I overheard two guys at my local shop arguing about whether house rules ruin a game's design

One guy said that ignoring the official rulebook makes the designer's work pointless, you know, like if you keep letting people re-roll in Catan you break the whole resource economy. The other guy fired back that house rules are what keep groups playing together, he mentioned his group's 'no attacking until round 5' rule in Risk that saved friendships after 3 blowouts. It got me thinking about my own group, we banned a specific card in Dominion after it made games drag for 45 minutes too long. So which side do you lean on? Do house rules protect the fun or wreck the integrity of a game's balance?

2 comments

2 Comments

piper_dixon451mo ago

Honestly, you banned a whole card from Dominion?

fiona_sullivan291mo ago

Yeah, because nothing ruins game night faster than someone who memorized the broken combo.