Tabletop RPGs and Board Games — The House Rules To Rule Them All

June 19, 2014

Hello my fellow gamers out there.

Do you play Tabletop RPGs or board games only with the rules out of the book or box?

If you do you are missing something great.

House rules be they in a tabletop rpg or board games offer many good and bad additions to the game. So be careful if you decide to go down that road. It is possible that if you make significant changes to a game you can alter the creators intent or completely remove the challenge that is implied with the rules.

However with subtle game play changes to your tabletop rpg or board game you can make something that you already enjoy that much better.

When it comes to board games it is great to play them a few times to see how they were designed and see how they play out. After that you can really begin to experiment. You get to remove or alter the board game rules that you do not like or feel slow down the game and change them to your liking.

With a board game like Quarriors a dice building game that is a lot of fun to play you get quidity to spend during your turn and the rules say you are only allowed to buy one thing during your turn. Once you are playing the game in your own place you can make changes. With Quarriors board games you can make the change to say you can buy as much as you can afford.

Another great board game is Thunderstone.

It is a deck building game that you can either go into town to purchase supplies, recruit new heroes, train your heroes to get better, or go into the dungeon and fight monsters.

Deciding between those two choices has killed many great hands over the many hours playing this game. If we had just assigned the house rule of allowing both on a single turn it could really change the game.

Tabletop rpgs tend to have some of the same issues. In my group over the years we have had some really crappy stat roles for some characters. Having an alternate rolling system or point buy system can bypass uneven stats but it need not stop there.

Tabletop rpgs tend to have classes and races that can either be unbalanced or just not fit the theme of the current setting.

Making changes to these to better fit the players or the realm would be considered a house rule.

House rules make the game be the game you want to play and make it designed more for those currently playing it. But you have to make sure that all players know what the changes you have made are before you begin playing so as to make sure that they are not confused after the game has started or they make choices based on assumed rules.

So go to your game shelf and pull out your favorite game and see what you can do to make it better or grab your tabletop rpg and some friends see what unique ideas or theme you could add that make a mediocre game the current favorite.

Feel free to share some of your house rules from favorite tabletop rpg and board games in the comments below.