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September 8, 2003
One of the things that there's been much discussion of, both internally to the development team and on the forums, is how to best balance the need for games to flow smoothly and quickly with the need to have players actively pass on an action even if they can't play anything, in order to not let your opponent know whether you have a specific card in hand or not.
The basic problem is that each player has their own set of preferences - some players may want the game to ask them at every possibility, giving nothing away to their opponent, while some want to skip past phases where nothing can be done, in order to speed up play.
In order to cater to everyone's different playing styles, we've developed a system that allows players to set their own preferences. The system becomes available to Closed Beta testers today, but the topic has had enough discussion that we wanted to outline how it will work for everyone - hence this article.
Settings for auto-passing are found in the Preferences tab on the right of the main window. There are two sections to the auto-pass preference window, one for passing during phases, and one for responses to triggers.
The Auto-pass Preferences Window
Game Phase Auto-Passing
If you select the "Yes" option for any of the listed game phases (Maneuver, Archery, Skirmish and Regroup), then the game will automatically pass over you if you don't have an event to play or special ability to trigger for the phase in question. If you select "No" then the game will always stop and ask you for to pass manually, whether or not you have anything to play or activate during the phase.
Responding to Triggers
A number of triggers are listed in the Triggers section of the Auto-pass preference window. If you select "Yes" for one of these, then the game will auto-pass unless you are holding an event card or have a card with a special ability in play that can respond to the trigger. If you select "No" then the game will stop to allow you to pass manually, as long as at least one in-play condition is met for the various event cards that might be played as a response to the particular trigger (see the wound-a-companion example below).
This is designed to be a modular, extensible system for managing your auto-pass preferences with regard to game triggers. The goal is to allow you to decide whether or not you want the fact that you are or aren't holding particular event cards in hand to be revealed, while keeping games flowing with as few interruptions as possible. It is not designed to manage "permanent"-based responses (i.e., responses to triggers on cards that are in play and visible). If there is an available response in play, the game will always stop to give you the opportunity to respond.
The game will never stop for a trigger that doesn't have a card written yet that can respond to that trigger. For example, there are currently no cards or effects that respond to exertions of Shadow characters, so there's no need to check for a response to those exertions. Likewise, there are no Raider events that key off of a Raider winning a skirmish, so you won't be asked to respond to that trigger, regardless of what you're holding in hand (whereas there are skirmish-win response events for a variety of other cultures and races).
Finally, in an effort to keep games flowing, a game won't stop if the only possible event responses can't be played due to lack of visible preconditions. For example, there are only three events that respond to a wound to a companion: Intimidate, Gondor Will See It Done, and Lost to the Goblins. Each has a visible precondition - Intimidate must spot Gandalf, Gondor Will See It Done has to have an unexhausted Gondor companion in play (to exert), and Lost to the Goblins must respond to a wound to the Ring-bearer. If none of those pre-conditions is valid, then the game won't stop to see if you want to respond to a companion being wounded, even if you have selected not to auto-pass in response to Free Peoples wounds.
Feel free to post any feedback, questions or suggestions about this system. We will be providing tournament vs. casual options for these preferences (so you can have a set of preferences for each environment), and are also looking at the possibility of storing settings for individual decks.
Scott Martins
Lead Designer
Worlds Apart Productions
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