That's actually really interesting - I'm definitely in the "No to house rules" camp, but I've never really thought of them as being ways to just enjoy my favourite parts of the game more. Market row clogged in a two player deckbuilder? Not any more!
Silly house rule: whenever we reveal cards in Sushi Go, everyone has to simultaneously shout their card name like a samurai! The dread of "MIIIISO SOUP-DES!!"
I fully agree with house ruling to improve or streamline a game. Like you said, once you bought it, it's yours to do with what you please. Imagine someone telling you you can't put your refrigerator on the right side of the kitchen, because the notch for the refrigerator was on the left side of the kitchen and you shouldn't mess with the lay-out of the architect who designed your house.
Love this! I am in favor of house rules to make a game more fun. Thanks for these ideas. I also liked the concept of “once the game is on your shelf, it’s yours..”
I love this video! I’m a huge fan of the concept of saving games with house rules. It’s not even that the game’s broken necessarily, it’s just… if 95% of the game works for you and changing one minor thing would make it 100% for you, why not do it? I also feel like this concept has huge legitimacy from the fact of how many official variants or even changes have been made due to house rules in popular games.
What an amazing video! I have always thought, if you don't enjoy your game .... well what is the point? Don't be afraid, make some rules, make your games fun. Yes, please dust off the Eldritch Horror video!
Love this video! I also think house rules can help when you have two different types of gamer. My wife isn’t too keen on complicated games, so introducing new ones can be tricky, but I find house rules can sometimes make the game more enjoyable for both of us. The new cyberpunk game is a good example of that. I like the real time element, but I’m not sure she will, so I’m already thinking of how to swap the timer for a set number of turns while we both get used to the core gameplay. The timer can then be reintroduced later on.
Found you by looking to add house rule to Robinson Crusoe (my idea - if you are exploring a tile why wouldn’t you bring a resource back to camp? Immersion says of course you would!) But like video so much that I’m subscribing 😊
I have never hesitated to house-rule if it helped the game in any way. One of my earliest house rules was for Munchkin, in allowing players to select a race and/or class at the start of play. They could always change it later in the game if they drew a race/class they preferred over those they were currently using.
Oh my gosh I SO want that video! I haven’t played EH in ages as I found the downtime+game time a bit too much. Any tips for solving that would be awesome.
Excellent video with awesome production as always! I really love your channel and hope you'll be able to continue with passion as long as possible :) PS: I take the rule for Carcassonne and Star Wars Deckbuilder a it's very clever.
great home rules we did (that dont change the mood much, but keep the fun) - Gloomhaven etc: if you do your strongest attack, it cant miss (cause all else is such demotivating or can even make you lose a game when you set up so much for it to work) + if a room is devoid of enemies and looting is done, jump right to the next room's door (it just feels pointless doing 1-2 turns just walking or even losing cause you lack cards through walking) - Oathsworn: we ignore the rule that says to lose an item after every boss. sure, the game is grim, but what is the point of getting your stuff replaced by much weaker stuff on average while the enemies get stronger? just kills the mood. so first thing we got rid off. - a general one for card games: remove cards that let you search the deck. no one has time for waiting and it kills all momentum
My friends and I have houseruled the heck out of Arkham Horror 2nd edition, and it gets a lot more play now! We still lose Investigators and sometimes whole games but it seems to go faster and feel better
"This is Spartaaaa!" had me in happy tears! Love it! Def going to do it next time. Reminds me of 7 Wonders Architects. In the rules, it says when you reveal a horn, you're supposed to make a horn sound, "Brrrrt!" We say, "Brrrt-ba-brrr!" Everyone giggles! 😀
Played Eldritch Horror 6-7 times this past month after it sat on my shelf for over 5 years. It's in my cull pile, but now that this video exists, I desperately hope we get to the 500 likes.
I LOVE this!!!! I definitely swing between house ruling and struggling through. But your ideas here are fantastic and I’m excited to try them out to help my non-gamer friends play some crunchier mechanics without feeling too overwhelmed
We tweaked the movement ability in Oltrée to make it less annoying given how high the rate is of random bad things happening. Now it's still challenging, but we're not annoyed by how terrible the move action is. Honestly, they're your games. House rule to your heart's content so long as everyone on your gaming group is on board! I do always play with all rules as is the first time, but if it's not working, fix it.
