How to eliminate advantages gained from the seating position of inferior players? In many games, such as Liar's Dice or On The Underground, there is an advantage to be had by sitting immediately after (in the turn order) the player who is least experienced or just plain bad at the game. Are there any widely applicable ideas for resolving this problem? Or, is there some house rule or variant that improves this aspect of a particular game?

I think you can't have a serious, cutthroat game with a wide range of skills, so relax. Gently coach the new players, but no more than they're willing to receive. Play a couple of dummy rounds for the new players and then restart if needed.

If you're really serious, you can investigate ways to handicap the game, but that's really hard to do without ruining the balance of most games.

This question makes me wonder:

How many games where turn order is the same from round to round would be "ruined" if you selected turn order randomly every round, with the caveat that no player could go twice in a row?

In other words, what if you re-organized turn order at the end of every round?

Note that I don't think this is a very practical solution, since the act of re-ordering turns at the end of each round would add at least another two minutes per round, but it's conceptually interesting.


Does having 2 Flickerwisps and an Impact Tremors win me the game? I'm just thinking that if I had a Flickerwisp and an Impact Tremors in play, and I cast another Flickerwisp, would I be able to have the Flickerwisps "flick" each other until my opponents are at 0 life and win me the game? I'm thinking I might be on to something here.

I'm not sure how the "end of turn" ruling affects this, but if it's an issue I guess I can use a Fiend Hunter for this combo, right?

No, the first Flickerwisp will come back at the beginning of your end of turn step. The creature it exiles wouldn't come back until the beginning of the next end of turn since after they wont trigger at the begging of the end step.

Ruling on the card:

  If the permanent that returns to the battlefield has any abilities that trigger at the beginning of the end step, those abilities won't trigger that turn.

It is worth noting that the ruling on the card is just a clarification of the usual "beginning of phase" effects.  Since all beginning of phase effects are put on the stack first, and then are resolved in LIFO order any new "beginning of phase" effects that are put into play don't fire.  The "beginning of the phase" has already ended.

Fiend Hunter will work for this combo, but you would need three of them. We'll call them A, B, and C. The pattern would follow:

A enters
B enters, capturing A
C enters, capturing B, which releases A
Repeat

Having a Heartless Summoning and impact tremors in play will initiate an infinite damage combo with myr retriever. You will of course need 2x myr retrievers so that when the second one dies returning the first one to hand, continue to play your free myr retrievers due to heartless summoning triggering the key card Impact Tremors.

Its not flickerwisp combo rather Heartless/Impact. Others have already explained the flicker combo above which needs more creatures to get going, also another card to add to flicker combo is cloudshift and this new erie return?? Something like that, from the Blessed v Cursed duel decks


What's the best way to explain 7 Wonders to a new player? I've been playing 7 Wonders for about 3 months now, and my friends & I love it.  However, because of the complexity of the game and the large number of mechanics in it, I find it really hard to explain to someone new to the game.  (I've seen this difficulty in others explaining it too.)  I don't usually know where to start, and because of the amount of material to cover, the learner only gets more and more confused as I try to teach them.

Some of the people I play with believe that the best way to learn it is to just play it and see it in action.  I'm not sure if I completely agree with this.  Surely there must be a good way to explain the game simply and concisely (without merely saying, "Here's the rules; when you're done reading, we'll play") so that a newbie doesn't glaze over, but also isn't left completely ignorant.

I find that using the rulebook is often not the best way to teach 7 Wonders. There's a lot of text there. While a "here are your cards, let's go approach," can work well, most new players appreciate some form of idea.  I'll post the bullet points to my 7 Wonders Crash Course (given fairly regularly at game nights near me). Apologies for the impending wall of text.

This is 7 Wonders, in which you will receive a Wonder from an ancient Mediterranean civilization, which you must turn into a shining beacon of greatness.
To do this, you'll need Victory Points, which look like this (Point to a VP symbol).  Building your Wonder will get you some Victory Points, and a cool ability (explain their wonder ability).
You can get Victory points by playing cards.  Cards have a cost (Point to the cost of a card) and an effect (point to an effect).  Not all cards have a cost, but most of them do.
There are seven different types of cards, which do seven different types of things.
First off, we have brown cards, which provide you with a basic resource: Wood, Stone, Clay, and Ore. (Have an example card on-hand for each)
Next, we have gray cards, which provide you with manufactured resources: Glass, Textile, and Papyrus. (again, have example cards)
Brown cards and Gray cards provide you with resources, which let you build other buildings.
Next up, we have Blue cards.  Blue cards give you Victory Points, the currency of winners! As you progress through the game, you'll gain access to buildings that provide more Victory Points. (Show some blue cards, preferably from all three ages)
Yellow cards are Commerce Buildings.  They mostly deal with gaining money, which you can use to buy some cards, and to get a discount on buying resources from the players sitting next to you.  (Show them Trading Posts, explain East vs West & purchasing, and also show them a Tavern).
Red cards are Military Buildings.  Military buildings increase your Civilizations strength.  At the end of each Age (indicate Card backs), you'll compare your military score against your neighbors' military scores.  If yours is higher, you get Victory Points! If yours is lower, you lose 1 Victory Point. (Show the tokens, along with a red card).
Finally, we have Green cards.  Green cards are Scientific Buildings.  They allow your Civilization to unlock new and exciting technologies, which are really just Victory Points.  Science is complicated, but very rewarding, just like real life.  There are three symbols on Green cards, Cogs, Compasses, and Tablets. (Again, get some examples)  The more of any symbol you have, the better.  At the end of the game, you receive Victory Points equal to the square of the number of cards you have for each symbol.  So if you have one tablet, and two compasses, you'd get one point for the tablet, and four points for the compasses.  If you got five cogs, you'd get 25 points!  But that's not it!  For every set of three different symbols, you get an extra seven points!
We also have purple cards.  They don't come into the game until Age Three, so we can wait until then to worry about them.  The important thing is that they get you points for what people next to you have.

That was a lot, huh.  Don't worry.  It all clicks pretty quickly.  One last thing, and we'll get started.  You'll start with a hand of cards.  Each turn, everyone will pick a card to build, and place it face-down in front of them.  Once everyone has selected a card, we all turn them face up, pay any necessary costs, and put them by our wonder. If you don't want to build one, you can also discard it for three gold, or use it to build part of your Wonder.  Then, we pass our cards to the person next to us.  The hands keep rotating around until there's only two cards left, so you never know exactly what cards you'll be picking from on your next hand.  There's a handy chart for what all the symbols on the cards mean in the rules, so you can check it any time you want to, or ask the person that just gave you your cards, if you'd rather not.

Me and my friends also like playing 7 wonders and introducing someone new to the game can be challenging so we made ourselves an online version of the game to play. No setup required, you can go quick trough the game and play many more games so the new players get the hang of it.


What cards have good potential for a combo with Mayor of Avabruck // Howlpack Alpha? In the Innistrad set, at least 1 of the double faced cards is a werewolf with the ability to upgrade other werewolves and wolves in play.  What other wolves have good potential to combine with the Mayor of Avabruck//Howlpack Alpha card?

I'm thinking primarily of Commander games, but if you think something fits a different format, please note that.

Why settle for two or three wolves when you can have seven or more of them instead?

These cards if played in order shown will get you twice many wolves as you have land on top of the wolves from your howlpack alpha and however many wolves you have played after door of destinys comes into play they get pumped. I had 80 80/80 wolves after i used one howl of the night pack and one reverberate.


How does "reveal a card, play it, then return it" work with locations? During a game of DC Comics Deckbuilding Game: Rivals, we had a strange situation (which could also happen in the base game).

The Joker's second form says the following:

  Once during each of your turns, if you play a Villain and a Super Power, reveal the top card of the main deck. Play it, then return it.

The player activated this ability and drew a location, which says the following:

  When you play this card, leave it in front of you for the rest of the game.

Which instruction wins? We have one effect that says we have to return the card and another that says we have to leave it in front of you for the rest of the game.

The joker's ability card would take priority. You would play the location card. Take any effect the location card gives you then return it at the end of your turn. For example Wayne Manor

  When you play your first HERO on each of your turns draw a card.

So on your turn if you play a villain, you draw wayne manor and then you play a hero you get a card draw and then you put wayne manor back at the top of the deck when you're done with your turn.


Quickened Seize the Day On my opponent's turn, during main phase 2, I Quicken a Seize the Day. My opponent gets an additional combat phase, correct? One of my friends is convinced that the caster of the Seize the Day "controls" the extra combat, and so can attack on an opponents turn, but I'm pretty sure this is not the case. Clarification?

One of the rulings on Seize the Day addresses this situation:

  If you somehow cast Seize the Day during an opponent’s main phase, that opponent attacks during the resulting combat phase, since it’s still that player’s turn. If you somehow cast it not during a main phase at all, all that happens is you untap the target creature.

That should work, as it was given flash by quicken and does not state that you get an extra combat phase. It simply states there is another combat phase.


Odin's Smite card and Thor's Primacy card and Heimdall's Watch player A and B are in battle

1- player A plays Odin's Smite  card(Destroy one warrior from each opponent in this province before comparing STR) and player B plays Heimdall's Watch  card(Discard all revealed cards. Gain glory equal to the total +STR revealed. Then Play new cards)
Now what happen ?
Which card will be used ?

2- player A plays Thor's Primacy card (Cancel the text of each opponent's reveled card before it takes effect) and player B plays Heimdall's Watch  card (Discard all revealed cards. Gain glory equal to the total +STR revealed. Then Play new cards)
Now wha happen ?
which card will be used ?

3- player A plays Thor's Primacy  card (Cancel the text of each opponent's reveled card before it takes effect) and player B plays Odin's Smite card (Destroy one warrior from each opponent in this province before comparing STR)
what happen now ?
which card will be used ?

The wording on Thor's Primacy makes it clear that it happens first, because it cancels the other cards' text before their text takes effect.

Heimdall's Watch clearly has to happen before any "normal" cards, otherwise it would be pointless. "normal" here meaning any card which doesn't specifically affect other cards.

