I expect it is a common issue for gaming groups, but with our Legion games, we have become rather competitive. Adding this to the large group that we have, and more than a few passionate players, can lead to a rather heated session. Since we publish our games, it adds in the complexity of having additional participants, all of which want to help or mitigate, and adds extra finicky process to the game sequence. After this last session however, we ended up developing a number of basic guidelines for our crew, to hopefully keep the games fair, minimize interference, and standardize the process.
- There is only one judge (not two like we had). The players choose and accept one neutral person to be the judge, and their interpretation of the rules stand, for good or bad. However, the players are responsible to manage the game directly, discuss options, point out errors, etc. The judge only gets involved if there is a disagreement over what a rule says, or in the cases of a judgement call for the board (ie, cover and/or range). Wherever possible, the players only should decide, with the written rules overruling anything that might seem illogical, unreasonable, or non-intuitive. in other words, although visibly you can see thru the legs of the AT-ST, per the rules, it blocks line of sight.
- Any judges, observers, or camera persons involved in the production may not provide guidance, hints, or tactics advice. They may point out where tokens, markers, or mechanics are missed (forgetting Independent, putting the wrong tokens on the board, etc) to correct game errors, but not to provide advantage to either player (perceived or otherwise). We got rather loose with that last night, and it added a lot of pain.
- All actions are final and irreversable. You can debate rules, interpretations, etc before you act or move, or change the order of actions. But once you have placed models they are done. this means no moving up, realizing you are out of range, back tracking and re-doing the actions. And if you move and attack, and then realize you could have dodged or aimed or something else (but forgot), then it is simply a player error. We ran into this a few times last night, some of which could be corrected and some could not – this makes it even for everyone.
- Once the action is filmed, it is final (since we are filming). debate however you want, but once you are ready, and the camera is rolling, your actions are being committed. you can pause mid film if you change your mind, etc. But if (for example), you start, move models, declare actions, declare and attack, and end camera – if you then discover you are out of range or in a bad position or unable to do the fancy maneuver desired, you take the mistake and move on.
I welcome any feedback on these guidelines, if you have any experience with similar situations. You are welcome to post a comment here, or join us on Discord to discuss.
