Had a game night go off the rails because I forgot one stupid rule

Last Saturday I set up a 5-player game of Root (the woodland faction war game) and we were about 2 hours in when someone pointed out that I had been playing the Vagabond completely wrong the whole time. I let the Vagabond player attack and move like a normal army instead of limiting their actions like the rulebook says. By the time I caught the mistake the Vagabond had 15 victory points and everyone else was stuck around 8. We just called the game early and went for pizza instead. Has anyone else had a whole session tanked by missing one small rule?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nina1mo ago

...and that's exactly why I have a house rule now that nobody plays the Vagabond unless they've read the rules three times. I had a similar thing happen with a game of Cosmic Encounter where I let someone use their alien power every single turn instead of once per encounter. They were literally taking over planets left and right and everyone thought I was just bad at strategy until someone flipped through the rulebook and saw the once per encounter part in tiny print. We spent the next hour arguing about whether to restart or not before my cat knocked a soda all over the board and made the decision for us. Pizza is always the better ending anyway.

kim.emma1mo ago

Never thought house rules could save a game night but that cat soda thing totally sold me.