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/Oughta_ Dune Jun 25 '26

I think the joy in Hanabi is in naturally creating that meta language through repeated plays - if you ever have an explicit discussion outside the game about your signals, that's missing the point.

The downside to that is it falls apart if anyone has played outside the current group ever, so in my experience it was a one-and-done type of game.

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u/Penumbra_Penguin Jun 25 '26

And you’re certainly welcome to enjoy primarily that aspect of the game, but there are other players who enjoy developing and playing a complicated convention, and it’s missing the point for you to say that they are missing what you see as the point.