc running up behind the one you were attacking. And I love your hair! The color is amazing and suits you. 😊

[@Xacris]

When my friend DMs, he only does crit fumbles for enemies. If an NPC rolls a 1, he asks one of us to call high or low, then rolls percentiles. If we guess right then something bad happens to the enemy

[@danielinthewolvesden]

They hurt fighters but not wizards. So that is not a good diea.

[@Squidbush8563]

@@danielinthewolvesden I also did away with spell slots and replaced it with a spell casting system based on the character's spellcasting ability score and the spell's level. Basically, every time a spell is cast, the caster has to SUCESSFULLY cast the spell. It keeps casting higher level spells limited by making them more difficult to cast while keeping the relative ease for lower level spells (and cantrips don't use the system) Introducing both critical success(allowing for some spectacular spell criticals even for low level casters) and critical failure (you just lightening bolted your own party. oops!) in spellcasting (as well as breaking low level spellcasters out of the 'one and done' category) It's still a work in progress but it has a lot of promise and makes for interesting gameplay.

[@theaxer3751]

I also like them, and I have a d100 table for it, so players know on forehand what can happen. I also apply these effects to enemy crit fails to keep it a bit balanced.

[@Emanuele_Sacchi]

Despite having quite a few moons under my belt as a DM (30+ years DM'ing) I tend to keep my house rules to a minimum. As you said, if I need to patch the whole system, then it's better to use *another* system instead :) BTW - great hair! Really dig the look!

[@solsystem1342]

As a game designer I want to agree but, as a storyteller I'll butcher the system as much as I want. It can be useful for my goals.

[@BreandanOCiarrai]

Honestly, I am loving the hair :D As for house rules, I think a lot of the problems I have seen personally boil down to either making rules to hammer down a problem nail (i.e., making rules for one or two players specifically, either to cater to them or reign them in) at the expense of the group as a whole, or rules that were developed over time for one group that are then carried over to a new group for whom they don't work as well.

[@technoape]

This is why the 1e afterward emphasizes that the Game > the Campaign > your local players. House rules, and rulings can help make a campaign or set of play sessions particularly epic, but you don't gotta play with everyone, better to have a smaller higher quality game than play with the problem nails(they will find the dumb combos in any system)

[@erikscottdebie7665]

Man, I'm so glad Ginny is one of our influences. She's smart, dramatic, and adorbs. :)

[@thomcat2704]

Adorbs??Really??For your sake i hope internet catches on lol

[@MarceldeJong]

@@thomcat2704 she’s totes adorbs!

[@SiblingCreature]

For what its worth, I love the new hair. 🙂 Also have to say I love the way you do your ad slots... this is one of only a very few channels where I actually look forward to seeing the sponsor messages because you never fail to make them entertaining. I have a tendency to just skip through them on most other channels.

[@tooblue127]

As a new DM (for mostly just One shots) I really have been light on the house rules. I like the idea of them but I have enough on my plate. The few things I do are usually minor tweaks that are already pretty popular like drinking a potion as a bonus action. Glad I have been doing the safer option. Here I was worried I stuck myself in a box and was being paranoid for not wanting to step out of it yet. Btw your hair and makeup look awesome. At first I wondered before you addressed it if it was a really cool new wig you made or something but it is so cool that it's your new style!

[@Sentinel851]

My favourite house rule is you get the first 3 levels of hit points at level 1. I found players are able to better engage with the early story when they're not in single digits of hp, so going to clear out a goblin nest is just a challenge, not a "welp, one crit and I'm out"

[@colbyboucher6391]

Yeah, 5e does this weird thing where it wants the classic level 1 D&D experience, but it doesn't structure it's 1st level adventures like B&X. At default level 1 you need to be avoiding combat at all costs and generally be clever / sneaky but a lot of pre-written stuff has you... charging into goblin nests. Exactly the sort of thing that would have been seen as a *mistake* in earlier editions. So more HP at level 1 totally smooths it out and gives you the "5e experience" immediately.

[@DonsArtnGames]

Love the new hair! The more natural look suits you and the streaks of color still give that playful feel. Thanks for the advice over the years.

