db@cstvax.UUCP (03/25/86)
In article <165@cosivax.UUCP> rec@cosivax.UUCP (Rick Cobb) writes: > Rules lawyers can be a big pain, but if I remember right, there's > a flare in expansion set 5 that deals with them.... I often find that "rules lawyers" are simply people who are used to playing a game with a different set of conventions from yourself. This is particularly noticeable in a game like Cosmic Encounter (or Talisman, or ...) since the rules are virtually nonexistent and there are *lots* of events that interact with each other, usually in undefined ways. I consider this bad design, or at least bad playtesting. I still think CE is a great game though. The guy who used to organise the games I played in had changed many of the powers and flares to make the game more balanced or less ambiguous; most of these changes were preety good ideas. He also discarded 20 or so of the moons and one or two of the powers which were fun to read but a pain (or impossible) to play with. The result was not just good fun, but a tightly fought game too. Before I moved to Edinburgh I dreamed up a tighter sequence of play to eliminate some of the arguments on timing we always got when someone new joined our game - unfortunately I never got the chance to test it! Maybe I'm what you call a rules lawyer??? Don't worry, I don't insist on doing things this way. It's just my personal preference. >In addition, Eon has just repackaged the game; Oh good - maybe I'll be able to get a copy at last! -- Dave Berry. CS postgrad, Univ. of Edinburgh ...mcvax!ukc!cstvax!db