My buddy swore we had to use the 'houserule' for Settlers of Catan where you reroll 7s - ruined 3 games in a row

He said it speeds things up but all it did was let someone hoard resources for 45 minutes with no robber to slow them down. Has anyone else had a houserule that sounded good but wrecked the whole feel of a game?

2 comments

2 Comments

martin.jamie5d ago

Oh man, that Catan houserule sounds like a NIGHTMARE. The robber is basically the only thing keeping resource hoarding in check, so taking that away is just asking for someone to run away with the game. Reminds me of a friend who INSISTED we try playing Monopoly with free parking giving you ALL the taxes and fees, not just the flat amount. He said it would "add excitement" but all it did was make the game last 6 hours because nobody ever went bankrupt. We ended up with a stack of money so tall it fell over every turn and people just passing Go over and over to collect free cash. Total disaster and we never played that variant again. Sometimes the original rules exist for a REASON and trying to fix something that isn't broken just makes everything worse.

roseb625d ago

My buddy's group actually did the free parking house rule and we loved it. Games took forever but that was kind of the point, we were just hanging out drinking beer anyway. Plus watching someone land on Boardwalk with a hotel and then bail themselves out with the parking lot jackpot was always hilarious.