[@User__Not__Found]

Another helpful thing I did when adding house rules was listing ALL of the currently running house rules in a channel in our discord that non-DM's can't add to. Even though everyone is already comfortable with them, it's still nice to be able to go back and look at a combined list of everything all in 1 easily accessible place

[@muttshouse]

LOVE the new hair. Everyone needs a change now and again. It's not like you went red. (I'm sure you'd look great with red too) Adding a neutral like black is just making the aqua pop more. Love your videos. Thanks for the info.

[@Alche_mist]

Hi, a person on the internet here. While I was all about "blue cotton candy" Ginny, this new Dark Ginny is amazing too. And, as a bonus, together with your undeniable makeup skill (those eyeshadows!

[@TheTidobanditto]

Love the new hair! Looks great! A house rule I have adopted was getting up from Prone takes 15 speed across the board, not half your speed. Why would it take a Monk 20+ speed to get up but a cleric 15? A PC that spent a lot of time training to be agile and fast would not take longer to get up. If anything a heavily armored paladin would take longer to get up, but I'll just keep it to 15 for everyone.

[@BalooSJ]

I think the idea is that it takes the same *time* for everyone, but for a faster character that translates into a loss of more *movement*. But you do you.

[@TheTidobanditto]

@@BalooSJ but if you really think about it. A character who is nimble or DEXterous would be able to get up much faster then anyone else who hadn't taken a lot of time in training. A Monk or Barbarian or anyone else physically adept would take less time than a brainy wizard or mouthy bard. Why penalize the person who would be faster. 15 speed across the board makes more sense. For most builds it stays exactly the same (half their speed). Only PCs who are effected negatively in some way are ones who start with 25 speed, but even still it makes logical sense.

[@josephdellavecchia7828]

Fantastic Video Ginny. I have implemeneted house rules that people have hated and we dropped them; whiles others we loved and continue to use. Its all about finding out what we enjoyed and making the most of our game. On a side note, the new hair style lools amazing. Great costumes in the World Anvil piece too.

[@Ninja-The-Red-Shinobi]

Awesome a new video! First, love the new hair! Second, this will help me out alot since I'm actually stepping up as a first time DM next year, I'm currently cramming building a full blown campaign and getting rules and possible house rules down pat as much as possible. My goal as a future DM is to make an experience that is very much unforgettable and I'm so glad for the players who are patient enough to wait and let me cook on this campaign as much as possible.

[@philurbaniak1811]

👍👍 great tips, cool hair, many thanks! 😃 Love the ad and the singing gave me chills!

[@armphidiic2609]

Your new hair is very nice. Also excellent advice. Communicating house rules to your players before play starts is important and unless it's a group decision, I don't think it's a good idea to introduce them partway through.

[@peterbreen]

My DM always tells us not to build our characters with DnD mechanics, but how we like! For example, my friend plays a lightning infused dwarf, I play a telekinetic elf and my other friend plays a wizard who is yet to learn spells, so instead, punches things!! Its very fun, because she makes sure our dream features are available Maybe other dms could use this tip!!

[@ValeOfMuses]

Loving the hair! I'm glad you're doing something that makes you happy And I'm so glad you mentioned the bit about house rules often being lifted from other games - my group loves to hop systems basically every campaign, so we're no strangers to going, "You know what would make this so much better? This thing we did a while back." It makes it really hard for us to bring anyone new in, unfortunately, because we've got such a specific combination of experiences now that we struggle to explain properly. A problem we still need to solve in the future.

[@Darman121]

just gotta say: love that hair color mix! Also, totally agree. The only house rule I would take without questioning it (as long as your goal isn't more challenging combat at least) is for critical hits to have the maximum of the dice for the first role automatically + usual damage die + modifiers, because rolling 2 ones on a crit just feels shitty, and even if this might one hit an enemy, it won't happen too often and it makes the player feel awesome for landing an amazing blow that you as a DM can describe epically, eg "Your arrow hits directly into his chest, piercing his armour with ease. The arrow hit so hard, he was knocked back and pushing the last breath out of his lungs" or similar

[@PhosphorusWhite]

I like the new hair and this is a spot on take on house rules and implementing them to enhance the game each group is playing instead of just changing it drastically into a new system.

