Min/Max Boards

ask that if they're going to use fumble rules then they have to go through every single weapon in the game, define what happens on a natural one, and then give the list of effects to the players.  House rules need to be clear to everyone from the outset after all.

That much boring work might discourage them.

This is good advice. Not just because that sort of busy work may help deter the GM from using this particular mechanic—which as others have said is both bad math and poor simulationism—but because it:

• greatly diminishes the "whatever penalty I feel like" factor, which can quickly become arbitrary and frustrating; and
• offers opportunities to take feat or equipment choices which can compensate for these fumbles.

Push your GM hard for this, and make it clear that if his world works like this—with weapons flying and bowstrings snapping with remarkable frequency—then the denizens of his world will have developed tools and strategies to deal with that fact. Quite simply, nothing else makes sense. Someone suggested locking gauntlets earlier; that's a good start. I might also invent a custom weapon enchantment called 'self-repairing' for bows, crossbows, and other equipment which repairs the item quickly. If nothing else, the character who invented that in this world would be filthy rich almost instantly.

Honestly, one of the easiest solutions—albeit taxing to the player—are reroll feats and items. Anything that grants you a reroll on a d20 will greatly reduce the danger this rule poses... and may, again, help your GM realize how taxing it is. Once his NPCs are all using the same feats and equipment, you'll be able to point out to him how bad the problem really is.

Hey, folks! I'm Grant, an occasional lurker on the old forums and a co-host of Saving the Game. I used to visit a fair bit a few years ago, when I was playing a lot of D&D 3.5. Now that I'm gearing up to start a Pathfinder game with my co-hosts, I came back here to look for some character advice, saw new forums, and figured "Man, I should really register and actually post a few things!" (Those of you who lurk or post on the Fear the Boot forums may also know me—I post as 'Saragon' over there.)

I've mentioned D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder already, and that's probably where the vast majority of my gaming experience is; but I'm that guy who always wants to try a new system. I've got plans for a Rogue Trader game, a D&D Next game (or maybe Reign if I can talk my potential players into it), InSpectres, Unknown Armies (probably my favorite game of all time, which I've never had a chance to play or run! argh!)... if it's something I haven't had a chance to try yet, I'll happily give it a go. My group actually tends towards very long-running games—we have a Birthright campaign that's more than seven years old now, and still going strong—which means I don't actually get to try that many games. But we're beginning to break towards shorter, more varied games as we all start having kids, so here's hoping!

A little about me, personally: I'm a proud, new father (our daughter's just over two months old), a happily married man, and a support technician for a local software company in Greenville, South Carolina (my hometown). I'm on Twitter as @STGGrant.

As I mentioned above, I'm also a co-host (I guess you could say "the founding co-host", but that sounds awfully arrogant) on Saving the Game. Saving the Game is an RPG podcast with an explicitly Christian slant to it, though it's certainly not only for Christians. We give good gaming advice for players and GMs, and address a lot of issues that crop up around the table as well. Even after all this time, there's a lot of misrepresentation and misunderstanding of geek culture, and particularly roleplaying games, in the Christian community; but we're doing our level best to change that. If you're curious, I'd encourage you to check out our website and listen to an episode or two! We're also on Twitter and Facebook.

I'm looking forward to hanging around and actually posting instead of just lurking!