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So tonight I convinced my sister and brother in law to play A game of Risk. Seeing how he has never played A game he decided to play. What followed was pure he complained the most about how we would roll the the dice inside of the game's box bottom, and if the dice rolled out it would be a redo.

He would just go on how it wasn't in the rules, so tired of his whining I answered "house rules" which until then never thought about doing it any other way. So out of curiosity what kind of rules do you guys use while playing games to make them more interesting/fun ?

My dad's house rule is that he wins, no matter what.

I guess we follow it cuz we never fucking beat him, god dangit.

My house rules are that if losing the game means you'll get so angry you'll throttle the winner you are not allowed to play.
True story.

Back when I was a teenager, I had a Sega Saturn and Virtua Fighter 2 on it. Oftentimes we'd have a bunch of other families over for dinner, so the kids would play 2-player VF2 on the Saturn. To ensure everyone got a chance to play, our rule was that winner would stay on while the loser would give up the controller to the next player, but after the winner won three straight rounds, then he or she would have to switch too.

There was one kid who was very upset with the three round rule. He felt if he was good enough to keep winning, then he should get to continue to play. I didn't want to make a big scene out of it, so I didn't insist he give his controller to another player. I'd just beat him and make him switch. (It was my Saturn, so unsurprisingly I was the best player)

As far as Risk! goes ...

We used the standard number of armies. You could attack as many times as you wanted to in a turn, and you could move as many armies as you'd like, but an army could only cross one border. It could cross that border twice if it wanted, (so I could attack from country A with three armies, move all three armies in, but then move two back, leaving only one army to defend the new territory) but that meant that I couldn't start in Argentina with 40 armies and fight my way all the way up to Quebec in a single turn.

Cards were redeemable for whatever they were supposed to be redeemable for on the box. As for rolling dice ... if it's on the table it counts.

Winner stays on is one of the worst house rules ever invented. The loser clearly needs the practice more.

A dark horse said:

So tonight I convinced my sister and brother in law to play A game of Risk. Seeing how he has never played A game he decided to play. What followed was pure he complained the most about how we would roll the the dice inside of the game's box bottom, and if the dice rolled out it would be a redo.

He would just go on how it wasn't in the rules, so tired of his whining I answered "house rules" which until then never thought about doing it any other way. So out of curiosity what kind of rules do you guys use while playing games to make them more interesting/fun ?

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We used this rule in high school because we had kids that would cheat. This kept everyone honest.

How about the houserules that are so universal people forget they aren't actually part of the game?
Such as Monopoly's Free Parking space which, despite misconception, does not award you any money the bank has taken from players.

Shawnacy said:

How about the houserules that are so universal people forget they aren't actually part of the game?
Such as Monopoly's Free Parking space which, despite misconception, does not award you any money the bank has taken from players.

Click to expand...

I used to try to play it like that, but people always complained, so I just went with it. Now its 500 dollars and anything you pay to the bank other than buying and improving properties.

When I DM'ed you rolled on the table in plain sight. If your roll landed on a piece of paper, you rolled that die over. Unless we had so many people that could not sit at a table, then we passed the box top from a campaign setting.

Shawnacy said:

How about the houserules that are so universal people forget they aren't actually part of the game?
Such as Monopoly's Free Parking space which, despite misconception, does not award you any money the bank has taken from players.

Click to expand...

speaking of Monopoly, we never bothered with that "auction" rule if a player didn't want to buy a property they landed on. If you bought it, fine. If not, next player, please.

DarkAudit said:

Shawnacy said:

How about the houserules that are so universal people forget they aren't actually part of the game?
Such as Monopoly's Free Parking space which, despite misconception, does not award you any money the bank has taken from players.

Click to expand...

speaking of Monopoly, we never bothered with that "auction" rule if a player didn't want to buy a property they landed on. If you bought it, fine. If not, next player, please.

Click to expand...

Which is weird because it's this rule that actually makes a game of Monopoly go faster.

DarkAudit said:

Shawnacy said:

How about the houserules that are so universal people forget they aren't actually part of the game?
Such as Monopoly's Free Parking space which, despite misconception, does not award you any money the bank has taken from players.

