How to get people to use your house rules…

[General Veers]

The Harris quote is a great touch, and is indeed a long standing endorsement of his. I recall in the credits to the Hasbro PC game (15 years ago) he praised the unit editor, even recommending a A3D3 tank - “call it a super tank.”

[CWO Marc]

An excellent post by D.K. giving wise advice.  I especially like the parts which advocate making things as professional-looking as possible: a formal supplementary rulebook (item 4), custom player cards (item 5) and precisely-matched map stickers (item 5), all produced to a high standard of quality.  D.K. also makes good points about having the house rules appear credible rather than arbitrary (items 3, 6 and 7).  And item 10 underlines that it’s important for house rule designers to decide to what extent they want to balance creating rules with a high personal appeal to themselves versus creating rules which have broad acceptability to the A&A community; the two approaches aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but designers need to consider which way they will tip on a particular house rule proposal if they have to choose between personal appeal and broad acceptability.

Here are a couple of other ideas, to which I’ll give numbers that continue D.K.'s 10-item list:

11. Keep the number of house rules manageable.  House rules can be viewed as seasoning which should be applied sparingly to the game; their purpose is to tweak the official rules, not replace them.  The greater the number of house rules, the harder they are to memorize and the more they have the potential to fundamentally alter or unbalance the game.  One way of splitting the difference is to have a large list of potential house rules, but to use only a small number of them in each game; choosing with your fellow players which house rules will be used in a particular game can be fun, and it adds variety to your get-togethers because you’re playing a slightly different game each time.

12. Have your supplementary rulebook state the overall objective of your house rules (assuming that they’re guided by a defining principle).  For example, the purpose of your house rules could be: a) to make the game go faster; b) to alter the balance of victory probability for one side or the other; c) to explore a particular alternate-history scenario; d) to correct perceived flaws in the official rules; e) to reflect more accurately the performance and/or cost of particular combat units; f) to create a game variant that uses a fundamentally different game mechanic (such as concealed play, using two game boards and a referee).  Players may be more willing – or may even be enthusiastic – about using your house rules if they understand what you’re trying to accomplish with them.

[knp7765]

Definitely agree with #11. We have come up with several house rules, I think we are up to 14 now, and while we like to incorporate them into our games, sometimes we simply forget. For example; one of our house rules is giving cruisers AA capability. Each cruiser acts as an AA gun getting up to 3 AA shots (or the # of attacking planes, whichever is lower) before the regular combat starts. Problem is, we get so caught up setting up the game and getting started that we forget to implement that rule until we are already part way through the game. I mean, Germany’s 1st round move is sending the Luftwaffe against the Royal Navy –- many aircraft attacking several cruisers. Yet almost every time we forget to do the AA and go right into the regular combat. Then, several turns later, we will notice a battle involving attacking planes and defending cruiser(s) and someone will say “What about the AA shot?” Then the rest of us are like “Well, we can’t start it now.”

[Young Grasshopper]

Great thread, agree 100%. I hope everyone here uses your advice as a guideline for the creation of future house rules.

[gamerman01]

Wow

[Der Kuenstler]

CWO Marc: I like your additions!

#11: There shouldn’t be too many house rules, otherwise you’re no longer playing Axis and Allies. And I think part of “manageable” is making the house rules consistent with the spirit of the game. This will make rules easier to remember. For example, you pretty much roll dice for everything in this game. You should leave that part in there with your house rules if possible.

#12 - I like the idea of purpose - people can accept change if they understand why there is a change. It may be for a historic reason, logical reason or gameplay reason, but do have some purpose behind your change, and explain it so that makes sense to people.

[radar231]

Bravo. Well done.  :-)

J. 8-)

[Ben_D]

This thread should get sticky’d ( or is it stickied? Idk…), seriously, 'cause it brings up a valid point that pertains to a broad audience.  I have no idea why it doesn’t have several more views than it does now.

[MrMalachiCrunch]

I was going to be smug when I read the title and just suggest a loaded firearm up to the side of the head would work.  But then I read the posting….

Well done!

[toblerone77]

I was a bit late to this party DK but I must say I’ve enjoyed this post a lot. I’ve also enjoyed discussing house rules with you quite a bit. Your dedication to the game especially regarding F2F gaming is a benefit to us all.

