On Jul 4, 2006, at 12:43, Billy Brahma wrote:
Can we please have Andy. Kristen or Josh.. basicly lay it down like it was at the meetings at last years Dragon Con or this years Origins...
OK, I may not be Andy or Kristin, and I'm definitely not Zarf, but I have been playing AYAW? since Zarf first posted the rules, and I do get to play at Wunderland.Earth on occasion. There've been some suggestions that I'm good at this game, but I assure you that it's entirely a rumor. I'm totally a villager.
The game needs to be played as its listed to be played.. no additions, no stacking, no messing with it.
For tournament games, I agree entirely. That is why tournament games are defined as "at least 8 players, no more than 15, with no first- night kill, 3-minute-per-living-person timer". Upon talking with the better tournament players this year (e.g. Peter and David, this year's winners--congrats to you both if you read this!), they fully recognized that they would play more games and have stated that they have more fun in smaller villages, preferably no larger than 9.
The AYAW? tourney this year was a bit more unstructured (at least, in my impression) than previous years. Our floating tourneys are likely to get a bit more restructured as a result of the Post-Mortem feedback this year, so this should be improved in the future. I foresee a tourney-running packet for rabbits that are running "official tournament games". We had similar packets this year, but... Ah, heck, this is more Origins planning, so I'll take it to the Origins Planning List. Robert, if you're not on it, consider signing up, because, heck, we Southern boys need to stick together, and I'd like to see you at Origins again.
If there's a problem with individual Rabbits breaking tourney rules, please e-mail Josh, Kristin, and Andy _privately_ with exactly who and what you saw, and they'll find a way to deal with that for the future. The Big Experiment is an experiment, so we do adjust our hypotheses occasionally.
But I didn't love the attitudes, that basicly undermined me and seemed bent on forcing me to defend the company from another Rabbit.
Yeah. Interpersonal friction sucks at cons, more so than other places, because these are people you really can't get away from for a whole weekend, and there's really no authority to directly appeal to, as the whole company/community tends to be pretty egalitarian with regards to authority (exceptions to the Emperor, of course, and any authority I happen to either usurp or baselessly assert for myself).
But we do encourage you to bring these up sooner rather than later, especially for something that is ongoing. We've dealt with some crazy stuff in AYAW? tournaments, from cheaters to grand mal seizures to theft of personal effects. Some things (like deck-stacking in tourney games) are big no-nos, and need to be brought to the attention of the Rabbit in charge of the tourney, the tourney director at the time, the Top Rabbit at the time, the Rabbit Coordinator, or the Looneys, in that order. If it's a rules _question_, the chain of command is still pretty much the same.
AYAW? is getting reprinted soon, so these "tournament rules" might be finding themselves as part of the printing. I see the no-first-night- kill and the timer as being especially likely, perhaps with a longer explanation of why we like smaller villages.
AYAW? is, of course, a game played for the enjoyment of the players. Some people play Monopoly with the Free Parking space as a sort of jackpot for cash. Others double the prices of properties, so almost each contract goes up for auction. One group is enjoying the game because they feel rich, another is enjoying it for the negotiation. But they're both enjoying the game. The moderator's job is to enforce the rules that the players agree to, not to tell them what game they can't play. And, sorry, but while it may be the place of onlookers to give rules corrections, it's not their place to demand they be enforced _if the players are enjoying themselves_. Once again, tournaments are another matter, and any problems there should be sent to Josh, Kristin, and Andy privately.
Hope to see you next year! Liam