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.
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How can I speed up a game of Axis and Allies?
I find Axis and Allies takes a long time to play. Does anyone have any house rules that would shorten the game? I actually own A&A Europe, but general answers are welcome.
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3
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Making 2-player Starcraft more enjoyable
In theory and according to the rules book, Starcraft can be played by 2-6 players. From my own experience and what I heard from others, it does not work at all for 2 players. The random factor gets ...
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4
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Does Dixit need any modifications to play with 7, 8, 9, and 10 players?
I've enjoyed Dixit greatly with groups of 5 and 6, and I'm curious if it needs any rule variations to extend it further. I was thinking perhaps requiring at least 2 players to guess the correct card ...
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How do you make Settlers of Catan work well for 2 players? (Problems and play-tested solution described, alternatives requested)
The basic Settlers of Catan game is designed to work for 3-4 players (or more with 5-6 Player Extension). No 2 player variant is suggested by the rules, and for good reasons:
Trades (an exciting part ...
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1
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How can we keep Ren Faire fresh?
After you've played Ren Faire with the same group for a while, the performance requirements seem old. All of us have had to bellydance, act like a hyper kid, etc, etc. I suppose we could crank out ...
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Is there a Warhammer 40K codex/proxy for the Interex?
The Interex appear in the first Horus Heresy book, Horus Rising as a branch of humanity heavily influenced by eldar.
I was forever saddened to hear they never made it.
Do any rules official and/or ...
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1
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Can The Haunted Tower be played without the base game?
My girlfriend received Dungeons & Dragons: The Haunted Tower for Christmas. Can it be played without the The New Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons?
I figure that it would be possible to ...
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What's a good handicap for a less experienced player in an MTG Draft?
My drafting group has a few hardcore players like me who have been playing magic for a while. We've memorized almost all the commons and uncommons in the sets we're drafting (usually Innistrad or 2012)...
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13
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Munchkin as a two player game
Has anyone had any experience with playing Munchkin with 2 players? If so, what variant/house rules do you play with, and how do you feel the experience compares to 3+ player Munchkin?
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How to make Settlers of Catan less cut-throat?
I know some people enjoy playing this way, but the other 50% of players seem to prefer a more casual game. This often stops people wanting to play at all, and so Settlers gets left on the shelf.
The ...
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What is the best strategy to avoid large farms in Carcassonne?
Whenever I play with my housemates and friends, Carcassonne often becomes 'farm wars'; everyone who understands the nuances of farm play gets caught up in playing meeple (or as I call them, 'dudes') ...
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1
answer
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Different game modes for Thunderstone
While plenty entertaining in the original version, the game Thunderstone looks like it could be played in many more ways.
Besides the most obvious modifications like playing with more (or less) ...
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How can Munchkin Quest be played quicker?
I love Munchkin Quest, but if you have more than 3 players you tend to get longer games. I know one way to make games quicker is to reduce everyone's starting moves to 2. That works ok, but I want ...
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How can we speed up Killer Bunnies?
What are some common house rules that you might use for a Killer Bunnies game?
Because the game has so many rules/cards to begin with, the only one that we've come up with is not allowing Super ...
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Dixit variations to increase replay value?
I recently got Dixit, and it's been a big hit with a couple groups of friends, however we're already finding it's replay value to be declining. I'm sure in a few months it would be very fun again (...
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How can I elegantly increase the difficulty of Elder Sign?
I think there's consensus that Elder Sign is not satisfyingly difficult. The variants I've seen suggested are either too long for my taste, or don't look play-tested.
Has anyone found a satisfying (...
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How can we finish Titan in 4 hours?
We like to play Titan but the game always feels too long, it usually takes 6-8 hours.
We've tried the quicker game variant suggested in the rules (skipping the first level of recruits and going ...
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8
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Robo Rally - Alternative rules for option cards?
Robo Rally is a fun game but the option cards totally break it if a person just sits on the wrench and hammer and collects them all.
Has anyone tried a house rule to discourage this behaviour? How ...
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How to speed up a game of Empire Builder?
Are there any rules variants that I can use to speed up a game of Empire Builder? I love playing Empire Builder, but the fact that it takes so long tends to put off some of my friends.
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4
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How much would the cards from Dominion: Alchemy cost if you wanted to use them while not playing with potions?
I've been looking at the cards from Dominion: Alchemy and want to use some of them in my own games through proxying of the blank cards. However, I don't feel like delving into the whole potion thing, ...
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Short-version of Settlers of Catan
What are some rule changes that shorten the game, and what drawbacks do those changes have?
Please limit your answers to rules changes with which you have first-hand experience!
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Creative handicaps in Settlers of Catan?
I've gotten really into Settlers of Catan recently. There are a few people I regularly play with and these games are really fun / intense; however, when any of this group splits off to play "friendly ...
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General advice for maximizing fun playing multiple games of Dominion
My girlfriend and I are a bit late to getting Dominion but so far are really enjoying it - we have the base set and just bought Intrigue. We don't have a lot of time to play (and so far at least have ...
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In Axis and Allies, could a house rule upgrading the German navy finally "balance" the 1942 game?
Because of the historical strength of the Allies, Axis and Allies is somewhat Allies favoring, despite numerous attempts to "balance" the game. I was wondering if curing the Axis' "achilles heel," the ...
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How can I play a short/small, but still satisfying round of Diplomacy?
I liked playing Diplomacy back in university, where I had almost no problem gathering seven people with a whole day (including the nights) to spend.
Nowadays however, I'd consider myself lucky to ...
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How Can I Improve Combat in DungeonQuest?
