My House Rules

[rcboater]

I'm going to be running an introductory game at a local convention this upcoming weekend. After collecting lots of great ideas from this site, here is a quick summary of the House Rules that I'm going to use. (I print them out on a card for the players.)

Any comments or suggestions on rules I might have missed?


Tailing: The check for tailing can be done at any time, and not just at the start of the turn.

Clouds: Aircraft may not fire into or out of clouds. Clouds have a floor of level 2, and extend beyond max height. The location of the post determines the in/out status of the plane.

Smoke: Two Smoke = Fire.

Gun Jams: Each “JAM” affects one gun. If a twin gun plane gets a jam, only one gun is jammed. The pilot may then elect to either fire with one gun using the B deck, or clear the jam, but not both. A second JAM affects the firing gun. Only 1 jam counter at a time can be cleared.

Steep Maneuvers: Jams can not be cleared while doing a steep maneuver.

Rudder damage: The “No Right/Left Turn” special damage includes the Immelman card.

Stall/Spins: If you perform two steep maneuvers in a row, you enter a spin.
- Immediately drop one level, and then play three consecutive 60 degree turn cards (50/50 chance to determine left or right. Once determined, all spin turns are same direction)
- after the third card, make recovery attempt (and every card thereafter).
- Lose 1 level with cards 1, 4, and 7 in the sequence.
- No firing or clearing jams in a spin.
- Recovery: Draw B deck damage card. If you get a zero, spin is over. If you get any other result, you're still spinning. (Ignore the damage on the card.)
- If you recover after playing the first or second card in a turn, the rest of the turn is played as straights. If you recover after playing card 3, your first card of the next turn must be a straight. All spins end after the 8th card- play a straight for card 9.
- Spinning into the ground (Altitude 0) is always fatal.

Wing mounted Lewis Guns: May fire upwards when overlapped. In this situation, pilot may fire forward or up—not both. (Nieuports, SE-5a)

Overlaps: Base on base is not an overlap. Post on base is.

No Collisions: All overlaps are considered to be near-misses. In this situation, the guy with the Lewis gun is always "lower".

Explosion Cards are replaced by the “Critical Hits” deck. (13 of the 32 cards are immediately fatal, 17 are a collection of other bad things, 2 are "Miraculous Escape".) The critical hit “Fireball” card (there's two in the deck) deals 2 “A” damage cards each to any and all overlapped planes.

[Oberst Hajj]

At conventions, I personally like to stick to the rules as written as much as possible. This gives the new players a good feel for how the game really is, and any established players know what to expect. It's also just less for them to remember. I've found that if people can leave the game and feel like they have a firm grasp on the rules and were able to concentrate on actually shooting someone down, they have more fun and tend to want to get into the game on their own. Just my thoughts and experiences though.

[wargamer]

Similarly, I would not use house rules, unless they can be simplified by using additional decks like the critical hits deck, or the mid air collision deck. Extra maneuvers and such would be right out, no need to complicate things and make them over-think the beer and pretzel game aspects.

This is supposed to be a quick and dirty, nice simple and fun game. Leave the realism at home. Keep it simple.

Once you have them hooked, and bring to them to your local game site on a continuing basis, for your house rules.

[rcboater]

I hear what you're saying, and you both make good points. When I run intro games for non-gamers-- I usually go very simple- don't even bother with altitude rules.
But this will be a game for gamers-- including some that have likely played before, so I may add in a little chrome.

Thinking about it some more, I think I'd put my rules into three categories:

Makes the game easier for beginners:

the "no collisions" rule

Changes for realism, no real impact on playability:

Critical Hit deck
Clouds (I've used them before-- it adds some "eye candy" with no real impact on the flow of the game.
Jams only affect one gun
2 smoke = fire

Too much "chrome" for newcomers:
Spins
some of the more advanced Critical hit results.

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

If you know who will be playing in advance you could always post out the 'additional' rules you intend to employ at the convention. That way players will have some knowledge in advance. Doesn't work every time but I don't know the circumstances of your game pre-convention.

[fast.git]

If you know who will be playing in advance you could always post out the 'additional' rules you intend to employ at the convention. That way players will have some knowledge in advance. Doesn't work every time but I don't know the circumstances of your game pre-convention.

Additionally, you could just create a quick summary of the house rules you intend to use... so long as they don't change the basic structure of the game, most gamers would still be game if the changes were clearly explained...