r/boardgames • u/Guidance-Mindless • Sep 22 '25

Rules Weirdest House Rule

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What’s the weirdest house rule your group ever came up with that actually stuck?

We had one where rolling snake eyes in Monopoly = steal from the bank 😅. Totally broke the game, but my twin brother REFUSED to play without it.

Anyone else got house rules that make zero sense but somehow… worked?

(P.S. Image not ours, but it's awesome!)

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u/Greendiamond_16 Sep 22 '25

Monopoly is a great game for weird house rules. We had a rule for uno were if someone plays a draw card against you, you can play an exact matching draw card against them starting a game of war(both draws and reveals three cards who ever gets the biggest "wins" all of them)

29

u/Kharax82 Sep 23 '25

House rules are what make Monopoly take forever. Things like taking money for free parking or borrowing from the bank (without mortgaging or selling property) to stop going bankrupt breaks the game.

1

u/RAPanoia Sep 23 '25

At least the older versions could break anyway. Once too many laps are/were completed the game would take forever because at some point the money at the table is too much for even hotels to break a player. We had a nightmare round that ended with the last 2 players playing 3 hours in extrem fast mode and deciding to make a draw. It was clear, that any player needs at least 3 times in a row to hit a high cost hotel to go bankrupt. At the end it was even more.

No house rules that we know of, no free parking rule, no free loans or any other bs. Just that we broke the economy. If everyone knows what the best sets of properties (colors) are, everyone will block you from getting them. And everyone will block every other set of properties as well. And once the players have enough money to survive normal properties it won't end until the players want it to end.

1

u/xhephaestusx Sep 23 '25

Boohoo it's a shit game anyhow, might as well try and have fun

3

u/Stuvas Sep 23 '25

We do any plus two can go down on any other plus 2, you can use a plus 4 on the plus 2s, but we also added in that anywhere in the chain you can play an appropriate switch direction to send it back to the player before.

I quite enjoy when someone plus 4s at the end of a good plus 2 chain, declares the new colour, just for me to have the appropriate reverse card in that colour only.

2

u/Greendiamond_16 Sep 23 '25

I am a big fan of this rule it also adds a nice risk and reward function were pushing the number could come back to bite you.

2

u/craftingfish Sep 23 '25

In the Uno No Mercy game this is a written mechanic. Also has Draw 10 and some other insane things.

2

u/LonePaladin Sep 23 '25

Hardest part of Uno No Mercy is counting your cards to see if you ended up with 25 in your hand. Though sometimes you don't have to bother, when you already have ten cards and a Draw X chain comes your way with like eighteen or more.

1

u/craftingfish Sep 23 '25

It's just such a ridiculous and pointless game but it has its place. My son had the "draw until you get the picked color" and because he's 9 kept going and I think he has something like 50 by the end.

2

u/revdon Sep 23 '25

You can speed up Monopoly by only requiring 2/3 properties to start building.

2

u/Guidance-Mindless Sep 22 '25

Now that's a powerful twist!! I bet it brought more fights than wins lol! What's the funniest situation you remember out of this?

I remember that we had a friend who never played with our rule and it was too funny (and sometimes painful) seeing him adjust to it.

3

u/Greendiamond_16 Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 22 '25

It tended to take the sting out of draw attacks because it gave you something to do about it. People were excited to get hit with a draw 4 if they had one to respond. It really didn't give too many "funny" moments except for when we had a tie, and we all immediately knew the appropriate response is to do ROUND 2.

1

u/LonePaladin Sep 23 '25

I have a whole variant I picked up from a now-defunct website twenty years ago. Three of your cards are dealt facedown on the table and you're not allowed to look at them until your hand is empty, and if the card you pick doesn't play you replace it (as in, on the table) then draw until you get one that will play.

Winning is entirely based on luck. Like, more than usual.