Click to expand...

speaking of Monopoly, we never bothered with that "auction" rule if a player didn't want to buy a property they landed on. If you bought it, fine. If not, next player, please.

Click to expand...

I could never play that because I often only played with one other person, so if someone passes, the other can buy it for a dollar.

House rule for 4th edition D&D: monsters deal double damage and have half HP. I love it so much. Speeds up combat (4E combat is just too long), and makes it more exciting, since a tough monster can deal enough damage in one round to make the player worried about survival. Though I keep forgetting to double monster damage, so I think from now on, I'm just going to make the PCs and the monsters each have half health.

Rules for my house when I was growing up were that my older brother wins regardless of what actually happens during the game. If he couldn't win fair & square, then he'd cheat or the rules would suddenly change. This was especially noticeable when we were playing basketball. We'd set a score limit and if I got there first, we'd suddenly be playing to a higher score. There was one night where he had reset the score about 4 times before I got tired of him doing that and quit. He, of course, claimed victory by forfeit.

Zarvox said:

House rule for 4th edition D&D: monsters deal double damage and have half HP. I love it so much. Speeds up combat (4E combat is just too long), and makes it more exciting, since a tough monster can deal enough damage in one round to make the player worried about survival. Though I keep forgetting to double monster damage, so I think from now on, I'm just going to make the PCs and the monsters each have half health.

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That certainly makes minions a lot more terrifying.

blotsfan said:

Shawnacy said:

How about the houserules that are so universal people forget they aren't actually part of the game?
Such as Monopoly's Free Parking space which, despite misconception, does not award you any money the bank has taken from players.

Click to expand...

I used to try to play it like that, but people always complained, so I just went with it. Now its 500 dollars and anything you pay to the bank other than buying and improving properties.

Click to expand...

ARGH! I freaking hate that rule! The biggest complaint about Monopoly is that the game takes too long to finish, and giving money away at Free Parking only makes it worse! Pumping extra money into the game only serves to prolong the time it takes for people to go bankrupt! :explode: :explode: :explode:

Mr. Lawface said:

Zarvox said:

House rule for 4th edition D&D: monsters deal double damage and have half HP. I love it so much. Speeds up combat (4E combat is just too long), and makes it more exciting, since a tough monster can deal enough damage in one round to make the player worried about survival. Though I keep forgetting to double monster damage, so I think from now on, I'm just going to make the PCs and the monsters each have half health.

Click to expand...

That certainly makes minions a lot more terrifying.

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Minions are largely worthless past 5th level or so; this at least gets them back in the game.

You're not only allowed to cheat in Munchkin, it is expected of you.

Damn. YouTube has failed to provide a "KAMIKAZE!! KAMI-KAMI-KAZE!!" quote from Undergrads.

I remember playing Fireball Island once with a couple of people that REALLY remembered all the rules (I only barely did). They kept correcting me on a rule and every time, I'd look it up and sure enough, they were right. Funny enough, going by the actual rules made things less confusing and a little quicker.

Risk took too damn long, so we instituted Nuclear Risk. Cards with countries on them could be used to turn those countries into nuclear wastelands. Any continent no longer attached to another continent became unlivable. Things could turn very quickly if you drew the right card.

If I run a paranoia game, I don't know all the rules so it's pretty heavily houseruled. It works fine though since knowledge of the rules is treason.

House Rules:
In Trivial Pursuit your turn ends if you get a pie piece.
Props of any kind are forbidden in Monopoly.
If you control the Brewery in Poleconomy you control the beer supply to the players.
No bells allowed in Battletech.
When playing Hearts, HCGLNS must play to win the game and not to drive the other players insane.
The word "Scummo" shall not be spoken during any game of cards.

It's never lupus.

Krisken said:

Risk took too damn long, so we instituted Nuclear Risk. Cards with countries on them could be used to turn those countries into nuclear wastelands. Any continent no longer attached to another continent became unlivable. Things could turn very quickly if you drew the right card.

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Awesome, I'm so trying this next time.

When I was kid I loved the free parking rule, but now I realize how much it drags out the inevitable. Dice in a box or on the table just always made sense to me, like a craps table so everyone can see.

ZenMonkey said:

It's never lupus.

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This is true.

