Natural Disasters

[CKorfmann]

I've heard some people having issues with the amount of CCCC tiles already available with fan-made expansions.  I'd stay away from that one.  I don't think it matter either way what the tile layout is otherwise.  Something random perhaps...

[elmendalerenda]

Yep, better make the earthquake tile a ffff without any feature, that way the number of potential cities can be keep managed. At the most a fffc tile. The poor meeples have to be very unlucky to have the earthquake epicenter under their city 

The earthquake should affect cities on the corners of the earthquake tile as well, remember.
    X
  XXX
XXOXX
  XXX
    X
The rest seems good so far, sorry didnt checked the spelling

[djdahmer]

The end of the month is quickly sneaking upon us. I figured I'd at least get a rough draft written.  Remember, nothing here is written in stone.  Anything may still be changed at this point. Here's what I've come up with so far:
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasters.pdf

I've found a couple of things that may need correcting:

Page 2, annotation 5: "... owner's supply. (example: A mayor may not be ..."
  Should be: "... owner's supply. (Example: A mayor may not be ..."

Page 3, Final Scoring section: "If a finished city has a earthquake marker ..."
  Should be: "If a finished city has an earthquake marker ..."


Also, I'm not sure if it's my viewer or something in the document but at 100% all of the lower-case a's appear as if they are in a larger point size. At other percentages they all appear the correct size. Weird. 

[Gwommy]

Here's first edit.  Let me know if I can change it to final.  Also, a link for the tiles:

http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasters.pdf
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasterTiles.pdf

[djdahmer]

Here's first edit.  Let me know if I can change it to final.  Also, a link for the tiles:

http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasters.pdf
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasterTiles.pdf

I have a few suggested changes:

Under the Earthquake section of Place a Tile:

The earthquake tile is placed as per the normal rules of Carcassonne. The earthquake does not affect anything until before final scoring, and after all of the tiles have been placed and.
Either during the game or before final scoring takes place, take an earthquake token and place it one place one earthquake token in each city that ishas a section within 2two tiles moving orthogonally, or 1one tile diagonally of the earthquake tile.

Under the Flood section of Place a Tile:

If you are playing with either River I or II expansions1, then choose a ...
...
On your next turn, the flood continues to floodspread.

Under the Meteor section of Place a Tile:

When a player draws a meteor tile, that player decides which tile he/she wantsthey want the meteor to land on by pointing to a tile.

Under the Deploy a follower section:

A follower may not be deployed on a meteor or flood tiles.

Under the Score section:

None of the natural disasters adds any scoring to the game. Scoring remains the same as the normal rules in Carcassonne. Although, although the flood prevents features from being completed and the meteors may not count as part of a feature.

Under the Final Scoring section:

Locate the earthquake tile and place earthquake tokens in any city within two tiles (orthogonally) or one tile diagonally from the earthquake.

[Gwommy]

Cool, thanks!  All suggestions taken except for one:

When a player draws a meteor tile, that player decides which tile he/she wantsthey want the meteor to land on by pointing to a tile.

When talking about a single player, 'they' should not be used as a pronoun.  Colloquially, it's common usage, but grammatically, 'he/she' should be used, or perhaps just 'he'.

The updated version can be found on the same link as posted above.

[Whaleyland]

When talking about a single player, 'they' should not be used as a pronoun.  Colloquially, it's common usage, but grammatically, 'he/she' should be used, or perhaps just 'he'.

The updated version can be found on the same link as posted above.

Not to start a grammar war, but the use of "they" to denote a neuter singular is becoming increasingly accepted by academics and professionals as proper grammar, not just colloquial speech. It was when linguists started pointing out a few years back that "they" was in fact originally both a singular and plural neuter pronoun that the academic community started to relent their roughly three century long reign of masculinity. Many people these days, conscious (or subconscious) of the gender revolution of the 1960s and 70s, feel uncomfortable using "he" for both male and neuter pronouns and the increasing return of "they" as the neuter is a clear sign that the reign of "he" is ending. I see no problem with using "they" and its derivatives in rules and plan to incorporate such gender-neutral language into my future card game when it is published.

[Gwommy]

Not to start a grammar war,

No worries.  I can be reasoned with.  Although, I still don't like the use of 'they' for a singular noun, but I'll keep that in mind when editing other expansions in the future.  But for this case, I've decided it be better to just re-word the sentence to avoid the conflict:

When a player draws a meteor tile, that player chooses a landing position for the meteor by pointing at a tile.

[djdahmer]

Not to start a grammar war,

No worries.  I can be reasoned with.  Although, I still don't like the use of 'they' for a singular noun, but I'll keep that in mind when editing other expansions in the future.  But for this case, I've decided it be better to just re-word the sentence to avoid the conflict:

When a player draws a meteor tile, that player chooses a landing position for the meteor by pointing at a tile.

Oops, I didn't mean to start any conflicts here.  All of the technical documents I work with use "they" rather than "he" or "she", which is why I had suggested the replacement, however you are both correct & I'm happy to go with the new wording (or whatever the general consensus is).
Out of interest I had a look at some of the official rules & found that they don't appear to have any consistent usage: e.g. the I&C rules refer to "he" and "his", whereas the A&M rules use "his or her".

[Gwommy]

[Novelty]

Sorry, haven't got the time to read through the rules, but a few comments on the tiles:

1. Would it be better to have the green border surrounding the crater rim of the meteor tile so that it connects better with the neighbouring tiles?
2. The flood tile in the rules and in the tiles doesn't match?  One suggestion for the tile - show rooftops and treetops poking through the "lake" to depict flooded houses and trees - that might make the tile look better.

[CKorfmann]

One suggestion for the tile - show rooftops and treetops poking through the "lake" to depict flooded houses and trees - that might make the tile look better.

I like that idea a lot!  I think it would really make the tile look good.

[Gwommy]

1. Would it be better to have the green border surrounding the crater rim of the meteor tile so that it connects better with the neighbouring tiles?

I wouldn't think it'd be better.  Then it wouldn't line up correctly with city pieces.  I might try playing around with it to see how it looks though.

2. The flood tile in the rules and in the tiles doesn't match?  One suggestion for the tile - show rooftops and treetops poking through the "lake" to depict flooded houses and trees - that might make the tile look better.

I agree.  I'll definitely work on this.

[Gwommy]

The flood tile I like. My attempt at greening the meteor, I don't like so much. What do you think?

==EDIT==
Updated Rules, Tiles and a ZIP file:
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasters.pdf
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasterTiles.pdf
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasters.zip

[djdahmer]

Updated Rules, Tiles and a ZIP file:
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasters.pdf
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasterTiles.pdf
http://gwommy.tripod.com/carcassonne/NaturalDisasters.zip

Looks good. The only thing I found was under the Flood section: "If you are playing with either River I or II expansions1¹"  (the 1 should be superscript).