From:	Brett Francis <slq0m@**.USU.EDU>
Subject:	Re: gencon tournament rules (official)
Date:	Fri, 31 Jul 1998 11:42:33 -0600

Bull wrote:
> At 02:00 PM 7/30/98 -0700, Noah Overton wrote these timeless words:
> > <snip> scroll down far if you need to see the rest.
> >
> > 7. The player that goes first Does not draw his/her eighth card their
> > first turn.
> >
> > what is with this rule. i dont see why any one would come up with a
> > rule like this. there is nothing in the rule book that has any
> > suggestion that this is some thing that may need to be done. i dont
> > see why you should penalize the player that is going first. now if the
> > rule is that if you use a card to help win the who-goes-first-roll,
> > then you dont get the eight card but other wise it seems to me to be a
> > really bad rule.
> >
> It's a holdover from Magic. It's become a fairly standard Magic tourney
> rule because in Magic, going first is a huge advantage. Basically, if you
> win the coin toss/dice roll, you get to "Play or Draw", to some extent
> eliminating teh hug advantage that going first in magic can have.
>
> In Shadowrun, though, since you can;t do a whole lot until at least second
> turn, I think the rule, wile interesting, is unnecessary, and kinda
> penalizes you for going first, rather than balancing anything...

IMO going first in ShadowRun is almost a penalty buy itself. You can't
earn any rep in the first round when you are first. You can only play
challenges on one objective (yours).

Secondly, If you're going to let people use deja vu and LotI to affect
who starts, why not loaded dice? I don't really like this rule though,
as the game hasn't started, why should anybody be able to play cards.

I probably will never play a tournament in my life, but I think if any
game should be
fair, it would be those games.

A few last questions: Do players take their turns according to the
beginning die rolls? When time runs out, is it ensured that everyone
had the same number of turns?

Brett