[@marccaron6008]

Yes, our DM once decided to add critical hit locations (on a 20) with a d66 random table of gory results. Half the party lost limbs, the other died.

[@colbyboucher6391]

Lmao just making people lose limbs on crits is an *awful* way to implement that sort of thing, it just completely bypasses the HP system and makes instant death way too easy. That GM should probably play something other than D&D that actually bothers with a more detailed damage system, like Mythras or GURPS or HarnMaster.

[@marccaron6008]

@@colbyboucher6391 I think he got the idea from RoleMaster.

[@real_evin]

The Whyyy? section of this video in particular was amazingly thought out, great video. Loads of valid reasons to NOT include house rules, and loads of reasons to, all of which depend on the house!

[@witchesbruise8792]

I find 5e to be a difficult system to house-rule. There are a lot of assumptions built into the rules, and rules interact with each other a lot. It's a tight integrated system - and that's good, but it does make house-ruling difficult. I find that one nice thing about older versions of D&D is that they are made of multiple "stand-alone" systems, so when you add a house rule it's limited to one area and doesn't tend to have unexpected downstream effects.

[@katewatson4942]

Love the new hair! Real dark fairy energy. And as usual, your video was full of useful advice.

[@jacobs483]

Good video! I think “rules and styles of play” could be a really neat follow-up topic for this, even if you just talk about the styles of play you like and what rules reinforce that type of play. Rules are the most powerful way in which a game reinforces what it is about, or can change what the game is about. Because of this, knowing the PURPOSE of your rules and how you WANT them to change the game is incredibly important. This helps immensely when judging the success of failure of your rule as your table tests it out.

[@patrickscanlon963]

Your videos are always great and informative, thank you. Also the new hair is great but it's definitely the matching makeup that puts it on that next level, chef's kiss energy sort of space

[@DeirdreCeridwen]

OMG LOVE your hair now!! It's dynamic and fun-sophisticated! Looks amazing! But more on point...great advice! Like all things, from games to learning to art :) it's always best to adhere to and fully understand the rules before you break the rules!

[@ellysium4629]

First thing I thought: Finally, we're entering Ginny's dark era! Our table has some house rules that we've had for so long that I genuinely thought they were RAW. Most of our house rules exist to either make weaker elements of the game feel more awesome or to avoid PC death as much as possible.

[@thatpoemguy2083]

Good to know that forgetting something was modded in isn't exclusive to video games (I'm looking at you, Rimworld and Skyrim)

[@AliceLoverdrive]

If you want to avoid PC death as much as possible, is there a reason to play a game designed around avoiding the risk of death? There are games that are designed from the ground up with the assumption that PCs cannot die, and that opens up a ton of design possibilities that just aren't feasible in D&D. Fate, for example, does that and it's setting-agnostic, and of course there's Apocalypse World and some of here offspring.

[@kylekenefick]

every house rule we use, came about dynamically. The whole table during gameplay, and it was discussed between everyone. Like flanking in 5e, we like a bonus for that, so if they flank they get a +2 to attacks. Not a huge bonus, but enough to encourage more dynamic tactics. The key part though, was that all players were involved in the creation of the rule.

[@MattThom01]

A great time to talk about house rules is during session 0. See what sounds interesting and fun and try it out. I also recommend only trying out one or two house rules at a time to see if everyone likes them.

[@GinnyDi]

Funny, I recommend basically those same two things! In this very video! 😂 Great minds, right?

[@brentage5000]

The new hair looks amazing! Total goth cuteness! Haven't really done much DMing outside of a few non-D&D single-page one-shot things (Werewolf, You Awaken In A Strange Place, etc.), but heavily agree with the idea of learning actual house rules before modifying the game to your taste.

[@rebeccacourtney5286]

The only main house rule I have is: Floor roles only count if they are nat 20s It’s simple and makes a lot of things more fun for the players

[@Ave_Echidna]

I thought floor rolls were automatic shots of rail gin. Oh... Wrong game...

