Got told my game night house rules were 'aggressive' - changed how I run games now

Last month a friend in my board game group said my house rules felt like they were 'punishing people for doing well' in Settlers of Catan. I used to play with a custom robber rule where you could steal two resources instead of one if you hit the leader. Idk, I thought it kept things balanced but they said it just made everyone frustrated. So I dropped that rule entirely and started using the standard robber. Now our games run smoother and people actually want to play again instead of complaining. Has anyone else had to tone down their house rules after feedback?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake_owens26d ago

Yeah, I feel that. Sometimes our own fixes just break things worse.

sagep1926d ago

My Catan group had the exact same problem with my "intense trader" rule. I let people trade two cards for one with the bank if they had the most points, but it just made everyone hoard resources and stall the game. Took me three sessions to admit the rule was broken and switch back to standard trading. Now we play smoother and the winner isn't always the person who grinds the system. Did you try any other house rules before deciding on the standard robber, or did you just drop it completely?

the_hugo26d ago

Oh man, that "intense trader" rule sounds painful in a different way than ours was. We actually tried a version where the robber could be moved for free if you paid a wheat, but that just meant whoever had wheat controlled the entire board. What a mess. Before we gave up on the standard robber we tried a few things like letting the robber steal from the bank instead of a player, but that made the game feel too easy and nobody cared about being robbed. We also tried a house rule where the robber blocked two hexes at once, but that just made the game drag on forever while everyone argued about which tiles to target. Honestly, after trying all those tweaks we just went back to the original robber rule and realized the game works fine as is. Sometimes the worst house rules are the ones that sound clever in your head but ruin the rhythm when you actually play them.