Normally I'm against house rules but I did an exception for Mysterium. It's an easy game and I often play it with non-gamers thanks to its fascinating setting and atmosphere. I decided to eliminate clairvoyancy tokens and the clairvoyancy track. They make the game unnecessarily complicated and I think the games becomes much more enjoyable without them.
We usually try to balance experienced players with relatively new ones by giving a small bonus in resources (cards, tokens, etc.) to create fairness. If done carefully, this helps a lot-it maintains a challenge for the experienced players while giving newcomers a chance. And yes, at the beginning of the hobby, I was against house rules, but over time I started to take small steps, similar to what you've described. Why not make the game better for you and your friends?
In Final Girl in The Thing's module there's a permanent effect on an event card that I drew during game setup that made half of the board make you take a random movement action each time you moved. It's THE one event I tweaked because it was too much for me, and instead I just make it last until the end of the next turn and that's it. And it still has a significant impact when I draw the darn card.
This is great! And some great ideas! I have a group of younger students that I have a games group with (administration thinks its a social skills group, haha, it's both!) and I house rule all the time! Sometimes it's to speed up the game, or sometimes to simplify scoring. But I appreciate the ideas in this video, thanks!
My old group before everyone moved away used that rule. Definitely makes losing a lot more fun. Although most of the time the loser just picked a few games and everyone decided which one they were the most in the mood for.
I agree with the view that "it's your game, play it as you want", however getting buy-in from your gaming companions is crucial. Some may be upset if you teach the game, but not with the rules everyone else uses. They also may not trust your wacky ideas, and if your house rule causes more problems than it solves, you may be testing your friendship. The carcassonne house rule is a good one, but be aware it doesn't work with some expansions, so watch out for them. There are only two games I house rule: - Just One, ignoring the arbitrary (and bizarre) 13 card limit specified, and indeed not caring about scoring at all. In addition, if we've got a group that struggles a little, they can request to see any cancelled clues if they're not getting close on those showing. Finally if someone *does* guess the clue without seeing cancelled clues, they get a bonus guess of what the cancelled clues were - this is remarkably difficult. - Roll for the galaxy. Stopping players doing repeated dives into the bag when scouting. It makes sense if your group plays it again and again, and you all have clear strategies you want to execute. However that's not the game I want, and more importantly it a) slows a very fast game down and b) makes it a bad choice in our large gaming group, where there's always someone new to the game at the table. Experienced players trouncing a new player is not what our group is about, so I absolutely want to level the playing field a little, by making it harder for experienced players to repeat-dive into the bag for exactly what they know is in the bag.
Yeah, I guess that's where the terrible reputation of House Rules comes from, when different people come together and all want to play with what they think is the best way to enjoy the game. Or when a socially isolated group invites a new player and suddenly there are 100 unwritten new rules they must learn
I am super happy to see a lot of people of culture as well in the comments here ~;..;~ Here are a few more I use for Eldritch: Don't put monsters back in the bag after killing them so the same ones doesn't get a chance to show up again a moment later. Don't reshuffle any decks unless necessary for something specific - so I always get freshest cards on every play. Set aside all used Mythos cards from previous plays so they also don't come back again too soon.
Nice video! I was always absolutly against house rules, as someone was thinking well about and has tested them. But yes, some Games are only fum for me, by house rules. Okay, not really rules, instead of removing anoing cards 😂 BTW: on of the reasons why I think your channel is great: it is released not on am Sunday 👍
For Bloodborne, don’t restart the entire campaign when you fail. And for the time track instead of instant fail you can no longer die or go to the hunters dream.
I love five tribes but I always feel like it ends abruptly. Do you have any suggestions for a slightly longer game where you can play more with Djinns?
a funny rule for coop games: high five if you've managed to get a goal / resolve a puzzle, ... The small game "Zombie Teenz Evolution" has it and it is a lot of fun ... and a very important rule :-)
Thanks , I always think about house rules too because in some games like Root who reaches 30 will win the game the other players losing turns so the chances of 1st player in turn order reaching 30 vp is so high so it’s feels like unfair , what if am the 4th player if I get my last turn I will get 2vp by building a last workshop as a cat faction so I will end up with 32 vp So what you think about house rule for Root ?
