I'm putting all of my favorite house rules on cards to be laid out during a game. This way I can pick and choose what rules are appropriate for that session. Please share some more ideas with me. I love the hackability of Runebound and would like to hear other players ideas.

Hi Tony P,

I have one house rule that I use all the time. For me it makes the game a wee bit easier and a wee bit more balanced and of course more fun.

After many games of Runebound this is what I settled on. I have all the Market Deck add-ons so my Market Stack is HUGE! The odds of drawing something your Hero could use felt slim.

I break the Market deck up into 3 decks.

1) Weapons and Armor
2) Allies and Familars
3) Magic (Runes, Magic Weapons, Rituals, etc.)

With the exception of Tamilir I put 2-3 (3 if we just feel like it that day) cards in each towns markets at the start of the game. I add 1 to each town sequentially and alternate which deck I draw from. This way there is great variety in each town and some selection right from the start. I found that this doesn't unbalance the game. I also put back any doubles and draw again.

When a player takes a market step they can chose any deck to draw from and they can draw 2 cards. Whenever an encounter/event or anything say's you can draw 'x' cards (usually 2) we add one so that it will still be special.

My play group really enjoys this a lot. Becaue there are so many cards drawing still feel very random but you're at least going to get something somewhere in the realm of what you were looking for.

I find that this doesn't make it too easy but it does make it more likely to get something you'll use. Even if you draw a crappy sword your fighter can still benefit from it unlike maybe your fighter drawing a Rune.

This also helps for those time (when with out this house rule) when one Hero end up with great equipment and the others don't. With this house rule it's more likely that players and get some useful tools.

Even if you don't like the idea of adding extra market cards to towns or drawing extra cards in a Market Step the idea of breaking up the Market Stack itself is something that I really love for Runebound.

I like the "selection from the start," as that's sensible rather than all settlements seeming to start with too little for a real market. I can see the point to the divided market deck, as I just had to built a new deck box to accommodate mine's growth. It's a common approach I've heard from others, sort of like going shopping for something based on need, as one would, rather than blindly walking into the market and window shopping.

We've tried a little different approach once or twice, and it had its good and bad side. We kept all cards in the same stack, but you declare what you're after before you draw:: Mind/Ranged, Body/Melee, Spirit/Magic. You draw three cards. You pick one to add to the Market that (1) matches your "shopping" intention or (2) isn't a specific match to any of those three realms of influence. If you can afford it, you can buy it... or something else already there.

Hein99 said:

I've heard of this before but never took the time to separate my market cards and try it. I too have a huge market deck from various expansions. I think I'll take a few minutes before our next game and separate the cards. I might even go further and leave a few of each deck out to make a fourth random deck for reward draws on challenge cards.

The 4th random deck to draw from for adventure/challenge rewards is a very cool idea.

It will take a bit of time to separate the deck into the 3 categories but once I did it I would just store them sorted in the box rather than mixing them up again.
It is starting to get really tough to fit everything into the core box!

I even posted an image of how I pack all my Runebound expansions into the core box
BBG.com Image

Hein99 said:

I think you've invented Rune Tetris. That is an impressive packing job. I opted for a card box myself.

Well, one more expansion for the base game and it will be all over for my system. That box is packed. There is no more room!

I thought I'd chime in my 2 cents here - I usually play with my brother and have found that using the base rules the endgame is too easy; by the time we get to blue encounters we pretty much fly though everything, and even most reds aren't that much of a challenge.

1) When dying you lose either gold or item, but also lose a turn

2) Town's are safe areas for PvP (we rarely attack each other, but in case we do)

3) Any time you lose an ally you are given a "death counter". For every death counter you have every future ally costs an additional gold to hire. This is to penalize hiring cannon fodder. "Oh you're the guy that hired Bill? Well, I'm not so sure I want to go with you now..."

4) Market stacks separated into two stacks - allies, and everything else (we have a few of the market expansion decks)

5) At the start of the game 1 ally and 2 everything else cards are put face down in each town. They are only flipped over when first visited. We usually play where you don't draw an additional card for the first visit to town. When you visit a town and enter the market step, you can choose to draw one card from whichever deck you choose

Part of the reason the endgame seems so easy to me is because we are decked out in amazing items by then. We'll be playing with a new rule as well the next time we play that I thought would add some spice to the game, since we prefer not to be rushed with the doom counter (although we do advance through colored encounters fairly quickly):

*) Similar to the doom counter - at the end of every turn it advances 1 space. Once it reaches the end of the doom track, every creature and ally (so as not to make them obsolete) faced is given +1 to all their stats (not damage). We haven't decided yet if we will make it either +2 or +1, or if the doom counter will move up at the end of each player's turn, or after both players' turns... I think that moving it up after both players have played their turn seems best, but this will need to be playtested for balance.

6) Item restrictions - You cannot use an item or hire an ally (unless rescued) with a value of more than twice your current level. This takes effect for all items/allies over the value 5. For example, The shield of light has a value of 7, which means that you need to be level 7/2 = 3.5 => 3 to use it. You start the game at level 1, so once you have two exp counters you can item/allies with a value of up to 7. Once you have three experience counters, you can buy/use items with a value of 8/9.

