#591042
So it's Period of Review time, as you can see from Charlie's recent posts. There's no formal PoR for the Rules Committee specifically. If a committee member does a bad job, I'm supposed to fire her. If I do a bad job, Charlie's supposed to fire me. The PoR is when you have the chance to fire Charlie.
Nevertheless, feedback is valuable, and a PoR discussion of How Rules Is Doing might help Charlie decide whether to fire me this year.
Is Rules doing a good job? What is it doing well? What could it do better? Should Charlie fire me?
In the past 12 months, the Rules Committee has done the following:
RULE CHANGES
* Made face-up cards (including the discard pile) public information, in response to public demand
* Cleaned up how multiple persona replacements work
* Removed a restriction on counting the number of cards remaining in your draw deck
* Removed the "Zaldan Rule" (which said to ignore the conditions of a dilemma and discard it if valid targets with specifically targeted characteristics weren't present), which restores the 1990s version of the rule
* Removed Borg restrictions on the use of hand weapons (if Borg can acquire any)
* Numerous clarifications, from clarifying who counts as the controller of a shared mission when (both players, always) to clarifying that the "Blade of Black Hole" trick does in fact work.
* Numerous instances where we fixed duplicative, often contradictory rulings in the Glossary and/or Rulebook.
CARD WORDINGS:
We were responsible for the wording of every card released, including:
* The Motion Pictures Remastered,
* Paradise Lost,
* and the forthcoming Project Solo.
SLOW(ER) PACE
Compared to 2021, 2022 was a fairly sedate year for Rules. In 2021, just in March and April, we hugely streamlined Nor rules, removed ANIMAL restrictions, offloaded Miracle Worker, changed region seeding rules, and changed stealability for ❖ missions. That's five big things all in two months. I don't think we've done a single thing as large as any one of those five in the 20 months since.
COMMUNICATION
This is less a function of the Rules Committee and more on me as Rules Manager.
* I published monthly rules updates which tried to explain all rule changes and clarifications, large and small -- along with occasional notes about how Rules thinks certain large issues.
* I created the Compendium, a single document that unites the Rulebook and Glossary in order to make ctrl-F rules searches easier.
* I introduced numbering into the Rulebook, in order to make it easier to reference specific rules (especially when jumping from the Glossary to the Rulebook).
* I put the Glossary fully into the CC database which (has turned out to be an ongoing technical headache, but it) has enabled the 1E rules tool to come online. If you ever visit a card page and see "Related Glossary Entries," that's because of the Rules Tool. (There's more I want to do with this, but, for now, this was a big hill to climb.)
* I've tried to maintain pretty open lines of communication with the player base, asking for your input on all kinds of things Rules was thinking about. Some of those questions led to changes (Misinterpreted History), and (perhaps more frequently) prevented changes we were thinking about (errata in the Glossary, alternate seeding). We had another round of What Rule Can Die In A Fire?, talked about inspecting Q's Tents, and recently had a productive discussion about dual-personnel cards.
* I think I only had to issue one bluetext ruling in 2022 (regarding who wins a battle), but hopefully that was a well-communicated bluetext?
* Hopefully you see me as someone who can answer a rules question for you, or at least refer you back to your tournament director because the answer isn't crystal clear. I've certainly answered plenty of PMs in addition to forum discussion, and welcome them. I am, of course, very grateful to all the very smart people who contribute answers in the Rules Questions forum, which takes a lot of problems off my shoulders.
OTHER STUFF?
I'm probably forgetting some stuff, because I'm under the weather today. And, of course, there's a whole universe of things we didn't do, including maybe some stuff you wish we had done and some stuff you're glad we didn't. (I personally feel I dropped the ball somewhat on clarifying errata this year.)
I'm also happy to talk about Rules' plans going forward under me, but I'll need to take specific questions about that, because find it difficult to enumerate stuff we're only thinking about doing. But if you want to know where we stand with, say, revision of the timing rules, ask away.
EDIT: I want to add that I thank the whole current Rules Committee for their hard work over the past year. The blame for our errors goes to me; the credit for our successes to them.
I also thank Jarrod Cafaro (Takket) for his continued work this year maintaining the Dilemma Resolution Guide.
