I’m not a TO, but damn, I’d absolutely love to see something like “This tournament adheres to the Stimhack Judging Guidelines” or something for a tournament. It means that if you read it once, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of every TO’s preference in each tournament you go to.
Standardisation would be fantastic, and a great addition to the competitive scene. This is a fantastic movement and it’s hard not to back it. Thanks for the effort of everybody who’s helping to make this a thing.
I’m talking about things higher level than policing the general rules of the game, though.
Per your example, there is a level of cheating that is virtually unpoliceable, and we are extremely fortunate that rooting out poor sportsmanship seems to be an outside concern in the greater Netrunner community (though I understand it might be part of the impetus for this push). For example, what if they installed an illegal card to threaten ICE, then installed over it later? Amidst other face-down cards, you’re placing an extremely unfair burden on the other player to notice your illegal play.
But the integrity of the tournament doesn’t just affect the immediate players; and I personally would be really miffed if I forgave a misplay, that player won (however deserved that win should be), and that opponent later stiffed their opponent for a similar misplay. A set of guidelines for what is, fundamentally, salvageable damage, and to keep that uniform throughout the tournament, is important. Letting the players solve everything is not ubiquitously the best solution.
Hordes and warmachine have a pretty good judge document for the game. It gives the TO a guide to use when making calls. It’s not a card game, but I think a lot of it applies.
Stuart Wilson (one of the guys working in OP at FFG) just posted on facebook:
Honestly, I think this effort is still worth our time. How long have we been receiving promises of a judge program? (I say that not in ill-will. I know all the guys at OP personally, and they are all great and I know they’re working hard on this and everything else, but I also know they are severly limited on both man-power and by red tape. A community effort will still go a long way.)
I’ve started TOing GNKs here in Madison, WI at my FLGS. Not sure if that exactly qualifies me for this project, but either way, I’d love to see something like this happen.
I’ve TO’d all but two Netrunner events for Baton Rouge, LA (my buddy did the other two so I could play). This included our Store Championship from this year and too many GNKs to count. I’ve also been a semi-active Magic judge for two years (Level 1 certified, less active because Netrunner is a much better game).
I’m in a similar boat as @Ber; “official” TO of our GNK’s for about 18 months now, but our Store Champ was TO’d by a store employee. I’m known as the “Netrunner guy” and “Mr Rulebook” around the store though
Not sure what I could contribute that’s not already goign to get picked up but available if you want me.
I feel like it’s kind of fucked up that we can’t have a discussion WITH them about the rules, (instead of doing work, talking at them, and likely getting a lot of, if not all of, what we have done thrown out). Obviously they have deadlines and that sort of thing, but I think our effort is possibly going to be better served if they would have a discussion with the players BEFORE they come out with the document. If not, they should at the very least come out with it quickly and be swift in addressing any concerns we might have.
If we were to make a document, do you think FFG would adopt any pieces of our rules rather than just stick with whatever they came up with? Also, do you think that there would even be a reasonable period of time where our rules COULD be used? If what they come out with just overrides what we come up with, it would kind of feel shitty.
Maybe we should just sit back and wait on this one, or just send a general outline of our concerns and ideas to the OP email and have a ton of players sign it.
Last idea might be best. They play test card games; Floor rules aren’t the same thing, but I’m sure they appreciate any and all community input even if they don’t openly acknowledge it. And for all we know, they have players involved in the drafting of such a document already (and probably bound to secrecy via NDA if such a thing existed). They’ll ultimately do whatever best serves their interests as a company… but, still.
ANRPC is not necessarily subject to FFG’s rules, so it may not be lost work if you guys proceed.
The concerns, suggestions and player signatures are not a bad idea by any means.
So many people have come forward in this thread (thanks everyone!) that I think the work can be distributed enough to be of minimal burden on each person. Being in the middle of regionals season and not having any idea when FFG will come out with an official version sucks; so if we can even get a rough draft released so the next few regionals can have something at all, then it’s gonna be worth it. We don’t have to spend a bunch of time refining and revising if it looks like FFG will come through soon, but especially when we can say “…or any similar penalty at the TO’s discretion” to patch up rough spots, something is better than nothing.
If people think it would be helpful, I can give Ian Birdsall a call and see if I can convince him of a community approach to this or some variation thereof.
Educated guess; FAQ’s & Tournament Rule updates tend to come out right before major events: SC’s; Regionals, National’s; World’s. I’d expect updates at one of those times were it ever to happen along with updates to those documents. But nebulous secret timelines being what they are… got me on whether its a next month or next year thing.
At this point, we’ve probably passed the window for regionals. Which means next chance is sometime this summer.
TO for many game nights and SC’s, in multiple FFG Organized Play systems.
Anyone else involved in X-Wing / Conquest / etc will agree; the same issues crop up in all of them. ANR’s community is the first I’ve seen to attempt a normalization of acceptable play practices. I would LOVE to be involved, and spread any successes to other FFG games.
I run monthly events at my local game store in Canberra, Australia. Have had many complicated ruling questions pop up in my time. I’d very much like to contribute!