[@mayuwu4408]

Absolutely love the new hair, the color combinations and how they're layered and blended and flipped with the eyebrows... *chefs kiss* amazing.

[@ItsNket]

I definitely made a lot of these mistakes in my first campaign! I agree that too many can really bungle it up - So I only use three. Potions as bonus actions, No Counterspell, and I allow the four "flavour" cantrips as bonus actions as well. (Thaumaturgy, Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion, and Druidcraft) They rarely get used, but when they do it adds some pretty neat outside the box thinking to combat. (Oh, and of course the Rule of Cool.) And girl the hair looks amazing, try not to feel self conscious about it because it's awesome!

[@maggiefelisberto5281]

I love the new hair so much!!! Still got the teal vibes, but also goth af! It's a dream hairstyle for me tbh

[@pinkniles]

my two favorite totally unknown house rules i've come across in my two newest campaign are that you can burn multiple spell slots to upcast/cast spells above current casting level, and cantrips as bonus actions the first one i came up with after wanting to have my character work to casting a certain massively messed up 12th level spell from a previous edition (ran it past my dm ofc), and honestly the party loves it. we may burn through spells faster with doing cool higher level things, but it makes us think more and figure out cool things to do without spell slots even for people who only really use them because of their class cantrips as bonus actions works for the campaign it's in because it's rp based for the most part, so combat being fast is better and makes for a better flow talking with the players and dms for house rules really is just the absolute best because you can come up with strange things that just make the campaign so unique feeling

[@drakegrandx5914]

I absolutely love your new hair, and I'm not really a guy out for awkward aesthetics, so I was genuinely surprised when I heard you "apologyze" for them. They are so vibrant, the color contrast so good-looking, and I actually like them so much more than your previous ones!

[@ryanhilliker375]

I've got my little branch of art. Storytelling, creative writing, choir and singing. It's really cool to see someone else with other branches with stuff like costuming doing so good. idk why it's good, but I can tell you're good and passionate at it, and my lack of experience highlighted it out to me.

[@VTimmoni]

You! You mentioned Shadow of the Demon Lord! I am so happy. Love that system.

[@colbyboucher6391]

Hell yeah! Written by one of 5e's lead designers, so I sort of consider it a "5e Director's Cut". It's good for understanding what 5e was trying to accomplish "being D&D" and I think it's better for it. Plus it's roll modifiers are so much better than plain advantage / disadvantage.

[@VTimmoni]

@colbyboucher6391 I totally agree. I love the versatility of the path system too.

[@davyt0247]

Session Zero, Ask, Communication. Even if you're an experienced DM/GM, ask your players what they want. Speaking of rules,(and survival) don't be afraid to ask whether or not your players want to track their ammunition, spell components and such. Some players might want to keep track others might not, best to be sure before you give your rogue and ranger a magic quiver that is always full. P.S. Love the hair!

[@kongkunin]

Love you're advice on ttrpgs! I like you're views and willingness to return to previous topics. Also, great job on the hair and eye shadow! They look super fun, and I hope the change suits you!

[@camillestephens1378]

great advice and so important to consider also obsessed with how the ombre in the eyebrows was inverted from the eyeshadow the details are immaculate

[@SwedishKuriboh]

This was a really good video, and a great way to explain the importance of properly communicating house rules. =) The group I play with have two big house rules, which we all agreed on going with. 1. Hidden death saves. Only you and the DM get to know the results on the death saves you roll, so fellow players don't know how close to death you are when you fall unconcious. 2. If you go unconcious, but get back up, you get a point of exhaustion. You almost died... almost dying gotta make you lose some steam, so this feels logical. Also, love the new hair, Ginny! Looking good, and the makeup too looks lovely!

[@AshAngelV]

Love the new look! Super classy like Morticia Addams meets sea nymph. Learning the rules before breaking them is so helpful. My first foray into D&D was with a group that had been playing together for some time and I'm still sorting out what things were house rules. 😅

[@TroyKnoell]

3 things. First, I'm a new DM, so thanks for the advice. I can overthink things and suggesting I take a step back is spot on. Second, nice job with the ad. I loved the noir style. Third, your hair looks great.