Nevertheless, feedback is valuable, and a PoR discussion of How Rules Is Doing might help Charlie decide whether to fire me this year.
Is Rules doing a good job? What is it doing well? What could it do better? Should Charlie fire me?
In the past 12 months, the Rules Committee has done the following:
RULE CHANGES
* Made face-up cards (including the discard pile) public information, in response to public demand
* Cleaned up how multiple persona replacements work
* Removed a restriction on counting the number of cards remaining in your draw deck
* Removed the "Zaldan Rule" (which said to ignore the conditions of a dilemma and discard it if valid targets with specifically targeted characteristics weren't present), which restores the 1990s version of the rule
* Removed Borg restrictions on the use of hand weapons (if Borg can acquire any)
* Numerous clarifications, from clarifying who counts as the controller of a shared mission when (both players, always) to clarifying that the "Blade of Black Hole" trick does in fact work.
* Numerous instances where we fixed duplicative, often contradictory rulings in the Glossary and/or Rulebook.
CARD WORDINGS:
We were responsible for the wording of every card released, including:
* The Motion Pictures Remastered,
* Paradise Lost,
* and the forthcoming Project Solo.
SLOW(ER) PACE
Compared to 2021, 2022 was a fairly sedate year for Rules. In 2021, just in March and April, we hugely streamlined Nor rules, removed ANIMAL restrictions, offloaded Miracle Worker, changed region seeding rules, and changed stealability for ❖ missions. That's five big things all in two months. I don't think we've done a single thing as large as any one of those five in the 20 months since.
COMMUNICATION
This is less a function of the Rules Committee and more on me as Rules Manager.
* I published monthly rules updates which tried to explain all rule changes and clarifications, large and small -- along with occasional notes about how Rules thinks certain large issues.
* I created the Compendium, a single document that unites the Rulebook and Glossary in order to make ctrl-F rules searches easier.
* I introduced numbering into the Rulebook, in order to make it easier to reference specific rules (especially when jumping from the Glossary to the Rulebook).
* I put the Glossary fully into the CC database which (has turned out to be an ongoing technical headache, but it) has enabled the 1E rules tool to come online. If you ever visit a card page and see "Related Glossary Entries," that's because of the Rules Tool. (There's more I want to do with this, but, for now, this was a big hill to climb.)
* I've tried to maintain pretty open lines of communication with the player base, asking for your input on all kinds of things Rules was thinking about. Some of those questions led to changes (Misinterpreted History), and (perhaps more frequently) prevented changes we were thinking about (errata in the Glossary, alternate seeding). We had another round of What Rule Can Die In A Fire?, talked about inspecting Q's Tents, and recently had a productive discussion about dual-personnel cards.
* I think I only had to issue one bluetext ruling in 2022 (regarding who wins a battle), but hopefully that was a well-communicated bluetext?
* Hopefully you see me as someone who can answer a rules question for you, or at least refer you back to your tournament director because the answer isn't crystal clear. I've certainly answered plenty of PMs in addition to forum discussion, and welcome them. I am, of course, very grateful to all the very smart people who contribute answers in the Rules Questions forum, which takes a lot of problems off my shoulders.
OTHER STUFF?
I'm probably forgetting some stuff, because I'm under the weather today. And, of course, there's a whole universe of things we didn't do, including maybe some stuff you wish we had done and some stuff you're glad we didn't. (I personally feel I dropped the ball somewhat on clarifying errata this year.)
I'm also happy to talk about Rules' plans going forward under me, but I'll need to take specific questions about that, because find it difficult to enumerate stuff we're only thinking about doing. But if you want to know where we stand with, say, revision of the timing rules, ask away.
EDIT: I want to add that I thank the whole current Rules Committee for their hard work over the past year. The blame for our errors goes to me; the credit for our successes to them.
I also thank Jarrod Cafaro (Takket) for his continued work this year maintaining the Dilemma Resolution Guide.
Rules Manager | Official Rulings in blue. All else opinion. | Rules Archive
"We pledge our loyalty to the Glossary from now until death."
"Then receive this reward from the Glossary. May it keep you strong."
~Iron Prime
"We pledge our loyalty to the Glossary from now until death."
"Then receive this reward from the Glossary. May it keep you strong."
~Iron Prime