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A Knight card is unique because it can be played on your turn before the dice is rolled. We ran into an interesting scenario last night where one player played the Knight and then rolled the dice, without stealing... And then we realized it. What's the best course of action? Is the roll null until he steals? Or did he forfeit his right to steal? Or does he steal after the roll?

On one hand, he now knows the value of the roll which could influence what he steals. On the other hand, forfeiting a steal might not be allowed (otherwise you might do so if you had 7 cards, to evade a 7 being rolled).

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    To remove the roll value advantage, take the resources back from the players, THEN let the player steal the card, then re-allocate the resources from the roll since that particular roll hadn't happened yet. This would basically be a house rule for you all.
    – Brian Robbins
    Jan 5, 2015 at 14:50

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There are two issues here, and I think they each deserve a separate answer:

  1. If you forget to steal, do you forfeit your right to steal a card?
  2. If you go back a step in the game, do you re-take each step including rolling the dice?

The first is personal preference, I would say he forfeited his right to steal. It's not just he who missed the steal, it was the other players as well. It could be that people's hands have changed because they've received resources from the dice roll, and you'd have to account for that. In that, you would need to rely on everyone's honesty about (and memory of) the cards they'd received.

Re-rolling the dice after backtracking is something I never do, as a rule. If there's a possible argument about whether or not the dice should be rerolled, it's better not to, to avoid all discussion. No one is impartial in a game of Settlers.

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    It's probably way better to always reroll so there's no extra information while backtracking, assuming you're only doing minor backtracking. It still avoids all discussion.
    – Cascabel
    Jan 5, 2015 at 16:13
  • Always rerolling would motivate me only to notify mistakes if it is in my favor not to reroll. And I would be motivated to deny that there was a mistake if someone else notices one for the same reasons.
    – freekvd
    Jan 5, 2015 at 16:26
  • It's always in someone's favor to fix the mistake. And if you're to the point where you're worried about people actively trying to cheat (which is basically what you just described), all the more reason to reroll - clearly the player would use the additional information. I don't think making mistakes in order to reroll is really an issue; you can't know whether you want to reroll until you've rolled, and then it's too late to go back and make a mistake. (And if your games are really this cutthroat, making a mistake before every roll just in case will surely be noticed.)
    – Cascabel
    Jan 5, 2015 at 16:33
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Game rules don't tend to say anything about what to do if you don't follow them, so it's up to you to figure out what the most fair thing is to do.

In this case, since you noticed it basically right away, I would be inclined to go back and let him steal, and then redo the roll. Unless you're being extremely competitive or you think that the people you play with are inclined to cheat in the way you mentioned (and he actually had 7 cards), I don't really see the need to punish someone for forgetting for a moment.

If you noticed it much later (say, once a turn or two had gone by), it's probably best to just leave it be, since it's hard to really reverse things at that point.

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When we play, while it is still someones turn we tend to let them do things out of order as long as it isn't abused (mostly accidents). If someone actually does things out of order to 'cheat' then I would watch them like a hawk for the rest of the game and then not play any with them anymore.

Generally until then next person rolls the dice things can be 'fixed' but we generally ask each other anyway. If a new player isn't doing well, I'll even let them draw their forgotten resources from a different role.

If you are playing very seriously then you have them steal the resource and everyone can vote if the dice should be re-rolled by the offending player.

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