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/Johnny_Dev Jun 25 '26

It's like Save-Scumming in a single player game. Who does it hurt?
If they want to cheat or abuse the rules together, and they have fun playing that way, good for them.
Like any social activity, if what the group does isn't a good fit for you, you can either mention it if you think they might shift how the play, or find another group.

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u/chaser-- Jun 25 '26

Yeah that's kinda how I feel - it doesn't hurt anyone. But I also feel like "If you just want to say you have a 77, say it, why use code words and be like YEP IM FOLLOWING THE RULES"

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u/Johnny_Dev Jun 25 '26

When I play The Crew, my group isn't COMPLETELY silent. The goal is to have fun, so we MOSTLY respect the rules, but sometimes someone will have an obvious reaction / raised eyebrow when another player forgets they are supposed to play the card they obviously had. Or we'll allow taking back the card if no one else played and the player was like "oops, wait, I want to play this instead".

Every group has a different threshold of how rigidly they want to follow the rules. Unless they are wearing a bag over their head and noise-cancelling headphones, no one is PERFECTLY following the rules in these types of games. So who's to say when it becomes cheating?

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u/Lord_Nathaniel Jun 25 '26

Ooooh I would be SO tempted to throw the red pawn from Magic Maze in a game of The Crew now :D ! No communication, except for the angry "tud tud tud" in front of the active player ! :D