Help wanted for rules reference
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 3:56 pm
In the course of collecting up some of the FAQ and errata for my local league, I sort of lost my mind and widened my scope to include some additional issues I had seen come up. Well, one thing led to another, and I ended up creating a 9-page rules reference document that comprises questions from the BB16 FAG/Errata, the LRB6 FAQ, the NAF Clarifications page, and most of the definitively-answered questions or clarifications from the last six or seven years of posts here.
I think it's in more than fine shape for answering any questions for my own league, but I thought I'd throw it up here for others to use, see, or critique:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rtaka6zq23g70 ... e.pdf?dl=0
A bit about my approach:
This is meant to be a reference document, not a rules-learning aid, which I think the other FAQs are more suited to. If you take a look at it, you'll see that it's cross-referenced, so that if you're wondering about whether you can use Shadowing on a Pass Block action, you'll find it by looking up either skill. That obviously makes for a longer document, but my hope is that it'll make it easier to use for a quick look-up of something. Does it work? Are there categories where I forgot to cross-reference something? Categories you think should be added?
As I said, I used the existing FAQ documents as a starting point, rewriting them to be in non-Q-and-A format. Did I mess anything up? Make it less clear? Attribute it badly?
From there, I dug through all of the rules forum posts from the last several years, adding rulings that seemed definitive, attributing them to either "Galak," if he issued a ruling, "Rules", if thing seemed easily solved by a straightforward rules interpretation, or, rarely, "Forum Consensus" or something of the like if I'm not totally sold on why it might be right. Then I added in stuff that I've been asked over the course of teaching the game and playing with newer players over the last several months; stuff that seems to come up even when players know the rules, but just space out on a particular rule or skill. Did I include too much weird stuff? Miss anything that's been overturned? (I worked recent-to-oldest, so I think I caught the rare reversals of position.) I considered providing Forum links to the individual rulings and so on, but the exponential increase in time spent would have been far too great.
I believe everything in this document is right, and I don't think I've put in anything that I think is my own preference or unique interpretation, but there's stuff in there that there might be no "proof" of, like the Bombardier not being allowed to reroll the 4-6 roll to hit adjacent players, and Fan Factor going below Zero. The one bit of editorializing I did was regarding the awarding of MVPs to players who were not eligible to play in a match. I'll leave it in for my league, but maybe others would prefer it to be removed...
And, finally: Did I leave anything out that you think should be in here, or put in anything that you think is so obvious nobody has ever asked it? A lot of items are things I've been asked by newer players and are really basic. Are they too basic?
Proofreading notes and such are also appreciated. This is a first draft, and I haven't checked it over too much yet! (On the same note--please don't share it yet! There is still work to do on it, including fixing the page numbers.)
I think it's in more than fine shape for answering any questions for my own league, but I thought I'd throw it up here for others to use, see, or critique:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rtaka6zq23g70 ... e.pdf?dl=0
A bit about my approach:
This is meant to be a reference document, not a rules-learning aid, which I think the other FAQs are more suited to. If you take a look at it, you'll see that it's cross-referenced, so that if you're wondering about whether you can use Shadowing on a Pass Block action, you'll find it by looking up either skill. That obviously makes for a longer document, but my hope is that it'll make it easier to use for a quick look-up of something. Does it work? Are there categories where I forgot to cross-reference something? Categories you think should be added?
As I said, I used the existing FAQ documents as a starting point, rewriting them to be in non-Q-and-A format. Did I mess anything up? Make it less clear? Attribute it badly?
From there, I dug through all of the rules forum posts from the last several years, adding rulings that seemed definitive, attributing them to either "Galak," if he issued a ruling, "Rules", if thing seemed easily solved by a straightforward rules interpretation, or, rarely, "Forum Consensus" or something of the like if I'm not totally sold on why it might be right. Then I added in stuff that I've been asked over the course of teaching the game and playing with newer players over the last several months; stuff that seems to come up even when players know the rules, but just space out on a particular rule or skill. Did I include too much weird stuff? Miss anything that's been overturned? (I worked recent-to-oldest, so I think I caught the rare reversals of position.) I considered providing Forum links to the individual rulings and so on, but the exponential increase in time spent would have been far too great.
I believe everything in this document is right, and I don't think I've put in anything that I think is my own preference or unique interpretation, but there's stuff in there that there might be no "proof" of, like the Bombardier not being allowed to reroll the 4-6 roll to hit adjacent players, and Fan Factor going below Zero. The one bit of editorializing I did was regarding the awarding of MVPs to players who were not eligible to play in a match. I'll leave it in for my league, but maybe others would prefer it to be removed...
And, finally: Did I leave anything out that you think should be in here, or put in anything that you think is so obvious nobody has ever asked it? A lot of items are things I've been asked by newer players and are really basic. Are they too basic?
Proofreading notes and such are also appreciated. This is a first draft, and I haven't checked it over too much yet! (On the same note--please don't share it yet! There is still work to do on it, including fixing the page numbers.)