House Rules.

[zarth2k]

I was wondering what House Rules various groups have picked up over the years while Highlander was out of production. Are there certain cards or types of cards you have baned to make the game more competitive? Have you made any Persona modifications to make forgotten Immortals more attractive to players? (For instance Luther…)

Currently my players seem to like the following house rule.

1. No Qs unless you are playing a generic Immortal. Generics may play a single quickening.

2. MCBC are not allowed. (They weren’t produced for every persona so it just didn’t seem fair.)

3. Nemises cards are not allowed.

4. RIP cards are removed from the game rather than RIPed. (It just seems silly to keep replacing 1st Ed RIP cards at this point.

5. We also play that if you take an opponents weapon and he is using a WoC, you actually get his weapon of choice rather than the generic starting blade. This has made for a lot of strange and fun games.

So what rules variations do you use?

Thanks in advance.

[jamesmcmurray]

We don't tear our rips unless it's a tournament, but other than that we play straight rules as written.

[dbaker]

Our group plays pretty straight up on the rules. At our tournaments Q's are up for Taking unless the 2 players agree on gentleman's rules. We always RIP our tear cards.

[headswillroll]

dbaker said:

Our group plays pretty straight up on the rules. At our tournaments Q's are up for Taking unless the 2 players agree on gentleman's rules. We always RIP our tear cards.

The only thing that Dallis did not mention was that the only house rule we have been trying to equalize fairly the endgame rules. Getting there, but still in the testing phase.



Headswillroll

[kalas]

Hi,
I play in Paris, France. Time to time we play with an optional rule about location. When a player play a location he already have in play, he stack it like a situation. No additional effect, but it's just harder to remove. This way tactics with location are more sure.
At a personal level, i never play cheese (it's a sword game, no?), and i avoid broken cards like "the circle" or "honor bound" (for me both players must have a lot of fun, not only one). i reserve those cards for tournament.

[prowler7]

kalas said:

i avoid broken cards like "the circle

How is The Circle broken? It affects both players equally and doesnt interfere with the playing of attacks, you just cant make Power Blows.

[kalas]

prowler7 said:

kalas said:

i avoid broken cards like "the circle

How is The Circle broken? It affects both players equally and doesnt interfere with the playing of attacks, you just cant make Power Blows.

You forget the dodges. you can't play more than 3 areas dodges.
With personae cards made before the printing of escape it's a real problem. in another I consider this card broken because it's preventing you to play to many cards: all dodges except one type, head shot.
From my point of view, this card not fit mith my conception of the game. i don't like strategy where you can't nothing. I wan't both players get a lot of fun. But, I have no ptoblem to face this kind of deck, it's a challenge to see how I can get off.

[xavier]

Circle is broken

The only reason why it's not totally broken is because it is a location, so instable by nature.

But it keep you from playing middle dodge. For many players, it is no dodge at all...

And no power blows... How powerfull is that!!

Of course it affects both players. But if you are the one who plays it, you are more likely to have evade and alertness, and to play on a multi-attack basis (or anything else) instead of a Powerblow strategy.

On my side we didn't play card that "destroy" by them self an entire part of the game (simple mind for example)

We were also playing the old Rapiere as it is today.
(1 damage for all non-special attack instead of just basic attacks)
The old one was really to powerfull, and there was no reason to play any other WoC for 90% of decks

[zarth2k]

I have to agree that I’ve never really cared for the Circle. But then I also enjoy playing Amanda, and prefer having a decent amount of dodges in all of my decks. (Except for Silas of course.)

Our group has recently taken to letting all versions of Katana use the abilities of the 2e version. The 1e Katana was pretty useless in general. Unfortunately, it is still pretty useless to the 1e Macleods...

[prowler7]

By the nature of your posts, I wonder if players in France use "toolbox" cards. A simple "Focus" or "Recon" takes care of these "broken" cards.

I DO salute you guys on your quest to keep the game more about sword fighting. Personally, I think if we did away with many of the Events and Situations that had nothing to do with actual fighting, the game would be much better.

And before Tim and others chime in, I KNOW "cheese" is a viable strategy and was employed by several immortals in the TV series, but it really does detract from a game supposedly about sword fighting.

[jamesmcmurray]

Except that the game isn't supposedly about sword fighting. It's about the immortals as presented in movies and TV series, many of whom were sword fighters.

[rplantau]

If the game was only about sword fighting, it wouldn't be as fun.
The events, plots and situations (including cheese) add another dimension to the game.

[kalas]

I agree with you rplantau. But i make a diference between tournament, higly competite, were the only objective is winning, and "fighting" for the fun with friends.

[xavier]

prowler7 said:

By the nature of your posts, I wonder if players in France use "toolbox" cards. A simple "Focus" or "Recon" takes care of these "broken" cards.

Good question.
The 2 cards I was talking about are the circle and Simple mind.

If you play lot of dodges and power blows, Recon will not prevent Circle from screwing your deck (even if it will help)

But simple mind is the worst card to my opinion. According to the last FAQ, it is uncounterable. As it discard all but 1 situation, any deck based on situation is completely countered just by puting 2 cards in your deck. That's not fair Especially because I love situation decks ;D

Then I don't have anything against the concept of cheesy decks.
I just think that it was unbalanced in 1ed.
A cheese deck was potentialy really more powerfull than an attack defense deck.

[headswillroll]

I am confused about the French player's comments. On one hand you condem The Circle, which is irrelevant in my book, it affects both players. On the other hand, you condem Simple Mind, and once again it seems irrelevant to me, it is a balancing card. Look, I am not trying to be offensive, but come on, are joking with us or what? The house rules that you all decide to play are your business but as far as I am concerned your comments falling on deaf ears. The way I see it is this, the only people that gripe about a location are those that either do not have Recon or locations in their decks or they don't want to have to put them in because it is an inconvenience for them. Then you come to Simple Mind. In another thread you say you hate lockdown decks, well most do, that is what Simple MInd was created to help. Now, in this post, you say you don't like Simple Mind because you like to play situation heavy decks, which leads me to this conclusion. You like to either play healer/ you can't touch me decks or lockdown decks. I think you might want to choose which side of the fence you wish to be on, because it is confusing where exactly you stand, and if you elect to stand on the fence eventually you will fall or be knocked off.



Headswillroll