ABGG

Guidelines for being a courteous gamer

ABGG’s events function best when everyone is being courteous to each other – we’re pleased to report that an overwhelming majority of people don’t need to be told or reminded of these things, but to make sure we’re all on the same page these are the behaviours we should aspire to be enacting.

This is a living list, it will never truly be completed – if you see something that is missing then please get in touch!

Accommodate other people playing games.

• First, be kind to each other.
• When a game finishes, look around at other tables and if they’re also soon to finish (within 5-10 mins) and if so, wait, to sync up – this allows players to merge, then split off again into new groups/tables.
• It’s very frowned upon for groups to split in such a way that anyone is left out, unless that player has explicitly noted they’re okay to sit out.
• If someone arrives and could feasibly join a table preparing to play, then that table should let them. Usually this would be during setup, before rules explanation has if one is needed; or before the first turn if the new arrival already knows rules.
• Take care of your personal hygiene before attending – people are going to be in proximity, and thus more sensitive to odours; this goes both ways, a nice smell is nice, but not if it’s overpowering!
• Don’t attend if you’re unwell – people are going to be in proximity, and want to play games, not get sick :)

Most of our games are there because of attendees, please don’t do anything that stops that!

• The games you’re playing belongs to people; and some can be quite rare and expensive – Treat them with respect, be very careful with (or don’t eat) food and drink around the games.
• Some people may bring games intended for a specific audience. When choosing games to play, if someone hasn’t opened their bag, then don’t open it. (If you’ve brought a bag of games for others to play, make sure you don’t forget to open so they can!)

Rules explanations are hard

• Rules explanations can be hard, go easy on the people that explained the game, it is often stressful to do, plus mistakes and omissions easily happen – remember the first game doesn’t count! :)
• Try to avoid interrupting a rules explanation; hold questions to the end, or a break in the rules explanation if possible.
• If you know the rules and saw a rule get missed don’t interrupt, save it until it seems like they’ve definitely moved on/missed it, and it’s best to pose it as a question e.g. instead of explaining an icon that was missed, ask “Hey, what does this icon mean?”

There are some things you will need to agree upon with the table - communicate well with other players

• Is taking back a move okay? Opinions on this vary. If you want to, you should ask the rest of the table ¹
  • Just remember if someone asks you and you say ‘no’ then you shouldn’t be asking later and expecting different treatment.
• The tone and use of language at the table should be something everyone is comfortable with
• If you know you’re going to be absent or distracted for any significant period during the game, communicate this ahead of time and ensure others are okay with it.
  • This could mean any number of things - a phone call expected, needing to leave for a few minutes, a live sports game you also want to watch.
  • Bio breaks (getting water, using bathroom, simply needing to get up and stretch, etc) are excepted from this, though if you can do so try and wait until just after your turn, and as always communicate to the table.
  • If you don’t think you’ll be able to finish the whole game then let the table know before you commit to play, or if it’s because the game is running long as soon as you think it might be a concern.

Some behaviours are not okay at all

• Discrimination of any kind is not okay at our events.
• Do not harass, abuse, bully, etc any players.
• Do not engage in ‘Kingmaking’, team play, and/or cheating in games which do not have provisions for doing so.

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1. Authors note: Personally I play that as long as nothing random/secret happened (like drawing a card), and other players haven’t reacted or telegraphed their move, then yes, sure. It’s a judgement call if some of those other things have happened – though other factors go into this. If you said you were going to do something, then just forget to until someone else starts their turn, ofc I’ll let you. If it was obviously something you’d do like using a free action to gain a resource on your last turn for the round, another obvious yes. If something wasn’t a choice like taking income and you missed part of it then as far as I’m concerned that’s a mandatory part of the game you missed. The easy way to decide is that we’re here to have fun though, and if you executed your turn slightly wrong and someone wont let you correct it that’s not fun. ↩