As tiresome as that thread has been, it has helped me to clarify my own views on this topic. There are many, many practices that can affect the outcome of the game, but which are not covered in most rulebooks. They seem to fall into four categories: 1. Things we all agree are cheating (stealing from the bank, deliberately over-bidding, stacking the cards). 2. Things most of us agree are socially unacceptable (distracting or antagonizing other players, excessive AP). 3. Variants, which are amendments to the rules that we all agree to play by (fines on Free Parking, one-eyed Jacks are wild). 4. The vast, grey area encompassing just about everything else (open money or closed, seating order, first player, calculators, record sheets, chips or paper money, time limits, and--I would argue--table talk).
If we add a rule saying "players may trade and make deals, but must honor the terms of the deals they make", then we're playing a variant. If we just allow people to say things like "Bob's going to win if we don't do something about it!"--or if we agree to play in total silence--then we're exercising our freedom to decide for ourselves how matters in category 4 should be resolved. You may consider a game that is not played by your usual customs "unofficial" in some way, but we should all be respectful and open to the ideas of others in these matters. That's my $.02, anyway; don't spend it all in one place. On Jan 3, 6:27 pm, Cole <[email protected]> wrote: > Must have really entertained you to carry the conversation into a > another thread. Because I've got a little bit of time, how could you > argue against JC's fifth point: "Any behavior not expressly permitted > in the rules of a game should > be considered expressly forbidden by those rules." There's nothing > amusing about that, pretty much the whole hobby of gaming rests on > it. Or are you one of those players who is okay with cheating as long > as the player isn't caught ;). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BGG Down" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bgg_down?hl=en.
