Friday Night shots – House Rules

Happy Friday!

I wasn’t sure what would be happening this week. I haven’t really felt in the mood to write much, which is why nothing appeared until my Cat in the Box review earlier today.

But enough about writing funks. You’re not here to hear about that stuff.

Belly up to the bar and let the music play! Listening to Chaka Khan right now on the iHeart Radio Casey Kasem network.

But I’ll turn it down so we can chat a bit.

This week, how about we talk about house rules?

I can’t imagine how hard it is to write a good rule book. Editing one might be even harder!

Game rule books always seem to be missing something or have some confusing rule or two in them that make people have to ask what they should do when they are playing the game.

An infamous recent example is the Clank in Space rulebook not actually stating what the “Clank” symbol was for when hacking data terminals.

But that’s not what I’m talking about here. (though I should write about that on a future Friday. Hold on while I write that down).

I’m talking about going against the rule book because you think you can do better.

And maybe you can?

I don’t know.

It’s the clarion call of the Boardgame Geek forums.

“This game” (or this rule, or this character/card) “is broken! Does anybody else do (this) to nerf (that) card?”

Thus we get into house rules.

The rule book says one thing, but you disagree with it. You don’t find that rule fun to play. You find it too limiting. Or you find it too powerful.

“Whoever gets this card always wins! We change it so it doesn’t have the same effect.”

There’s a reason that each game on BGG has a “Variant” section.

I just chose one of my random games, Liberty or Death (ok, maybe because of the storage post I did earlier this week) and there are 11 posts in the variant forum.

Here’s one that’s supposed to address the feeling that the French enter the war too early.

“Many posters think the French enter the war to quickly. This variant doesn’t seem to hurt anything – just slows the French up a little. Below is a very simple variant I employ.

I tweaked how their regulars come into available. Instead of getting 3 when that command comes up, I roll a D6 and 1-3 they get one, 4-5 they get two, a 6 they get three. This at least slowed them up to mid 1777 and that was with a card played that allowed them to move 5 regulars to available. Even with this variant and rolling a ton of low numbers, I think the latest they would enter the war would be late 1778. So it would seem to match more closely to what really happened. And it’s super easy to use.”

Of course, most game designers treat these questions wonderfully. “It’s your game, play it like you want.”

It amazes me sometimes how many house rule and variant discussions there are on BGG. Though it really shouldn’t.

One caveat for any house rule that I have to emphasize, because it happened to me.

I will even bold it for you.

If you are using a house rule when you teach a game, make sure you make it clear that it’s a house rule.

This comes from experience.

When I was taught Lords of Waterdeep, oh so many years ago, this came up.

I was told “Once all of the building spaces on the board are filled, no more buildings can be built.”

That night, or the next day, I read the rulebook and saw that buildings are unlimited.

I mentioned that to the person who taught it to me. I was told “oh, we just play it that way because we find it better.”

First, I question how that is better.

But secondly, I should have been told! What happens if I don’t look it up and I play it with somebody else. Somebody builds that first extra building and I say “no, you can’t do that! All of the spaces are filled!”

I would get looks saying that they think I’m a dumbass.

One variant on this whole house rule thing (Editor: “Ha! I see what you did there”) is just the wholesale removal of parts of the game that you find overpowered, underpowered, or just offensive (though that last part doesn’t happen very often).

We go back to Lords of Waterdeep again for that one.

The Open Lord intrigue card is widely considered to be broken.

This card lets you reveal which lord you are (which one you are is kept secret because you will get bonus points depending on the types of quests you have fulfilled, or perhaps other things). This card lets you reveal and then you can’t be attacked anymore. No Mandatory Quests, no other Intrigue cards that are classified as “attacks” can be played on you.

Many people just remove this card from the game. Which you can’t do if you’re playing Playdek’s app, but what can you do?

Speaking of Mandatory Quests, many people don’t like the “take that” nature of those cards, so those are also removed.

In one of my favourite games, Space Base, many people remove two of the ship cards: the “You Win!” card (which takes a lot of effort to actually have it take effect) and the “All other players lose 4 points” card.

They either think it’s overpowered or they don’t like the “take that” aspect.

“Take that” often seems to be a factor in cards/games that are modified or removed like this.

The “You Win” card is on the 12 space, so you have to roll a lot of 12s (especially in a 2-3 player game) or you have to get a card that will let you move the 12 cards to another column, easier to roll. Or maybe a “Place a Charge Anywhere” card.

That you have to activate multiple times.

It takes a lot of work to set up. Most people won’t be able to pull it off before somebody wins in another fashion.

If you can pull it off, shouldn’t you be rewarded?

But sure, take the card out. That’s fine.

As the designers say, “it’s your game. Play it how you want.”

One thing I have to mention here, even though it doesn’t really have anything to do with the topic (hey, it’s my bar, my rules).

The “I played this game for the first time and this (mechanism) is massively broken. Did anybody playtest this game?“

This is from the Undaunted: North Africa game forum.

I always love these because they always get roasted by…pretty much everybody.

Except the designer(s). They usually stay out of the fray.

Or get sarcastic.

I loved David Thompson’s response to the initial post:

“Wait – Trevor and I are supposed to test the scenarios after we design them? I knew we were forgetting something!!!”

I love David.

Anyway, that’s probably enough about house rules.

I’m on my second drink and should probably wrap things up.

What do you think of house rules? Do you use them? Or do you just not play the game anymore if there are mechanisms you don’t like? (That’s an option too).

Are you a game designer? If so, what do you think of this kind of thing when it comes to your game?

Let me know in the comments (or on Twitter, or Threads, or Mastadon, or wherever).

(This post brought to you by Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum, the number 42, and the letter Œ)