Measurements...

Beth,

Yes, you are right. It's about the time it takes.

As tournaments go, you MUST plan for the <insert demonic figure of choice>
showing up and doing absolutely *everything* you thought no one would but
isn't actually forbidden in the rules.

A simple example: Figure you have no time limit to finish a player's turn.
However, the actual event must have a time limit. Therefore, you probably have
a "if time runs out..." clause. A gamesman, seeing things currently in his
favor, might choose to stall the game for a
win-by-default, simply by not finishing his turn.

Likewise, a gamesman might choose to spend ridiculous time "measuring" things
just to unnerve his opponents. Or he really might be running that
computer simulation... Deep Thrust ;-)

Now, before the chorus cries out "don't play with a**holes like that", two
things:

 - I don't think most "problem players" are out to spoil the game on
purpose. But they *are* out to win. Some people follow the spirit of the
rules, others follow the letter. Only when the spirit and the letter are
one, can these two groups peacefully co-exist.

 - Rigid rules sometimes sound stupid, but they do make life easier for
everyone. The control freak gets to know exactly what he can do, and
the laid-back gamer can rest assured that off the wall stunts are
forbidden.

This is how competition sports works. Take chess. The actual game rules were
invented how many thousands of years ago? Every chess player knows these rules
by heart. Then why do tournaments have extra rules? Why do these rules need to
be amended every now and then?

Because they're not really rules about the game itself. They're rules about
your conduit while playing the game. It's these metarules that make it
possible for all sorts of people to enjoy the tournament.

To recap:
- In tournaments, you MUST have a rule for EVERYTHING
- If you decide to allow something, you MUST account for the
possibility that someone takes it to the UTMOST RIDICULOUS EXTREME

Brian, it looks like you've adopted my other choice, time limits. Which is
just fine.

Bonus points for those who noticed the crooked dice "hint". But crooked sheets
went unnoticed, no?

> Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:

It is interesting to note how some people feel pre-measuring is a
time-consumer. I can see where it could be, but in my experience
this has never really been an issue. In all the games I've ever
run or played in, pre-measuring has been allowed. People I have
played with apparently are reasonable in this. They either measure a group of
ships to another group of ships (and not each and every individual ship to
each and every individual opposing ship), or just do a few measurements to get
an idea of things (if Ship A and Ship C are within 20 mu of Target Ship Alpha,
and Ship B and Ship D are between Ships A and C, no need to measure Ships B
and D, right? everyone's within the second range band; only expection to this
would be if SHip B or D was using a weapon, such as a pulse torp, which would
change the hit%age depending on the range within the gross range bands of beam
weapons).

Another thing I've found so far with pre-measuring is that people
are aware it could potentially take a lot of time, so people DO do it quickly.
I think I've only had to ask the players to speed it up a little twice over
the years when I've ref'd a game and
the pre-measuring was taking a little longer than what I have come
to consider normal. And the people were happy to comply.

> As tournaments go, you MUST plan for the <insert demonic figure of

I try to plan for that at all times, not just in tournaments. I actually
sometimes look forward to that, because it can show you things you never
thought of before (good or bad, whichever it is).

> Bonus points for those who noticed the crooked dice "hint". But

Not unnoticed. Just hadn't responded or said anything yet.

Whenever I've run a scenario, I almost always provide ship sheets for the
players. It's not so much as to prevent the crooked ship sheet syndrome (which
I honest have never encountered, but it doesn't mean that someone somewhere
isn't doing it) but to make it easier for the players to jump in a game
without worrying about what ship sheets to have available.

Anyway, my two cents on the matter. For what it's worth.

Mk