Lost a tournament after a dumb house rule argument

At a local convention in Austin last month, I was playing a 4-player game of Brass Birmingham and the guy next to me insisted I couldn't build on a coal mine because he'd "called dibs" three turns earlier... The whole table got into it for 20 minutes and we never even finished the game. How do you handle people who make up their own rules mid-game without ruining the mood for everyone?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey6825d ago

Three turns of dibs in a four-player game sounds like how my neighbor claims the same parking spot every day.

harper_foster4d ago

Nah, I gotta disagree. Dibs is more about keeping the game fair and moving. If you let someone grab whatever they want whenever, the person who goes last gets screwed every time. Three turns of dibs gives everyone a chance to plan their move, not just hog a spot. Your neighbor thing is different, that's just someone being selfish with a public resource. In a game, dibs keeps order and stops chaos. Nobody wants to sit there while people fight over stuff every round.

taylor124d ago

So how do you stop people from calling dibs on every single thing just to slow down the game?