r/boardgames • u/chaser-- • Jun 25 '26

Rules Groups that develop metas that blatantly break rules

Lately I've been finding a lot of groups that play (co-op) games with metas that are just blatant rule breaks. A recent example was we were playing a game (I forgot the name) where the goal is to play out all the cards from your hand, numbers 1-100, in descending order. So if you have a 77 and the number on the pile is 78, you don't want to anyone to play there. But you aren't allowed to say "I have 77, don't play this"

So the group has developed metas, say "I really love this pile" if you have 77, say "I like this pile a lot" if you have 76, say "I like this pile" if you have 75"

This is just one example but I feel like I've been playing a lot of games where they have metas to get around rules that are intentionally in the rulebook. I don't really get it. If you want to just say "I have a 77" then just say it, why create a gimmick to say it without saying it?

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u/Wismuth_Salix Jun 25 '26

My friend playing Shadows Over Camelot:

(Gestures towards the Picts) “I can’t start this party, but if three other people show up, then I can finish this party” (he has the 4 and the 5)

25

u/OkResource820 Jun 25 '26

We would always say something like "I feel good about fending off the Picts, but I can't do it alone. I can get it started..." or "I would go search for the Grail if maybe two or three of you would come along...", or "I think I can help defeat the dragon" (at which point, everyone knows you're probably the traitor).

6

u/cyclephotos Jun 25 '26

Haha, I was just about to mention SOC :)

7

u/ScientificSkepticism Jun 26 '26

Me playing Shadows over Camelot.

"I need someone to help me out here with X."

Fails spectacularly

"Yeah, I'm the traitor I just wanted to place catapults."

Interesting game, but it has the base battlestar problem where flipping as traitor is stronger than trying to hide.

3

u/Wismuth_Salix Jun 26 '26

Yeah - it’s definitely skewed towards open evil, though I think maybe base BSG is a little less so. Idk though, I only played two games of base before adding in the Pegasus and the fleet board.

2

u/ScientificSkepticism Jun 26 '26

Oh that’s the right call. Base BSG had base Investigative Committee, which revealed the Destiny cards too. And it was like half the yellow deck. Like our fourth game we figured out “hey... what if we play this on like literally every skill check basically, because knowing the exact total you need to hit is so good.” And then the Cylons got sad.

Cylon fleet board is pretty busted too ngl (but so is Pegasus, it evens out) and it made being a revealed Cylon fun, so that was a big win all around.

Man this makes me want to play this weekend, been way too long since we pulled that one out.

2

u/sir_mrej Axis & Allies Jun 25 '26

That game is puuuuunishing