Hang on…since when are you allowed to run another player’s car off the road in the game of Life? I’m talking about Life, the board game, FYI…
I don’t remember that specific rule being in the directions, do you?
What I’m trying to hint at here is that people create new rules for games all the time…and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing…
AskReddit users shared the funny and strange extra rules their families made up for board games and card games.
Let’s take a look.
1. Good idea.
“In Scrabble, the person who can make the longest word goes first, highest points breaks a tie.
This makes the game more fun by ensuring there are lots of places to play your letters.”
2. New rule.
“In every coop game (Pandemic, Castle Panic, whatever), there is usually someone who tries to tell everyone what to do.
I can accidentally be this person. So, I implemented the “right hand man” rule. IF the person whose turn it is want advice (IF), they can only get it from the person on their right.
Nobody else can say anything. Makes things way more enjoyable.”
3. This is good.
“Rule for my kids with all board games.
Winner cleans up, loser or lowest score picks next game, tantrums/rage quitting gets you banned from the next game session all together.”
4. Never heard of this game.
“Waddingtons Go (a game of traveling around the world).
Rule in the actual game was you had to roll exact to get into a place, but it ended up with too many dice rolls doing absolutely nothing. One player ended up just stuck in one place for literally half an hour, before then getting somewhere else and then being stuck for another half an hour. They did virtually nothing all game. (Really, that rule means the game should be called Waddingtons Stop.)
To combat this, we came up with a house rule that you have a “3 strikes and in” – if you fail to get the right number 3 times, you automatically get to your destination, to stop the game being dull.
We haven’t actually tried this yet because since playing it (when at the end of the game we came up with the rule) we’ve had a pandemic that has prevented me from going back to visit my parents who have the game…”
5. Hurry up!
“One rule used for many board games: If someone takes too long with his/her move, anyone can fetch the 3-min hourglass from the shelf and set it on the table. once the time runs out, the move is over, regardless of.
Another rule for Scrabble: Any word is valid if you can find it in any book in our library within three minutes.”
6. Time for some Trouble.
“Trouble is a fun little game.
Unfortunately, with the wife and son, we only have three players. Four players makes it even more fun, so we have a fourth player we call “Bob.” Bob gets the last turn in the cycle. Someone rolls for Bob, and then the three of us agree on what Bob’s best move is.
It’s especially fun when you have to agree that Bob’s best move is to take out one of your own pieces.”
7. That’s good.
“My uncle told me stories about how whenever he played Monopoly at a friend’s house, he would always bring a few $500 bills from his own set and use them.
He never let them win.”
8. This is pretty in-depth.
“In Clue, once the killer has been discovered, and it’s one of the pieces in play, the game becomes a chase.
The remaining player turns are rolls to get out of the mansion through the doors in the Hall. The killer tries to catch the remaining pieces and kill them. Secret passages only work if you roll even numbers in that room.
The killer rolls twice per turn and cannot use secret passages.
Edit: If the killer wasn’t one of the played pieces, then the game is over—they couldn’t defend themselves and surrendered after being discovered.
The killer kills other players by landing on the same space as them between rooms, or by rolling a higher number than them in the same room. If there are two players in a room with the killer, Killer must announce who they’re going after. After one attack, killer’s turn is over.
Players must escape by leaving the hall through the doors. Entering the hall is one move. Leaving the hall is another. You should try to have at least one more move upon entering the Hall to get out safely. If rolling a 3 would get you into the Hall, a 4+ would get you out.
If no players make it out alive, the killer wins, stacks the bodies in the cellar, locks it, and pretends that none of this has ever happened.
Extra fun: at the start of the game, before dealing to players, place an evidence card face down in each room. When you enter the room, you can look at the card and place it back face down. You’re sleuthing, after all. If all players have seen the card, you may turn it face-up.”
9. A total scammer.
“In Monopoly, we have a rule that my sister can’t be the banker.
Otherwise, it’s like watching Oceans 11.”
10. Improvising.
“My grandmother was deaf/mute so when we played Uno instead of saying “Uno” we knocked on the table quickly twice.”
11. Taboo.
“Taboo. You can play 3 player (cutthroat) Taboo. The rules don’t really change but the scoring does. There’s a Ref (watching for taboo words), Guesser (can’t see the card) & Talker (can see the card)
The guesser and talker will get 1 point each for each successful guessed word. Taboo words are scored 1 point to the Ref.
At the end of the round, roles rotate like normal (clockwise). After everyone has two turns “talking”, rotate the the other way (counterclockwise). This lets everyone get a turn guessing and talking with each person.