Massive Darkness 2 We summon extra mob members like if we are 3 we summon the leader + 4 minions. And for the roaming monsters we increase their health as if we have one more player. - Zombiecide black plague We add two different necromancers and we cancel the rule where they can met each other and escape, also we add multiple abomination from the expansions and for the one who is hard to defeat we only add one card and we shuffle it back until we face m that monster and kill him
Nemesis? 5 player game? Not really, all it takes is to create a new mission "player no. 6 must die". But hey, when were at it we created around 30 brand new missions... To give you an idea one of them reads "a player who used Storage room must die", or "you must escape by pod or hibernate as the last surviving player". And some custom weaknesses as well. With about 200 games under our belt I can say all the effort was worth it. But removing silence tokens, this sounds like heresy!
I just brought Nemesis and I’m intrested in playing in 6, since our group is made up of six players. Does the game become too long in 6? Are there any other problems with this houserule?
@@sert1far716 no, our average game is 90-120min. Since we play with the same group of experienced players we do not struggle with down time. I can't tell a difference whether we play at 4 or 6 players. I just prefer 5-6 because of higher chance of interesting twists:)
Don't know about the big money but a house rule we use is everybody skips first two turns and just starts out with two cards from the market. Either value 2 and 5 or 3 and 4. As that would still be the case, however we save time and mitigate a bit of random. /JG
Good ideas! However that's why I like flexible games like Zombicide. But unfortunately that is not a deep game. Another example that I wanted to love but was so annoying to me: Mice & Mystics. That's a luck-fest. And all scenario has its own special ruleset. Had no idea how to fix that game. I still own it, donno why. Maybe, on one day, someone comes up with a neat fix :)
I love house rules to enhance a game experience. Unfortunately, most of my friends think rule books are bibles. I don't get it. Unless you're practicing for some sort of non-existent competition, isn't the main objective to have fun? So, if a game has a rule that frustrates you and reduces that fun, why wouldn't you change it?
Market - Stack duplicates - great idea. Some games are only great with house rules, Warhammer Quest : Cursed City with The Beadt Returns House rules by Peter Cooper., see BGG Top forum thread. ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo using BGG BadMoonViking(Nate) ALIEN: Fate and Isolation (Unofficial Variant / Expansion)
Part 2 collect house rules from us 1. We playing 7wonders like 7wonders duel the card layout 2. Mindbug/heroes for sale, trade the badest card with your neighbour/opponent 3. Almost in every cooperative game use the rewind hutton if you messed up the right move 😅 Thank you guys you are awsome
I pull out Eldritch Horror every so often, enjoy it, and absolutely would appreciate hearing more of your house rules for it.
Definitely interested in Eldritch Horror house rules!
Look at that smooth move tossing away those Robinson Crusoe cards to make your life happier. I did that with the entire game!
That's actually really interesting - I'm definitely in the "No to house rules" camp, but I've never really thought of them as being ways to just enjoy my favourite parts of the game more. Market row clogged in a two player deckbuilder? Not any more!
Silly house rule: whenever we reveal cards in Sushi Go, everyone has to simultaneously shout their card name like a samurai! The dread of "MIIIISO SOUP-DES!!"
I'm just here for the Eldritch Horror house rules :)
I need those Eldritch Horror patch notes
I fully agree with house ruling to improve or streamline a game.
Like you said, once you bought it, it's yours to do with what you please. Imagine someone telling you you can't put your refrigerator on the right side of the kitchen, because the notch for the refrigerator was on the left side of the kitchen and you shouldn't mess with the lay-out of the architect who designed your house.
Love this! I am in favor of house rules to make a game more fun. Thanks for these ideas. I also liked the concept of “once the game is on your shelf, it’s yours..”
I am normally against house rules, but I felt these were well thought out and worth trying!
I love this video! I’m a huge fan of the concept of saving games with house rules. It’s not even that the game’s broken necessarily, it’s just… if 95% of the game works for you and changing one minor thing would make it 100% for you, why not do it?
I also feel like this concept has huge legitimacy from the fact of how many official variants or even changes have been made due to house rules in popular games.
This was one of your Best Videos ever. I love House rules, if i do them 😂
Sometimes one Little adjustment makes a Great Game an awesome one!