If you don't untap your mana before you draw your card, you're shit outta mana.

Magic the Gathering :toocool:

(That also may or may not be a real rule)

Heavan said:

If you don't untap your mana before you draw your card, you're shit outta mana.

Magic the Gathering :toocool:

(That also may or may not be a real rule)

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Is it still Untap/Upkeep/Draw? We were pretty anal about that way back when.

I'm sure the rules lawyers will have something to say about it, but I think you can't voluntarily 'skip' your untap phase unless some card (such as Brass Man or Stasis) mandates this. If there is nothing like this in play, you must untap.

With Monopoly, we didn't make all money paid to the bank go into Free Parking, just money paid to Chance/Community Chest fees (except for street repairs). The Luxury/Income Tax, $50 jail bonds, and house/hotel costs all stayed in the bank.

Man, don't get me started on the rules for card games. They range from game-changing/sadistic (when a joker is turned up as trump, all values are tripled!*) to merely eyebrow-raising (whenever diamonds are trump, someone says, "Boom."**)

--Patrick
*Jokers aren't normally trump. We play a heavily modified version of Oh Hell that includes jokers. Oh, and it follows the rules of Pinochle, too. It's loads of fun.
**While playing cards at a friend's house, just after diamonds were revealed as trump there was a thump that sounded like a body landing on the roof and the entire house vibrated slightly. Investigation revealed that a house 2 blocks over had exploded from a natural gas leak.

Back in middle school when yu-gi-oh was the big thing, everybody I knew played by their house rules that they got to automatically play any monster without having to sacrifice another, even if its star-level demanded it. Completely changed the dynamics of the game and made it lame(r), as everybody just stuffed their decks with powerful cards without any of the weaker cards ordinarily required. No real strategy when building a deck, just "I'm gonna win cause mine's bigger."

PatrThom said:

I'm sure the rules lawyers will have something to say about it, but I think you can't voluntarily 'skip' your untap phase unless some card (such as Brass Man or Stasis) mandates this. If there is nothing like this in play, you must untap.

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Correct.

Also, in regards to Monopoly's Free Parking, I didn't even find out that wasn't an actual rule until a few years back. I thought it was expected that people get money for landing on Free Parking.

Krisken said:

Risk took too damn long, so we instituted Nuclear Risk. Cards with countries on them could be used to turn those countries into nuclear wastelands. Any continent no longer attached to another continent became unlivable. Things could turn very quickly if you drew the right card.

Click to expand...

Have you ever heard of Risk 2210? It's a futuristic risk game by Avalon Hill that gives you access to ability cards and new territories (including underwater facilities and the moon). One of the sets of cards you can buy are the Nuclear cards which usually involve blowing stuff up. Right at the start of the game two countries are chosen at random to be nuke wastelands. And later in the game someone can use a nuke card to do the same to a country of their choice.

In Risk 2210 it is an absolute death sentence to amass a giant army in one location and march across the land.

Every time I read the thread title, I think "Y'know whut? House does rule, and we need to acknowledge that. Brava, OP. Brava." :clap:

Then I remember that it's about board games, and I think " :humph: "

It just doesn't compare, y'know? rly:



As to the OP: the only board games we ever played was Monopoly. The only house rules were that my brother always won. Fucking always. To this day, I don't know if he cheated, or if he was some kind of Monopoly genius (or maybe he was just good at intimidating/manipulating others into selling him good property for cheap), but almost every time we played to the end, he was standing in the winner's circle. It was maddening. rly:

Also, I played Monopoly once with a cousin who thought that "Get out of jail free" cards could be sold to the bank for as much money as she wanted (which, invariably, was the whole bank). That was pretty infuriating, too, because she couldn't be persuaded otherwise.

cvgurau said:

Also, I played Monopoly once with a cousin who thought that "Get out of jail free" cards could be sold to the bank for as much money as she wanted (which, invariably, was the whole bank). That was pretty infuriating, too, because she couldn't be persuaded otherwise.

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Tress said:

cvgurau said:

Also, I played Monopoly once with a cousin who thought that "Get out of jail free" cards could be sold to the bank for as much money as she wanted (which, invariably, was the whole bank). That was pretty infuriating, too, because she couldn't be persuaded otherwise.

