Why do some people have the custom to wind the Tefillin-Shel-Yad towards themselves, while others wind it away from themselves? What is the reason behind these two customs, and which sects of Judaism generally follow which method?


Question: House rules to make the cloister less of a game winning tile in Carcassonne?
Answer: Knowing that cloisters can have this effect is half the battle.

Rather than adding a house rule to a very popular game I would advise you to alter your strategy a bit to account for future cloisters that you may not control.

Examples:


Leave a good cloister spot next to an open road that you own.  
When considering placing a tile between two relatively equal spots determine if one or the other creates a better cloister opportunity.
Keep track of how many have been played!  If you get down to 10 tiles left and 4 of them are cloisters, make sure you have the meeples available to use them.  Alternatively, keep your opponent from freeing his meeples from the board.