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I was told that there is an unwritten rule in Catan that when we roll a 7 we should not take a player's resource unless they have 3 settlements. Is this true?

colcan75 wrote: ↑14 January 2023, 03:50 I was told that there is an unwritten rule in Catan that when we roll a 7 we should not take a player's resource unless they have 3 settlements. Is this true?

Heck, no.

But here are some unwritten rules that I can think of:

1) If people want to play by unwritten rules, these should be discussed beforehand and agreed upon before the game starts. If you were told this after a game was already underway, it would be extremely improper for another player at the table to expect you and the other players to abide by it.

2) When posting a question to a forum (not just on BGA but on any site), one should distinguish between a statement and a question in the subject line by putting a question mark if necessary. Thus, since the purpose of your post was not to inform readers of unwritten rules but instead to inquire about a specific one, your subject should have been "Catan unwritten rules?"

3) More specific subject lines are better than vague or more general ones; thus, "Unwritten rule: don't steal from players with under 3 settlements?" would be better still than "Catan unwritten rules?"

These latter two unwritten rules give prospective readers and contributors a better idea of what to expect before they jump into your thread.

I hope these help!

I was scolded once for putting the robbers on another player on my first turn (I rolled 7). They told me that "nobody does that, literally". It got me pretty confused, because at that time I'd been through many matches in Catan and was robbed like this not once.
So, for somebody it may be an "unwritten rule", but not for everybody. And I personally don't follow it, it's part of the game.

When I first started out with this game (around 2008) I was introduced to a rule whereby 7s just got re-rolled in the first three rounds (i.e. each player having three turns)

It will be very nice to have this options available when choosing game settings

colcan75 wrote: ↑14 January 2023, 03:50 I was told that there is an unwritten rule in Catan that when we roll a 7 we should not take a player's resource unless they have 3 settlements. Is this true?

This has been discussed on the Catan forum, most recently here: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32716

I agree with what Bananasplay said.