Questions tagged [house-rules]
Rule changes, additions and options proposed by players for players. This is not for officially sanctioned variations - use the [variants] tag instead.
299
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Friendly Blackjack, with players edge over the house?
I am hosting a casino-night party. These are not money games, but there are prizes at the end of the night for whoever wins the most chips overall. I will be dealing blackjack. I want my players ...
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Can one change their mind before playing marker or if wrong card played?
While playing Sequence and a player places his card down that he intends to play and then changes his mind before placing his chip down is that allowed? or does he have to play the card he showed? ...
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2
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Texas Hold ‘em Rules
I have recently played some cash games in Las Vegas and I have found that there are a number of unwritten rules that seem to have poor coherence between different players and dealers. Tournament rules ...
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Tri-Ominoes: Is the -5 points per drawn tile rule necessary?
I have the 1997 edition of Tri-Ominoes.
Beside the per tile and bridge/hex scoring, there are three kinds of scoring relating to getting rid of tiles quickly.
First to get rid of all their tiles ...
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Is No Thanks! playable with just two players?
No Thanks! is advertised as a game for 3–7 players. I've never played it, but going by the explanations I've seen on YouTube (such as Tom Scott playing it with some friends), there seems to be nothing ...
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220
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How can I play games by myself when I don't have a table?
I often find myself in a bus/train/subway/car without a tray available or any other way of managing even a small play field. There's always games on my phone, but that lacks something compared to an ...
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270
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Parcheesi: Doubles bonus
We are playing Milton Bradley “Parcheesi” and have an ambiguity in the rules to settle.
DOUBLETS
A roll of matching dice is called
doublets.
• If you roll doublets before all of your
pawns are ...
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How can we prevent wins by pure luck in Decrypto?
I've played Decrypto over the weekend and wasn't impressed with it due to how big of a role luck plays in the game. For example in the very first round one can win by simply guessing all three numbers ...
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3
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How can we make Just One more difficult/competitive?
Our friend group has been playing Just One a lot but it gets a bit boring quickly as 95% of the time the person can guess their word, even if we follow all the rules strictly (only dictionary words, ...
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Can a factory contain only one color or is there a rule to redraw four tiles?
When I play the physical version of Azul, I redraw tiles if all four that I place in a single factory are the same color. Recently Board Game Arena added Azul and I started a game. One of the rounds ...
2
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1
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Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries: endless destination cards harvesting loophole
For the moment we have had fun playing Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries, however, the fun has been spoiled by now due to the following incentive of which I don't know whether it is allowed.
Consider ...
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Could the Japanese player suffer anti-aircraft losses under the Midway reduction rules?
One optional feature of the game, "Midway reduction," forces Japan to conduct an air (or sea) bombardment of Midway before the transports accompanied by the Atago invade it. There is a ...
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In Monopoly, can you save an 'advance' card to use later?
Playing with friends, and they give me this rule I've never heard of before, can't find any info.
They say you can save an 'advance token' card (like a go to jail card) to use at any time.
Their ...
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What might these inscriptions added to an «Easy Money» board mean?
These inscriptions, for example S153 and P330, appear to have been added to an Easy Money board.
Does anyone know of house rules that might explain their addition?
(click to enlarge images)
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Is a rotated solution valid in Q-Bitz?
new here and couldn't find anything related to Q-Bitz, so I hope it's ok to ask this question. It has my family arguing!
So in Q-Bitz the challenge is to match the pattern on the card with your own ...
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Are "three way" trades allowed in Catan?
My basic understanding is that all trades must involve the player whose turn it is.
Alice, whose turn it is, has ore and wants wheat. Bob wants ore and offers brick, which is not acceptable to Alice. ...
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Can I combine Exploding Kitten decks to allow for more players?
As the game clearly states the game is designed for 2-5 players. This is based on the game mechanic and resource level of the namesake kitten. Once you draw an exploding kitten and cannot defuse it, ...
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1
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Twilight Imperium without the Agenda phase
The agenda phase in Twilight Imperium 4th edition feels a little "bolted on", and adds a lot of time to an already long game for not that much impact. I'm considering a house rule to remove ...
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How do I fix the statistical distribution of using 3 dice to handle Chance and Community cards in Monopoly?
I bought a Grab & Go edition of monopoly and realized they changed the Chance and Community cards.
Instead of physical cards, they have you roll 3 dice, and pick out of a list (3-18) of effects.
...
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2
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Pandemic - reduced rule-set for beginners
I have recently started playing pandemic, and was overwhelmed by the amount of rules.
Is there a reduced set of rules, easier to learn and remember but still fun, that can be used by beginners until ...
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2
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522
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Auction of mortgaged properties during bankruptcy
We have a house rule - No form of trade/deal is allowed between players. If someone wishes to sell anything - an auction has to be held always and the property goes to the highest bidder.
There are 3 ...
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How many booster each players should crack for a 60 cards booster draft?
I plan to create a 60 cards booster format. How many booster each players should crack for a 60 cards booster draft?
I think that 4 or 5 should works. Is there any existing format or math about this?
...
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What house rules/modifications have you adopted to make a board game work well over webcam? [closed]
During enforced isolation we're seeking social activities: what board games work well with others over webcam (ie in video chat; Skype, Jitsi, Zoom, etc.)?
If you've played over webcam, was it better ...
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Is it an official rule that interference in Monopoly requires paying $50 to free parking?
I have a question in regards to a rule, that I and a lot of family friends have always played by in monopoly, but a few new comers don’t get that rule, and I can’t find it in writing.
We play by the ...
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What strategies are there for the “no forced jumps” variant of checkers?
