My buddy's house rule broke our regular game night in a good way

We always stick to the base rules for Settlers of Catan, but last Friday my friend Dave suggested we try the "friendly robber" rule where the robber can't block someone who has zero points. I thought it would slow things down, but actually it made everyone trade more aggressively and finish the game in 45 minutes instead of our usual 90. The weird part is I ended up winning with a strategy I never use, focusing on dev cards instead of roads. It really showed me how one small tweak can shake up a game I've played like 50 times. Has anyone else tried house rules that actually made a game better instead of breaking it?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan.nancy21d ago

Wait, did the dev card focus work because people weren't saving resources? Were you just buying them faster than usual?

sean_perry21d ago

Honestly yeah I think that's exactly what happened. People weren't hoarding resources like they usually do so the dev cards just kept flying off the shelves.