[@FrankSerio]

First, I love your hair. Second, I enjoyed your film noir ad/skit. The performance as the singer was lovely in and of itself, but it also worked so well in the bit. Lastly, good advice about house rules. People are too quick to add them and not willing enough to dump them if they don't work out.

[@shanecollett819]

So with our group, we have our own compendium. Each campaign when a player wants something from house rules to homebrew classes races etc, if it gets approved one of our DMs add it the compendium. Starting a new campaign peeps are free to use anything in it as long as its run by the DM. With house rules, those are selected and talked about before starting the session, then discussed by everyone in sesh 0. But some of our most popular ones Hidden death saves ki points = to wis mod. Abundant ammo (20 = infinity / a purchase of 20 required each week) Bonus action potions

[@Archangel144]

Looks good! It's a unique look, almost like we caught you mid-transformation. The multicolor eye makeup really works.

[@Stevelover0267]

First off, love the hair! You look amazing as always. Second, communication is key to everything. I had a dm once that had the house rule of standing from prone taking an action. It had been made a rule because of a different group of players taking advantage of dropping prone, standing, then dropping again. The issue here is 1) this wasn't stated until it was brought up in the game we were playing and 2) we weren't playing with those people... it didn't affect my character, but my best friend's character that kept going down, reviving, and then had to either take the disadvantage to attack from prone or waste his turn. We were level 2! Not a whole lot a paladin can do at that level if the action is wasted on standing...

[@orenmontgomery8250]

2:04 This. Even if you're not a beginner, I like keeping changes to a minimum so everyone is on the same page. I tend to just keep house rules to things like "this is how we handle 'cocked' dice (and what qualifies)", "you can only use materials from books the GM has or OKs", "we need at least 4/5 players to proceed with playing", "if a player is absent their character can be played by someone else and get 1/2 experience or an excuse made to leave them out with 0 experience" etc. Usual session 0 stuff mostly.

[@BTHobbies]

The communication of house rules is so important. I have a standing "If you go onto a forum and look up some optimized build, and your character overshadows the other PCs, I will nerf it" rule that I am very clear about in session zero. I've only had to use it once (got over my head as a new Shadowrun GM and didn't dig into a players multi-book build), but the session zero conversation has redirected several players away from creating problems at the table.

[@maraudercatt8564]

My main house rule, consistently, is that no material is allowed in the campaign without DM conversation. Like UA or Pathfinder content that someone wants to use. Dates back to the original psionic 'rules' that had to be house-ruled. LOVE the new look, Ginny! You go with your bad self!

[@keroppi4u]

Hair loolks awesome. Solid video and I also think your point for new DM's to start with RAW is key. Also the fact that all tables have a chemistry and culture that develops and forms over play so allowing it to become the table it is is key, and setting a bunch of house rules prior just does not allow that to happen.

[@awkwardva4959]

Ohhh my lord, this video is AMAZING. It actually helped me in a way I wasn't expecting, calling attention to house rules and making me ask an unfamiliar (and still fairly new) DM about the house rules they were using. I listed the rules by name/function (since, newbie DM and a few rules such as critical success/fails on skill checks are often confused for core rules), and we had a really great talk about it. Thanks so much for the video, it's been helpful both as a DM and as a player!

[@pagegrrl]

Love the new hair! And the advice. Your videos are always so informative and entertaining!

[@anacoanagoldenflower]

Your hair looks great! The black makes your green eyeshadow pop even more, and I really enjoyed the style of the ad! Definitely agree on all these points, especially about some just not fitting other tables and the need to ask WHY. The game I play in, our long rests aren't eight hours, they're a WEEK to allow for more realistic healing time, plus HP is also broken into Morale and Meat Points as another homebrew rule so you can earn the Morale HP back at regular speed but Meat Points which are physical damage accumulate at the long-rest-is-one-week pace. Which works great for us because we're very heavily involved in roleplay and dungeon crawls are rare, making combat feel more meaningful. But for the game I DM which is more whimsical with more access to magic, that house rule just wouldn't match the tone; plus I'm DMing for a bunch of teenagers who've never played before and have ADHD, so I heavily agree with the fact that having too many house rules can get too confusing.

