Completely Annotated Rules - work in progress!

[Novelty]

I'd like to see clarifications from HiG to the questions raised here.  Did you manage to send the questions to HiG?

[mjharper]

I'd like to see clarifications from HiG to the questions raised here.  Did you manage to send the questions to HiG?

Ahem... to do

[Skull One]

Updating prior to the HiG answers seems pointless to me if you are limited on time.  I have waited this long to make a color print and bound version, I can wait a little longer.

[CKorfmann]

A couple of questions came up last night, but I knew I should have written them down... 

The one I can remember is; Can the barn be swapped out by the seduction token from Catapult?  The rules and the FAQ's are quite vague as to whether the Barn is considered a follower or not.  I guess along with that questions would be this one; When swapping out followers, do you need to replace the one on the board with the same follower or can it be with any follower?  And, can you swap out a pig or builder?

[mjharper]

A question occurred to me as I was adding the new expansion:

Does anybody thing the font size throughout the document should be increased, say by 1 point? (The current body text is 9pt). Anybody find it even slightly on the unreadable side?

[Whaleyland]

Does anybody thing the font size throughout the document should be increased, say by 1 point? (The current body text is 9pt). Anybody find it even slightly on the unreadable side?

While working on my own CARA document, any mass change, however slight, causes catastrophic changes throughout the whole document. I agree that the font is a tad on the small size, perhaps too much so, but if you are going to change the font throughout, upload a draft of your current rules first, please, so we can have a preview. That way, you can change the information throughout without us hawking at you to finish the changes already.

On a similar note, do you just use MS Word to type your documents, or do you use something slightly more advanced? Word is a [expletive] to work with since it likes screwing up margins on images when images are moved en masse.

[CKorfmann]

Does anybody thing the font size throughout the document should be increased, say by 1 point? (The current body text is 9pt). Anybody find it even slightly on the unreadable side?

I haven't found it unreadable.  I think if there was a problem, I could easily blow it up a bit and I probably have before.  I would assume most everyone can do the same.

[Scott]

The size is good for me, but I know that I am more inclined towards smaller font sizes than others.

IIRC Matt uses some LaTeX-based program.

[mjharper]

I made a copy and increased the font size of everything by 1, and actually not much seems to be out of order. It would take a little while to go through everything, so I will finish up on the new expansion first, but then I'll have a more detailed look, and put up a demo.

I use Apple's Pages for the CAR. For any serious work (say, academic writing) I'd use Mellel, which is hands down the best word processor I've ever used, but for graphics-intensive documents which are more like DTP, Pages is better. Both are Mac-only apps. Don't even have MS Word installed... The Mac version is pretty good actually, but there are always apps that do the same thing better, IMHO. And LaTex has always been tempting, but the learning curve is too steep for me to deal with right now.

[Whaleyland]

I use Apple's Pages for the CAR. For any serious work (say, academic writing) I'd use Mellel, which is hands down the best word processor I've ever used, but for graphics-intensive documents which are more like DTP, Pages is better. Both are Mac-only apps. Don't even have MS Word installed... The Mac version is pretty good actually, but there are always apps that do the same thing better, IMHO. And LaTex has always been tempting, but the learning curve is too steep for me to deal with right now.

Well that is reassuring. I was just starting to download LaTeX for Mac and it looked rather daunting. I have Pages and, oddly, never considered using it for my CARA. I should have thought of it right away. I'll have to copy everything over to a page and see how it comes out. I have two versions of Word installed right now, mostly to try out the features of Word 2008 before I buy it (Word 2003 has been disappointing me too much lately). I'll have to check out Mellel also, per the previous comment. I guess I can pass on LaTex right now, and wait to program my own consistent academic writing code for the future.

[Gantry]

One of the divisions of my company produces technical writing, and it only now occurred to me now this is a great solution to the frustrations of MS Word. We use Help and Manual.

What this software does is produce help manuals for software, but it would also work great for the CAR & FAQs.  Each topic with corresponding graphics is maintained in it's own separate section so that an update in one section never affects other section's formatting, and likewise a font size or font type change will not affect output.  And of course it creates an automatic table of contents, etc.  All you do is focus on the content, and it focuses on creating the document.  You could theoretically create your document, then output it in both PDF as well as a web format, with full text searching, glossary, etc.  It's absolutely brilliant software and easier than Word (at least I find it easier).

Considering at the moment if you're interested in using it, how my company could donate a working copy without breaking our licensing agreement.

[Whaleyland]

One of the divisions of my company produces technical writing, and it only now occurred to me now this is a great solution to the frustrations of MS Word. We use Help and Manual.

It sounds interesting and maybe even perfect for creating these kind of documents. But $349 retail is a bit steep. I am guessing this is big-business stuff. However, it seems that the only versions they sell are for PC and Matt and I at least have Macs. Mine can technically dual boot, but since I do all my Photoshopping on my Mac partition, it would take a lot of unnecessary work to switch back and forth. Thanks for the offer, though. Matt may be interested if his Apple dual boots or if he also uses a PC.

[Skull One]

mjharper,

Would you be so kind and review on page 13 of CAR 5.04B reference #23:

According to a recent FAQ, this should be changed to the following: “The game is over when the last facedown
land tile has been played.” This is to preclude players from placing any abbey tiles which they may still
have in their hand after the last ‘normal’ land tile (from the stack, the bag or the dispenser) has been played.

And the RGG Big Box 2 rules ( http://www.riograndegames.com/uploads/Game/Game_304_gameRules.pdf ) page 10:

When a player wants to use his abbey, he draws no tile to begin his turn and places the abbey tile. The
player may only place the abbey tile in an empty space on the table completely surrounded on four sides (not the
diagonals) by other tiles, thus filling a “hole” in the map. If there is no such place on the table, the player may not
place his abbey tile. The player may place a follower as a monk on the abbey tile. In this case, the same rules apply as
for a monk in a cloister - that is, it is scored in the same way. If one or more players have not yet placed their Abbey
tiles when the last landscape tile is drawn and placed, they may now do so, if possible, in clockwise order starting
from the left of the person who placed the last tile. Then, the game ends.

Since I can not read German, I can not review the HiG version of the Big Box 2 rules to see if they match the RGG version.  But I have a hunch they do.  If they do, then CAR is currently incorrect based on this new source of rules.

Thank you for you time.

[mjharper]

Thanks, that's interesting. I haven't seen BB2 from HiG. If anyone has rules, I'd be grateful if they could send me a copy or a link.

Otherwise, it sounds to me like this is a rule only in the RGG edition. Wouldn't be the first time.

EDIT: Modified the footnote by adding the RGG rule as well.

[mjharper]

So, I just uploaded a new beta (5.0b6). It includes all the new rules for The Wheel of Fate, as well as all the associated entries in the Glossary, Consolidated Tile Reference, and so on. I also standardised a few of the headers in earlier rules, and removed all the subheadings which said 'translations blah blah by Matthew Harper' (taking up unnecessary room, felt like too much trumpet blowing) but left any reference to other contributors.

To do:
- expand section about CC to mention fan expansions
- rework scoring overview.

The first is easy enough but the second a bit more tricky. I though that I should have a go at increasing the font size before I attempt that, because it will really alter the layout. I was thinking of abandoning the combined overview, and splitting it into sections: before placement (fairy, wheel of fate); after placement (main gameplay); final scoring.