Rant: My game group in Austin fell apart after one guy kept bringing his own house rules

Last Tuesday, we were trying to play Terraforming Mars and this dude, Mark, insisted on using his 'balanced' corporate era cards he printed at home. It completely threw off the economy and the game dragged on for over four hours. We had to call it at midnight with no winner. Has anyone else had to deal with a player who just won't stick to the actual rules?

4 comments

4 Comments

max_cooper2125d ago

Honestly, a four hour Terraforming Mars game sounds about normal for my group. We always play with the full corporate era deck. Maybe Mark's changes were just bad, not the idea of changing rules itself. Groups fall apart over scheduling or bad attitudes way more often than house rules. It seems like the real problem was that nobody agreed to his changes before you started playing. Next time just vote on any new rules before you set up the board.

troyknight25d ago

But what if the house rules themselves cause the bad attitudes? I mean, a four hour game is one thing, but changing how the core game works can just make it not fun anymore. Maybe it's just me, but when someone springs big changes without asking, it feels like they're forcing their version of fun on everyone. That kind of thing can totally wreck a game night vibe faster than any schedule conflict.

spencer_gonzalez125d ago

My cousin's group tried a custom rule for Catan once and it just made trading feel weird and forced.

fionam1125d ago

Did you guys ever actually talk to Mark about how his rules messed up the game? It sounds like he just showed up and sprung it on everyone. If nobody spoke up during that four hour mess, he might not even know he ruined the night. Maybe the group falling apart is more about bad communication than the rules themselves.