[@BasementMinions]

Playing other systems is a great way to learn new house rules that work for you. Awesome tips! :)

[@swashhustler1326]

In my Star Wars games we have a houserule called "hollywood gun magazines" bc we got tired of trying to keep track of how many shots were left in power cells. Everyone signed off on it and it basically goes like this: A gun's clip has continuous shots until you get a nat 1. This is to be representative of hollywood logic where you suddenly run out of ammo at whatever time drama/luck/fate deems most appropriate.

[@stuartchundrlek3005]

First off, love your hair. I'm always impressed with your videos on functional topics in tabletop games. They are well thought out and presented clearly. This one is no exception.

[@MagusAgrippa8]

Loving the new hair, Ginny. Surprised me for a second but the black and sea greenish teal go really well together. And like a lot of people have said, so many issues at a dnd table boil down to communication. Sometimes it might not be easy to address players about a thing, or it might not be easy for a player to bring up something they don’t like, but it really is important to have that open communication.

[@morrcahn]

1. Your hair continues to be really rad! 😄 2. Definitely something I struggle with a bit. I enjoy creating kinda complex but really fun homebrew rules-at least fun in theory-but only one has really taken off: xp rewards. Haha. 3. Nice work on that ad. 4. Really great vid! I need to take it back in time to my younger DM self.

[@RoderickBall]

My roommate's granddaughter had died her hair a gorgeous blue green and was getting picked on at school for it. She got a dye job a few months ago similar to the one you rock here and loved it. It's my current desktop wallpaper so she sees it whenever she pops in to say hi. I hope you get as much joy out of your hair as she does, and if not, then I hope you continue to try new things.

[@Hellectika]

I almost always go out of my way to not watch ads, but this one is fantastic. Also, the hair/makeup is **chef's kiss** and the piercing brown eyes pulled it all together.

[@joeymullins5142]

Houserule: #1) Foster Open Communication (although it should be a given...) These are always fun videos to watch (the sponsor part was really good!). I like how Ginny's position on house rules starts with "why have them" first - sort of like how I question the purpose of work meetings! I've seen many horror stories on Reddit with DM's adding "house rules for the sake of house rules..." The Dungeon Dudes take a similar position on house rules. I introduced some new D&D One playtest rules last session in my game and before we started, we discussed them and let people weigh in on what they thought. Definitely happy I'm a DM following this advice. Also: The new hair is freakin' fantastic!

[@Michael-bn1oi]

One thing people should remember if they feel like they have to use lots of house rules, is that there are plenty of other systems! 5e is a generalist system. The only thing it is the best at is getting new people into the hobby. But there are *so many* excellent systems out there, you might be able to find exactly what you're looking for.

[@colbyboucher6391]

I don't even think calling it a "generalist system" makes much sense because that'd imply that it's flexible. As far as RPGs it's kinda not. It's a serviceable game for high-fantasy "dungeons outside of the dungeon" gameplay which just happens to be what most people want.

[@Michael-bn1oi]

@@colbyboucher6391 it does a bit of everything. Jack of all, master of none. Don't be pedantic, that means generalist as much as flexible does. Also, do you think the 5e system is only fantasy? You should explore the hobby a little...

[@colbyboucher6391]

@@Michael-bn1oi 5e is only GOOD at fantasy. Hammering 5e into some other setting is an awful idea, how the hell would you handle classes? You can't just replace all of the defaults, achieving something approaching balance and actually having fully fleshed out classes is tough (there's a reason 3rd party publishers take moths to just put *one* new class together). If you think D&D 5e of all games is a "generalist" system YOU need to explore the hobby more. A LOT more. Play an actual universal game like FATE or Savage Worlds or ICRPG or GURPS or BRP or Mythras or Cypher or Whitehack (actually a generalist D20 game), literally *anything* actually designed from the ground up to function as a generalist, generic system without issue. I could take Cyberpunk 2020, rip 90% of it out, turn it into a fantasy game and go "see, it's got a bit of everything" too, it wouldn't make it true.

