Top 10 House Rules in Board Games – My Personal Fixes
I’m willing to throw in house rules if they don’t fundamentally change the
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Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction and KIENDA Sponsor
01:05 – Background to the List
03:04 – No 10
05:49 – No 9
07:48 – No 8
11:00 – No 7
12:58 – No 6
15:00 – No 5
17:48 – No 4
20:50 – No 3
24:00 – No 2
27:25 – No 1
31:52 – Honorable Mentions
38:00 – Please Share and Support The Show
#brokenmeeple #houserules #topten #top100 #top10 #boardgames #boardgame #lukehector #supportsmallcreators #tabletop #tabletopgames #bgg #boardgamer #boardgamereview
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Brilliant idea for Wayfarers!!
Shadows Over Camelot: yeah the rule is tedious but it is only there to help 'hide' the traitor. Personally though: I feel the traitor doesn't need that kind of help, so just call it out and if they are so stupid to forget their own lies ("No, I don't have any 5's and then 2 turns later, plays a 5) then they deserve to get burned at the stake! 😀
Thank you for this video. I'm super pro house rules and customizing/modding games to fit personal/group desires. Can't stand the contingent of hardline, authoritarian, puritanical boardgamers who appeal to the authority of the designer and rules as if they're sacrosanct and untouchable. Board games are toys, and, while it's good to have a standard ruleset reflecting the designer's intentions, folks should feel free to play with their toys in ways that maximize their fun.
Draw two, choose one is a very good advice, thanks man 🙂
I need to mention Nemesis as you start with two objectives and selects one as the first Alien (I mean Nemesis) appears! I love the tension of that choice as that's also your win condition.
King of Tokyo. When you roll 'crystals' (?) You get double. Makes the cards so much more obtainable and fun
A brilliant video – really helpful ideas I will immediately adopt!
you are the best 😀
I like a bit of the mystery in the Gloomhaven initiatives. We will say, "I'm going mid early" or "I'm going early late" but least enough mystery to live on.
I like the Wayfarers idea. I'd probably change that influence would come off and give the player a coin. Love the Viticulture extra card draw. Will likely use that now 😁.
Never done turn order on O-han-ami. No one cares….lol. Weird rule…agreed.
Totally agree on the objective discard rule. Obsession has a good option for that as well as Ark Nova. We have toyed about with "when" to choose objectives in Wingspan but agree with the opening hand being a terrible time to decide.
I like your choices, but here are some for me.
Las Vegas Royale: Keep the same casinos the entire game & 1st player is the person with the most money.
DC Deck builder: At the beginning of your turn, you may discard your hand, skipping your turn to trash 1 card from your hand or discard pile.
In paladinns of west kingdom, the wight worker spots. I say any color work can be used.
Wayfarers: isn’t the inner-most card not necessarily the one that’s “been there the longest” but actually often the most recently revealed card?
Great list, Luke! Will definitely use the Wingspan one, and that Carcassonne as well 🙂
Great list. We house rule a lot of our games. One of our favourites and, incidentally, in our most played game is a little travel icon conversion in Arnak, i.e. two boots equal either a ship or a car; two ships or two cars get you a plane. Not the other way around, though. Very smooth.
Pls remind me what is your le havre house rule in regards to the loan?
I agree the mandala stones picking up stones rule was weird and made for confusing rules reading. We just say "pick a stone to start with and pick up in a circle, doesn't matter which way around" in my experience this has lead to faster turns and is far more intuitive. I could see it giving too many options for someone who APs a lot, but for how light the game is I doubt it would be aproblem
For Ohanami, I have the French version and I was sure the rulebook said simultaneous. Just checked and it's the same as English! Never played that way and never will. It's a drafting game, it should be simultaneous.
You said Meadow replaced Quadropolis, but then say that it’s a grind at 4 AND 3, so is it possible that Quadropolis is actually a better game because it doesn’t have this problem?
For Viticulture, I like to use the Wingspan card market for card draw–you can choose one of the three face up cards and everyone knows what you've got, or you can take off the top.
The late objective discard is a great one that I also use in many games. Another I’m a fan of is doing drafts in games that otherwise don’t have them, such as your starting occ in Feast for Odin (usually we draft 3 keep 2) which gives you more agency in your game plan.
I hate the 3-tile hand in Carcassonne and would argue it ruins the game for experienced players. It lets you hold onto key tiles and also you have no idea what your opponent is holding so, for example, if you’re relying on a tile and know there are two of them left and have accepted the 25% odds you won’t get it, you might wait all game just to find out your opponent was holding onto them the entire time. So at higher levels of play players would probably just hold onto the rarer valuable tiles. They use the 1-tile rule in Carc because half the battle is mitigating your luck by being able to utilize whatever tile the game throws at you.
Good idea for Wingspan
I am glad that you mentioned Viticulture. I havent played in a while due to the swingy cards.
Lot's of things bother you don't they? Bit of a control freak maybe? LOL Just pulling your wire. Why limit Carcassonne to 3 tiles in your hand, why not make it 5 and call it pokercassonne. That would give you more options and make it way easier for you play. If you are playing solo then there is no such thing as house rules just do what you want. Re-roll dice, do away with Menhirs completely so you can do every side quest with no timer pushing you to complete the story. Shadows over Camelot is an old game, one of the first coop/traitor games and that "stupid" rule you so lengthily talk about at nauseum is there just to keep an alpha gamer spoiling the fun of a coop game. I have a feeling that you are that kind of guy when it comes to coop games. Cheers.
