House rules
Hog Call and other table rules
Explore common house rules people invent around the table, along with where those extra twists came from.
Nothing here is printed on the box. These are the changes people make anyway, collected because half the arguments about this game are really arguments about which house rules everybody assumed.
Hog Call
Before rolling, a player calls a target for the turn. Hit it and collect a bonus, fall short and take nothing. Settle the size of the bonus before the game, because the printed sources do not agree.
Pig Party
The party edition splits everyone into teams and passes the pigs around the table faster. It changes the pace more than the scoring.
Sudden death
The first Oinker of the night ends the game on the spot and the highest score wins. Short, brutal, popular with children.
Exactly one hundred
Overshooting the target scores nothing for that turn. Turns the end of the game into a careful crawl.
Solo practice
Roll against your own best turn. It is the version that shows you how rare a Leaning Jowler really is.
Agree the rule, then roll
House rules only cause trouble when they turn up mid-game. Whether a Piggyback puts you out, whether you must land on exactly 100, and what a called target pays are all worth settling in the thirty seconds before the first roll.
The one to be most careful with is the called target, because sources genuinely disagree on what it should pay, and there is no right answer to look up.
Do you have to land on exactly one hundred?
The printed rules say first to one hundred or more. Playing to exactly one hundred is a house rule, and a good one, but it is not what the box says.
What does a Hog Call pay?
Sources disagree on the size of the payout. Agree the amount before the first roll rather than after somebody calls it.
Carry on from here
- How to play Pass the PigsRead how a turn works, when to hand the little porkers across, and how the winner finishes.
- Every pig position and what it scoresCheck what each landing is worth, with clear drawings showing how the little rubber porkers can rest.
- Pig Out, Oinker and PiggybackLearn about the few disastrous tosses that wipe out a turn or erase a whole running tally.
- When to stop rollingWeigh the simple arithmetic of greed, deciding whether to risk another toss or bank your points safely.