Valerie Putman:  Undoing mistakes

It happens to everyone.  You accidentally take two cards from the top of the draw stack instead of one so you put one back and give the deck a quick shuffle.  Or maybe you realize that you skipped someone so you go back and let the player take their turn.  Often there is an easy fix when a mistake is made during a game and you can undo the mistake without disruption.  Sometimes, a mistake isn’t caught for several turns and there’s no reasonable way to backtrack.  Then the only solution might be to forget about the mistake and continue, perhaps with an asterisk next to the scores in the log book.

Well, this week I played both Show Manager and Atlantic Star.  They are essentially the same game with different themes.  You are collecting cards in order to complete 4 different shows/cruises made up of a set of 3, 4, 5 or 6 cards.  In both games you are not allowed to have more than 2 cards left in your hand after completing a set (and in Show Manager, no more than 1 card left after completing your last set).  If you were working on the 4 card set, but accidentally took a 7th card, you must now use your cards to satisfy the 5 or 6 card show/cruise.  To some extent, you can help a fellow player avoid this mistake.  If he has already played his 4, 5, and 6 card sets, you can remind him that he can’t draw more 5 cards before his last cruise (or 4 cards before his last show in Show Manager).

Apparently, drawing too many cards is a common enough mistake that there are suggestions on BoardGameGeek for house rules to undo the error.  One option is to allow the player to sail (or put on a show), but require that they sail again immediately their next turn.  I wasn’t really paying attention when my friend Paul was explaining this option, since I knew to be careful to watch how many I drew.  But a new player at the table misunderstood Paul and thought that a viable strategy was to collect the cards for two sets at once and then play them in back to back turns.  We didn’t realize his mistake until he already had a fistful of cards.

Since it was a friendly game, we resolved it fairly quickly, but as a table we launched into a discussion of games with rules specifically for undoing mistakes.  For example, in Puerto Rico, the mayor is responsible for counting the empty building spaces and refilling the boat.  But the rules are clear that if the mayor forgets, then the standard “one colonist for every player” should be placed in the boat instead.  I understand that some players consider this a viable strategy and will purposefully not fill the boat in order to reduce the number of colonists in the next round.  Is this okay?  Or is it cheating?

We agreed that next time Paul taught Atlantic Star to a new player, he wouldn’t mention any house rules for fixing a mistake.  It’s too easy to interpret it as an alternative way to play if it is included in the rules.  But when the rules do give suggestions for fixing mistakes, is that then fair game for players to take advantage of?  Any rules lawyers out there want to chime in on this?  Are there other games besides Puerto Rico with an “undo” rule built in?  What happens when mistakes are made during tournaments?

Games played this week:
With our local gaming night (CABS once again had over 100 players show up this week!), a trip to Cincinnati to play with the Liberty Gamers, pub night, some gaming at home with hubby, and an evening on BSW, I got to play a lot of games this week.  They were:  Goa, Dry Gulch, Around the World in 80 Days, Tumblin-Dice, Freya’s Folly, Age of Steam (South Africa), Show Manager, Die Sieben Siegel, Medina, Elasund, Trump Tricks Game, Easy Come Easy Go, Blue Moon, Message to the Czar, and Atlantic Star.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

© 2006 Valerie Putman

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Comments:

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Let me chime in as an anti-Rules Lawyer, Valerie.  I think the goal when correcting a mistake should be to have the error affect the game as little as possible.  Puerto Rico is an excellent example.  If we forget to refill the boat (and that still happens a lot), we always backtrack to figure out what things looked like at the time of the error and fill up the boat as if the mistake didn’t occur.  Every group I’ve ever played the game with plays like this.  In other words, we ignore Alea’s rule on this in favor of what we consider to be common sense.  If we did follow the rules as written and someone deliberately left the boat vacant in order to help them win, I don’t think I’d consider it cheating, but I would think it to be shady behavior and would figure this is the kind of gamer I’d rather not play with.  There are some basic principles that need to be honored when playing a game, like not stealing from the bank even if it isn’t explicitly mentioned in the rules, and this feels like one of them. Posted by Larry Levy on Feb 26, 2006 at 03:29 PM | #

I’d consider not filling the boat on purpose a form of cheating.  I don’t see myself accusing anyone of cheating if they failed to fill the boat, as that seems to be one of the harder things to remember.  The rules say what you are supposed to do, and then give some advice if you forget to do that.  There is no viable strategy to “forget” as that would require not thinking about pink rhinos.  One follows the rules.  Isn’t one person unillaterally deciding to purposely NOT following the rules, by definition, cheating? Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Feb 27, 2006 at 12:45 PM | #

Lary and Matt, I agree with your sentiments completely.  I think it’s cheating too.  I really more interested in how we undo unintentional mistakes.  For example, my favorite genre of games is deduction games (and Larry’s Deduce or Die is my favorite of the genre).  Mistakes in deduction games can be deadly.  Paul reminded me that in Inkognito there is a series of facial expressions that can be used to communicate who you are if there has been mistaken misinformation.  Most deduction games don’t have this kind of safety net built in.  I have played several deduction games where we have tried to help a player who has made a note keeping mistake by sharing our own notes.  But if the mistake can’t be undone, it can be a long game of giving clues without any chance of winning yourself. Valerie Posted by Valerie Putman on Feb 27, 2006 at 06:22 PM | #

Inkognito immediately came to my mind too. It has arguably one of the most senseless “safety net” rules in a game.  Why should you worry about deducing your partner, when all you have to do is recognize who keeps winking at you? (Is this where the game idea behind “Maskenball Venezia” came from?) It IS a great deduction game, however, if you play carefully and ignore this safety net rule. Posted by Jeff Allers on Feb 28, 2006 at 12:56 AM | #

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