First, thank you to @DavidofBorg for pointing out this apparent error in the Rulebook / Glossary. Sometimes it takes the fresh eyes of a newer player to notice what the rules documents
actually say (as opposed to what everyone
assumes they say).
Second, I can assert with complete certainty that nobody (least of all @pfti)
intended to make it so you can legally complete a mission with no matching personnel, and nobody has understood it that way for the past couple of years -- although that
appears to be something we did at some point. We did this correctly in 2019 September, so whatever error crept in appears to have crept in later on. (I'm still half-convinced I'm missing something.)
Third, it would be a very bad idea to abruptly change everyone's understanding of the rule in the middle of a month because of what appears to be an error. (I'll detail more of the history below, but hold on, I'm warming up to a bluetext.) So let's crystallize everyone's understanding right now:
To begin a mission attempt, or to solve the mission, at least one crew or Away Team member must match one of the mission’s affiliation icons (if any)
That's just the text we released in September 2019, but oh snap this time it's blue!
This ruling is official. It is binding in all sanctioned events, and it supersedes any and all contrary rulings by tournament directors, effective immediately. (Games already played are unaffected.)
This ruling is temporary. It is not fully fleshed-out, does not use final wording, and may be completely reversed in a regular First Monday rules update. If not resolved by the next First Monday (May 8th 2022), it will be published in the Glossary's Temporary Rulings section as part of its monthly update.
HISTORY:
In 1994, the rule was that you needed a matching personnel to begin an attempt. That's it.
In August 2000, Decipher changed the rule: you need a matching personnel to begin an attempt,
and the attempt ends immediately if you lose all matching personnel.
A few months later, Decipher changed / clarified the rule further, with a neat wrinkle: you must resolve the current dilemma after a loss-of-matching-personnel. As the number of multi-effect dilemmas expanded over the years, this rule started to bear a heavier (and heavier) load, and caused more difficulties for players.
In February 2018, we added a special rule that "attempt restrictions external to the mission" (such as
Homefront and
Quantum Torpedo) are checked only at the start of the attempt. This was a way for us to deal with the
Disgraceful Assault + Quantum Torpedo combo. It was a very ugly solution, because it meant there was one timing rule for cards like Homefront, and another timing rule for losing matching affiliation. Rules wanted to have one consistent rule for checking mission attempt conditions, but it took a while to find a consensus.
In September 2019, we settled on that consistent rule: you check conditions for attempting at the
start and at
solve. That's the last time we touched this rule. (I remember this distinctly, because the other proposal on the table was to change the rule back to the original Decipher rule, where conditions are checked only at start of attempt.)
What I think happened: in September 2019, we updated the Glossary but forgot to update the Rulebook. That's
probably my fault? Rulebook updates at the time were pretty much unilaterally left to me and not handled through the CRD process at all.
Later on, probably in late 2020, we deleted the Glossary entry because it was redundant with the Rulebook section... but apparently not
quite redundant! That moment, when the Glossary entry disappeared, is most likely when this rule "changed." But it didn't
really change. We just, uh, misplaced it.
This is, of course, awfully embarrassing to me as a Rules person. Bad enough that there are errors in the Rulebook. Even worse that there are errors in the Rulebook that misstate the rules in a way that completely and understandably misleads one of the newer players in the community. But I think this temp ruling is the best way to deal with it in the short term, and we'll see what the rest of Rules thinks by June!
Rules Manager | Official Rulings in
blue. All else opinion. |
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