Age of Renaissance 

Boardgame Players Association PBeM Tournament

2009

Eligibility:

• Be member of the Boardgame Player's Association at the start of the tournament.
• Have an account on the ACTS website
• Notify GM Greg Stripes (aor at gregstripes dot com) by April 29th, 2009 of intent to participate in the tournament.
• Agrees to be bound by the rules presented on this webpage.

Timeline:

• Tournament to start on May 18th, 2009
• Tournament length will depend on the number of entrants. If 36 or fewer players, the tournament will last 2 rounds. If more than 36 players, the tournament will be 3 rounds.
• The winner of each of nine first round games will advance to the 2nd round.
• Additionally, all 2nd and 3rd place players will get a score based upon their percentage of the winners' score in their game.   For example, if the winner ended up with 1000 points, and 2nd place player ended up with 955 points, their score would be 95.5
• The top six 2nd and 3rd place players will advance to the 2nd round.
• A similar formula will be used to advance 3 winners from round 2 to the finals, as well as the top 2 2nd or 3rd place finishers.
• The 2nd round and final round will be 5 player games.
• Rounds will be targeted to complete within 4 months.
• Second round will begin one week after the completion of the last first round game.
• Players and GMs are expected to keep games moving without unnecessary delays.

General:

• The GM, Greg Stripes, is playing in the tournament, and is being assisted by four other GMs, Nicole Kaiyan, Mark Neale, Ewan McNay and Ken Gutermuth.
• Players will be assigned to games at random.
• All games will be have a moderator. However, ACTS will be the tool used for card management, dice rolling, and communication.
• Each game will have a separate website which will contain a listing of players, moderator, current status, map, advances, misery, shipping, & commodities. An example of the site can be found at http://gregstripes.com/aor/2008_BPA2-1.html
• Failure to follow the rules as presented here, specifically courtesy to fellow players and communication about away times may result in the following penalties: First Offense - warning, Second Offense - 50 points off of final score, Third Offense - another 100 points off final score, Fourth & Final Offense - player is out of game using Chaos rules for remainder of game.

Game Communications:

• All games are played using the automated card tracking system (ACTS)
  • ACTS is a free service.  It is necessary for all players to have an account on ACTS in order to play.  If you don’t have an account, go to The ACTS Homepage and follow the simple instructions for setting yourself up.
  • Card Drawing with ACTS
    • Due to the card randomness of the ACTS system, players may draw cards in any order when card draws are allowed.
    • The restrictions of card draws in order are only needed when the card draw phase is going to cross an epoch, and only to the extent that players are to draw cards from the correct epoch.
    • The GM will provide instructions when card draw order is necessary to make sure the correct players get cards from the correct epochs.
    • As card drawing is the event that is most likely to go awry, and mess up a game, players should exercise good judgment and caution whenever drawing cards from ACTS.
• All communications within a game will be public. There will be no private communications between players in a game. If a player receives a private communication, they should notify the GM immediately. The first violation will result in a warning and the second violation will result in expulsion from the game.
• Negotiations time limit
  • This rule is in place to keep games moving along.     In the past some negotiations have gone on too long, spoiling the fun for others.
  • When it is your turn to act (play cards, purchase, expand), you must complete your action within three (3) days.
    • Of course, if you or another key player are offline for a time, and have notified your fellow players/GM than this constraint can be adjusted
    • If you do not complete your action by the deadline, the consequences are as follows
      • Card Play : Player will forfeit the right to play cards and play will advance to the next player
      • Expansion: Player will forfeit all unused tokens bought for that turn.
    • In all cases, the GM will use common sense and good judgment to determine if a player is dragging on a game.
    • The GM does not receive emails from ACTS.  Therefore if you think a player is taking too long, please Email the GM.

