The Board Game
House Rules
We started playing together as a group around September of '08. Since then we have played an incredible number of times. Now we will not argue that Catan is a fantastic game, but even we were starting to think it was getting a little stale.
Our 1st wrinkle was to start letting the dice decide the seating arrangement instead of everyone just sitting where they wanted. Then we started to play with the number tiles down. This took some strategy out of the game as you could end up with any sort of combination of numbers.
Next there was concern that since the games are played during the lunch hour, we needed a way to speed up the game. Bam an extra die that gave us more resources. This new 3rd, 12 sided die solved all our problems...sort of. There was question as to what to do with the '1'. Use it as a robber, do nothing, free card, what? This is where house rules came into play.
We collectively drew up some rules for our list. Some we created off the top of our head and others were derived or inspired by other Catan sites or expansions. We put the rules to a vote and our 12 most popular made the final list. We numbered the rules and when a '1' would come out. You would re-roll the die and the rule that corresponded to the die was in effect. Every other month we revert back to traditional Catan and when the new month is up, we vote again for another set of rules.
Here are the rules for “Jerk Face” June:
Global Rule: If all 3 die come up as a 1, you get to call your rule, after resources for a ‘2’ are collected.
The Apocalypse – If 1s are rolled by 3 people consecutively in a game, a asteroid crashes into the island of Catan destroying all cities, roads, and settlements. Ending the game. He who has the most sheep wins. Sheep à Brick àOre à Wheat à Wood à Knights àDevelopment Cards à Roll Off
•1. Fair Trade – an opponent must trade with you if they have a resource you need. (equal card value)
•2. Welfare – The player with the most points must give a resource card to the player with the least points
•3. Famine – All resources of a type are destroyed (Roll 6 sided die: 1-Brick, 2-Ore, 3-Sheep, 4-Wheat, 5-Wood, 6-Roller’s Choice)
•4. Building block – special builds(or buys) are not allowed for one complete round.
•5. The Hangover – Everyone’s resource cards become sheep
•6. Left Wing Conspiracy – All players discard 2 cards to the player to their left.
•7. Road Reconstruction – Player can move any road they have to a different legal place.
•8. Road Rage – Player must move any opposing player’s road to a legal location.
•9. REALLY?? – discard half your cards and give them to your opponents, not the bank (Roller determines distribution)
•10. Earth Mover – move a resource tile you own with a tile that no one owns. (optional)
•11. Erased From Existence – all players must discard 1 resource
•12. The Joker and the Thief – players moves robber and gets a card from all players adjacent to that tile