What an amazing video! I have always thought, if you don't enjoy your game .... well what is the point? Don't be afraid, make some rules, make your games fun.
Yes, please dust off the Eldritch Horror video!
Love this video! I also think house rules can help when you have two different types of gamer. My wife isn’t too keen on complicated games, so introducing new ones can be tricky, but I find house rules can sometimes make the game more enjoyable for both of us.
The new cyberpunk game is a good example of that. I like the real time element, but I’m not sure she will, so I’m already thinking of how to swap the timer for a set number of turns while we both get used to the core gameplay. The timer can then be reintroduced later on.
Found you by looking to add house rule to Robinson Crusoe (my idea - if you are exploring a tile why wouldn’t you bring a resource back to camp? Immersion says of course you would!)
But like video so much that I’m subscribing 😊
Eldritch is one of my favs! When I want a decadent, wild day of gaming, I love to bust out this beast out. I'd love to see your house rules!!
I have never hesitated to house-rule if it helped the game in any way.
One of my earliest house rules was for Munchkin, in allowing players to select a race and/or class at the start of play. They could always change it later in the game if they drew a race/class they preferred over those they were currently using.
Good point on Wingspan drafting
Love this! 😊 cant wait to hear Eldritch house rules!
This was an absolutely fantastic video Janis! Eldritch horror was my first boardgame that I bought just like you. So yes more likes for that video!!!
Oh my gosh I SO want that video! I haven’t played EH in ages as I found the downtime+game time a bit too much. Any tips for solving that would be awesome.
Excellent video with awesome production as always! I really love your channel and hope you'll be able to continue with passion as long as possible :) PS: I take the rule for Carcassonne and Star Wars Deckbuilder a it's very clever.
great home rules we did (that dont change the mood much, but keep the fun)
- Gloomhaven etc: if you do your strongest attack, it cant miss (cause all else is such demotivating or can even make you lose a game when you set up so much for it to work) + if a room is devoid of enemies and looting is done, jump right to the next room's door (it just feels pointless doing 1-2 turns just walking or even losing cause you lack cards through walking)
- Oathsworn: we ignore the rule that says to lose an item after every boss. sure, the game is grim, but what is the point of getting your stuff replaced by much weaker stuff on average while the enemies get stronger? just kills the mood. so first thing we got rid off.
- a general one for card games: remove cards that let you search the deck. no one has time for waiting and it kills all momentum
Really fantastic videos coming from you guys recently! Love this video. I have some house rules for King of Tokyo as well and it makes it WAY better
My friends and I have houseruled the heck out of Arkham Horror 2nd edition, and it gets a lot more play now! We still lose Investigators and sometimes whole games but it seems to go faster and feel better
"This is Spartaaaa!" had me in happy tears! Love it! Def going to do it next time. Reminds me of 7 Wonders Architects. In the rules, it says when you reveal a horn, you're supposed to make a horn sound, "Brrrrt!" We say, "Brrrt-ba-brrr!" Everyone giggles! 😀
Played Eldritch Horror 6-7 times this past month after it sat on my shelf for over 5 years. It's in my cull pile, but now that this video exists, I desperately hope we get to the 500 likes.
Wow! Super duper extra material!!!🤯 Thank you!
This video was awesome!
I LOVE this!!!! I definitely swing between house ruling and struggling through. But your ideas here are fantastic and I’m excited to try them out to help my non-gamer friends play some crunchier mechanics without feeling too overwhelmed
This is a pretty unique and great idea for a video! Very inspiring for my own games!
Amazing video, I'm definitely using the last house rule 😄
Excellent video. Well-put thoughts and funny comparisons. From now on I will always look at the Wingspan as a Pokemon game with birds.
We tweaked the movement ability in Oltrée to make it less annoying given how high the rate is of random bad things happening. Now it's still challenging, but we're not annoyed by how terrible the move action is.
Honestly, they're your games. House rule to your heart's content so long as everyone on your gaming group is on board! I do always play with all rules as is the first time, but if it's not working, fix it.