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Game Master Roles and Responsibility:

• The GM will deal initial cards and set-up the game on ACTS and the website.
• The GM will accept player bids and create turn worksheets.
• At the conclusion of the turn, the GM will:
  • Review cards plays, purchases and expansion for legality, and make corrections as required.
  • Update website to reflect changes from the turn.
• The GM will resolve disputes among the players as required, consulting with assistant GMs or past tournament GMs as appropriate
• The GM is not constantly monitoring the game, and may not notify players of a possible error until the end of the turn.
  • If you believe a player has made an invalid play, and wish the GM to resolve it, please notify the GM.
  • Most errors can be handled by the players without the need for the GM to step in.   But do not hesitate to involve the GM as required.
  • The GM is only required to update the website, maps, advances, etc at the end of the turn.   If you believe there are sufficient changes to the game situation to require a more current update, please ask the GM to provide one.
• It is a nice courtesy for the last player to email the GM after rolling for shortages and surpluses, relieving the GM of the responsibility of checking for the conclusion of the turn

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Player Roles and Responsibility:

• The player agrees to check and respond to email in a timely fashion.
  • It is understood that players will be away from the game for both planned and unplanned reasons, but when possible, please let your fellow players know.
    • If a player is going to be away from email for longer than 2 days, please let your fellow players know of your absence.  
    • If a player is going to be away from email for longer than 5 days, please let your fellow players AND YOUR GM know of your absence.
• The player agrees to submit token bids in the correct format
• The player agrees that they will act with courtesy towards their fellow players and their GM.
• The player agrees to follow all of the rules provided on this website for this tournament.
• The player agrees that the GMs, and specifically the head GM Greg Stripes has the final say in any dispute.

Bidding:

• Capital Bids
  • After receiving their initial card in an email, players are to submit a capital bid amount and order choice to the GM
  • Players are to list their starting position priorities from first choice to last when submitting their capital bid
  • Example:
    • Capital bid 3
    • Barcelona, Hamburg, Venice, Genoa, Paris, London
  •  The GM will resolve tied bids with a die roll using ACTS and provide each player with their starting capital based on bid order.
• Token Bids
  • In order to speed the game pace, the following actions are to be included in token bids
    • whether they will remove shortages/surpluses
    • whether they will purchase a card with Urban Ascendancy.
    • whether they want to go before or after opponents in case of ties. If not specified, you will go earlier

• Please use this format when submitting token bids:

  [09AOR1-1 (game name)] Turn 1
  XXXXXX  will bid  XX  tokens
  will move [before/after] tied bidders
  [will/wont] cancel any S/S
  [will/wont] buy an UA card

Dice Rolls:

• All dice rolls will be conducted using the ACTS die rolling link on your game page
• The last player in the expansion phase should roll for Shortages/Surpluses at the conclusion of their expansion
• If not specified, the order of dice rolls in Black, White then Colored.    Rolls of less than 3 dice are invalid unless appropriate for the chosen action, such as a war roll.

Error Corrections:

• General: Once a player announces his turn is over, he cannot change his play unless an illegal play was made.
• Card Play: Once a card has been announced as played, it may not be put back into the player's hand
• Purchases: Unless the purchase was illegal (ie not enough cash or wrong price listed), a player cannot change his purchases once he announces his turn is over. If the next player has not taken his turn, the illegal purchases may be corrected. If the next player has gone, purchases will stand in the order they were written with excess cash held for next turn or shortage of cash taken off the last item listed. The only exception to this will be stabilization. A player may add stabilization, if forgotten, until the end of the purchase phase.
• Expansion: If an illegal attack is made, the tokens used in the attack are lost. If an attack was made with the wrong number of tokens, it shall be corrected, if legal, and any shortfall of tokens will be taken from the last item listed in the expansion.

Variants & Rules Clarifications:

• Initial Capital Bids - We will be using the standard capital bidding rules.
• Initial Cards - We will be using the standard game rules of dealing one card prior to the capital bids
• Master Art Discard - A player may immediately discard a card upon purchasing Master Art
• Cathedral Usage - In order to keep the games moving, Cathedral can only be used on Offense
• Card Purchases with Tokens - Cards that are purchased with tokens may be taken immediately by the purchasing player using the “Draw New Card” link via ACTS.
• Cash & Cards - All cash values and previous card plays are common knowledge.  Cash values are shown on the webpage, it is up to players to track cards by looking at the ACTS site.
• Wind/Watermill Cards - Cards for Wind/Watermill will be exchanged immediately.  ACTS provides a link for a player to give a random card to another player.  Once that is done, the 1^st player must give a card to the other.  In order to give a specific card to another via ACTS, you 1^st click on the card name as if you were going to play it, but instead of clicking the “Play” button, you would go just below that button and select the recipient from the pull-down menu and click the “Give to” button.  GM can provide assistance with this if necessary.

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