I can see that it's not crystal clear which would take priority out of the two of these cards, but the use of the word "Primacy" meaning first or most important, and the fact that it specifically says "before" other cards, means that it takes precedence.

So it would make sense if the order of priority was:

Thor's Primacy
Heimdall's Watch
Any other card

This is backed up by this link and this link from boardgamegeek, where Thiago Aranha, apparently one of the game's producers, gives them the same priority.

The cards are to be resolved starting from the pillager and moving clockwise in the following order.
CDE where
C - cancel cards
D - discard cards
E - every other normal cards


Would spells played with Enchanted Evening in play trigger Mesa Enchantress? With Enchanted Evening, all permanents are also enchantments.  Mesa Enchantress allows you to draw when you play an enchantment.  If I have both out, and play a creature, do I get to draw a card?

No, because Enchanted Evening does not change the card type of spells on the stack.

The Enchantress' Oracle wording makes this clearer:

  Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you may draw a card.

"Casting" refers to the action of putting a spell on the stack.

Enchanted Evening only affects permanents. It will do so from the very moment they enter the battlefield, so they enter the battlefield as enchantments. But the spell that creates the permanent (which is the game object that's represented by the card on the stack) isn't an enchantment spell.

Yes it does, this ruling hasn't changed, and probably wont since its very rare to use.

"Captain Sisay" Searches your library for legendary card.

A card retains all text relevant to the card anywhere except rfg. Note the card says 'All permanents are enchantments.' Not 'All permanents you control...' This ruling is used a lot pre-eight. And will more than likely not change since most formats that allow pre-eight cards are considered casual.

Hope this has helped.


Starting a Skaven army: Pros and Cons? After playing much Warhammer 40K and building some Space Marine and Orks, I've been looking into starting a Warhammer Fantasy army, more specifically Skaven, because of the cool-looking models and the challenge towards my painting skills to make them look beautiful.
Although I've looked into types of armies and lore, from a strictly-gameplay point of view, I know nothing.
What types of Skaven armies work or not, and which races are they good or weak against?

This is not from me, but I approve it :)
Skaven pros -

They have access to vast arrays of troops/troop types, and can get them in vast quantities.
The leadership rules they come with over-ride what would be a fatal
weakness and combined with the new re-roll of all leadership tests
allowed by the BSB and the general's leadership in a 24" diameter
bubble they have the same Ld as dwarfs, ie impregnable.
They have excellent magic capacity and at least one game ending
spell, which is now far easier to cast now in 8th irresistibly.
The new initiative strikes first regardless of charge now makes even
their weaker troops likely to inflict a credible ammount of damage on
all but the most heavily armoured foes.
The Storm Banner can, for a tiny cost eradicate their greatest
weakness - being squelched by template weapons and shot to death -
yes it affects their own troops to, but this is generally less
detrimental to them than it is against other armies such as DE, HE,
WE, Dwarfs, Empire, OK of which (generally) most of their opponents
will come from.

Cons -

Such a large quantity of troops on the table means the potential for
being bottlenecked against terrain, the newer terrain rules have
nearly removed this as a problem for skaven now.
The ability to be lose all their Ld bonuses by being flanked was a
great problem, but in 8th the most common flanking units, fast
cavalry have been hit by needing full ranks to break ranks. To give
the fast cav enough ranks to both survive getting to the flanks and
then (as ranks are counted after combat now) last long enough to be
able to break the ranks is an option. This falls under analysis though
as with 2.5k or 3k skaven can build a battle line that stretches from
table edge to table edge and presents no flanks to the enemy.
Overall I believe skaven have really been boosted a vast amount in
8th, but regardless of numbers they will die in droves in HtH against
any and all opponents, it's just a case of will they fail their
stubborn ld 10 re-rollable break tests over the course of the game?

Many forums indicate that Skaven are generally thought to be quite strong in the newest edition of Warhammer Fantasy due to their focus on large blocks of infantry that are difficult to break. They are strong in every phase of the game, and have some very powerful rare units.

Regarding the competitiveness of different types of armies, the extremely irreverent website http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven should provide some useful information to get you started.


How many spins does it take to complete a game of Hi Ho! Cherry-O? I recently picked up this game for my 2-year-old daughter, who is learning how to count. I find this game fairly infuriating to play by the actual rules. It contains a spinner with the 7 following outcomes:

Gain 1 Cherry
Gain 2 Cherries
Gain 3 Cherries
Gain 4 Cherries
Lose 2 Cherries (x2)
Lose all Cherries

Play is to 10 Cherries.

Question: On average, how many spins will it take to finish the game?

(Edit: I had another question about "expected # of Cherries gained from a spin," but it turns out to be rather difficult to define due to that pesky "lose all your Cherries" option.)

Looking at the work that's been done so far, it seemed to me that this is basically just a Markov chain, and in looking for ways to calculate Markov chains, I found that someone has been there and done that.

The data from his work matches the simulations here, which should be no surprise given that the rules are very easy to code:

Minimum game length: 3
Expected game length: 15.8
Maximum game length: Unbounded
50th percentile (median): 12
95th percentile: 40
25th percentile: 7
75th percentile: 21

He also posts the Matlab code that he used to calculate the chain ... it's actually pretty simple, comparatively speaking.

The Markov chain transition matrix shown below lists the probabilities of transitioning from one state (i.e. number of cherries pre-spin) to another (number of cherries post-spin).

          # of cherries after spin
       0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10
     --------------------------------------------
  0 | 3/7 1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7  0   0   0   0   0   0
  1 | 3/7  0  1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7  0   0   0   0   0
# 2 | 3/7  0   0  1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7  0   0   0   0
  3 | 1/7 2/7  0   0  1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7  0   0   0
b 4 | 1/7  0  2/7  0   0  1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7  0   0
e 5 | 1/7  0   0  2/7  0   0  1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7  0
f 6 | 1/7  0   0   0  2/7  0   0  1/7 1/7 1/7 1/7
o 7 | 1/7  0   0   0   0  2/7  0   0  1/7 1/7 2/7
r 8 | 1/7  0   0   0   0   0  2/7  0   0  1/7 3/7
e 9 | 1/7  0   0   0   0   0   0  2/7  0   0  3/7
 10 |  0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0


How easy is it to start Magic from scratch? I'm currently trying to get into a card game and am now wondering how easy it might be to get into Magic with no experience whatsoever. I heard about a Magic online game/something you can download, so I guess I could start there so I don't have to spend a whole lot of money on cards. But I feel like Magic is way more complex, thus more difficult to learn, than other card games.

Some extra information, I've always been learning quickly in school and stuff, I'm in my early 20s and have played Yu-Gi-Oh for some years, if this might help in any way.

Magic the Gathering is actually one of the easiest TCG to get in.

It has entry products aimed at beginners or people trying to get in mainly :

Construction Kits
Give a lot of lands (you need them for basically anything) and
quite a lot of cards of each color and some of each dual color. The
power level isn't especially high, but it also contain boosters. All
in all, a very fine way to start a collection. There's a leaflet in
the kit with advice on "How to build a balanced deck ?" which will help you to
tinker with the deck on your own.
Planeswalker decks
Give you access to every card
types (or so) there is in magic, you've got some unique cards and
staple commons/uncommons. The decks' plans are usually quite
straightforward and made with playability in mind, they aren't
competitive, but they surely can be played as in.

N.B. Premade decks in previous times were either stupidly powerful or
contained especially potent cards (e.g. Rats deck of Kamigawa, Elf deck
of Lorwyn etc) or gimmicky at best (all the other Kamigawa decks
etc). The cards in it weren't especially useful outside of the deck's
theme, so it was kinda hard to learn Magic with them. Nowadays you've
got planeswalker decks.
Challenger decks
Tournement ready decks. These products usually are quite competitive and allow one to see the meta and explain how the deck works, usually they are quite    instructive.
Game Night
Contain 5 decks made on a theme based on the color (graveyard is actually
useful + zombies for black etc). These decks aren't
especially powerful but are made for beginners to "feel" what each
color is about, as well as get a taste for multiplayer. I found it quite instructive.

The main difference between Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh is the resource management, you can play as many monsters as you want every turn, but you need to pay the cost. Which depends on the land cards. All in all, the Magic rules are quite simple,
 but card interaction isn't. You'll understand quite all of it very quickly by playing.

MTGArena (the latest video game version of Magic) is also a very good way to learn the rules, and get a feel for how phases work and how the game plays out. The theme decks that are given in the beginning are not very strong though, and some of them are barely playable as is. MTG Arena is a Free-to-play version of Magic so it is the easiest version to try things out in.

Magic the Gathering is, functionally, a pay-to-win game at most levels, and is a pay-to-compete game at high levels of play. If you just want to play casual games with your friends, buying a premade deck is fine.

If you want to stand a decent chance of winning a relatively casual tournament at your game store, you can probably expect to pay about $300 for a Standard deck that will likely have pieces rotate out in a year, or about $600 for a Modern deck that will remain usable indefinitely as long as it doesn't get core pieces banned. Some decks will cost more or less money, but these should give you a ballpark estimate on how much you'd need to spend to compete.


When I cast an encoded cipher spell, can I encode the copy on another creature? When my creature successfully attacks with an encoded cipher card attached, does the copy also have cipher? Wouldn't I be able to encode the copy of the original spell onto a new creature, having 2 creatures encoded, 1 from the original cipher and 1 from the encoded copy?

The first rule for Cipher says

  Cipher appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents two abilities. The first is a spell ability that functions while the spell with cipher is on the stack. The second is a static ability that functions while the card with cipher is in the exile zone. "Cipher" means "If this spell is represented by a card, you may exile this card encoded on a creature you control" and "For as long as this card is encoded on that creature, that creature has 'Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may copy the encoded card and you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.'"

When you first cast the spell with Cipher from your hand, it is a card, so you can encode it on a creature. When that creature deals combat damage to a player, you can cast a copy of the encoded spell. That copy is not represented by a card, so you can not encode it on a creature.

UNDERCITY PLAGUE

Sorcery

Taget player loses 1 life, discards a card, then sacrafices a permanent.

Cipher  (Then you may exile this spell CARD encoded on a creature you control.  Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a COPY of the encoded CARD without paying its mana cost.)