Yes! EH is my all-time fave and I definitely would love to see your “Necronomicon of house rules” for it 🤘
Normally I'm against house rules but I did an exception for Mysterium. It's an easy game and I often play it with non-gamers thanks to its fascinating setting and atmosphere. I decided to eliminate clairvoyancy tokens and the clairvoyancy track. They make the game unnecessarily complicated and I think the games becomes much more enjoyable without them.
We usually try to balance experienced players with relatively new ones by giving a small bonus in resources (cards, tokens, etc.) to create fairness. If done carefully, this helps a lot-it maintains a challenge for the experienced players while giving newcomers a chance.
And yes, at the beginning of the hobby, I was against house rules, but over time I started to take small steps, similar to what you've described. Why not make the game better for you and your friends?
In Final Girl in The Thing's module there's a permanent effect on an event card that I drew during game setup that made half of the board make you take a random movement action each time you moved. It's THE one event I tweaked because it was too much for me, and instead I just make it last until the end of the next turn and that's it. And it still has a significant impact when I draw the darn card.
This is great! And some great ideas! I have a group of younger students that I have a games group with (administration thinks its a social skills group, haha, it's both!) and I house rule all the time! Sometimes it's to speed up the game, or sometimes to simplify scoring. But I appreciate the ideas in this video, thanks!
Great Inspiration!
I have Eldritch Horror but never played it, would love the house rules to help get it tabled thanks!
Yes on the Eldritch Horror house rules video! Love to see what house rules you all use for this!
Excellent!!! 👍
Loved the last one. Never thought of that, definately stealing that one 😅
My old group before everyone moved away used that rule. Definitely makes losing a lot more fun. Although most of the time the loser just picked a few games and everyone decided which one they were the most in the mood for.
I agree with the view that "it's your game, play it as you want", however getting buy-in from your gaming companions is crucial. Some may be upset if you teach the game, but not with the rules everyone else uses. They also may not trust your wacky ideas, and if your house rule causes more problems than it solves, you may be testing your friendship.
The carcassonne house rule is a good one, but be aware it doesn't work with some expansions, so watch out for them.
There are only two games I house rule:
- Just One, ignoring the arbitrary (and bizarre) 13 card limit specified, and indeed not caring about scoring at all. In addition, if we've got a group that struggles a little, they can request to see any cancelled clues if they're not getting close on those showing. Finally if someone *does* guess the clue without seeing cancelled clues, they get a bonus guess of what the cancelled clues were - this is remarkably difficult.
- Roll for the galaxy. Stopping players doing repeated dives into the bag when scouting. It makes sense if your group plays it again and again, and you all have clear strategies you want to execute. However that's not the game I want, and more importantly it a) slows a very fast game down and b) makes it a bad choice in our large gaming group, where there's always someone new to the game at the table. Experienced players trouncing a new player is not what our group is about, so I absolutely want to level the playing field a little, by making it harder for experienced players to repeat-dive into the bag for exactly what they know is in the bag.
Yeah, I guess that's where the terrible reputation of House Rules comes from, when different people come together and all want to play with what they think is the best way to enjoy the game. Or when a socially isolated group invites a new player and suddenly there are 100 unwritten new rules they must learn
Eldritch Horror is my fav game ever, bring that video on!!
That's a great approach. Opposite to a Computer Game it is really easy to modify the rules. Thanks for the tipps! ❤
I am super happy to see a lot of people of culture as well in the comments here ~;..;~
Here are a few more I use for Eldritch:
Don't put monsters back in the bag after killing them so the same ones doesn't get a chance to show up again a moment later.
Don't reshuffle any decks unless necessary for something specific - so I always get freshest cards on every play.
Set aside all used Mythos cards from previous plays so they also don't come back again too soon.
Nice video! I was always absolutly against house rules, as someone was thinking well about and has tested them.
But yes, some Games are only fum for me, by house rules. Okay, not really rules, instead of removing anoing cards 😂
BTW: on of the reasons why I think your channel is great: it is released not on am Sunday 👍
Give those eldritch horror house rules!!!! Like the video! 💜😁👍
amazing idea ! love this video so much !
Great eldritch rules! Thx mate
Great ideas. Thx!
For Bloodborne, don’t restart the entire campaign when you fail.
And for the time track instead of instant fail you can no longer die or go to the hunters dream.
Nice house rules! After drafting in Wingspan, do you keep the 5 cards?