[@templarw20]

The Death Saves example reminds me of this GM that didn’t like the progress of 3.x, so he rewrote the XP table to slow it down to a glacial pace. And then implemented a “training” system where you had to make ability checks before you got your class abilities for a level (as in “sorry, Mr Ranger, you failed one of the three DC 20 reflex saves, so you don’t get Evasion.”)

[@mpeterll]

I found myself going almost full-circle on many house rules. During my first couple of years as a DM, I "fixed" all the rules I didn't like, but then found myself not liking the extra work to police them. For example, I once tried to ensure that all new characters were balanced in terms of base stats, but eventually came to realize that it wasn't necessary. More than once, after a player had a particularly bad run of the dice creating a character, I would tell him to just put his dice away and choose his stats.

[@Tenderleaf]

we just use the pathfinder 1st edition pointbuysystem

[@brasssnacks8413]

In a post-OGL-nonsense world, I like the subtle shift from DM to GM.

[@musasoyyo]

The sponsor break inn this video was just too perfect, I usually skip sponsor words but this was so much fun to watch. Thank you for your content, the tips have helped me a lot. I used to play D&D back in high school and College, it's been a looooong time and I decided to return but I was very unfamiliar with many of the changes that have happen, Your channel has helped me run successfully my first sessions with my new table. So I'm really thankful.

[@Dicequake]

Perfectly said. I can’t imagine not consulting my players on a house rule before we implement it. The handful we use (playing 5e) were the product of an extensive discussion around them first. Talk to your players. Oh, and the hair is amazeballs.

[@glentaylor71]

A small, simple house rule I have been using: optional fumbles. Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack or ability check (not save), the DM can offer you a fumble. Something bad happens, beyond just failing the roll; exactly what happens is up to the DM. In exchange you gain inspiration. If you already have inspiration, there's no benefit.

[@jonahrk_rider3602]

Honestly something that I've learn from all your videos,is always talks about it with your players first.

[@thoughtlesspenny5793]

I remember being a new DM and thinking that critical fumbles were in the rule book. When I discovered it was just a SUPER common house rule I eased up and had more fun. It felt like crap, for me, to shut down my players so often and actively got in the way of the story just because of a dice role. I still use them, but never in a way that punishes a player. Mainly I use them when there’s low risk and it could result in a funny story for the table later

[@LMondoux]

The two colour hairstyle looks great! Love it! Getting a good understanding of the baseline rules is super important. As RPGs are a collective experience, including PCs in the creation of house rules is essential. 100% agree. House rules should serve a purpose, that purpose should be known to those it affects, and even an estimated impact assessment if necessary! All homebrew, whether it is new playable ancestries/races/species/lineages, new weapon and armour materials, new spells, are all houserules. An extremely insightful video. Well done!

[@allpowerfulpluuts]

OMG YOUR HAIR IS SO PRETTY LIKE THAT!!! THAT LOOKS SO COOL!!! *Takes notes bc I'm absolutely gonna reference that for character design, and also for my own hair.*

[@NessOnett8]

I really wish more people saw this video and would take this advice. Because it's frustrating seeing so many brand new DMs add a bunch of the "common" house rules without any understanding other than "It's popular so it must be good." Which then just causes it to be further engrained as a common standard. Especially since most of those common house rules are actually horrible for the game.

[@aettic]

When I started running Delta Green, I borrowed a House Rule from "Pretending to be People" (A DG podcast), where you can spend luck to accomplish certain things. I didn't realize at the time that this rule was part of a much larger set of rules they borrowed from Pulp Cthulhu, and they weren't really playing DG straight like I had been running (minus that one rule I stole). I kept the rule in, and my players used it... a lot... and I discovered through that experience that it was pretty broken, but not so broken that I needed to nerf it or take it away. Spending luck to improve your rolls has long term consequences, so I think overall it was fine. Plus, my players were my mom, stepdad, and sister, and they were all brand new to DG (and it was my first time running it). Learned a lot. Won't do that again. I appreciate your insight about being careful regarding house rules, and especially being transparent with your players.