This wording infers that the controller is copying a CARD not a SPELL so.....
YES, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ENCODE IT TO AS MANY CREATURES AS YOU WANT BECAUSE YOU'RE COPYING A CARD NOT A SPELL


Definitions of verbalisations in card games, specifically UNO and DOS In the card game DOS, the sequel to UNO, there is a rule stating:

  DOS RULE: If you ever have EXACTLY TWO CARDS in your hand, you must shout out "DOS!" (meaning "two"). If you forget to do so and another player calls out "DOS!" before you do, you must immediately draw two cards as a penalty.If this happens during your turn, do not add the penalty cards to your hand until the end of your turn.

At what exact moment is it considered that one have "said 'DOS!'"? Is simply producing the start of the word "DOS" vocally the moment that I've said it, or can I be caught if my opponent starts to say it to catch me but I finish the word before my opponent? How do other games handle this issue?

It doesn't say in the rules and since both words ("UNO" & "DOS") are so short it really shouldn't be an issue...

http://www.mattelgames.com/sites/mattel_games/files/2018-03/FRM36-0970-G2_IS_web.pdf

But, I would say that it's quite clear that as soon as someone starts to say the word, no one else is allowed to also say it - but faster.

You could compare it to the first person to press a button or the first person to shout their name in a game show.
The first person to press the button gets to answer - Not the first person to press and also release the button...
The first person to start saying their name gets to answer - Otherwise the person with a short name would always be favoured over the one with a long name...

I usually play where you can say UNO or DOS while you are placing your second or third card respectively. After the card is down, other people can call out UNO (or DOS)


What is a good Pokemon deck ratio? My son really likes Pokémon, and owns a lot of cards. He mostly plays the video games and reads the books, but wants to build a Pokemon deck to play as well. We understand the basic rules. I know decks can only have four of each type of card (except basic energy) and must have exactly 60 cards total.

What I would like to know is if there is a recommendation for how many cards of each type to have in a deck. I've played Magic: The Gathering, but applying the same logic used there doesn't seem to work because energy behaves differently than mana. I've read some web sites that have recommendations, but when we play with those ratios it seems like I never draw enough basic Pokémon.

We have been trying to adjust things, but I thought I would see if there were some recommendations from people who are currently playing Pokémon.

I play regularly with my kids.  The energy card count depends heavily on the pokemon you use.  I have gone as low a 8 in a deck where all the pokemon had effective attacks at 1 energy and a retreat cost of 0 or 1.  I have gone as high as 28 or 30 when the deck was based on pokemon that discarded energy to attack and/or took 3 or 4 energy to have an effective attack.

When building a new deck we usually start at 16-18 energy adjusting up or down by a few as outlined above.   Then we tweak after some playing games.  My kids, who have more time than I do, will often build a deck then "goldfish" it.  ie play out a game solo to see if the needed energy arrive as fast as they can be played.

30 pokemon (includes evolutions)
12 trainer cards
18 energy

Try to focus on two types of pokemon good type sets are water-fire, fire-psychic, and water fighting. You can also have a few normal type pokemon and still be efficient.


Can equipment be re-equipped to another creature? With Artifact equipment, say I've equipped it to one creature, and I want to move it to another, can it be equipped to another creature if I pay its equip cost again?

My thought process is that they aren't like Enchantment-Aura's which target a creature specifically, more so like an item that is not bound. Am I right in thinking then that they can be equipped more than once?

Yes, if you have an Equipment attached to one creature, you can pay its equip cost to attach it to another creature. Every Equipment has the Equip keyword ability, which is defined in rule 702.6a as

  Equip is an activated ability of artifact Equipment cards. “Equip [cost]” means “[Cost]: Attach this Equipment to target creature you control. Activate this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.”

In addition, the Attach keyword action that the Equip ability uses is defined in rule 701.2a as

  To attach an Aura, Equipment, or Fortification to an object means to take it from where it currently is and put it onto that object.

So, if an Equipment is already attached to a creature, when you activate its Equip ability, you move it from where it currently is (attached to the original creature) and put it onto the new creature.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Equip ability is an ability the Equipment has, not the creature. So if, for example, a Suppression Bonds is attached to the creature, you can still re-equip an Equipment attached to that creature. However, if the Suppression Bonds were instead attached to the Equipment itself, you would not be able to activate the Equip ability.

Reading though the rules it seems clear to me that if a creature is equipped and then that equipped creature is mind controlled, you can reattach that equipment to a creature you control.

Nobody ever does this though, like ever. The rules seem so clear but I don't want to try this due to fear of being shot down or violating some kind of play etiquette I don't know about.


In Monopoly Deal, can you pay with houses or hotels? Can you pay with houses or hotels or do they remain with you forever?

From the Monopoly Deal FAQ (scroll down to near the end):

Q - WHICH CARDS CAN I USE TO PAY OTHER PLAYERS? (E.G. FOR RENT, BIRTHDAYS ETC.)
A - You can choose to pay:

from your Bank (with money or Action cards that you've Banked as money),
with Property cards, or
with a combination of both.

Remember, you can only pay with cards that are on the table in front of you, never with cards from your hand.

You cannot pay with Houses or Hotels you have on properties because they are not in your bank nor are they Property cards themselves.  If you had Banked them, you could use them to pay for things.

I’m pretty sure you can pay with hotels/houses since they have an amount on them in the corner! We played a tutorial game here: https://www.100kelvins.com/blog/how-to-play-monopoly-deal-card-game/


Who gets the points when calling Muggins in a three-player Cribbage game? If two players call "Muggins" at the same time (in a three-player Cribbage game), and both players call the correct number of points, which player is awarded the points?

I have looked at several sources but found nothing (ACC, Pagat.com, The House of Cards and more).

In the meantime, my friends and I have made a list of 3 possible solutions and we are "evaluating" them:

Both players are awarded the points;
Each player is awarded only half the points (rounding to the upper value);
The player to the left (from the underpegging player) is awarded the points.

Whomever calls it scores it. The rules at American Cribbage Congress do not address muggins outside of 2 player, but the wording requires that it be called before pegging it. Since, in 3 player, there is a dealer, a pone, and another pone, it's simplest to let whomever caught it score it.

Further, in 30 years of playing cribbage, in both 3 and 4 hand, whomever catches it claims the points. This is incentive to pay attention to opponent play and score calls.

I can't find any reference for this either, and I never play with Muggins, but I think the answer is fairly clearly your option 1. I'll go through the thought process.
Cribbage is basically a race, Muggins is a penalty for sloppy play and missing your point count. In a two player game, the penalty takes the form of your opponent getting the points instead of you. In a three player game:
In scenario #1
The player who missed the points is still "behind" by the same amount whether one or both of his opponents get the points. So it doesn't matter much if both players get the points.
In scenario #2
The player who missed the points is penalized more if only one opponent notices compared to if both opponents notice. Why?
In scenario #3
If only one opponent is awarded the points and gains the advantage, even though the other opponent also noticed, the other opponent is penalized as much as the player who missed the points. Why?
Unless there are good answers to my "why?" for #2 and #3, I think the only fair way to call Muggins is to award both players the points.


Is there a way to play The Generals without a referee? I've recently introduced The Generals (a.k.a Game of the Generals) to my girlfriend's brothers. They took to the game pretty quickly and we three end up doing matches with one of us as referee or arbiter to determine who wins a battle.

However, when they want to play by themselves, they can't, because no one would arbitrate battles for them whenever their pieces clash.

I wanted to know if there is a way to play The Generals without a referee that still keeps the secrecy of the pieces whenever they battle.

The referee's job is fairly simple, so a computer can fill in for them.

There was an electronically-assisted version released in the '80s, which did exactly that. You may still be able to find a copy online, but be careful to check the condition — some may have busted electronic components.

Wikipedia suggests that there are online clones of the game as well, probably under the name "Salpakan."

Stratego is a commonly-available game with a lot of similarities, that simply has players reveal the pieces to each other when they clash. It's also got different special pieces (including, notably, immobile 'mine' tokens). Depending on the particular dynamics of play you enjoy, you may find it a good alternative or a pale imitation.

If you still require to play it physically, it comes with the detriment of having to say the rank of the piece when you move in to kill the opponent's piece. It's in the rule book, so have a read on it because it details it there, or if not it's in the limited edition set manual but still applicable if you so wish to.


Why would you want to play with a deck that had 3 or more colors in it in Magic? (limited and constructed) Background: I'm currently writing a strategy guide for magic as my pet project, and I'm trying to explain decks with multiple colors. Here's what I have so far:

  Dual color decks are useful because they allow you to take advantage
  of the best of 2 different colors instead of just 1. This allows you
  to minimize the weaknesses a mono-colored deck might normally have.
  For example, red decks usually have trouble dealing with
  enchantments, blue decks tend to have pretty bad creatures, green
  decks tend tend to be fairly bad with removal spells, etc. When
  combined with another color, most of these disadvantages are
  drastically reduced as you can use cards from each color to compensate for the
  other's weaknesses.

  Some decks also have more than 2 colors, although they are much less
  common. With 3 colors your deck will have plenty of options to reduce
  the shortcomings of any individual color as odds are there's a card in
  at least one of the other colors you're playing that will fill that
  gap nicely. The downside of a tri-color deck is that it's substantially
  more difficult to get the mana you need to play the cards in your
  hand. This means you'll need to devote more of your deck to cards that
  can generate mana of multiple colors, which detracts from your overall
  focus of getting cards out onto the field that actually win the game
  for you. Tricolor decks often include green because it is the best color for generating
  mana in its own and other colors, making it great support for the rest
  of the deck. These decks often rely on tricolor spells for finishers as they are
  often extremely powerful to make up for the difficulty of casting them,
  to the point where some can almost win the game on their own.

  Decks with more than 3 colors are extremely rare as there is usually
  relatively little advantage a 4th color will add that couldn't be
  covered by the others, and it is VERY difficult to create a
  successful 4 color mana-base that will let you play all of the cards
  you need to in a timely fashion.

When I read this, it sounds like I'm saying "Tri-color decks are bad because they're so hard to get to work correctly and people only play them because of powerful gold cards." However, I'm pretty sure this isn't true and is stemming from my own lack of experience with tri-color decks.

