People like to complain, sometimes for good reason and sometimes because, well, people like to complain. In board games, one thing people like to complain about is the rule book. The rules aren’t laid out well, they are missing rules, there is ambiguity in the rules, whatever it might be. People like to complain about rules. Sometimes it is legitimate and sometimes it’s less so.

But what gets to me isn’t when the rules aren’t clear, it’s when as a group you either need the rules to be perfectly clear or can’t come to a decision. Why, because it takes away from the fun of the game. I want to be able to sit down and play a game with some friends and have a good time. If we need to know every rule perfectly or cover every situation just write, it bogs down the game and takes away from the fun.

Here’s A Little Secret

I’ll let you in on something, no matter what you do, you probably won’t play the rules for a game with any complexity perfectly. Someone will forget to do something or do it in the wrong order. You’ll forget a step or pay to little or too much for a card. It’s bound to happen no matter what you do because, knowing a games rules perfectly isn’t easy to do, especially if you know a lot.

Let’s talk about Monopoly, these are often missed rules. Money on community chest, that’s not a thing. Don’t want to buy a property, it goes up for auction and gets sold then, even you can bid on it. Monopoly is not a complex game but it has rules that people forget or just don’t know. And that happens with almost every game. I’m fairly confident that I play all of Ohanami’s rules right, but that’s even simpler than Monopoly, beyond that, probably not many games.

But That’s Not A Problem Because Board Games Are Fun

I know this might be a surprise, but board games are supposed to be fun. I talk about this from time to time, but you play to win but winning is not the point of the game. The point of a gam, in my opinion, is to have fun. If I’m miserable the whole time, I won’t want to play again. So be fine with getting a rule wrong or if you can’t find an answer quickly making a decision quickly.

And that’s the big thing, you can maybe find out a rule by diving deep into a thirty page rule book. But that might take 30 minutes or time or more, and that isn’t fun. So what are strategies you can take to your game nights and your game table to keep on playing the games and stop reading rules?

Set A Time Limit

Set a time limit on how long players can look up rules. This can be for each rule look up or for the whole game. Don’t make it too short, thirty seconds is enough time to get a rule book out, probably not look at it. But don’t make it too long either, if it’s more than a couple of minutes, then it’s time to set down the rule book and go onto another method for deciding what the ruling should be.

Majority Rules

Next try and come to a consensus around the table. It can be done by majority or by getting everyone to agree, ideally. You’re all adults at the table so talk about it. Again, don’t take too long talking about it. This is not a chance for arguments and rebuttals. That’s probably already happened anyways. Just talk about it and decide a plan of action quickly, again to keep the fun going. If not decision is forth coming, you have three options that you can decide upon before the game.

Always The Worst Outcome

This rule comes from Kingdom Death Monster, and it’s not really a rule, it’s more something they say. In a game like Kingdom Death Monster, and a name like that, you can assume that bad stuff are going to happen. And lots of bad things are going to happen, so just assume that something bad is going to happen if you don’t know the answer. Does that monster hit you from all the way over there, can’t find that easily, the answer is then yes, it does. This works really well in games with a darker theme.

Always The Best Outcome

It might be also that you are playing a lighter cooperative game. You could be playing with kids, so pick the nicer outcome. If you don’t know what to do there is no harm is making it work out for you. The rules don’t say who gets points in case of a tie on something, you both get the points. Everyone feels better about it in the end, unless you’re playing with someone very cut throat.

Always The Most Interesting/Entertaining/Thematic Outcome

Finally, you can always just pick the most thematic option. I say interesting or entertaining as well. If the results would be hilarious if you pass or if it failed, do that. This comes up a lot in Dungeons and Dragons, don’t let the dice dictate you away from having a memorable time. And often games will help you with their theme. Especially story driven games, those give you the chance to ask the question what your character would do.

In The End Have Fun

There are more opportunities to ruin fun at a game table than you’d think. And if everyone is there with true intentions the goal is to have more fun. And if rules keep people from having fun, you and I need to adjust how we look at rules. Keep in mind that some people might try and use these things to their advantage. Trying to misinterpret the rules in a way to make them win. Don’t game with those people, they aren’t there to have fun.

How do you handle rules questions mid game at your table?

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