Kingdom builder tournament/serious mode

[morphles]

I have read somewhere that there is tournament mode play for kingdom builder - if your second card is same as first you can mulligan it - draw another one; I think this should be implemented, as if you draw two same cards at start often times you are disadvantaged super severely. I think there was also a restriction so that every player starts with different card, but that might not be so super important, but also a nice option.

[MoiMagnus]

I don't find any trace of this variant online, but I didn't search very deep.
(In particular, it is not in the list of unofficial variants in the FAQ on BGG https://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Kingdom_Builder_FAQ
No variants are officially recognise as, according to BGG, the designer is happy with the level of luck in the game and would have changed it if he was not)

BGA's position on it is quite simple, any variant needs direct approval from the publisher.
(This is why they rejected that "2 cards in hand" variant)
Though if you find some sources that show that your variant was indeed used in organised play, that might convince the devs to take the time to actively contact the publisher for approval.

[morphles]

So the rule text makes looking for posts about such variant/house rule quite hard, but I could find couple things:
http://criticalboardgamer.blogspot.com/ ... art-1.html
https://old.reddit.com/r/boardgames/com ... s/cb8j6rq/

I'm pretty sure nether is original place I saw it mentioned. I also disagree with the linked reddit comment. Even for experience players, cards (and not even start ones, but start ones in particular) can screw you super royally. Depending on what you draw and how board looks (with original rules), you can be forced to go for decent/ok tile/power and be completely screwed if you draw same terrain on 2nd (since you have to place in big area, besides most areas seem to be 6> or bigger generally, anyway...) or you take relatively, bad tile and guard from being completely screwed by same terrain, but still you are quite screwed by being forced to trade for inferior option. With expansion I think it is a bit less pronounced as expansions (well I only have crossroads) can give some more mitigation options like guards or wagon that allow one ether block oneself (with guard) or just move with wagon. But base game IMO can be basically done by 2nd move, decently often.