Question: Why would you want to play a tri-color deck? What advantages does adding the third color often add that makes the deck better than if it only had 2? What should I add to this section of my strategy guide to make it a little more complete/useful?

Your mana base is the chief constraint, but it's not always as restrictive as you think.
This really depends on the format and your budget, but, sometimes, it's really not "substantially more difficult to get the mana you need to play the cards in your hand" with a three-color deck.
In something like 20 playtest games with Domain Zoo, which is (albeit nominally) a five-color deck, I never once got color-screwed. The fetches+shocks mana base was just that good. Why did the deck play a fourth color? Because Dark Confidant, by itself, was worth it. Why did the deck play "Islands"? To get 1 point of extra damage out of Tribal Flames.
How far you can push the color distribution in your deck depends on the particular mana base available to you, and the overall "speed" of the metagame (which determines whether you can afford to devote your early turns to playing tapped lands like Zagoth Triome or color-fixing spells like Farseek).
In Scars + Innistrad Standard, the distribution of multi-colored lands (one cycle of allied-color "fast" duals in Scars, one cycle of allied-color "buddy" duals in M12, one cycle of enemy-color "buddy" duals in Innistrad; Evolving Wilds as the only fetchland) makes a friendly-color three-color mana base comparable to an enemy-color two-color deck's. The reason most tournament decks are playing two allied colors instead is that this lets them cut colored-mana lands to run more utility lands like Nephalia Drownyard, Moorland Haunt, and Kessig Wolf Run + Inkmoth Nexus, which are some of the best ways to add depth and resilience to your deck.
Indeed, it's when you need your lands to do something special that you're most constrained on colors. Some examples:

Valakut requires lots of Mountains to operate. Valakut the deck, consequently, had a pretty awful mana base for a two-color deck, because most of the cards were green but the deck needed to max out on plane old basic Mountains to do get its combo.
A deck with Dungrove Elder will want copious Forests regardless of its color distribution. If you pick him in M12 draft but can't force mono-green, it still behooves you to play as many Forests as reasonable if you want to make use of the Elder.
Vedalken Shackles is, sometimes, considered reason enough to go mono-blue all by itself.
Tron devotes half its lands to the (colorless) Urza's lands, leaving it with very starved for colored mana. Balancing two colors and a ton of colorless lands is actually much harder than getting a working three-color mana base, because there's not a lot of flexibility in how you can pay for your spells.
Metagame-hater decks playing lots of non-basic-land hate (e.g. Back to Basics, Ruination) can find it limiting their own mana base.

The main benefit is, as you said, access to stronger and more varied cards.
Some prominent historical examples of very different applications:

Weissman's original archetypal control deck was a five-color deck. The majority of the cards were blue, but it used the other colors to cast "silver bullet" cards like Moat, meant to nullify entire strategies.
Many of the Alara-era Cruel Control decks you're probably thinking of when you talk about tri-color finisher cards were actually four- or five- color decks, in order to run cards like Wall of Denial, Oblivion Ring, Celestial Purge, and Cloudthresher -- not quite silver bullets, just efficient answers to the metagame.
In the Mirage era, World Championship winner Jakub Slemr played a black weenie aggro deck that used City of Brass and Gemstone Mine to play all the different-colored "ETB" creatures, which were some of the best weenies in the format. Of course, this also enabled him to stuff his sideboard with lethal hosers from all colors.

For a more recent (2012) example, consider control in Scars + Innistrad Standard. These days, blue-based control decks usually use other colors to supplement their counterspells with strong finishers and removal. Assume you're choosing between U/W, U/B, or W/U/B ("Esper").

Black offers a variety of instant-speed spot removal for creatures (Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Dismember, Tragic Slip, Virulent Wound) but only rather slow sweepers (Black Sun's Zenith, Life's Finale).
White has superior sweepers (especially Day of Judgment, but also Elesh Norn) and can answer any type of permanent (Oblivion Ring, Revoke Existence, Celestial Purge), but really can't match the efficiency of black's creature removal.
Three-color "Esper" control gives you the best of both worlds, and the ability to play a couple of good white-black effects (Sorin, Unburial Rites, Lingering Souls, Vault of the Archangel), but greatly curtails your ability to play utility lands -- in particular, Ghost Quarter, which is a critical answer to a class of cards you otherwise can't deal with directly.

In the Modern format, where players have access to Path to Exile, the strategic calculus changes: white is just as good, if not better, for powerful spot removal, while black's advantage is powerful targeted discard (Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek). At the tournament level, it only takes a few strong cards to effectively shift the color pie.

I use a three color deck (white,blue,green). It works well with me because I have worked out a good manna base for every type of deck. on my main I use 45 lands 15 from each color I have in my three color deck .it works really well for me and my strictly 100 card deck


How does one evaluate a "locomotive" (rainbow card) in "Ticket to Ride?" A locomotive or "rainbow" card can be a train of any color you want. That's good, and that's the reason why you can draw only one rainbow card from the board, in lieu of two regular cards from the board, or from the deck. (You're allowed to draw two cards, one or both of them "rainbow," from the deck because it's random.)

As a newbie, my feeling is that rainbow cards are more valuable if your routes need five or six trains of one color, and less valuable if there routes are shorter, and/or or can be spanned with multiple color combinations.

So how do you decide when to take a single rainbow card for sure, take two (other) "known" cards from the board,or draw two "random" cards from the deck?

Here are three sources of pain you try to avoid:

Drawing only one resource card instead of two
Drawing resource cards that you will never be able to spend
Losing a race to build a link you want (an opponent gets there first, or the game ends first)

The single rainbow option is the only way to get stuck drawing one card instead of two, but rainbows are always spendable and awesome for winning races. I like to keep one or two on hand in case I find myself in a surprise race with an opponent, so after the first few turns I'll take one whenever I don't have one. I usually try not to spend them on very long links unless I think I'm in a race for those links - instead I'll just take known cards of that color when possible, and unless an opponent tips their hand by also taking known cards of that color, it's unlikely they can collect the requisite number before I do. (In contrast, for a short link it is likely they've randomly picked up one or two cards of that color.) I'll also start taking single rainbows more often at the end of the game since they're guaranteed to be usable.

Early game, I usually draw random cards - the main thing I'm risking is losing a race with an opponent, but on a wide open board it's often both unlikely that an opponent takes exactly the link I want and not too terrible even if they do since I can reroute around them. Draw randoms enough and you'll even end up with a rainbow or two to fall back on in hard times, and there are enough links of every color (and gray links) that you'll probably eventually find a use for whatever you draw. However, random cards get less and less attractive as the game progresses - with fewer links left there's more of a chance that an opponent wants the same one as you, or that you'll draw cards that you never find a use for.

When the known cards include colors you need, taking them is always an attractive option. An obvious downside is that you lose the ~1/9 chance of landing a random rainbow; a less obvious but potentially larger downside is that you give your opponents a hint about what you're planning to build. If you don't think your opponents will effectively use that against you - they can't figure out what you're doing, they don't have the resources to stop you or it's not sufficiently in their advantage to use them, they're not that kind of competitive, etc. - then taking known useful cards is usually the best choice. But occasionally you take that red card and then an opponent jumps on the opportunity to build the red link you wanted; not only is your link now gone but the red card is now probably less useful than a random one.

Those cards are wildcards and worthwhile grabbing unless there are two things you need or one thing you really need.
In different versions of the game they become more useful.  Say in the European version and you have to select one card to match in colour with any of the top three from the deck (to do tunnels I believe), selecting a wild from your hand guarantees you the tunnel


How to make a hexagonal board? Two of my friends and I are developing a board game based on moving around a hexagonal board. We're testing it on the map printed on 4x A4 sheets merged with adhesive tape. What I'm trying now is to make it on a cork board.

Do you guys have any ideas of how to construct hexagonal grid on a cork board? I've already tried to draw it using a pair of compasses, but it isn't a good idea to do this on a cork board. And the board is pretty big (about three hundred hexagons) so it would take a lot of time to draw each hex separately.

I think the easiest way to do this would be to use a stencil:

Most craft shops should stock something like this.

Paint the cork one colour, then use the stencil with a different colour / shade of paint (spray paint would probably be best).

I and found a tutorial in the WikiHow website.


Is drawing resources required? Players draw resources, commodities (Cities and Knights), and fish tokens (Fishermen of Catan) during the course of various Catan games. It is almost always advantageous to draw your earned "goods" whenever possible, but is it required?

Forgetfulness

Players sometimes forget to draw the goods they are entitled to. If play passes to the next player before they remember, we often forbid the forgetful player from drawing what they forget. They should learn to pay attention, although I am very lenient with new players.

Strategy

I was recently in a situation where purposely not drawing all my goods would have been to my advantage had a certain number been rolled. A player may do this to avoid having more than 7 resources in hand when a win is otherwise clenched, or to avoid drawing the Old Boot in Fisherman of Catan (which requires the owner to have one additional victory point to win). Had someone reminded me to draw all my goods, I might have suspiciously declined.

What do the rules say (or imply) about this? Are players required to draw all their goods? Are forgetful players allowed to gather previously forgotten goods?

You must draw all of your goods.
From the FAQ:

Resource Cards - Can I voluntarily take less resources or none at all after the production roll?
Answer
No.

I don't believe there is any official guidance on what to do if draws are forgotten about.  If it is noticed fairly quickly, the draws should be made up.  But if you've gotten to a new round of trading, or a 7 has been thrown, it is probably too late.
You can consult this past question that gives general advice on Take Back Privileges that might be helpful in resolving the situation.
The answer stays the same for Cities and Knights

There are some games (chess comes to mind) where every turn is a "must move" situation (if legal). "The right to make the next move" is usually an advantage. But not always! Sometimes it can be a distinct liability, and you have to accept that liability as part of the game. This situation chess is called a "Zugzwang," and part of the game is maneuvering your opponent into one.

Other games such as Go, are more "constructive." Having the move is always helpful (or neutral) meaning that it's "your privilege" NOT to move.

