Roborally hints?
Kevin Ames
Klaus Noekel wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> I played Roborally a couple of times and noticed that
> sometimes a player gets so far ahead that the others
> cannot do much to keep him from winning. Maybe we just
> didn't think of the right strategy or it is a flaw in
> the game itself. If the latter is the case, are there
> any house rules out there in the net which prevent this
> runaway effect?
>
> I'd be happy to hear about them!
>
We have played a few games, and what we generally do, so that this doesn't happen, is
when we place the flags, we generally make the maze extremely overlapping. e.g. Flag
one is in upper right section, second flag in the lower left, third in the mid right,
etc. This generally has people traipsing up and down the board continually through the
same sections no matter how many flags you have already gotten to.
The one thing that I don't like about the game, is that if you just sit on a double
wrench turn after turn, and keep collecting gadgets you will probably do better in the
long run. I would like to see a house rule when we play that allows only one gadget
from any two wrencher with maybe some tweeking.
KEvin
Klaus Noekel
Hi there,
I played Roborally a couple of times and noticed that
sometimes a player gets so far ahead that the others
cannot do much to keep him from winning. Maybe we just
didn't think of the right strategy or it is a flaw in
the game itself. If the latter is the case, are there
any house rules out there in the net which prevent this
runaway effect?
I'd be happy to hear about them!
Thanks a lot,
Klaus Noekel
Munich
Germany
jere7my tho?rpe
Kevin Ames <kja...@ccgate.hac.com> wrote:
* The one thing that I don't like about the game, is that if you just sit
on a double
* wrench turn after turn, and keep collecting gadgets you will probably do
better in the
* long run. I would like to see a house rule when we play that allows
only one gadget
* from any two wrencher with maybe some tweeking.
We always play with the "no sit-'n'-spin" rule: you can't get another
option card from a double wrench site until you've gotten one from a
different double wrench site. I.e., say you get an option from site A.
Before you can get another option from site A, you have to get an option
from site B (or C or D...), then return to site A.
This works remarkably well, IMHO, though there are variants to make
it less restrictive (you can either get an option _or_ get healed at site
B; you only need to _tag_ site B; you can tag either a single _or_ a
double wrench site; etc.). Under the standard rule, even if you leave
site A and wander all over the board before returning, you still can't get
a second option from site A unless you got one from somewhere else in the
meantime; some people find this too restrictive, and prefer one of the
variants.
HTH...
----j7y
******************************** <*> ********************************
jere7my tho?rpe "Everything you know is wrong;
Office of Undergraduate Education just forget the words
SEAS, University of Pennsylvania and sing along."
(215) 898-7246 ----"Weird Al" Yankovic
jim...@mindspring.com
If you set up your race so that your path crosses back over itself,
like a figure-eight for example, then those who get way ahead will
have to cross right back through the rest of the crowd. This is
likely to slow them down a bit.
Best Regards,
Jim Cobb
rr...@aol.com
>I played Roborally a couple of times and noticed that
>sometimes a player gets so far ahead that the others
>cannot do much to keep him from winning. Maybe we just
>didn't think of the right strategy or it is a flaw in
>the game itself. If the latter is the case, are there
>any house rules out there in the net which prevent this
>runaway effect?
About all you can do is set a path that overlaps itself or allows the
other players a shot at the leader. If you don't have that set up, the
leader will be the player with the least damage which also effectively
makes him the fastest player. If the leader in any game has all of the
advantages with no way for the other players to contain his strength, it's
over.
Richard Irving
rr...@aol.com
Made with recycled electrons.
wr...@aol.com
It has been written...
>I played Roborally a couple of times and noticed that
>sometimes a player gets so far ahead that the others
>cannot do much to keep him from winning. Maybe we just
>didn't think of the right strategy or it is a flaw in
>the game itself. If the latter is the case, are there
>any house rules out there in the net which prevent this
>runaway effect?
...and so I respond...
Try reading the Roborally FAQ. It gives a number of house rules to try
out, many of which help to control the Leader Breakaway Syndrome. Access
it at http://www.kdcol.com/%7Eval/games/RR/RoboRally-FAQ.html. (or you
could just do a search for roborally stuff, it would come out a lot
faster).
Wr...@aol.com
Wargamer and spelunker of the mind
Michael Schneider
In article <328F49...@munich.netsurf.de>, Klaus Noekel
<Klaus....@munich.netsurf.de> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I played Roborally a couple of times and noticed that
> sometimes a player gets so far ahead that the others
> cannot do much to keep him from winning. Maybe we just
> didn't think of the right strategy or it is a flaw in
> the game itself. If the latter is the case, are there
> any house rules out there in the net which prevent this
> runaway effect?
>
> I'd be happy to hear about them!
>
> Thanks a lot,
>
> Klaus Noekel
> Munich
> Germany
Here are options I play with:
1. Use fewer boards (half # of players & round down) for a cramped,
clausterphobic, paranoid (yes!) game.
2. Because of this, robots gain a life for each flag they advance.
3. Always play with 6 flags. To shorten games, use even fewer boards
(!!!). I ran a twelve robot game (many players using dice or fantasy
miniatures) with all six flags on ONLY the Cannery Row board at a
convention once ("Cannery Row Death March!"); it was the most entertaining
bloodbath mayhem I've ever witnessed. Only slightly less murderous was
"Malestrom From Hell" (similar all-on-one).