Awesome format 😂
Yes please. Would you be so kind as to publish the house rules for eldritch horror in board game geek? Thank you.
I love five tribes but I always feel like it ends abruptly. Do you have any suggestions for a slightly longer game where you can play more with Djinns?
500+ Eldritch Horror let's go!!
a funny rule for coop games: high five if you've managed to get a goal / resolve a puzzle, ...
The small game "Zombie Teenz Evolution" has it and it is a lot of fun ... and a very important rule :-)
That's a good one!
I’ve taken the YOU WIN #12 card from Space Base and hidden it under the insert because I hate it so much.
Thanks , I always think about house rules too because in some games like Root who reaches 30 will win the game the other players losing turns so the chances of 1st player in turn order reaching 30 vp is so high so it’s feels like unfair , what if am the 4th player if I get my last turn I will get 2vp by building a last workshop as a cat faction so I will end up with 32 vp
So what you think about house rule for Root ?
Pawns moving two squares instead of one on their first move in Chess was probably a house rule originally, to speed up the game.
Massive Darkness 2
We summon extra mob members like if we are 3 we summon the leader + 4 minions.
And for the roaming monsters we increase their health as if we have one more player.
-
Zombiecide black plague
We add two different necromancers and we cancel the rule where they can met each other and escape, also we add multiple abomination from the expansions and for the one who is hard to defeat we only add one card and we shuffle it back until we face m that monster and kill him
Nemesis? 5 player game? Not really, all it takes is to create a new mission "player no. 6 must die". But hey, when were at it we created around 30 brand new missions... To give you an idea one of them reads "a player who used Storage room must die", or "you must escape by pod or hibernate as the last surviving player". And some custom weaknesses as well. With about 200 games under our belt I can say all the effort was worth it. But removing silence tokens, this sounds like heresy!
I just brought Nemesis and I’m intrested in playing in 6, since our group is made up of six players. Does the game become too long in 6? Are there any other problems with this houserule?
@@sert1far716 no, our average game is 90-120min. Since we play with the same group of experienced players we do not struggle with down time. I can't tell a difference whether we play at 4 or 6 players. I just prefer 5-6 because of higher chance of interesting twists:)
@@TheJirator thank you for the response. We will try playing in 6!
I want to see those house rules for Eldritch !!!!
Carcassonne 3 tile draw is best. You have 3 tiles and draw back to three after playing.
I NEED THE ELDRITCH RULES, IT'S MY FAV GAME BUT IT LASTS AGES
IMO all Eldritch Horror needs is three actions per player just like the LCG
Any suggestions for Dominion? What’s the best way to circumvent the big money strategy?
Don't know about the big money but a house rule we use is everybody skips first two turns and just starts out with two cards from the market. Either value 2 and 5 or 3 and 4. As that would still be the case, however we save time and mitigate a bit of random. /JG
Good ideas! However that's why I like flexible games like Zombicide. But unfortunately that is not a deep game. Another example that I wanted to love but was so annoying to me: Mice & Mystics. That's a luck-fest. And all scenario has its own special ruleset. Had no idea how to fix that game. I still own it, donno why. Maybe, on one day, someone comes up with a neat fix :)
I love house rules to enhance a game experience. Unfortunately, most of my friends think rule books are bibles. I don't get it. Unless you're practicing for some sort of non-existent competition, isn't the main objective to have fun? So, if a game has a rule that frustrates you and reduces that fun, why wouldn't you change it?
Market - Stack duplicates - great idea.
Some games are only great with house rules, Warhammer Quest : Cursed City with The Beadt Returns House rules by Peter Cooper., see BGG Top forum thread.
ALIEN: Fate of the Nostromo using BGG BadMoonViking(Nate) ALIEN: Fate and Isolation (Unofficial Variant / Expansion)
eldritch house rules please...
Sleeping Gods
In Casting Shadows we change the "last man standing" to "First one to get X KOs wins"
Part 2 collect house rules from us
1. We playing 7wonders like 7wonders duel the card layout
2. Mindbug/heroes for sale, trade the badest card with your neighbour/opponent
3. Almost in every cooperative game use the rewind hutton if you messed up the right move 😅
Thank you guys you are awsome
Definitely interested in Eldritch Horror house rules!