[Make_It_Round]

As a fan and designer of several variants myself, I concur wholeheartedly with the spirit and content of DK’s post.

This was really well done. I would like to nominate it as a front-page article for A&A.org, so that it gets more exposure.

Best regards,

Christopher Yorke

[Young Grasshopper]

@MrMalachiCrunch:

I was going to be smug when I read the title and just suggest a loaded firearm up to the side of the head would work.  But then I read the posting….

Well done!

LMFAO!

[Der Kuenstler]

I guess we could make that tip #13 “last resort” - lol

[CWO Marc]

@Der:

I guess we could make that tip #13 “last resort”

Tip #14 could be: “If you have to resort to tip #13 to get people to use your house rules, it probably means that you forgot to apply the twelve previous tips.”

[CWO Marc]

By the way, the Cliffside Bunker House Rules for G40 mentioned in this thread…

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=31434.0

…are presented in a way that I find very useful.  For each rule, three elements are given:

• HOUSE RULE (a statement of the rule itself)

• REASON FOR THE RULE (the rationale for it)

• PLAY TEST ANALYSIS (a post-game evaluation of how well the rule works)

This is an excellent way to present house rules because it provides context and because it shows that the rule was actually tested and evaluated rather than just developed on a theoretical basis.  (An analogy would be the potential difference between how a new weapon looks on the drawing board and how it actually performs in combat.)  So an additional tip for DK’s list would be for house rules booklets to present their rules in the three-part format used by Young Grasshopper.  Let’s number that idea as (serious) tip #13, since my tip #14 above was made entirely in jest and since the earlier tip #13 which inspired it was presumably (hopefully?) meant to be taken in the same spirit.

[toblerone77]

Going along with YG and DK’s use of professional house rule materials, is there a tutorial on how to make some of these battle boards, charts, etc. ?

I have a lot of ideas I’d like to share but presentation is the key.

[Young Grasshopper]

@toblerone77:

Going along with YG and DK’s use of professional house rule materials, is there a tutorial on how to make some of these battle boards, charts, etc. ?

I have a lot of ideas I’d like to share but presentation is the key.

Rather than us create a tutorial covering everything, why don’t you tell us some specifics of your ideas and then we can help you manifest the materials you might need to pull it off.

[toblerone77]

@Young:

@toblerone77:

Going along with YG and DK’s use of professional house rule materials, is there a tutorial on how to make some of these battle boards, charts, etc. ?

I have a lot of ideas I’d like to share but presentation is the key.

Rather than us create a tutorial covering everything, why don’t you tell us some specifics of your ideas and then we can help you manifest the materials you might need to pull it off.

Well I want to create some custom tokens and charts and I was wondering how people create them to look almost OOB.

I have jury-rigged some event cards and some convoy tokens with mouse paint. I’m sure there’s a better way though. I was just wondering if someone knew or suggest where to learn how to make some of the nice set-up and “cardboard type” components.

A more spacific project I’d like to do is a battleboard that includes HBG or other custom units.
One thing was the NO cards you made for the bunker YG. Also I noticed the manual DK created was that a regular office/document program? Or a more advanced program?

I could draw some of these graphics and things by hand and maybe make some componets in the same manner but I would assume it would look a lot better and have a more professional look/feel using the computer.

I hate to sound like a dinosaur but my computer skills are very Spartan.

Thanks, Guys.

[Der Kuenstler]

I use Microsoft Publisher to make everything. To make the cards, you can get the cardboard backing at any craft store. Print your material on regular printing paper and then glue the paper to the cardboard backing with spray adhesive. Then cut the cards out with a sharp utility knife and strait edge. Spray the cards with clear matte spraypaint to resist stains.

[toblerone77]

@Der:

I use Microsoft Publisher to make everything. To make the cards, you can get the cardboard backing at any craft store. Print your material on regular printing paper and then glue the paper to the cardboard backing with spray adhesive. Then cut the cards out with a sharp utility knife and strait edge. Spray the cards with clear matte spraypaint to resist stains.

Thanks Der Kuenstler!