Because having too many resources is actually bad if the robber is moved, Catan seems to fall into the first category--you must move because it's possible to be in a situation where not moving may be beneficial. (But the "newbies" who fail to draw hurt themselves more often than not.)


In Axis and Allies, Should Germany build a first turn transport and try and control the Med/Africa? When playing Germany in A&A 2nd Edition, is it a feasible strategy for Germany to buy a Italian transport on the first turn, for the purposes of cementing Germany's Mediterranean naval presence and enabling it to sustain troop transports into Africa?

Don Rae's essay on purchasing recommends this buy, but I rarely see it used and I wonder why. Is it because people think it's a flawed strategy (and thus never give it a shot), because they've tried it but not successfully executed (thus giving up on it), or because most people have simply never heard of (or independently come up with) the idea?

If you think this strategy works, what does it change about your first turn German attacks (i.e. presumably your med Battleship and Transport do not engage in naval battles, so how do you re-balance your attacks accordingly)?

Germany has a small window in which it can afford to bolster its navy. Presuming the Russians are building a suitable wall in Karelia and the US and UK are planning to shuck-shuck, Germany needs every IPC later in the game to build infantry and armor and cannot afford to build a transport, sub, or (gasp) air craft carrier or battleship.

For that reason, Germany's only chance to improve her navy is first or second turn. Moreover, she must build it in the Mediterranean Sea, as attempting to build a navy in the Baltic Sea Zone is suicide given the proximity to UK and Russia's air forces.

Without that extra Mediterranean transport, Germany's options in Africa are limited (presuming the Allies make it a priority to eradicate the German navy). The transport buys a little insurance for Germany, an extra few turns in which it has to secure Africa and enjoy her IPCs before the Allies come storming into Algeria. And if the UK player is bent on building a South African factory that second transport is a requisite to have any hope in taking it out before enough of a defense can be constructed.

  If you think this strategy works, what does it change about your first turn German attacks (i.e. presumably your med Battleship and Transport do not engage in naval battles, so how do you re-balance your attacks accordingly)?

Personally, I almost always use Don Rae's suggested first turn buying advice for Germany: purchase a transport and 8 infantry. Since this immobilizes my battleship and transport, I use a sub and fighter to off the British battleship and a bomber to nix the sub.

If those attacks fail, Germany is pretty much screwed, though. That's one thing I dislike about Axis & Allies in general - the first turn or two really has rippling effects through the rest of the game. A couple of bad dice rolls in the early game almost guarantees defeat, especially as the Axis where the margin for error is so narrow.

Germany  first two turns ten+ infantry  after that  1 fighter plus infantry the rest of the game  it is IMPERATIVE however that you do not lose ANY fighters or your bomber  once you have 8 or 9 fighters and 1 bomber you can do whatever you like in europe  by that time japan will have eroded russia and picked off every available dollar eg. australia new zealand hawaii french madagascar and axis victory is assured as long as you avoid horrific rolling of dice


How can I get the trait clips in Betrayal at House on the Hill to stay on? Betrayal at House on the Hill features character pentagons with 4 traits that can increase or decrease and are marked by clips.

I find (at least with my copy) that the clips slip and slide too easily; we often lose track of our stats.

We've tried blu-tack but we aren't sure if that will damage the cardboard. We've tried writing them down but we still lose track as the stat tracker isn't always told/listening.

So is there a better way to keep track of traits? Preferably an improvement on the clips.

This is a common complaint. The sliders are just too big. Solutions that have worked for others include:

Using an alternative print-out, with washers for tracking
Wrapping each side of the character card with sticky tape, for thickness
Laminating the cards
Applying some PVA glue inside the sliders, and letting it dry before use

we just took a few post-it notes, cut them into thinner strips with a point on the sticky end...


Is there a reasonable suit preference signal on this lead? The contract is 3 NT, and the bidding has been a straightforward, 1NT, pass, 3NT, all pass.

West leads the king of diamonds from AKTxx. The defenders have agreed that this means three honors, counting the K (if West had AKxxx without the T, he'd lead A, then K or low, depending on how others play). But West could have AKQxx or KQJxx, etc.

Dummy (North) has two little ones, E has J72, and South has Qxx. South is going to win a trick with the Q if all the diamond leads come from West.

East has an ace in spades, hearts, or clubs. Given this, and the defenders' diamond honors, there aren't enough points left for other entries.

If East gets a lead to his ace, he can return a diamond to the AT tenace, trapping South's queen for five diamond tricks plus the side trick (down two).

In this sequence, can East play the J, 7, or 2, depending on the location of his side suit ace as a suit preference signal? Put another way, is it possible to have a suit preference signal in three suits in no trump (rather than two in a trump contract)? Or if the defenders agreed to play this way, and lead as described above, would they be giving up too many options (e.g. attitude and count signals) on other hands where the layout was slightly different?

The basic idea is reasonable but unpopular, perhaps justifiably so.

The main problem with using SP here is that declarer may hold no stopper in the suit. East needs a way to encourage with Qxx.

Some top pairs never the less agree to use SP extensively on the opening lead. I have not used this method, but having three suits in play seems impractical. East's card will often be difficult to read, and usually dummy will furnish enough of a clue to rule out one of the side suits.

If you do use attitude here, as I do, I suggest following the suggestion of the late Helge Vinje from his New Ideas in Defensive Play in Bridge. He used upside down attitude and would discourage with the J from Jxx. Now when East plays a high card lower than the J West may be well placed to continue with a low card at trick two.

When West leads the king of diamonds, he is announcing at least three honors, one of which may be the ace. (With AK or AQ and no third honor, he'd lead the ace, or possibly "fourth best.") East sees his Jack, and knows that North-South has at most one diamond honor. If it is the ace, it doesn't matter, but if it is Qxx (or four to the T), South's honor will not win a trick if E gets to lead.

Given AK of diamonds in W, and J of diamonds in E, East-West probably has one side trick (Ace or King) outside of diamonds, given the contract of 3NT. If West has the side honor, he will continue diamonds until he knocks out the queen, recapture the lead with the side honor, and run diamonds for down one (assuming he has five).

If East has the side honor, it is important that he uses a suit preference signal. If he has for instance, the ace of spades, he will play the Jack of diamonds to signal "spades," receive a spade lead, and return a diamond to trap South's queen.

East may have, e.g. King of hearts and King of clubs (or just one of them). In that case, he doesn't want a lead to that king (unless he can see the ace of in the dummy), and a Jack of diamonds signals a spade lead to avoid the others. (He wants South to win the spade trick and them lead to the kings).

So in this case, if West has the side honor to go with long diamonds, East signals "encouragement." if East has the side honor, East signals suit preference. Both parties should realize what they have (or don't), in order to understand what East's signal means.


How many copies did Risk's original 1959 version sell? How many copies did the original version of 1959 of the board game Risk sell?

I found this article stating that it sold more than 100,000 copies in its first year. However there are no sources given from where this information is from.

La Storia di Risiko! e l'Anello Mancante, book by Roberto Convenevole and Francesco Bottyone, estimated 40.000.000 copies sold worldwhide from the beginning to the release of their book, which was in 2002.


Using a Joker with two tiles from my rack and one from the board I don't quite know the lingo, so apologies for that:

The Joker was on the board in place of a black 2 - I replaced it with a black 2, and I know that I have to use it with 2 tiles from my hand to make a meld. I have a red 5 and a red 8. There is a red 7 elsewhere on the board. So I did red 5-J-7-8.

Technically, two of those tiles came from my hand. However, I was only able to make the meld with the red 7 on the table. My mom said it was against the rules, that you needed to be able to use the two tiles in your hand with the Joker to make a complete set.

My red 5 and red 8 alone couldn't make a complete set with the joker...but technically I did use the Joker in a new set with 2 tiles from my rack. So which of us is right?

My rules state:

  The tile used to replace a joker must come from a player's rack and not from the table. A joker that has been replaced must be used in the player's same turn with 2 or more tiles from his rack to make a new set.

So, playing with my set of the rules, no, the example above would not be legal. The new set would need to stand alone. Adding that '7' midstream would not be part of the 'two or more tiles from his rack to make a new set.'

https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/a/7195/25029 seems to put a definitive end to this question. The rule is that when replacing the joker, one must use it to make a set on that turn. Apparently large rules changes have ocurred within the game.


What are the strength and firepower of Ivory X bombardments? The 2nd Infantry Division online briefing for Flames of War has a special rule called Ivory X that lets you fire anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns like a normal artillery bombardment.  The briefing lists the strength, anti-tank, and firepower values of these bombardments as '-'.

Does this mean that they use the normal direct fire stats (seems overpowered)?  Or do they fire with essentially 0's, meaning they can't hurt armor or dug-in infantry outside of causing pinning?

I don't own a copy of the rule book, it's 75$. The briefing you linked to says the following about the Ivory X Special Rules:

  Ivory X Special Rules

  You may purchase an Ivory X Staff Team for +25 points. Deploy the Ivory X Staff Team when you would deploy Independent Teams.

  Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoons and Towed Tank Destroyer Platoons that have a Command team within 6”/15cm of the Ivory X Staff team can use it as a Staff Team to fire Bombardments.

  Anti-aircraft Artillery Platoons and Towed Tank Destroyer Platoons that do not have a Command team within 6”/15cm of the Ivory X Staff Team cannot fire bombardments.

  A Bombardment controlled by Ivory X uses all of the American Artillery special rules on page 240 of the rulebook, except for Time On Target.

Without a copy of the rules, it is difficult to say if anything within the rules for American Artillery special rules contradicts what is in the linked briefing.

Luckily, you can gather from the rest of the briefing that the Ivory X bombardments can only be used to pin down enemy units. The historical accounts mention that Ivory X was able to pin down the enemy. This is also supported by the fact that all Ivory X bombardment rows of the chart show '-' for Rate of Fire, Anti-Tank, and Firepower.

  Ivory X provided the Indianhead Division with plenty of firepower in the form of .50 cal and 40mm anti-aircraft guns. Their harassing fire helped keep the Germans from moving freely through the outskirts and hills of Brest, allowing the Indianheads to easily move in and outflank the enemy.

