I'm sure many people on here have written their own game rules or house ruled something so much it takes on its own identity. My first was 'Dragonsword' aged 10 when I sold my D&D Moldvay book to a friend intent on buying another only to find the local shop had sold out and had no idea when it was getting more in. In order to play (and get others to play) I needed rules and figured I'd write one. How hard could it be? My game was basically a numbers filed off version of D&D with as many Classes (race as Class) as I could squeeze in from wherever I could find them including Lycanthropes, Hawkmen, Cloudmen (like genies) and undead. It was garbage but I convinced my group to try it and they played it for a while (months) until the Mentzer basic game came along.
Other games popped up, mostly based on cartoon tv shows like Thundercats except with all manner of different animals, a Knights in armour game where I tried to make a gore splattered critical table (I'd watched the film 'Excalibur') and Barbarian, where the players hack and slayed their way across the dark ages. Most of the games revolved around carnage, death, destruction, loot and basically were fantasy wild west/space/supers/whatever where the players ruled the roost.
I regret that most of them didn't survive various house moves (and are all 35+ years old anyway, and for the most part are hand scribbled crap) but wondered who else had not only written their own games but managed to get them played. My group didn't have a choice - I'd run a published game one session then insist they try some hand scribbled garbage. Most of the time they were happy to do so but these days I wouldn't dare press gang my group of players into service as guinea pigs!
So, what stories do you have of games you've written or house rules so removed they mor eor less became their own game?
Other games popped up, mostly based on cartoon tv shows like Thundercats except with all manner of different animals, a Knights in armour game where I tried to make a gore splattered critical table (I'd watched the film 'Excalibur') and Barbarian, where the players hack and slayed their way across the dark ages. Most of the games revolved around carnage, death, destruction, loot and basically were fantasy wild west/space/supers/whatever where the players ruled the roost.
I regret that most of them didn't survive various house moves (and are all 35+ years old anyway, and for the most part are hand scribbled crap) but wondered who else had not only written their own games but managed to get them played. My group didn't have a choice - I'd run a published game one session then insist they try some hand scribbled garbage. Most of the time they were happy to do so but these days I wouldn't dare press gang my group of players into service as guinea pigs!
So, what stories do you have of games you've written or house rules so removed they mor eor less became their own game?