Purple Parlay—Do You Play With House Rules?

3 Comments

1. Just Some Guy on 12.10.2010 at 13:13

   Just played a game of Arkham Horror this weekend with some House Rules, which kinda tarnished the ‘win’ we got. For starters, one person insisted in rolling two dice for blessing, with a double 6 being the result that would loose the blessing, this meant that Sister Mary was blessed all game.

   Also, they wanted to read the cards and get the player’s actions, before telling the player what the consequences were. This one, I didn’t mind for a while. I always thought this might make it more like a RPG. But as soon as the player made a decision, they would tell them what the consequences were and encourage them to spend the clue, etc. to get the benefit. So, I felt that ruined it.

   Zombies is the only game I have ever wanted to house-rule, because its kinda like house-ruled monopoly. It just keeps going and going.

2. Kevin E. Schlabach on 12.10.2010 at 19:05

   Kids of Carcassonne- no player can place two meeples on the same road… this actually takes the simple kids game and adds a slight element of strategy which my son figured out at the age of 3. The game is enjoyable by all this way.

3. Chris on 14.10.2010 at 03:57

   I actually suspect it is impossible to play most hobby games *without* house rules – the question is often not whether the players are using rules that are not authorised by the rulebook but whether they *know* they are using rules that are not authorised by the rulebook. :)

   In the case of most Fantasy Flight rules, the books are so convoluted in their structure that it is necessary to extemporise to resolve some rules issues, and most hobby games are in a similar space. If every group is playing these games differently – and it is my contention that they are – then isn’t everyone playing with house rules? ;)

   But as for house rules in the sense of rules that have been consciously added, we used to play Settlers of Catan with a “burning” rule that allows you to take back anything but a city for half its construction cost, and when my wife and I play Arkham Horror we have a house rule that allows a Blessing to be stabilised so you don’t need to roll for it.

   The stabilistation has the same cost of acquiring a blessing (5 toughness/gate trophy), and once stabilised a Blessing can become unstable again if you acquire a Curse. You cannot buy a stable Blessing in one step at South Church, however – you have to stay there for two turns, one to be Blessed and one more to stabilise it.

   Purists would doubtless object to this, but we play this way for my wife’s enjoyment, since stabilising a Blessing is one of the high points of most games for her (she loves being Blessed but hates having to roll for it). I don’t often bother with Blessings – at the cost of 10 toughness worth of trophies I would almost always rather have an Ally.

   All the best!

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