7) Leveling up - Once you reach level five (you are holding four experience counters), it now takes 6 experience points to level up to the next level. Once you reach level seven it takes 8 experience counters to level up, etc. Without this rule we usually only see a few blue cards each game and I love those encounters

That is basically it - I'd love to hear feedback about these house rules. I think the new doom track variety we came up with will make things more interesting, and more fun than forcing an endgame scenario - it makes you need to move quickly so you aren't fighting super-beasts, but not need to worry about having the game end prematurely. Not to mention you'll be paying a lot for healing

Happy Runebounding!

Boooster said:

I like this little bit of verisimilitude, but it wouldn't be popular as most RB players look at allies as just versatile equipment.

It does add a nice touch of roleplaying. I might have to try this next time just for kicks.

Our house rule is that you can add a card to a market (facedown) if you pass through the town without stopping there. This puts a little more emphasis on your movement step and makes you take routes through the towns. You do not see what is in there, merely the fact there is more passing trade should mean there is more stuff to buy. Also we start with all items face down so visiting a town is never a foregone conclusion of what is available unless you have been there before. Great game.

Cwazie said:

I'll have to add this in as well. I would even have cards cycle in and out with trade, but keep a few cards facedown that don't cycle out.

For the more chaotic evil players among us, how about a chance of Banditry on the roads? I was thinking of adding a chance to rob merchants on the highway. Here's my idea:

1. Each time a player enters a road space there is a chance of encountering a merchant. Roll a d10. On a x through x you encounter a merchant. I shy away from giving hard numbers here since I think it would depend on how robust the Terrinoth economy was at that point. Also I could see modifiers based on how many hexes away from a town you are.

2. Merchant caravans would have set statistics. A random roll would modify these statistics and determine how much loot the caravan was transporting.I also think you would have to beat them in a limited number of turns or they get away.

Alternatively there could be a chance of a Hero guarding the caravan. Maybe a 50% chance. So a 1-5. The Hero would be chosen randomly from the unused Heroes. The random loot roll would also determine how experienced the Hero was. Depending on the roll a number of bonus counters would be added to the hero in a uniform manner in order of mind then body then spirit then life. Since the hero wouldn't be using any powers, fatigue wouldn't really be necessary.

3. Merchant caravans give gold, items, and experience. I'll have to work out the details on this.

4. It would be important to track the number of Merchant caravans robbed. Maybe the caravans get tougher. Or as the number goes up maybe only Heroes are guarding the caravans. Or this could lead to some sort of Crime and Punishment track for characters. They may not be able to visit certain towns for fear of getting arrested.

5. Escorting the Merchant Caravans could become a side quest and way for players to earn extra gold.

Well we use a variety of house rules.

One rule that we use commonly is no PVP.

For a quicker game we use the rule to level up you have to gain current adventure level defeated plus one to level up. So green most powerful defeated you have to gain two xp to gain one level if red is the most powerful then you have to gain 5 xp to gain a level.

To prolong the game we use double the xp so most powerful defeated being green you need to gain only 2 xp but for a red its 8 xp. This makes it where no one can run away with the lead of levels. You could continue to attack greens but your rewards would be low.

A better idea looking at limitations for buying would probably be to base it on the level of adventure challenge your hero has defeated already, such as green 4 gold or lower, yellow 8 gold or lower, blue 12 gold or lower, and red 13 gold or higher. This would ensure players went after more challenges adventure challenges. Of course this rule would also apply to Allies.

We also usually leave the market stack together but place two market cards in each city at the start with the exceptionn of Tamilar which starts with one facedown. But we also draw two cards each time we visit a market including Tamilar. Despite having three extra expansions added to the market deck a variety of market items most of the time is available for purchase.

We also use the varient rule that when you roll your movement dice and don't use some of them, you may subtract a fatigue from your character or ally or combination for each movement dice you rolled that you didn't use to move.

But you know some of those house rules you mentioned may be of interest for us to adopt and use ourselves.

This is how we manage our market stack! (260+ cards).

• All the cards are thoroughly shuffled into three decks randomly assigned A, B, and C.
• We begin playing with deck A. If we run out of cards in deck A, we use deck B, and then deck C (practically, this never happens).
• Discarded cards go to the bottom of deck C (effectively taking them out of play).
• If we search the market stack, we can search all three decks. If we must search in order, we search through A first, then B, then C.
• When we are asked to shuffle the market stack, we don't just shuffle the deck in play. We shuffle all three decks together again, usually by cutting each deck into thirds and rebuilding the three decks randomly from those thirds, then shuffling each deck.

This I think is the most effective way to manage a complete market deck while strictly adhering to the rules!

I feel that more market cards available in cities makes the game more exciting. The game feels too "empty" in the beginning. Having more available in each city market gives players more to plan for and shoot for. And witht he market decks being as large as they are, it does make sense.

Another variant we've been using, to deviate from the market house rules…the downtime between turns is atrocious. So we play a co-op variant.

-- All players travel as a group together.

-- When hitting an encounter, draw X encounter cards and one is dealt to each player. Each player is battling their encounter at the same time and as encounters are defeated, players can team up or vice versa.

There really isn't much else to change in the game…you'd be amazed at how much more it flows.

Also available as printed cards in the Cities of Adventure: Reference Cards deck made available through my game site (see my sig links).