by Shirtripper
CapNClassic wrote:
1)Huh? It is game breaking to eliminate the chance if error. "Mommy, Billy is cheating again. He is counting on his fingers again while touching the board. He has an advantage too, because of his six fingers on his left hand." So, one player cannot mark the board with pennies/pebbles because he will have less chances of making mistakes than those that don't do that? (why don't the other players do the same?)
Sorry didn't intend to make anyone "touchy". If you need to use your fingers to count or what have, then my bad; not trying to discriminate against those that need extra help. Now when I was using the term place holders I meant using the actual "troop" pieces that come with the game. If someone really needs the special add of putting pennies/pebbles on the board then that might be less problematic. That said, it is game breaking to eliminate a chance of error if you are doing it against the way the game is intended to be played. You have to plan carefully in Risk, that is one of the most important aspects of the game, but if you are going to dumb it down and play by your own rules what's the point?
CapNClassic wrote:
2) why would he forget to lose a troop more frequently? Aren't the other players watching? Wouldn't they see his intentions about where he was moving, and correctly make him lose his troop? Seems like they would actually have the advantage then, because if he forgets after preemptively placing his troops/pebbles, they can remind him when he rolls his first attack roll that he forgot to lose a troop have at loserville. Since this makes him prone to making more mistakes, under your logic it would be unfair to allow everyone else to not play this way since it gives them an advantage versus him.
Ok this is just silly. I don't know if the gamers you play with our rule Nazis or robots who don't mistakes themselves but a lot of times not everyone is watching the current active player like a hawk and even if they are, they are not as accurate as a hawk. Sometimes people go to the bath room, get a drink, answer a text or what have you. Plus even if they are watching, they too could forget if he already had a key territory or if that is just a placeholder troop/not pennies on the board. And again, if the player were playing the game as it was intend this wouldn't be an issue.
CapNClassic wrote:
3) I am pretty sure that Rob couldnt care one way or another if people counted on their fingers, placed troops/pebbles on the board, etc. This had no bearing on the games design in any way.
Well I am not going to speak for anyone else or try to put words in their mouth, but I am of the mindset that if the group is ok with it, and that is the way they want to play the game, then that is how they should play the game. But the question was, if "I" would allow it, and as I stated earlier my reasons, I would be against it. If you need to count on your fingers, that is fine, you need to put place holders that aren't troops to make things less confusing, go for it! But know you are dumbing down the rules and getting an advantage if others are playing the correct way.
CapNClassic wrote:
Do players have an advantage that continually make mistakes in their favor? (I.e. Players who forget to lose troops to city resistance, players who forget to add in modifiers to die rolls or apply them to the wrong dice.) What if these players were spending an inordinate amount of brain energy memorizing exactly which cards previous players had collected from the resource deck, or performing 'Monte Carlo' calculations to determine their chances of winning a particular battle. Are they playing they way the designer intended? (the resource cards after being collected are hidden) Do they have an advantage over the other players because their memory is better?
If the mistake is in their favor, then yes they have an advantage. And as with most things, yes a player with a better memory has an advantage over others. Are we suppose to change how the game is played just because you can't count cards/coins or territories, and I mean with your fingers? All six of them;)
CapNClassic wrote:
Donald Vaccarino (Dominion) said that he didn't intend for players to write down and track the VP counts of the players. But, they players that focus on the +/- VP counts probably have an advantage over those who don't focus on that. What disadvantage does that put us rules lawyers in, when we have to devote so much mental energy ensuring that people are properly playing their cards right?
I know designers are only human, but if he didn't intend for it, then it should have been in the rule book. Mistakes happen, and if I am playing that game and others are allowed to write it down, then I will write it down too, if I care to win.
Anywho, I wasn't trying to hurt someone's delicate sensibilities. If a person needs to count with their fingers or visual aid so they don't forget where you need to go in a board game, then I am sorry I made them feel inadequate for wanting to avoid what I feel would be unnecessary complications to the game.