Page 34 - spielbox 03/21 - English

Essay. House rules
the uncertainty about the game end.
The “sudden end“ stressed out all the
players and didn‘t leave them with a
good feel of play. But since all the play-
ers had great fun with the theme and
the numerous other mechanisms, they
quickly agreed on determining the
number of game turns before starting
to play. This way, it was always clear to
all of them when the game would be
over, and they could plan accordingly.
The group didn‘t and doesn‘t care that this eliminates one of several possible winning strategies completely; this way of playing, as author Martin Wallace invented it, just didn‘t appeal to any of these players. As a re- sult, the game was kept on hand and even became the group‘s favorite game of the year.
I House rules? Not with me!
For me, as a game reviewer, a game with such a sub- stantial modification would be unthinkable. My incen- tive is to experience games and their mechanisms with as many different groups as possible, so that then, in my review, I‘ll be able to pointedly elaborate the game‘s strengths and weaknesses. What‘s relevant for this task is that the rules always remain the same, a fixed con- stant. Mending mistakes is not my job; that‘s some- thing the editors and test players are responsible for, before the game is published. But reviewers are not the only ones who insist on rules compliance. “With house rules, I get the feeling that I‘m playing a different game and not one according to the author‘s intentions. Board games are a cultural asset. Consequently, I first want to let myself in for the artistic work of those who cre- ated the game. Then, if I don‘t like it, I don‘t resort to house rules but to a different game,“ Thomas Söhner, a frequent player from Freiburg, says. Instead of giving thought to improvements, he rather sells such games.
What does it actually do to authors when they learn that house rules and variants have been adopted for their games? Do they even feel offended if the set of rules they had worked on for months is played “incor- rectly“ at the game tables?
“Since my childhood, I‘ve also often been doing this with other games.“
Designer Rita Modl
Rita Modl (Men at Work, King of 12) has “no prob- lem at all“ with that: “Since my childhood, I‘ve also of- ten been doing this with other games,“ she confesses with a laugh. She uses house rules quite pragmatically, for instance at game fairs, in order to teach her own games in a “short version“ to as many people as possi- ble. However, she draws a clear line when she privately plays expert and strategy games, if there is a risk of affecting the balance too much.
For Peter Rustemeyer, the author of Paleo, house rules have a particular significance. They even gave him the idea to develop his own games, he says: “In the past, I played a lot of tabletop games, and some of them were completely unbalanced. We then always tweaked them like crazy, in order to make them fair- er.“ Consequently, he and his friends started to invent their own tabletop systems. “At some point, I thought: I‘ve already changed so much that I might as well start from scratch.“
It doesn‘t bother him if his games are played with house rules: “Of course, I would wish that the games are played in the way I thought them up. But I under- stand it – after all, I do the same thing.“ As an author, he can‘t help it anyway since he incessantly, “on the fly,“ has small rules improvements in mind when he gets to know new games and wants to try them out: “Maybe, as an author, I‘m a bit arrogant, thinking that doing something in a particular way would make much more sense.“
I House rules for everybody
No matter whom you ask: House rules have become essential for our hobby and an integral part of our playing experience. Board games have an inherently major advantage com- pared to video games that often can be ad- justed only with programming know-how or external tools. With simple means and minimal effort, we can make board and card games “our“ game, shaping them and tailoring them to our own taste. So, with a bit of creativity, games become more inclu- sive, get even more people into the hob- by or extend the lifespan of a supposedly played-out title. Or, to say it in the words of the famous ludologist Pippi Longstocking, “I‘m making the world, widdle widdle wid, how I like it ...“ (sbw)
With a fixed number of rounds – without this house rule, Anno 1800 would have flopped in this group.
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