4. If you cause another robot to die on the same phase as you shoot or
shove/press/tractor it (i.e., you "murder it"), *you*, not the owner, get
to decide which option card is lost. (This makes kamakazi attacks to get
rid of mechanical arms, rear lasers, radio controls, etc. much more
feasible.)
5. And because #4 gives players ideas, deal out three option cards to
everyone at the beginning of the game.
6. After dying, a robot may ADVANCE to flags not yet reached by trading
extra lives for them, PROVIDED the flag to be attained has already been
reached by the lead robot.
Example: In a game with 6 flags, the lead robot has reached the fourth,
dying twice in the process (he now has 5 lives [3 starting +4 earned -2
dying]). Your robot, bringing up the rear, just can't make it to flag two
due to bad luck; but you've got all your lives (so far): 3+1 = 4.
Inevitably, you're shoved down a pit (lose a life: now at 3). Now, you can
come back at your last archive site with 3 lives, pop up on flag two with
2 lives or flag three with one life. This doesn't seem like much, but if
lead robot *just* so happens to be between flag three and something nasty,
well, well, well, ain't that a bloody shame.....
Mike
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Michael Schneider
In article <328EE4...@ccgate.hac.com>, Kevin Ames
<kja...@ccgate.hac.com> wrote:
> Klaus Noekel wrote:
> >
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I played Roborally a couple of times and noticed that
> > sometimes a player gets so far ahead that the others
> > cannot do much to keep him from winning. Maybe we just
> > didn't think of the right strategy or it is a flaw in
> > the game itself. If the latter is the case, are there
> > any house rules out there in the net which prevent this
> > runaway effect?
> >
> > I'd be happy to hear about them!
> >
>
> We have played a few games, and what we generally do, so that this
doesn't happen, is
> when we place the flags, we generally make the maze extremely
overlapping. e.g. Flag
> one is in upper right section, second flag in the lower left, third in
the mid right,
> etc. This generally has people traipsing up and down the board
continually through the
> same sections no matter how many flags you have already gotten to.
>
> The one thing that I don't like about the game, is that if you just sit
on a double
> wrench turn after turn, and keep collecting gadgets you will probably do
better in the
This is fairly difficult to do, since you DO have to move or rotate for
five phases, and a lot of options are fairly worthless.
> long run. I would like to see a house rule when we play that allows
only one gadget
> from any two wrencher with maybe some tweeking.
>
> KEvin
dbohn...@aol.com
In article <msch19-1811...@dial027.skypoint.net>,
msc...@mail.idt.net (Michael Schneider) writes:
>
>This is fairly difficult to do, since you DO have to move or rotate for
>five phases, and a lot of options are fairly worthless.
>
>
The trick is to announce power-down on the turn you'll reach the
double-wrench, and then just sit there. It's a rules loophole, and a lot
of people use house rules forbidding this.
D. W. Bohnenberger
Patrick Phalen
In article <19961119015...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
UM,
Check the rules. I'm very sure that my version
specifically forbids this.
I'll re-read them tonight to make sure, though.
Later,
Pat
Aaron D. Fuegi
In article <328F49...@munich.netsurf.de> you wrote:
: I played Roborally a couple of times and noticed that
: sometimes a player gets so far ahead that the others
: cannot do much to keep him from winning. Maybe we just
: didn't think of the right strategy or it is a flaw in
: the game itself. If the latter is the case, are there
: any house rules out there in the net which prevent this
: runaway effect?
Here are a few ideas:
1) Options: Accumulate lots of options by sitting on a double wrench
and then go defend the last flag. Basically kill the leader till he can't come
back again using all your options. This is a very desperate strategy and
often, even if it works, just lets someone else win but sometimes there's
little else you can do.
2) Board setup/flag placement: Set up the board so the leader is always
running into the people behind. For example set flags 1 and 3 right next to
each other and flags 2 and 4 right next to each other. This will cause the
leader to have to turn and run right into everyone else who is behind him after
he gets each flag which will let them really pound on him without distracting
themselves from catching up.
3) Optional rule: For each flag, at the beginning of the game deal
out 1 option card per player in the game as a stack associated with each flag.
Whenever a player reaches the flag, the player on his left goes through the
stack and gives him the worst option. The result of this is the longer it
takes you to reach each flag, the better the option you get. Of course, in
the worst case this has a negative result. The leader has gotten 3 flags and
3 options and nobody else has anything. In practice, though, it does help a
bit to even things out.
: Thanks a lot,
: Klaus Noekel
Aaron
aar...@bu.edu
http://www.bu.edu/~aarondf/ (the Last Homely House)
Brandon Freels
In article <56sveo$r...@news.bu.edu>, aar...@cgl.bu.edu says...
Another thing we do is setup 3 boards in a 1X3 fashion with a flag on
each one (i.e. 1-2-3). Half of the players start on flag 1 and have to
race to 2 and then 3 ... the other players start on flag 3 and then go
from 3 to 2 to 1. Put an interesting board in the middle and everyone
will enter it head on and start moshing.
--
Domo. Ja na.
Brandon Freels (so...@rain.org)
"I'm witty naturally. I don't need quotes!"
GOLEM Web Slab: http://www.rain.org/~sonic/golem/