Board Game Arena

I realise this is hardly canon, but I think it would be great to have an option to play without the robber.

I play a lot of games on BGA. Mostly I have a good time and players are ok. But the place I see the worst behaviour is when playing Catan, and most of the time, it's people whining about being robbed in the chat. Not just by me, by anyone.


Now that I think of it, another option would be if I could host a table that has the chat disabled, so that if people can't emotionally handle the robber, I don't have to deal with their aggro

Or to even change the amount of cards that makes you discard from the robber. Other locations you can play this online allow you to customize your game. My friends and I often play where we discard when we have more than 9 cards. At 7 cards it’s often you can finally do something after being stuck for so long and then BAM the robber steals half your hand and you have to build back up again.

I think the decision for discarding when you have more than 7 cards was deliberate to encourage trading. If you never have to trade, the negotiation aspect of the game is lost.

Removing the robber and rising the card cap for discard destroys every mechanic of the games. It basically becomes playing dice.

Nobody is making you play the version without a robber. I just suggested it should be an option for some people to use. I would also welcome an option to disable the chat so that if I do have the misfortune of playing with people who can't handle the robber, they don't sound off about it.

@hatchnut I just came to this forum to see if this is being talked about. It seems lately if you roll a 7 and actually move the robber to gain resources people are outraged and taking it as a personal attack. I've been playing for many months but over the last month this behavior is occurring more and more. I come to play by the rules and have fun. I get so discouraged when people become angry in the chat over moving the robber when a 7 is rolled.

An option without the robber would be wonderful. Also, it would be nice to see one turn go by for everyone before you steal. Love when I go last and the seven comes up the first two/three rolls and I start turn one with zero or only one supply. It’s awesome.

An option to play without opponents and choosing the dice results would also be great. Better yet, choose your target ELO and call it a day.

I can't imagine this being a good game without the possibility of the robber, because a huge part of the game is the need to use your resources as soon as you have more than a few, or you'll risk losing them. Another big part of the game is to avoid putting all your eggs (towns and cities) in one basket (around one 6 or 8 tile) because any one tile can temporarily be taken out of commission. Without the robber, it's a much less interesting game, and much more about the randomness of the rolls. Without the robber, it also would encourage people to hoard resources until they can build a lot of stuff all at once, which I think would be really frustrating and dispiriting when someone else does it - you can't see their progress until suddenly they surround you, or just get 4 points in one turn and win.

If there were an option to disable the robber, I think it should come with a very stern warning so new or inexperienced players don't get tricked into trying it because it seems "nicer" and end up with a much inferior game and don't realize that it's really a better game than they think it is. If you don't know the game well, it might be easy to miss the important role the robber plays, if you play without the robber.

A more limited option that I think could be nice, though, would be an option for the house rule some people play with:
- Can't place the robber next to any player who only has two points
- If all players still have two points, the robber stays on the desert
(But anyone with more than 7 resources still has to discard if 7 is rolled)