It’s in the rules: 3 board games we’ve been playing wrong our whole lives
If playing board games isn’t already a cause of tension in your household, we’re here to throw another HUGE spanner in the works.
Some board games have been around so long, that we’ve never felt the need to actually sit down and read the instructions. The rules have instead been handed down through families. But as it turns out, we’ve been playing some of them wrong.
Here are three rules we had no idea existed.
Scrabble
This rule will come in handy for the wordsmiths looking for a way to jazz up their scrabble strategy. While you should know that it’s okay to forfeit a turn in order to swap some letters, what you might not know is that it’s also perfectly fine to skip your turn entirely, waiting for a better opportunity to place your zinger of a word on the board. #winning
Monopoly
Think you know all there is to know about Monopoly? Think again. One Twitter user who actually sat down to read the rules discovered this little gem: if you land on a property and don’t want to buy it, the property then goes up for auction.
When someone lands on a property?in #Monopoly ?? & they don’t buy it, IT GOES TO AUCTION for any player to buy.
IT. IS. IN. THE. RULES.
— Ruben (@AskRubenHow2Bet) 20 November 2017
According to the official rulebook, “Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price.
“You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership; place it face up in front of you. If you do not wish to buy the property, the Banker sells it at auction to the highest bidder.
“The buyer pays the Bank the amount of the bid in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that property.
“Any player, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price.”
Other controversial Monopoly rules include being able to buy properties on the first lap of the board and collecting rent while being in jail. In fact, staying in jail is an excellent strategic move later on in the game.
UNO
Although not technically a board game, UNO is still as popular as ever among families but there’s one huge twist you probably aren’t aware of.
While it feels good to watch your opponent add to their hand after you’ve hit them with the Draw 4 WILD card, it’s worth noting that there are strict rules around this play.
Earlier this year, Uno player, La Toya McCaskill Stallings, took to Facebook with the revelation that she’s been playing the game wrong her whole life.
“Did y’all know that you can only play the Draw 4 Wild card IF you have NO other cards of the same colour that can be played??!” she wrote.
But that’s not all.
“If you suspect that someone has illegally played this card, they have to show you their hand. AND if they in fact played the card illegally they must draw 4, but If not, the person who challenged the play must DRAW 6? OK, so I was bored and ran out of things to read so I decided to read the actual rule book.”
MIND. BLOWN.