  Firing Ivory X bombardments   40”/100cm - - -

  Firing Ivory X bombardments   48”/120cm - - -

  Firing Ivory X bombardments   64”/160cm - - -

The only thing that still confuses me a little about the rules, is regarding Towed Tank Destroyer Platoons. The rules mention that linked Ivory X Tank Destroyers are the only ones eligible to fire a bombardment and only using the Ivory X special rules. Rereading the above Ivory X Special Rules, would lead one to believe that you only have two possible answers to the question. My guess is that the answer is the former, but the use of the word "can" could mean that you have a choice of either pinning down enemies or firing bombardments as a Staff Team.

1) Use the 1 ROF, 2 Anti-Tank, 6 Firepower stats for Staff Team when firing bombardments.

2) Use the - ROF, - Anti-Tank, - Firepower stats for firing bombardments to pin down the enemy (cannot hurt them).

Staff team 16”/40cm 1 2 6 Automatic rifles, Moves as a Heavy Gun team
M18 Hellcat GMC Light Tank 2 0 0 .50 cal AA MG.
M1 76mm gun 32”/80cm 2 12 3+

  Towed Tank Destroyer Platoons that begin the game linked to Ivory X do not use the US Tank Destroyers special rules and only deploy the Tank Destroyer Section on the table.

  A Towed Tank Destroyer Platoon can only fire a bombardment using the Ivory X special rule.


How can I speed up the setup of Eclipse? I think I got everything separated and packed pretty well (including the upgrade tiles), but what's really taking a long time during setup is the cubes.

Is there a way to set it up faster for players? It's also a drag for new players, gives them a bad first impression...

I've found through my plays of Eclipse that there are 4 things you can do to speed up setup:

1) Take the bags where you put the ships in for each player. Add 3 colony ships, the storage markers, the starbases, all cubes and disks. You'll have a bag for each player with all the stuff they need to setup their player board.

2) Buy a 'bead storage box'. Craft section of Michaels or Walmart. Put your sorted upgrades in here. Setting up the supply board is as simple as taking the lid off of this box and placing technology tiles.

3) Buy some Population Trays off the internet. These are specifically for eclipse. You can buy the ones with lids and that will let you store all the cubes for a given player in the tray. Setting up a player board is as simple as opening the lid and dumping the contents of their bag next to the board.

4) Have all other components pre-sorted and bagged seperately.

It takes < 5 minutes to go from putting the box on the table to making my first action with this setup.

Population Trays: http://www.beklaser.com/en/6-eclipse

Our group just uses the little plastic bags that come with the game and put everything for one player to start in one of them. We have the starting hex, the ships, the populations cubes, etc. all in the bag. We only set up the rightmost population cube. We can get started in as little as 5 minutes.


Can I lose more life than I have? In a multiplayer game, I'm playing Exquisite Blood and resolve the second ability of Aetherflux Reservoir, dealing 50 damage to an opponent who's life total was only 10. I was able to pay the 50 life - that's not part of the question.
What I want to check is if, when Aetherflux Reservoir's ability deals 50 damage to my opponent, Exquisite Blood's ability will make me gain 50 life, or if I only gain 10 - because that was my opponent's "available life" before.
Rule 119.2 says “Damage dealt to a player normally causes that player to lose that much life”, and Rule 119.6 says “If a player has 0 or less life, that player loses the game as a state-based action”. The “or less life” makes me think that a player's life can be negative, and so I would gain 50 life - but I may be missing any other relevant rule here.
I know I can't pay more life than I have per rule 118.4. But that doesn't tell me anything regarding losing more lives than I have.
(not sure if tagging mtg-multiplayer since this can happen in 1v1, but can't think on a situation in which it matters)

Yes, you can have a life total below zero. This is mainly a consequence of rule 107.1b:

Most of the time, the Magic game uses only positive numbers and zero. You can’t choose a negative number, deal negative damage, gain negative life, and so on. However, it’s possible for a game value, such as a creature’s power, to be less than zero. If a calculation or comparison needs to use a negative value, it does so. If a calculation that would determine the result of an effect yields a negative number, zero is used instead, unless that effect doubles or sets to a specific value a player’s life total or a creature’s power and/or toughness.

A player's life total is a game value, so it is possible for it to be less than zero. In addition, the last sentence specifically calls out that it is possible to set a player's life total to a negative value or double a negative life total.

Just to add a specific answer to the questions

What I want to check is if, when Aetherflux Reservoir's ability deals
50 damage to my opponent, Exquisite Blood's ability will make me gain
50 life, or if I only gain 10 - because that was my opponent's
"available life" before.

Your opponent looses 50 life regardless of how much life he has. Damage causes loss of life.


Game stagnates if supply card not drawn I've played a couple of games where the game has been stifled because the supply card is never drawn. (What happens is that the 'winter is coming' card is drawn, and the deck reshuffled, and supply card isn't shuffled to the top).

The last game we played, a supply card was never drawn until round 7, and we had a scenario where mustering cards would come out, and no body was able to increase their armies due to already being at supply limits.

This problem can also apply to other game dynamics, like bidding on the influence tracks, and to a lesser extent, mustering (because people can always use a special consolidate to muster).

Is this a well known issue, and is there a house rule to mitigate it?

I was thinking you could create a house rule that says 'if supply hasn't been adjusted by round 4, and round 8, there will be a bonus supply adjustment then'.

Another suggestion would be that when the 'winter is coming' card is drawn, you only shuffle the already discarded cards and put them at the bottom.

First of all, yes. This is something that I have noticed happens sometimes in the game. I don't think it happens all that much, but it is definitely noticeable when by round 3 there has not been any supply yet.

I don't think this is a problem. Think about if no Clash of Kings would ever happen? Or if no Wildlings ever attacked? There are many such opportunities for the game to be "lacking" in something. I think it is part of the dynamic nature of the game. It does not require any of those things to happen, but if they do then it makes it interesting, but it also makes it interesting if it doesn't happen.

Saying that the game "stagnates" implies to me that you may not be playing the game entirely correct. Most of the times when I play the game, I barely have any armies with more than 1 soldier until mid-game. Since I rely on support and taking larger territories and having more actions.

It really depends also on what optional rules you are using. The tides of battle cards make supply less relevant, since the size of the army is not the most important factor. If you are using the rule where the seasonal cards are set out such that you can see the next 3 cards coming up that will also impact the game, you will know when a supply is coming, or if one is not coming and be able to play accordingly.

I would not say that this is a problem with the game, maybe only a problem with expectations. I do not think any house rule needs to be made for this. There are enough ways to "solve" this problem. Most of them come from your own strategy.

I agree that this is a problem in the base game.  I would recommend using the expansion mechanic that provides Muster orders.

The Muster order is a special (star required) Consolidate Power order that is placed in a region with a city or stronghold, in which you have units.  If it is not destroyed by a raid, you are allowed to muster that specific location as if a Muster event card had been drawn (subject to normal supply limit), during the Consolidate Power phase.

This should prevent stalled out games, even in a case where you cannot draw Muster cards.


What's behind the "Duck of Doom" card? "You should know better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon."

Should I, really? Most of the cards in basic Munchkin are humorous references to Dungeons & Dragons or other tabletop RPG culture. I'm fairly familiar with both, though my history of personal involvement in them may not be long. But I just don't get the joke here.

Is this meant to be an "inside joke" for D&D/RPG fans, or is it just some random humor made up for the Munchkin universe? If it is an existing cultural reference, what is it referring to?

There is a long and storied tradition of unspeakably awful deathtraps showing up in dungeons. Kind and generous dungeon masters would allow such traps to be found, but others would skip the tedious step of permitting the party Thief to check for traps, and simply spring the trap upon the unsuspecting victim, sans saving throw, sans opportunity to escape, and sans chance to survive.

These evil Dungeon Masters often point to Gary Gygax as their inspiration. Gygax was, by most accounts, a tough-but-fair DM, but he also created the module Tomb of Horrors: the most trap-filled, instantly-lethal, no-saving-throw dungeon published at that time. (It may still remain the most-lethal professionally-published dungeon, for all I know.)

Some examples of the kind of traps Gygax used in the Tomb of Horrors:

A tapestry that, when torn, fills the entire room with green slime (which is nigh-instantly fatal).
A variety of cursed things: a Cursed Spear of Backbiting (does exactly what it says on the tin, to your back), valuable items that summon demons when taken, and a gem seems to grant you a wish, but then explodes (killing all within 15 feet)
An archway that causes you to reverse gender and alignment if you walk through it.
A variety of teleport traps that take you back to the beginning of the dungeon, sans your equipment.
A giant face, with a 3' wide mouth you could crawl into – it's actually a Sphere of Annihilation (die immediately, no save). Some of the teleport traps mentioned above  dump you right in front of said face (instead of at the dungeon entrance), possibly giving you the impression that if you walk into the face, you'll end up back where you were before you teleported.

On a personal note, I have played through a few Gygax-inspired dungeons. The twisted traps that a clever DM can come up with are truly amazing, truly enlightening, and truly lethal. (It was good fun; we all expected to die horribly, and were not disappointed.)

The Duck of Doom, then, is likely inspired by exactly that sort of Evil Dungeon Master. A duck that curses you horribly the instant you pick it up is exactly the kind of thing that an Evil DM would put in.

For the phrase "Duck of Doom", the oldest role-playing-game-related results I found on Google were from Munchkin, so Munchkin itself is likely the originator. (There's some ancient Australian bird, Bullockornis, occasionally called the Demon Duck of Doom, but it's utterly unrelated to "harmless" rubber ducks in dungeons and cursed items.)

I've got no evidence for it, but I guess there's a chance it could be a nod to the Demonic Duck from El Goonish Shive.

The Demonic Duck is a minor recurring character in El Goonish Shive. In canon, he only appears when a distraction is needed and he is summoned. A character will stumble into an awkward situation, try to use the duck as a distraction and either flee from the situation or change it to be less awkward. The duck will then usually grumble about feeling used.


Can I combine different races as a single army? Can I mix soldiers from totally different armies?  I mean, can I have some, say, Necrons in among my Chaos Space Marines?  I have a couple different armies, and I'd like to combine them.

