What are your thoughts on "House Rules" ?

[GameJunkieJim]

Various ways to play that aren't exactly 'jive' with the standard ruleset.

My buddy played Carcassonne on XBox Live Arcade at my house on Thursday, and on Friday he showed up with the actual board game.

We played 5 or 6 games by the basic rules, and then we came up with a "wild card" house rule.
Basically, the cards are thrown into a draw bag like normal, but each player takes 2 cards if they're playing a 2 player game and one card if they're playing with 3 or more people. These cards remain privy only to the player who drew them, and during gameplay, he can opt to play one of these cards instead of drawing a card from the bag.

I think it adds a bit of strategy to the occasional game, allowing for a bit more planning around your "hole cards" as it were. Granted, I wouldn't want to play every game like that, but one out of 10 allows for a quick "Oh you're really a bastard" game to add some competitive nature.

What are some of the house rules you play with, if any?

[Gantry]

That one is a popular one! What we do quite often is play with the extra large meeple, no matter what expansions we play.

[Wishmaster]

We always play The Castle holding two cards at a time. Makes it a more playable game. We also put two small tiles on the first few corners for it as well.

[Tobias]

We have quite a few house rules, so I don't really have anything against them. The only problem is when you play with people who have other house rules and when they think it's what the rule booklet says.

[Smacky X]

Similar to the system you are describing, Jim.. We often play with the first player drawing three tiles. They choose one to play and pass over the other two to the next player who draws a tile to add to the two the just received and gets to choose one out of the three, and then passes their left over two etc ect. It definitely adds to the strategy of each individuals turn. At times it speeds the game up and at times it slows it down..

[EcoGuy]

I am sure everyone has the "significant other" house rule of which mine is I cannot be a "bastard" with strategically placed blocking or steal your city tile but she can.  An add on to that one is that I cannot show displeasure.  Although not truly a playing methodology one must contend with it to make those non-playing hours happy and agreeable. 

[bsquiggle]

I go for somewhere between 'house rules' and 'my rules' - insofar as it's my carcassonne set, and my house.  But we have upped the cost for buy back of prisoners to 5 points, and are still considering whether it might be 10.  Also, not sure if this is covered in the rules or not, but all prisoners must be bought back at end of game.

[Scott]

Also, not sure if this is covered in the rules or not, but all prisoners must be bought back at end of game.

I took a quick look and didn't see anything.

[Gantry]

Offhand I'd agree with Scott on that one, as I don't recall it (although my memory is certainly not one of my strong points *cough*).  Also bsquiggle I find your buy-back interesting, as it adds a further incentive (and reward, assuming the payment goes to the player that initialized the capture of it) to capturing prisoners.

[koolkat]

Sorry for late post entry.
I only agree with house rules when official rules are not very clear or ambiguos.
Otherwise it's not Carc. It's some other game.