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YES.

Speaking of Monopoly there is an ongoing debate at my table regarding how a player handles bankruptcy.

I believe that a player needs to try his best to settle his debt, so that when he's selling to other players he's at least getting the mortgage price for the properties.

We have a few sore losers however who think it's perfectly fine to sell everything they have to the underdog for $1.

I've been bitten by this one plenty.

-When you go bankrupt, you are first forced to hand over all of your cash.
-If the debt is not yet satisfied, you are then required to either cash in houses/hotels AND/OR mortgage unimproved properties until your debt is met. You may not mortgage a property until any/all of the houses/hotels on it have been sold back to the bank.
-If your debt is to the bank, and you have nothing left of value, you are done. Hand everything over to the bank and step aside. The bank will then auction off all of your properties to the highest bidder(s).*
-If your debt is to another player, you are done. Hand everything over to the other player and step aside.*

To raise cash, any player may sell any property (mortgaged or unmortgaged) or Get Out Of Jail Free card to any other player at any time for whatever amount of money that (s)he can get.

@blotsfan - When a property goes up for auction because you decline to purchase it, you can still bid. From the official rules: "Any player, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price." This also means that the player being the Banker can be a total dick and start the bidding at $25,000 if (s)he wants, of course.

--Patrick
*People receiving mortgaged property (whether from sale or auction) must pay 10% interest of the total value (as listed on the back of each card) of all mortgaged property on receipt. They then have the option of immediately paying the mortgage value to unmortgage that property. A player may wait until later to unmortgage a property, but (s)he will have to pay the 10% interest again at that time.

Shawnacy said:

Krisken said:

Risk took too damn long, so we instituted Nuclear Risk. Cards with countries on them could be used to turn those countries into nuclear wastelands. Any continent no longer attached to another continent became unlivable. Things could turn very quickly if you drew the right card.

Click to expand...

Have you ever heard of Risk 2210? It's a futuristic risk game by Avalon Hill that gives you access to ability cards and new territories (including underwater facilities and the moon). One of the sets of cards you can buy are the Nuclear cards which usually involve blowing stuff up. Right at the start of the game two countries are chosen at random to be nuke wastelands. And later in the game someone can use a nuke card to do the same to a country of their choice.

In Risk 2210 it is an absolute death sentence to amass a giant army in one location and march across the land.

Click to expand...

I'll have to give that a look see. It definitely need to check that out!

A friend of mine has a group of friends that still have annual or bi-annual risk games with their child hood friends. Important ground rules. The first one out brings the refreshments to the other players, and the 2nd place finisher hosts the next game.

Krisken said:

Shawnacy said:

Krisken said:

Risk took too damn long, so we instituted Nuclear Risk. Cards with countries on them could be used to turn those countries into nuclear wastelands. Any continent no longer attached to another continent became unlivable. Things could turn very quickly if you drew the right card.

Click to expand...

Have you ever heard of Risk 2210? It's a futuristic risk game by Avalon Hill that gives you access to ability cards and new territories (including underwater facilities and the moon). One of the sets of cards you can buy are the Nuclear cards which usually involve blowing stuff up. Right at the start of the game two countries are chosen at random to be nuke wastelands. And later in the game someone can use a nuke card to do the same to a country of their choice.

In Risk 2210 it is an absolute death sentence to amass a giant army in one location and march across the land.

Click to expand...

I'll have to give that a look see. It definitely need to check that out!

Click to expand...

I like the addition of Nukes. Never played Risk 2210, but I might have to implement a nuke rule next time we play regular old risk.

I hesitate to buy a newer version of risk, because I have a [strike:306n8uhk]stolen[/strike:306n8uhk] borrowed edition from like ... 1952 or something. I don't know the real year, but man is it old. All of the units are painted wooden blocks.

House rule #1: He who smelt it, dealt it.

Rob King said:

I hesitate to buy a newer version of risk, because I have a [strike:2fvr3krk]stolen[/strike:2fvr3krk] borrowed edition from like ... 1952 or something. I don't know the real year, but man is it old. All of the units are painted wooden blocks.

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Blocks and jellybeans. Yep, my father still has a set like that.

--Patrick