In the standard rules of Checkers as it is played in tournaments and the like, jumps are mandatory, i.e. if it is possible for you to jump, you must jump, and if it possible to do jump again you must ...
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3
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In Uno, can you quickly finish a two player game by skipping your opponent's final turn and without saying Uno?
So me and my friend are playing Uno.
It's a 2 player game and we play where you can stack draw 2’s or draw 4’s.
My friend (player 1) has 2 cards left.
I (player 2) have 2 cards left.
It is player 1’s ...
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Gleemax targeting
Does Gleemax allow you to choose an invalid target for a spell or ability? If you have it on the field and the other player plays and spell that say choose 2 creatures you control and place a +1/+1 ...
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Modify Ticket to Ride to For Six or More People - Thoughts? [closed]
To get more than 5 people in on a game without having teams I was thinking about buying another set of train cars (or two or three), painting them a unique color, and then doing one of a few things...
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How to play Ticket to Ride with children?
I know that "Ticket to Ride: First Journey" exists but since I have a base game already (Ticket to Ride: Europe) I was wondering whether it could be streamlined for 5y-old children.
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Missing rules: "L'ecologia" Clementoni
I have an old copy of "L'ecologia" of "I giochi di Sapientino" by Clementoni.
Unluckily the instructions are missing.
Can anyone help?
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Can you use a clue that contains a word on the board within it in an unrelated way in Codenames?
In Codenames, can you give a clue when the series of letters of one of the tiles on the table is contained within it?
For example, can you give the clue "barrier" when "bar" is on the table? Or "...
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Monopoly strategy if every unowned property goes to auction immediately?
My friends and I have tried playing with a house rule where every property, no matter who lands on it, immediately goes to auction for all players.
We have been using a Vickrey auction so that the ...
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Shortening Harry Potter the Battle for Hogwarts while keeping the difficulty
My wife and I like the deck-building game harry-potter-hogwarts-battle. Games 1 to 3 where too easy for us; Game 4 is challenging to our liking.
However, playing game 4 means having to battle all ...
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3
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Quoridor rules when faced the opponent
I could not find an official rule that states directly what exactly to do when 2 pawns are face to face. It says that you can jump over it to go it's behind if there are no walls between the opponent ...
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In Faro how do players indicate/remember their call of the last three cards ("Calling the Turn")
I've been trying to learn how to deal Faro. Online sources such as Wikipedia and Wizard of Odds mention that when three cards remain players can 'call the turn' stating the order they think the final ...
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UNO Stacking a Draw 4 Card instead of picking up 4 cards?
Need clarification on the Draw 4 rule.
- Player 1 lays down a Draw 4 Card and says the color is Red.
- Player 2 does not have a Red card but has a Draw 4 Card.
Can Player 2 lay down his Draw 4 Card ...
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Euchre Card Game
I need clarification on an issue that I had with playing euchre.
As I ordered up, the dealer (on my right), and right after that, she said that she was going alone and asked for her partner's best ...
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In Euchre, Can a person of the opposing team go alone if trump was ordered up by the other team?
I ordered up trump from the dealer of the opposing team and the same person said they were going alone and asked for their partners best card. Is that legal in the euchre rules?
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Why is it important that the digits be all different?
In standard Bulls and Cows, the digits of the chosen number must be all different.
Is this rule crucial for the "playability" of the game? In other words: if I ignore this rule and allow choosing a ...
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1
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Does snapping reset the plusses (e.g +4) in uno? [closed]
I wanted to know if you snap a +4 or +2 does it reset the amount the person picks up?
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Secret Hitler: is asking another player to choose which card to discard "cheating?"
To signal one's allegiance to the Liberals as President, one could say to another player, "all my cards are Fascist and it matters not which one I discard! Tell me which card of the 3 to discard!"
...
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In The London Board Game, can you put a block on the main red stations?
The London Board Game allows each player to initially close two stations each, and these stations can be changed during the course of play.
The rules I have don’t specifically preclude the ...
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Grand Tour USA (Helvetiq): How can you travel to Hawaii and Alaska?
Players can typically move by passing through bordering states following correctly answering a question. Although there are chance cards which allow for travel via oceans, they seem too infrequent to ...
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3
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Catan setup order different than playing order
When I get with my friends to play Catan (normal Settlers or Catan), we first roll the dice to decide who is going to put the settlement first.
The one that got the highest number goes first, the ...
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Alternatives to Mulligans in Magic: The Gathering
!edited: Added non-opinion-based question
I am currently looking into ways of doing Mulligans in another way, or replace Mulligans altogether, for casual play around the kitchen table. I don't like ...
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Scattergories Duplicate Answers
The rules of Scattergories state:
Players score zero points for an answer that duplicates another answer in that round.
However, how do you define "duplicates another answer"? Should only the ...
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Star Wars Rebellion Resolve Space Combat before Ground Combat
I'm considering the following variant for Star Wars Rebellion (inspired by Twilight Imperium):
Resolve space combat entirely and reconcile transport capacity before resolving a ground combat in a ...
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What if every suit were trump, and partners hated each other?
To anyone experienced in whist variations, are the following house rules playable? (that is, will this game be fun or frustrating to play)?
I'm developing a nutty variation of Spades for tonight, is ...
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Uno: With a last card power card, are you allowed to play it after you draw a card?
Assuming you play with the following rules:
You can't end on a power card (+4, color change)
If you can't play and draw a card you are allowed to play it immediatly if that card does match
If you're ...
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How to deal with being a 'dungeon master' and the other players finding the missions too hard?
My friends and I are playing Star Wars Imperial Assault: Jabba's Realm. My friends play as a team of rebels against me, the Imperial player.
We played the base game campaign and found it to be quite ...
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