Friday Night Shots – Update and Rules Mistakes

Welcome back!

I know it’s been a little while since my last post, and that was after me saying how proud I was that I haven’t had more than a week in between posts in a long time.

Then I go and let 10 days go by.

It’s not from being sick, which is usually the case.

No, this was a full mental health and just not feeling up to writing issue. I did not feel like writing at all, and once again started wondering if it was worth it to continue this blog.

Not only did Grant give me the side eye again (that can be terrifying), but I also just thought about it.

Seven years of work, why would I stop now when I do ultimately enjoy it?

So I gave myself a bit of a rest, playing the Marvel/2K Midnight Suns video game instead, and just trying to relax.

It’s been a stressful month.

But that part’s been fun!

It’s an interesting game.

Anyway, I’m back and hopefully recharged, with a few posts that I really want to get done.

The bar is reopened!

Here, have some cool, delicious milk.

Wait, come back!

Let’s get back to chatting about board games.

Do you make mistakes when you play games?

I don’t, I’m perfect.

No, really, I do make a lot of mistakes when playing games.

And I don’t just mean tactical mistakes, or strategic ones, that cause me to lose the game by a wide margin.

I make tons of those.

What I’m talking about today, though, are rules mistakes.

Of course you make rules mistakes. We all do.

We all sometimes have a doubt about a rule, even when we’ve played the game a lot.

Recently in my Combat Commander ladder game, I was suddenly struck by doubt whether a trigger can happen on a to-hit roll, or just on the firepower roll.

Sometimes we learn a game, or we teach ourselves a game, and then when we’re teaching others, we just mess it up.

Like forgetting some times you can get Corruption in Viscounts of the West Kingdom.

We played that wrong 2-3 times before finally playing a perfect game, in something like our 5th game.

This really came to mind a couple of weeks ago when a friend was teaching us Glass Road from Uwe Rosenberg.

(Before I go any further, can I just say how pleasant it was to play a Rosenberg farming type game where I didn’t have to worry about my kids starving?)

In the game, you choose a hand of 5 cards each round. When you play a card, other players look to see if it’s in their hands. If it is, they have to play it as well.

If nobody else has it, you get to do both actions on the card. If somebody does, though, then everybody who has it (including you) can only do one of the actions on it.

You get three card plays in the round and you can follow twice if you have the cards that others play. So maybe 5 actions in the round, or maybe only 3-4.

However, the person teaching us said that we get 2 actions and then potential follows.

Needless to say the scoring was really low! (I believe there are only 4 rounds in the game)

Another friend really disliked the game because it was way too tight.

When I went home and read the rules (I like to do that just to cement the game in my head, and to also possibly find stuff like this), I saw that you actually get 3 card plays and potentially 2 follows.

Now my other friend would like to try it again to see if he actually likes it.

I have to admit I was a bit lukewarm towards it with tightness, and also would like to play it correctly (and am, on Boardgame Arena right now).

Another time this happened was with The White Castle.

We missed some rules that actually make the game a bit looser because you get more bang for your action buck, even though actions themselves are still quite limited.

This time, however, it didn’t actually affect my enjoyment of the game.

Even playing it wrong, it hit my top 50 games played of all time!

Just wait until I actually play it correctly. I haven’t had the chance to do so yet.

Sometimes rules mistakes aren’t actually mistakes. It’s just that the person teaching you didn’t tell you it was a house rule.

A long time ago, I learned Lords of Waterdeep and was told that there could only be enough buildings bought to fill the spaces on the board.

That was kind of annoying, but I don’t think we ended up building that many anyway.

But when I went home and read the rules, or looked it up on BGG or something, I saw that there is no limit to the buildings, and I mentioned that to them next time I saw them.

“Oh, that’s just a house rule we have to make the game tighter”

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again.

If you are going to teach a game, make sure you clearly note if you are teaching a house rule.

That was really annoying.

Anyway, I know I’ve made plenty of rules mistakes teaching games, and as I mentioned above, even some games that I’ve played multiple times.

It’s a fact of gaming life!

What’s your most egregious rules mistake that you can remember?

Let me know in the comments.

Tonight’s post brought to you Grey Goose vodka, the number 87, and the letters L and W