It is perfectly legal to use Necrons with Chaos Space maines so long as you obey all the necessary allies rules.

In standard games of 40K your can field allies with your army using the Allies Matrix.  When you do this your select one army to be your primary detachment and the other one as the allied detachment.  Your primary detachment works as normal and you select your warlord from it as usual.  For the allied detachment you use a modified force organization chart:

[1] HQ
[0-1] Elites
[1-2] Troops
[0-1] Fast Attack
[0-1] Heavy Support

Allied detachments work with your army with varying amounts of efficiency.  You can see the full allies matrix below.

From the matrix you can see that Necrons and Chaos Marines are classified as Allies of Convienence. In this instance, it means that troop units from both detachments are scoring, but characters cannot join units from the other detachments.  Also, army abilities will treat the units from the other detachments as enemy models

You can combine anything except the red ones as per the above graph, doesn't matter if it's flufy or makes sense. Nor do you need permission.

Your allied detachment MUST take 1 HQ and 1 Troops choice and CAN take another Troop, Fast, Elite and Heavy Support.


What happens when a land attacks then stops being a creature? The card Nature's Revolt is out, then a mountain and is declared as an attacker, then the enchantment is destroyed.

What happens to the mountain? Is it still attacking, can it be blocked e.t.c.

The mountain will be removed from combat; which means it stops attacking, blocking, etc.

  506.4. A permanent is removed from combat if it leaves the battlefield, if its controller changes, if it phases out, if an effect specifically removes it from combat, if it’s a planeswalker that’s being attacked and stops being a planeswalker, or if it’s an attacking or blocking creature that regenerates (see rule 701.14) or stops being a creature. A creature that’s removed from combat stops being an attacking, blocking, blocked, and/or unblocked creature. A planeswalker that’s removed from combat stops being attacked.

Yes, the card can be blocked. The card would count as a creature, that in this situation, is attacking. Unless you decided to enchant it or use a spell that causes otherwise, the land would be able to be blocked, as well as block.


If Koth of the Hammer's plus one ability ends at end of turn, doesn't it make it useless? How does Koth of the Hammer's plus one ability work when it ends right after you use it and the Mountain turned into a creature has summoning sickness (part of the rulings on Gatherer)?

I think you've misunderstood the ruling:

  If Koth's first ability animates a Mountain that came under your control that turn, it will have "summoning sickness" and be unable to attack. It will also be unable to be tapped to activate an ability with the {T} symbol in its cost, such as the Mountain's mana ability or the ability granted to it by Koth's emblem.

If the mountain has been under your control since before the beginning of this turn, it does not have "summoning sickness". It's only unable to tap and attack if it's a mountain that you played this turn.

The mountain would NOT have summoning sickness period because it specifically states that it becomes a 4/4 red elemental creature until end of turn. It's still a land. Therefor the mountain can't be a creature before that turn or after that turn. Also seeing as how it is still a land It doesn't have summoning sickness. Lands don't have summoning sickness. So you can still tap it for mana or attack. And if you activated his +1 on an opponents turn you can use it to block or tap to use the mana for an instant.


Bidding a high point Bridge hand I'm south. I have:

♠ A 10 5
♥ A
♦ A K Q J 8
♣ A Q 10 8

East opened the bidding with 3♥.
What should I bid?

Typically, with any strong hand (something like 17+) you should begin with a takeout double (if it's available — see below). In this case, your hand is even stronger than that, so you should probably cue bid hearts after almost any bid by partner:

after 3S, 4C, or 4D, you have enough to insist on game with very little from partner, so cue bid 4H to force to game.
after a jump to a suit game (4S, 5C, or 5D), partner is showing something like 10+, so you almost certainly have slam and may have a grand. After 4S, you can bid 4NT to start asking about partner's kings. After 5C or 5D, you can cue bid 5H to force a slam and start exploring for grand.
after 3NT, you might just bid 7NT, as it's likely that you have 13 top tricks and it's difficult to imagine having a good constructive auction without strong agreements with partner.

Update:
TimLymington points out in the comments that you may have agreed that double here is for penalty. I had not considered this, as I play in the U.S., where the overwhelming majority of pairs play doubles as takeout at least through 4D and often higher.

If double would be for penalty, I recommend doubling and continuing as above except at unfavorable vulnerability. Game for your side is almost certain and slam is a possibility, but it seems difficult to explore for slam when X is not takeout. I expect to beat the opponents by 3 tricks (they'll likely get 6 trump tricks and nothing else), so I'm happy defending when at favorable or equal vulnerability, but the 500 we'll get at unfavorable doesn't compensate us for the 600+ we expect from making our own contract.

In that case, I recommend bidding 3NT, which is a small gamble, but requires very little from partner (the club K guarantees the contract, as does the diamond ten with the spade K, for example).

My preferred response is known as a "big" (takeout) double. First of all, you can support play in any suit except hearts, so your double asks your partner to bid his best suit. If partner bids one of the minor suits, you can go to five.
If partner bids your "worst" suit, spades, you can correct to four diamonds. If he has a "real" hand (that is, he was bidding three spades with more than xxxx in spades and little or nothing outside), you can easily support a rebid of four spades. (Even a fifth spade or a king from partner would be enough, given your strength).

A perfectly good alternate response is to "cue bid" four hearts (the opposing suit) to show your extra strength, and let partner choose the level (game or slam). This improves your chances of getting to a spade game at the cost of the following:

Doubling allows for the possibility is that partner will pass for penalties with something like Kxx or xxxx in hearts and nothing else. That would be fine, also. You and s/he should be able to take 1-2 heart tricks, and 4-5 in side suits for a 3-4 trick set, which would compensate you for your "derailed" game.

Basically, when you are this strong, you should be able to play the hand (with a decent chance of making game) or extract a large penalty from the opponents. You have such heavy, and balanced, raw strength, that you should let your partner choose where to play (or defend) based on his "shape," that is where he can contribute the most, even without a lot of points. A double allows for all of these possibilities.


Is the Library strong in San Juan? The now-defunct magazine The Games Journal has this to say about the Library building in San Juan:

  Simply put, this card is too powerful, even in a four-player game. Even with a cost of 5, you should devote all your energies to building it the moment you draw one. Although it is (usually) not that useful when choosing Producer or Trader, the fact that it gives a 2-card advantage when choosing Builder or Prospector means that the other players must altering their actions to counter this advantage, much moreso than with any other card. In fact, the best way to address this, is to build your own Library but this requires that you actually draw one. Ultimately, this means that there's a great deal of luck in whether you draw one of them or not.

Is the library really this strong? You give up six cards to get the Library (the Library card itself plus the five other cards it costs to build it). If it gets you one extra card every turn, as you choose prospector or builder, it seems to me that it's generally going to take much of the rest of the game to pay for itself. I think that's not so different from other cards. For example, the Carpenter and Quarry cost three and four respectively and both give you one more card every time you build a violet building (in slightly different ways, much as the Library gives you one extra card in slightly different ways as Prospecter/Builder). Is the Library going to pay for itself so much more handsomely than those cards (or many other cards)?

For reference the rules are available here.

The Library is a strong card and it is far stronger than most of the cards that boost a single action type.  However, the Library also has disadvantages.  In the early game, you can buy a Silver mine for the same price, which can give you a massive resource advantage.

A player must remember that the most important resource in the game is cards.  A five cost building in the early game should give an immediate advantage that will help the player get more cards in the long run.  The Library does this, but so does the Silver mine.  A good question to ask is "what am I giving up to get the Library?"

Having played the game quite a number of times, the Chapel seems to be the most important card in the game.  Most cards give you a 2:1 ratio of card costs:victory points.  The chapel gives a 1:1 ratio for three cost and can accumulate points for the entirety of the game.  The earlier you can grab a chapel, the better off you'll be.  If one player grabs a chapel early game they can run away with the game quite easily as other players find it nigh on impossible to keep up without a chapel of their own.

It is the nature of card games that some are stronger than others.  The Library is strong.  However, I've seen many wins without it.

I just stomped my friends because of the library. People are saying it's not effective when you pick trader or producer but I disagree. Towards the end of the game I was constantly loading my producers one round then selling 2 or 3 the next. At one point I had 12 cards in my hand at the start of a round and dumped 9 victory points in my bank. I won the game with an indigo plant, silver mine and tobacco storage. No other producers. We've discussed removing it from the game to make it fair and not based on luck.


Pocketing last c/m along with striker What happens if I pocket my last c/m along with striker?
Opponent's n C/m are still on board.

Will I win with minimum n points?
Will it be a double-due?
Will I lose the game?

Neither you won nor lose the game, keep the Queen on board and pocket along with your C/m


Yu-Gi-Oh Tribute effect When you activate a monsters tribute effect, like "tribute this monster to destroy a face up card on the field", can you tribute summon using that monster and activate its effect?

No you would not get the effect if you used the stated monster as a tribute for something else.

The text states:

  "tribute this monster to"

this means tributing this card is a cost to activate the effect to destroy a face up card on the field.

if it read:

  When/If this monster is tributed

then it would work when you used it for a tribute summon or any effect that caused it to be tributed

If you use "sphere mode" as a affect to tribute with other monsters on the fields and have the affect of dark "magician the dragon night" and "eternal soul"
"NOT CONFIRMED" your opponent can not tribute the card.


How do you score failed nil bids? Say you are playing 4 person spades, and somone bids nil and they get a book/trick what is the penalty? Does it count as a sandbag, or do they just lose the points from failing nil? Does that book count towards the partners bid?

Now in three man spades if someone bids nil and gets a book do they get a sandbag or just lose the points?

Given that there isn't exactly a single set of "official rules" for Spades, I would say that there two valid answers:

1) Tricks collected by a set (failed) NIL bid count as tricks for the partner, at which point all normal rules apply as far as sandbags, making the bid, etc. The team loses -100 (or -200 if it was a double/blind Nil) for the set nil, but scores the partner's bid normally.

2) Tricks collected by a set Nil bid are void and count for nothing. The partner must make their bid completely independently.

Players should agree on the rules ahead of play.

