History Main / HouseRules

** In most variants of {{Mao}}, ''you don't have to tell anyone what the new rule you just made up is'', just that there is one. The first time the new rule is broken, you give a penalty card and explain the penalty. This is still fair, because the penalty name is usually descriptive enough for other players to deduce the rule, and once they have figured it out, they can then call it.

** Reactor explosions occurring if a fusion engine suffers three critical hits in one turn; normally this would cause an instant shutdown of the reactor and count as the (salvageable) destruction of the unit, but some tables use the cinematic reactor explosion option based on the Expanded Universe novels. This house rule is unique in that it has a universally accepted name: Stackpoling, based on author Michael Stackpole, who was fond of using it.

** ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' has its own "no rush" mechanic that can be enforced before players reach a certain age, typically the [[TheLateMiddleAges Gun]][[TheRenaissance powder]] [[TheCavalierYears Age]]. Outside of games using this mechanic, rushing is considered an acceptable strategy, due to its inherently high risk.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' has the infamous "No Oddjob" calling whenever the game starts. Oddjob, being shorter than everyone else, is at an advantage over the other characters. It's also not an uncommon rule to allow a player to use Oddjob if they [[AntiFrustrationFeatures lose several times in a row]].

** ''TabletopGames/VictoryInThePacific'' often uses a few of these when experienced players meet, because the game's balance varies at different levels of skill (newbies tend to find the Allies easier to play, casual players with some experience tend to find it evenly-matched, and serious players tend to find the Japanese favored). Most of them revolve around changing the opening turn's surprise attack to guarantee preservation of all 5 US carriers - while the chance for the Japanese to take out an American carrier is realistic, it tends to make things very difficult for the Allied player.

* Wargames suffer from this a lot. Munchkins often come up with new and unusual house rules to "improve" the game or to settle some "obvious imbalance". In reality, no house rules of this sort were ever good; house rules are supposed to be things like "My hill with trees counts as a hill ''and'' a forest" or "The bunker is sealed and indestructible, it's just impassable." House rules should not be "All [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Eldar]] always strike first because they are cool".

** Another sees Igor describe the rules for what appears to be a typical RPG, until Matt's frustratedly reveals in the last panel that they're playing ''TabletopGame/CandyLand''.

** ''Open Riichi'': Upon declaration of Riichi, a player can reveal his/her entire hand (or just the portion that's relevant to what he/she needs as the last tile to win), so that opponents can figure out what he/she needs to win and avoid discarding those tile(s). 1 extra ''han'' (hand point) for winning the hand after doing so. An additional house sub-rule can make it worth a yakuman (the {{Cap}} of 13 ''han'', converts to 32,000 ScoringPoints) if the Open Riichi player gets the last tile from someone else's discard, and the losing player could have legally discarded a different tile that wouldn't have let the winner win from his/her discard.

* One ''Webcomic/DorkTower'' strip had Kayleigh seeing Carson and Igor playing a board game about Mississippi riverboats, and congratulating them on playing something non-violent for a change. After she'd gone, Carson commented it was a good thing she didn't know about the house rules, which included ''cannon''.

* How Blinds (bidding X books before the cards are dealt) are supposed to work in Spades, or even if said gambit is available. Whether you can call for one anytime or only after you're down X points. Do you automatically get them if you go into negative points? Standard scoring for failed blind or double-points? How they work usually depends on who you play with.

** A common set of house rules used by competitive players designed to give the "fairest fight" even became a meme; [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-items-fox-only-final-destination "No Items, Fox Only, Final Destination."]] This set of rules in particular is often criticized by rest of the fandom as removing much of what makes the game fun.

** The ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' was based on Hero System. Of course it had HouseRules.

* Both TabletopGame/Candyland and Sorry! have basically the same rule variation to make the game more interesting[[note]]It's an official alternative play method for Sorry!, you can find it in the game's rules[[/note]]. Both games usually involve just picking a card from the top of the deck, and you have to play it. The variation involves the players holding a hand of 3-5 cards, and choosing which one to play each turn, then drawing a replacement. Especially important in Candyland, where you otherwise are unable to affect the game at all (Sorry! has multiple tokens on the board, so which one you move ''does'' affect the game).

* Both BoardGame/Candyland and Sorry! have basically the same rule variation to make the game more interesting[[note]]It's an official alternative play method for Sorry!, you can find it in the game's rules[[/note]]. Both games usually involve just picking a card from the top of the deck, and you have to play it. The variation involves the players holding a hand of 3-5 cards, and choosing which one to play each turn, then drawing a replacement. Especially important in Candyland, where you otherwise are unable to affect the game at all (Sorry! has multiple tokens on the board, so which one you move ''does'' affect the game).

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* There are certain card games that are entirely based on house rules. For example, one game called ''TabletopGame/{{Mao}}'' has only one real rule at the start; it's exactly like Uno with regular playing cards (no draw cards or wildcards), and the winner of a hand can make up a rule each turn so long as it doesn't favor anybody in particular. It generally starts with at least one or two extra rules so that you can trip people up. An even more crazy version of this was a game where you could make a rule any time you played an 8 card, and the rule could do anything besides make you win instantly without playing a card.
** An interesting variant is where ''you don't have to tell anyone what the new rule you just made up is.'' You can merely indicate that they have broken a rule when they do so. This, as the ''Illuminati'' example mentioned above, is best played with people you trust or that you'll never see again. Alternatively, the person making the rule up tells ''one'' other player, which rotates through the players with each new rule.
** It's worth noting that it's illegal to talk about the rules of Mao. If you do, your punishment can range from card penalties to a permanent ban (a ban being for explaining the majority of the rules to someone who does not know how to play). You can also not alter the base rules of Mao (plural, there are more than one in every game I've played). The official statement is "The only rule I can tell you is this one."

** Speed Duels in ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' add the one time use of a Skill along with a severe cutting down of the extra zones.

* Even players who don't follow ''Website/{{Smogon}}'' rules in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' battles generally agree to ban any moves that increase evasion or lower accuracy so as to keep matches from turning into {{LuckBasedMission}}s.

** To wit, pretty much ''any'' incarnation of the Fate system post-''[=SotC=]'' handled stress differently from it, and not all of them even did it the same way -- Evil Hat's own ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' shortened the stress track as above, Crucible 7's licensed twins ''TabletopGame/StarblazerAdventures'' and ''TabletopGame/LegendsOfAnglerre'' kept the length but turned the tracks strictly linear so that each ''point'' of damage would take off a box...

* A pretty common feature in most multiplayer games is to include options in multiplayer game configuration screens is to remove specific elements, be they maps or items, from play, either for challenge reasons or because they were seen as annoying {{gamebreaker}}s in a PvP situation.

** Players of most [=MMORPGs=] tend to forbid using health potions during {{PVP}} as they immediately turn a skill and/or gear contest into a war of stock attrition.

* On [[VideoGame/GrandChase Grand Chase]] pvp, it was a common house rule that if a player was disconnected early on, that the team with more players would have the number of players that left sit out until a teammate was eliminated. To a lesser extent, some players would do the same thing if the other team had eliminated players, but it usually ends with the worse team winning because the best player could beat anyone on the other team 1 on 1.