I prefer this way because you don’t get stuck on a winning, or losing team. Everyone plays with everyone. and there’s never a 4th person out.”
12. World domination.
“We had a variation on Risk where everyone write down their moves and attacks and all the moves and attacks were carried out simultaneously.
First the troops were relocated (only able to move one country). Then attacks rolled (once again, you could only attack a neighboring country and if you won, you could occupy it. But you could not keep pressing the attack until the next turn.
If 2 or more countries were attacking each other, they all rolled the max number of dice. Ties were then rerolled.”
13. Uno!
“When my mother-in-law was suffering from dementia we would play Uno with her and just let her play any card she wanted to play.
She was at a point where she couldn’t follow the rules of the game but she did understand that she should put down a card when it was her turn.
So we just let her play whatever she wanted, it introduced a fun chaotic element to the game and she got to enjoy participating and spending time with us.”
14. Pretty creative.
“”The Mugging Rule” in Monopoly.
If I land on a space that you are currently occupying, I can choose to mug you.
We take turns rolling the dice, if I roll higher, I steal $100, if you roll higher I go to jail.”
15. Here’s the deal.
“In Trivial Pursuit, we have a rule – if the player being asked doesn’t know the answer, they can ask the room.
The room doesn’t actually answer, but they say whether they know the answer or not. If nobody knows the answer, it’s considered an invalid question, and another card gets drawn instead. (if someone in the room does know, but the player being asked doesn’t, then it’s just a plain old “pass”)
My Dad knows a lot of stuff … I mean, a LOT. When he was a kid he read the Encyclopedia Britannica for fun. Basically, the rule was born from, “If even Dad doesn’t know the answer, then nobody does and it’s a terrible question.”
16. Fun!
“At the end of Scrabble you make up a story with all the words on the board.
We never looked at the tiles for scores, we just played to get the best words on the board.”
17. Anything goes.
“Literally ANYTHING goes in Monopoly.
Whatever business deals you make in Monopoly are valid, like paying some insurance each round so that if you land on their rent properties you are immune.”
18. Don’t nuke yourself!
“Nukes in Risk.
If you roll three sixes when attacking you defeat every army on the territory you’re attacking into.
If you roll three ones, you nuke yourself and lose every army in the territory you’re attacking from.”
19. Don’t say sorry.
“If you say sorry while playing Uno, you pick up 2 cards!
Slap that +4 down with authority!
Also, if you have exactly the same card as the one that has just been played, you can jump in and play your duplicate regardless of if it’s your turn or not.”
20. Are you paying attention?
“In Catan, when you roll a 7 or play a knight, you have to move the robber.
but you can move it back to the desert and claim any resource you want from the “bank”.”
21. Time to lay down.
“Phase 10.
After a person has laid down, if their set has any wilds, other members are allowed to take the wilds as long as they provide the card the wild was representing.
You’re only allowed to do this if you can lay down in the same turn.”
22. Sounds cool.
“In high school, my group of friends loved to play Clue.
Unfortunately we found the game got a bit stale after a few nights of playing.
So, we actually designed our own board “extension”, containing additional rooms, and created new cards for extra weapons and characters so it was more challenging to determine who the killer was.”
23. It’s like real life!
“My sister and i play “Life Sucks”.
It’s Life but you only get paid if you land on payday, not if you just pass it.
Basically you end up with a pile of loans and it’s a struggle to get out of debt.”
24. I’ll have to try this.
“We have a generic version of Jenga that has the company name printed on one of the logs.
When someone pulls that log, they have to yell “kielbasa” in Fozzie Bear’s voice (keel-BA-sa).
It never gets old.”
25. Good idea.
“The phantom.
When playing Cards Against Humanity, a random card is added by the phantom each round.
Surprisingly, the phantom frequently keeps up with us. It’s a lot of fun when everyone says “oh, that was the obvious best one” then realizes no one is claiming it.”
26. All kinds of rules.
“Boggle: youngest child is allowed one and two letter words since she’s learning to read, and she’s allowed to have her sight-words list available for reference to help her practice them.
So far it’s working because she’s finding three and four letter words on her own!
Uno: stack draw 2s or draw 4s until you can’t no mo. Unfortunate soul that can’t stack draws all.
Beer pong: Gentleman’s rule. If the ball rolls back you fight to retrieve it. Winner gets a free shot. Trick shots must be very specific in nature because all loop holes are fair game.
Canasta: The Unicorn. All wilds canasta worth 2000 points. This causes table flips.”
Did your family have extra rules for board or card games?
If so, tell us about them in the comments.
We can’t wait to hear what you came up with!
