We all have them. House rules for our favorite board games to make the games more interesting from our perspective. I detailed a few of mine in my article on monopoly and economics, and chip detailed a few of his in his "Calvinopoly" post.

Probably my favorite house rules of all time were appropriated to games like "Risk" and "Axis and Allies". You see, we liked to make the game interesting by making EVERY land space on the globe available for occupation, including Antarctica. In our games, Madagascar was also afforded its own sovereign status. We used an old map of the world for our game board instead of the included board

Using these house rules, I would always take control of Antarctica and Madagascar for strategic reasons, declaring that I would defy the world with my penguin and lemur armies. Sure, I often lost, but I did so with gusto, and, frankly, in our universe it didn't matter whether you lost as long as you did it with STYLE. As the game wore on and more and more territories were consumed, I would gradually retreat my armies to my strongholds. From Antarctica, I DID have the tactical advantage of being able to strike in either South America or  (especially Africa, with troops in Madagascar as well), as well as being able to fortify my beloved Isle. And I was mighty hard to root out, so I was usually the last person to lose the game to the eventual champion. And more often than not, we'd end the game as a technical "draw", because they weren't rooting me out, I wasn't surrendering, and we were both getting mighty tired.

So, tell me: what were/are YOUR house rules for your board games, and how have they made them more interesting?