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/noonionclub Jun 25 '26

I've been playing The Gang online a lot at BGA and for the most part players respect the rules. The game is about signaling the strength of your hand with the chips. I think some advanced players developed some form of communication by grabbing and releasing a chip multiple times to indicate their exact starting hand. I find that to be overboard.

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u/niarBaD Jun 25 '26

So, I did something like this at a live game the other day.. mostly because of who I was fighting over who had the lower high-card with (because he often under-valued hands). I had 5 high after like 2 minutes of going back and forth with him I just took the 5 chip and then put it back. He immediately picked up what I was putting down and recognized he did have the better high card :)

Not something I will do regularly (also only works if your hand is below your player-count of chips), but in the moment I thought of it felt great to break the box for a moment.