I've been playing DungeonQuest for a while with some of my friends, and what I've discovered is that there's a noticeable drop in interest during the combat, which is too complicated for new players ...
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1
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Small World : purpose of hiding VP
Have you ever tried playing Small World with visible VP ?
It sometimes frustrates me to discover in the end that some player had much more or less VP that we expected. Memorizing the VP count for ...
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Should We Eliminate or Modify the "Factory Rule" In Axis and Allies?
The better players I know don't build industrial complexes "factories" outside of their home countries. It costs 15 IPCs (five infantry) up front, and offers an uncertain return. Far better, they ...
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In Axis and Allies, Can Heavy Bombers Be "Tamed"?
Most players of Axis and Allies understand intuitively that the original heavy bombers tech "unbalances" the game by being disproportionately good. My own research confirms this by valuing the two ...
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Axis and Allies Europe edition: Neutral Territories?
So, as far as I understand it, the rulebook for Europe states that if a country invades a "strict neutral" (that is, any neutral that doesn't specify if it is Pro-Allies or Pro-Axis) then ALL other ...
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Can We Find a Middle Ground on the Russia First Turn Attack Rule In Allies and Axis?
Some (mainly Axis) players refuse to play Axis and Allies if Russia is allowed to attack on the first turn. Other (mainly Russian) players argue that Russia is unfairly hobbled if it has to play ...
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12
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House Rule for Minor Improvement/Occupation distribution?
I'm in a group that regularly plays together. We love Agricola, but we tend to play the family version because we feel the minor improvements and occupations are a bit too unbalanced. Or sometimes one ...
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1
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Would this potential Saint Petersburg house rule work? [closed]
A friend mentioned a possible easy tweak of the Saint Petersburg rules: just pay out the buildings once again at the end of the game (perhaps disallowing observatory/debtor's prison except for taking ...
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Whats a good way to handle multiple players bidding when playing by email?
I have recently moved away from most of my gaming friends and taken to playing by email. We have played a few rounds of Age of Steam but the bidding at the start of each turn takes many emails just ...
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0
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Draw at the end of turn in Carcassonne [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Pre-drawing cards or tiles
I often play Carcassonne in a lunchtime setting where we are looking to condense playtime as much as possible. We recently have started allowing ...
- 747
9
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5
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2 draw piles for convenience?
Sometimes when the table is large enough, or people don't want to reach too far, a single draw pile is split into multiple draw piles. This has always bothered me.
Does it bother anyone else? Are ...
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Does a book of 3's in Hand and Foot work?
My wife and I play Hand and Foot from time to time. We have toyed with the idea of allowing a book of 3's to count positive, with the caveat that they are only positive if the book is closed and clean....
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New Cylon Leader Objectives
When playing with a cylon leader, a benign "humans win" objective generally unbalances the game. Also, the limited number of objectives makes it fairly easy to guess which the leader has.
As a result,...
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Hero Quest - Adaptation to remove 'Evil Wizard'
I'm just wondering if anyone has come across an adaptation to the rules of Hero Quest for a version where you don't need an evil wizard? I'm wanting to try and play 2 player co-operative games and ...
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Tweaking the difficulty in Arkham Horror?
Most cooperative games have methods of altering the difficulty listed in the rulebook, but Arkham Horror doesn't (although it does mention that Cthulu tends to be harder than the other ancient ones).
...
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18
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Axis and Allies with TWO boards!!!
So, I have been developing a way to play A&A with two boards. You have the Axis on one and the Allies on the other.
Now, before you start saying that this is ridiculous and stupid and would ...
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Secret Mission Axis and Allies
My friend and I sat down one day and made up some "Secret Missions" for all of the countries in the board game Axis and Allies. For example, if Japan takes Western United States, they are immune from ...
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Good handicaps for Descent
In certain cases in Descent, a good player (in particular with the Overlord) can destroy the other side. However, I feel that Descent is most fun when it is well balanced right up to the end.
What ...
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Playing with the characters from the base and the Dark City expansion for Citadels.
In 3 player Citadels, each player chooses 2 characters. I've found I liked picking 2 characters so much that I've modified the game to be able to do it with any number of players. All I had to do was ...
- 21.2k
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2 Investigators in Mansions of Madness
I now have a few games of Mansions of Madness under my belt, all of them with three players - a Keeper and 2 Investigators. And I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be time for them (the ...
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Is there a "Campaign Mode" set of rules available for Arkham Horror?
Are there any rules (official or otherwise) that would govern trying to string together multiple games of Arkham Horror into some sort of a campaign structure? The idea would be for the investigators ...
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2
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Would using 2 progressions of evil and 2 heroic actions per turn destroy the balance of Shadows Over Camelot?
After reading so much about how Battlestar Galactica was a better game than Shadows Over Camelot, I became determined to help it and see if I could help it at all in the contest. One of the issues was ...
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Limiting the number of silver and gold cards available in Dominion
One of the interesting aspects of Dominion is how you have to plan which kingdom cards you're going to get while they're still there. If there's 2 attack cards available and somebody's snagged all the ...
- 21.2k
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8
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Does anyone have a way to modify Ticket to Ride to accommodate six people?
I recently bought Ticket to Ride to play at our monthly game night, which consists of three couples, i.e. six people. Stupid me, didn't read the five player limit before ordering the game. I've played ...
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How to reduce total screw-overs in Ticket to Ride so there's always a potential path toward victory?
My family and I have very much enjoyed playing the original Ticket to Ride, but I've noticed one issue that keeps coming up. It is very easy to be cheated out certain critical routes that could easily ...
- 21.2k