LOVE the houserule for Wayfarers, what you have mentioned is the biggest issue I have with the solo mode. Thanks! Also, that Viticulture houserule is perfectly applicable in many Alexander Pfister games…
I dont like Viticulture just due to how tough the cards can be. I don’t love the draw two keep one thing though, I think an open card market would be better. Each pile has three face up cards or something. Idk.
The 2nd edition of Sheriff of Nottingham implements this rule officially!
I love this bit. Also, fun fact, until your comment about Ohanami, I actually saw video of the rules wrong and used 7 Wonders type of simultaneous reveal. Just now I realized I was wrong/right about it.
in Takenoko, i got rid of the dice. Instead, on a player turn, they choose which one of the 5 bonus actions to take. Once taken, they cover it with a proxy token and they cant take that same bonus action until all 5 actions are taken.
On point 10, I think the hidden information has merit in that without it, it becomes less of a game and more of a puzzle. Also if people know the numbers then it can lead to alpha gamers running the game in order to make the most optimal plays.
Also on the loot issue, the 'RP' of it is that you're a band of misfits. You're kinda out for yourself, so being selfish and taking the loot is part of the game.
Agreed on Sentinels of the multiverse, makes the game much better, especially in solo
I made some changes for Runebound V3 (solo-coop mode) and the main one is to make the exploration action as a cost of 1 instead of 2 ! And it makes the game much dynamic.
Totally agree with you on house rules. I don´t usually use them, but sometimes they just make the game more enjoyable.
If you have to house rule a game it sounds like you need to get rid of it. Too many games out there to worry about making up rules.
I see all those Ticket to Ride boxes displayed behind you. Are you ready for Ticket to Ride Legacy By Rob Daviau?
More house rules episode please!
Totally disagree on the Wayfarers suggestion. There’s already an action for the land and sea cards to “cycle” for a cost. Pay it, draw three, play one. Secondly, people can rest twice before someone else rests once. Then what? House rules in general introduce more problems than solutions. Cards always do something good in Wayfarers and the whole point is not for every player to get every card they want. Thirdly, cycling through cards doesn’t necessarily change randomness. In other words, cycling through cards too fast can be problematic because when a card comes out you do want, it could cycle out before you get a chance to grab it. Play games as they’re meant to be played. We never house rule games.
Wait Ohanami isn't Simultaneous? I would say I should read the rules but always played it simultaneously.
The one I use is for for my favourite game, Eldritch Horror. Eliminate the encounter phase and add it to the actions phase but everyone gets one more action. I found this on BGG and there are a couple other small things to make this work better but overall it makes it much better.
Great list – thanks! I’m going to incorporate draw 2-pick 1 and later discard of the second objective card in several games. Nice ways to minimize players feeling shut out by bad draws.
The second version of King of Tokyo already has that house rule included.
Trust me: three tile hand in Carcassonne is not a good idea for experienced players.
Yeah, I've always played Pandemic with open hands, even thought he rules say they should be closed, but you can talk about what you have. Seems silly, so we never stuck to that one. I know that some versions even just have it be open information right in the rules, like the Legacy versions.
A house rule we always used for Xia before the expansion basically fixed it, was to roll two dice when rolling for movement and taking the higher roll. Rolling a 1 for movement on your turn was just crappy and always felt bad. This way, you were more likely to have a better roll. It's sort of like rolling with advantage in D&D. 😉
Oh yeah… I think EVERYONE does those Carcassonne house rules… I know we do! 🙂
And regarding not telling people about a house rule when teaching, I disagree… I feel that you should always at least let everyone knows what the house rule is and what is from the book.
Even better then 1 discardpile to draw from is no discardpile to draw from in sheriff of nottingham
Ohh I'd love to try Carcassonne with the 3 tile rule. Might even want to port the rules exactly from Calico – 3 tile open selections with two tiles in hand. Play one, pick one of 3, turn done.
It's been a while since I played Sheriff but I recall enjoying the fact there is two discard piles. I wish bluffing was more worth it however.
It's me.. I don't play with the draw a tile at the end of your turn rule with Carcassonne. I'm a big fan of the game, but every time I tried the rule of drawing at the end, I don't think it benefited the game. Instead I found it harder to keep track of who's turn it is. A hand of 3 tiles gets rid of the social aspect of the game. You draw a tile at the start of your turn, lay it on the table for all players to see and influence placement.
Gloomhaven allows for open information but you must increase difficulty by 1. We always play that way! Its official!
I will have to try the bonus card house rule for Wingspan. I often house rule the starting cards and resources. Instead of discarding down to five cards and resources I like to discard down to seven. It just helps get things going. Although I find it less needed when playing with the better balanced Oceania boards.
Hi Luke, a very unique list! Interesting as well! Gloomhaven I like more than you – but because I only play it solo, this problem doesn't apply to me anyway. Carcassonne: I love this game soo much more than the hard-gamer community! Because I always play with Abbey-tiles (to plug the fully surrounded holes), the single-tile rule pick after your turn doesn't work. (You play the Abbey OR pick a tile!) Now having the Abbey and maybe two or 3 tiles might actually work, but I haven't tried this yet. Thanks as always for your content.
I love Ohanami and I never heard of your weird rule! It might be a translation thing cause I don't have the english rules. So of course simultaneous!