Personally, I've always played per #1 and would prefer that greatly. First, it makes losing the nil not quite as painful, since you can help your partner out. Second, it means that while you can take extra tricks to try to set your opponent's bid, you will risk taking sandbags for it, whereas with option 2, you could take those extra tricks with no further penalty.

How I've played is that if you fail a blind nil you get -200 plus the penalty for your partner. for example if I bet blind nil and my partner says 4 tricks. If I fail the nil we get -240. However, If I win the nil and my partner makes all the tricks we would get a score of +240


Card Game Name: 5 points and you’re out I recently learned a new card game and the person didn’t know the name. Maybe someone else does. Goes like this...
A round begins with each player having been dealt 4 cards except the starting player is dealt 5. Cards are scored as face value except all face/ace/joker cards are 10 points. Each turn, you lay your highest card (ideally) and then draw from the deck or the top card off the discard. You can also lay multiples if they are the same number/face. Once someone reaches a card score of 14 points or lower, they can show their hand and play stops (or continue to attempt to get a lower hand). If they show and aren’t the lowest, they get a point against them. Otherwise, the person with the highest card score gets the point against them. A new round then starts with shuffled cards. Once anyone hits 5 points, they are out and rounds continue until only one person is left, the winner.

Your game's type is Draw and discard.  Knowing the nationality of your teacher could narrow your search.  Your description sounds a lot like a variant of Yaniv / Jhyap.
Yaniv description in Pagat:

Deal: Five cards are dealt to each player

The objective of the game is to have a lower total value of cards in your hand than the other players. When you think you have achieved this, you call "Jhyap" in Nepal or "Yaniv" in Israel to stop the play and compare hands.

Each game is composed of rounds, and each player's total score is updated after each round. The goal of the game is to keep your score to a minimum. Players with more than an agreed maximum, for example 200 points, drop out of the game, which is then continued until there is only one player left.


Balanced, 9-player setups for Bang! I am interested in the possible 9-player setups for Bang! that do not upset the balance of the game too much. I do not want any of the players to feel hopeless right at the start of the game when they get their role card.

I found one promising setup on boardgamegeek:

  1 Sheriff, 3 Deputies, 4 Outlaws, 1 Renegade (that's how the original game worked)

Are there any more setups that proved to be working or Bang! gets pretty unbalanced at 9 players?

I could imagine something with 2 Renegades, 4 Outlaws, 1 Sheriff, 2 Deputies but I am not sure about it.

The problem with larger games in Bang! is that they tend to be unbalanced by the way the game is played. In a 7 or 8 player (in 6 also really) it is very easy for players to be killed before they get a turn. Depending on what character you get and the cards everyone has it is possible that there is nothing that can be done to prevent yourself from being eliminated before your turn. And this is something that would only be magnified in a 9 player game.

From the very fact that it is very possible for people to be eliminated from the game before they had a chance to play I would call it unbalanced.

That is not even mentioning the fact that in the standard rules for 8 players that there are two renegades who are working against each other. As a quick example if an 8 player game comes down to the sheriff, and both renegades one of which accidentally kills the sheriff the game ends with the outlaws winning even though they had all been eliminated.

Back in college, my buddies and I would play some massive tables, with like 8+ people.  It took us a while, but we found a few things that worked.

What I'd recommend is:

1 Sheriff, 1 Deputy, 3 Renegades, 4 Outlaws.
New mechanic we made up: "Fog of War".  Fog of War is a distance bonus applied to all characters that decreases by 1 at the start of the next round.  Its value at the start of the game is simply (# of Players)-5, with a maximum of 3.

(1) The increased Renegade count is to counteract the fact that Renegades get harder and harder to play as the player count increases.  However, up until the last moments of the game, the Renegades all share a similar goal.  And, unlike the Deputies, Renegades have the benefit of wanting to kill other targets who might not be you at the end (like the Deputy).  As a result, having more Renegades is easier on the Renegade "goal" than having more Deputies.

(2) With 9 players, you'll have 3 rounds of a lull where few shots will be fired and players will be able to get a sense of threats and neighbors.   This mostly puts benefit in the Sheriff's favor, to counteract the fact that 44% of the table want him dead from the start, and the rest don't know who to shoot.  This also helps mitigate the loss in power against The Law from the reduced number of Deputies from houserule #1.


Is there a standard notation for poker games? Is there a standard notation, like there is for chess, for describing Texas Hold 'Em, poker, or other poker-like card games?

I think there was a standard for Bridge because I remember they would print games/hands in the newspapers.

Yes there is a standard for notating poker games, though it's not so widely used. One of the reasons for this is doing it as a player in game is cheating, writing down the cards that have come out would be counting cards.

The card values are: 2-9,T,J,Q,K,A in standard notation.

Suits can be noted, with the symbol of the suit (♠♣♥♦) or the first letter of the suit name (SCHD), though usually this is not bothered with as suits only matter in poker for the three flush type hands. Often is it just noted if a players hole cards are suited (s) or offsuit(o) - ATo would be an ace and a ten with different suits.

For community cards they are grouped and ordered as they would be on the table - 3 in the flop, 1 in the river then one for the turn.

Beyond that, notation for the players are BB(Big Blind), SB(Small Blind), BTN(button, the dealer), UTG (Under the Gun, to the left of BB and the first to bet) and CO(cut off, to the right of the button). Players if any between UTG and CO are notated by their distance from the closest of these, like  UTG+1 or CO-2.

Bets are noted by the dollar value of the bet, or by how many times it is the big blind (2.5x)

There is no a universal standard that I know of.  But they read similar. It would be nice to have an XML standard.

You can get hand history from many sites and applications. They typically don't include hole cards of the players that did not have to show.

Hand history is not widely released as it is more valuable to bots than people.  A bot can look up when they did X what was the range they were holding.

Internally most sites keep a history to spot cheats.  It could be real people colluding or bots.

As stated in other answer cards are 2-9, T, J, Q, K. The suits are c, s, d, h and usually in lower case (e.g. Td).  Positions have names and pretty standard abbreviations.  You typically get seat number and where the button is like the example below.

Hero is you and your hole cards are known.

Sample hand from PokerStars

Hand #156605842579: Tournament #1618015625, $2.00+$2.00+$0.40 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVIII (300/600) - 2016/07/29 23:25:05 MSK [2016/07/29 16:25:05 ET]
Table '1618015625 40' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: nossoff (22844 in chips)
Seat 2: Gr0z3LB (27895 in chips)
Seat 3: yarikkkkk (7005 in chips)
Seat 4: sigis1313 (18222 in chips)
Seat 5: S21berlin (25318 in chips)
Seat 6: Hero (8240 in chips)
Seat 7: tommesk (8185 in chips)
Seat 8: gergelyt3 (17912 in chips)
Seat 9: endreooo (50289 in chips)
nossoff: posts the ante 90
Gr0z3LB: posts the ante 90
yarikkkkk: posts the ante 90
sigis1313: posts the ante 90
S21berlin: posts the ante 90
Hero: posts the ante 90
tommesk: posts the ante 90
gergelyt3: posts the ante 90
endreooo: posts the ante 90
gergelyt3: posts small blind 300
endreooo: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Jd Ac]
nossoff: raises 600 to 1200
Gr0z3LB: folds
yarikkkkk: folds
sigis1313: folds
S21berlin: folds
Hero: raises 6950 to 8150 and is all-in
tommesk: folds
gergelyt3: folds
endreooo: folds
nossoff: calls 6950
*** FLOP *** [7h 2h 5s]
*** TURN *** [7h 2h 5s] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [7h 2h 5s 5d] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nossoff: shows [Qd Ah] (a pair of Fives)
Hero: shows [Jd Ac] (a pair of Fives - lower kicker)
nossoff collected 18010 from pot
nossoff wins $1 for eliminating Hero and their own bounty increases by $1 to $6
Hero finished the tournament in 5028th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 18010 | Rake 0
Board [7h 2h 5s 5d 4d]
Seat 1: nossoff showed [Qd Ah] and won (18010) with a pair of Fives
Seat 2: Gr0z3LB folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: yarikkkkk folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: sigis1313 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: S21berlin folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Hero showed [Jd Ac] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 7: tommesk (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: gergelyt3 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: endreooo (big blind) folded before Flop

At a live table you are typically not allowed to take or refer to notes during the hand if you are in the hand.  People that track have their own notation and do it between hands.


What can I do with the Joker if I remove every tile from its meld? (Can I even do that?) I'm aware that one cannot move a Joker tile out of a meld except by replacing the Joker with the number it represents. However, I'm confused about one situation which I haven't found rules to clarify:

What happens if I move every other number in the Joker's meld, leaving the Joker on its own?

Am I allowed to do this, or must I somehow preserve its meld?
What happens to the Joker's value? (Does it remain exactly what it was before, or can I pick a new value?)
Where can it go now? (Can I move it to another meld that's already on the table? Can I create a new meld around it using tiles from my hand?)

Example scenarios

Just to make it clear how this can happen. Both scenarios only involve moving the tiles surrounding the Joker, never the Joker itself (or at least that's the way I see it).

There is a run of blue 1234, and a run of blue J567. I move the 567 to the other run, making a run of 1234567. The Joker is now all on its own.
There's a run of 1234 in each colour, except blue which has 123J. I take the 1's, 2's and 3's away and make four-colour sets for each of those numbers. I make a three-colour set out of the red, yellow and black 4's. The Joker is now all on its own.

Or the same scenarios, pictorially:

Board goes from 1234 / J567 → 1234567 / J
Board goes from 1234 / 1234 / 1234 / 123J → 1111 / 2222 / 3333 / 444 / J

Wow, they've really been messing with the rules of the game.
In every version of Rummikub that I've ever played (and I'm one for reading the rules before we start playing), this kind of thing is explicitly disallowed like this:

  A combination which contains a joker can have further tiles added to it, but nothing can be taken from it, nor can it be rearranged in
  any way while there is a joker in it.

Here's a link if you're interested:  http://www.pagat.com/rummy/rummikub.html

Obviously there are different publications of the game with different rule sets, but I far prefer this "joker melds cannot be split!" version.

When you move or break melds you have to be left with valid melds. A lone joker is not a meld just as a lone black 4 could not stand alone.