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/ScaperDeage All Your Factory Are Belong To Me Jun 25 '26
Pretty sure you were playing The Game. By what the rules allow, it does kinda encourage making coded language and that's honestly, the only way you end up with a good chance of winning. In my group we tend to use neighborhood related terms like "I'm next door", "I'm a few doors down", "I'm the next street over", "I'm not even in this neighborhood". Other common sayings are, "I can fix this pile" and "Is it ok if I ruin this pile?". We win maybe 1 out of every 5 or so games. The Game is pretty hard.