House Rules

Whether it’s Poker, Euro Games, or even chess, most gaming family have gaming house rules. 

Some of the rules are about the games themselves.  In my family we had assigned colors. My dad would always play red. No matter what game we played (unless the game happened to not have red.) Sometimes it would be the youngest player goes first no matter what.  I have even heard of people doing “do over” rules.

In my family we had a lot of rules around food and gaming. You have an eating hand and a playing hand, and you don’t mix the two. This was very important for pizza.  And don’t even think about spilling your drink. Yes we were that hardcore.

What are your gaming house rules? Do you have special foods that are required at your gaming sessions?

Expansions

Back in the day games didn’t have expansions. There was just the game. Sure you could modify the rules, make your own cards, etc. but there was nothing official. The game maker may even have a theme to their games, but the game was what it was.

In more recent times (starting with perhaps Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne?), expansions have basically become a requirement.   Sure for some games this can be good, but in the end there are always expansions that seem half-assed, too outrageous, break the game, etc.

One good example of this would be St. Petersburg, specifically the Banquet mini-expansion more so than the New Society.   The Banquet added special powers to the game, which I think broke the game. St. Petersburg did not need special powers. This modifies the game too much. At least the New Society’s additional cards attempted to fix some broken elements of the base game by replacing some of the cards like the Mistress.  Allowing for a fifth player was unnecessary though.

On the flip side, I love the Small World expansions… mostly.  (Partly I love the expansions, because I love the game itself so much.) The expansions with the new Races and Powers, like Be Not Afraid, Cursed! And the Grand Dames, are fantastic.  Tales and Legends were interesting, but adding event cards added a new element to the game that was unnecessary.

My theory on game expansions is they should expand, but not over extend the original game.  Expansions should also be limiting. A new game with a similar theme should be created.

Yes all game maker want to create an empire, but endless expansions are over done.  Case in point is Dominion.  There have been so many expansions, so quickly. It’s too much.  Then again I wouldn’t mind more Small World expansions, but maybe that’s just because I love the game.

What are your views on expansions?

More Gaming Memories

Another childhood gaming memory I have is of playing Aggravation with my mom’s family.  They weren’t big into gaming. Well not in the same way my dad’s side is. My grandma does play Bridge though.

Aggravation was… well so aggravating. But it was fun. And the game could accommodate a lot of people, which meant more fun. When I was little we would play it all the time with Grandma, sometimes Grandpa. Sometimes we would even get to drink tea from one of Grandma’s special tea cups. It was great. Sure we played Yahtzee too, but Aggravation always stuck in my mind.  Over the years the Aggravation board became well loved.

A few years ago I had taken a trip to NYC. I happened upon a flee market, where I found an unused 1954 (?- it was 50 something) copy of Aggravation!!! OMG!! I gave it to them as a present for the 50^th Wedding Anniversary! Sure I only paid $5 for it (now that I think about it should have haggled him down to $3), but the price did not matter. It was what the game represented. It was all those family memories.    

Childhood Game Memories

What are your first gaming memories? Candy Land? Monopoly? Risk? Stratego?

For me it was Survive. Don’t get me wrong. I played those other games too. I might have even played them before I learned Survive. And I am not talking about the cool new edition, but the old school one with those little plastic people that looked like candy and the green Loch Ness serpent monster on the box.  We use to play that game all the time. I hated it when I would get eaten by the monsters.

In fact I was so happy when they reprinted it. Not because I thought it was the best game in the world. (Though now it has beautiful wooden pieces and a Squeeples (Squid Meeples) expansion! It was more for nostalgic reasons. Survive was one of my “gateway” games.  I guess I should start saving money now. The 1982 edition of Survive is currently going on Ebay for $45-100! But how could I not?! Especially for nostalgia. 

The reason why Survive sticks in my head is because it was the first game none of my friends had heard of or played. Everyone has at least heard of Candy Land, Monopoly, Risk and Stratego even if they have not played it. I remember kids at school going “Survive… what is that?!”  Maybe that’s also when I first realized I was different – that I was a gamer?! Who knows? At any rate it is a good childhood gaming memory and might be better if I had an original copy.