Explorers
A TWILIGHT IMPERIUM 3^rd EDITION (Shattered Empire) PBeM

:: RULES ::
:: FAQ ::

GENERAL GUIDELINES 1. Basic rules of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire, and Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition FAQ (v. 2.0) are used, unless stated otherwise (see Optional Rules and House Rules below). 2. The Game Master Overlord (GMO) maintains the official count of all game variables, including, but not limited to, the game board, units, Strategy Cards (including Bonus Counters), Command Counters, Planet Cards, Trade Cards, Trade Goods, Gross National Product of Djibouti, Technology Advances, Action Cards, Political Cards, weapons of mass annoyance, victory points, Public Objectives and Secret Objectives. The GMO also keeps track of all deadlines. 3. All players are encouraged to regularly check all publicly accessible information pertaining to the game. Of course, there isn't very much of this.  Therefore, all players are encouraged to regularly inspect such private information as is available to them and notify the GMO of any errors.  In case of discrepancies players should contact the GMO and ask to correct the mistake. Any problems arising from a player's failure to notice such discrepancies will not be considered a valid reason to back up a game in case of irreversible negative consequences for the player(s) involved. 4. The GMO has final say on all issues.  He is, after all, the Game Master Overlord.   OPTIONAL RULES Leaders, Sabotage Runs, variant Strategy Cards, Artifacts, race-specific Technologies, Shock Troops, Space Mines, tactical retreats, Custodians of Mecatol Rex.  For details on these, see the appropriate sections of the rulebooks.   HOUSE RULES Major changes 1. Rules governing exploration. Each player will begin the game with only his Home System visible. Discovery of other systems takes place in one of four ways: upon activation during a Tactical Action during the Scouting Phase; this is directly after the Strategy Phase, wherein a player may reveal one tile that has a direct route to his Home System with no enemy ships through the activation of the Exploration Strategy Card (details below) upon being given such specific information by another player; this cartographic information will be supplied by the GM, though any specific fleet-related information exchanged privately by two players will not be updated on the map Exploration Strategy Card: The ExplorationSC has an initiative number of 9. Primary ability: Charting Distant Worlds or Intelligence Network. Choose either (a) or (b). (a) Reveal two tiles on a route to your Home System with no enemy ships.  Receive one Destroyer, which may be placed in any exposed system free of enemy ships (this does not activate the system). (b) Reveal unit positions in three previously-exposed systems. Secondary ability: Exploratory Party or Undercover Agent.  Spend one Command Counter from Strategy Allocation and choose either (a) or (b): (a) Reveal one tile on a route to your Home System with no enemy ships. (b) Reveal units in one previously-exposed system. Up-to-date fleet movement is only available for systems in which the player has units.  Exception: PDS with Deep Space Cannon technology may be aware of fleet movement in adjacent systems. Each player will begin the game with at least one Destroyer.  Those races which normally start with a Destroyer will begin with 1 Trade Good. Each player will begin the game with one extra Command Counter in the Command Pool. It is possible for one player to be aware of another and for the reverse not to be true.  For example: In the Scouting Phase, Player A reveals a tile that contains a fleet belonging to Player B.  Player A is then given the race and username of that player.  If he chooses to make contact, he will be able to.  If he chooses not to make contact, Player B will remain unaware of Player A's existence. Even if a ship has movement greater than one, it may not pass through a system that has not been previously exposed. If a ship enters an "unscouted" system and that system is... an Asteroid Field and the player has Antimass Deflectors, the fleet will be returned to the system of origin with knowledge of the Asteroid Field.  If the player does not have Antimass Deflectors, the fleet will be destroyed. an Ion Storm or a Nebula, the fleet will be lost for the remainder of the round and returned to the system of origin at the beginning of the following round's Action Phase.  Information regarding the system will be revealed at that time. a Supernova or an Asteroid Field and the player does not have Antimass Deflectors, the fleet will be destroyed.  No information regarding the system will be revealed. 2. Effects related to the above changes. Opponents. At the beginning of the game, the identities of the other players will be secret.  This includes not only the other races present in the game, but also the other players in the game. Information about other players will be limited to the following: Strategy Card selections and timing of Strategic Actions. All other Actions taken, including the play of Action Cards, will not be revealed unless they directly and immediately impinge on the activity of another player. Secrecy will be enforced by disallowing posts in the game thread in the PBeM Forum at the FFG website.  Any posts made by anybody other than the GM for any reason will be subject to immediate ejection from the game. Assembly Strategy Card. At the beginning of the game, the Strategy Card with initiative number 3 will be known as Empowerment.  This card does not provide for the play of Political Cards; in every other way it is identical to AssemblySC. When three players have made contact with Mecatol Rex (by whatever means), EmpowermentSC will change into AssemblySC (when selected by a player whose map has Mecatol Rex revealed).  When AssemblySC is selected and played, only those players whose maps have Mecatol Rex revealed will be eligible to vote.  Whether the other races will be affected by the results of voting is unlikely, but will be decided by the GM on a case-by-case basis. Trade Strategy Card. At the beginning of the game, there will be no contact between races.  Therefore, there can be no Trade.  A player may select the TradeSC, but no Trade Agreements may be made with other races until contact has been established.  The card will still provide 3 Trade Goods, but the role of Trademaster will be lessened. A secondary will be added to the card.  "Internal Commerce: Spend 1 Command Counter from Strategy Allocation to receive 1 Trade Good."  This gives the player that does not hold the card two options: (1) Accept Trade Goods equalling the total of your Trade Agreements, minus 1.  (2) Pay 1CC for 1TG. Distant Suns. Rather than being revealed once a Planetary Landing has occurred, Domain Counters will be revealed at the moment a tile is revealed. Minor changes 1. The Public Objective deck will contain a mix of base game and expansion cards. 2. A Transfer Action will be allowable between two systems as long as you control all the planets in both systems and there are no enemy units present (i.e. the systems can be empty but for control markers). 3. Political Cards MAY NOT be spent for Trade Goods.  However, at any time two Political Cards may be discarded for one new Political Card (drawn from the top of the deck). The political part of the game will further be altered as follows: During the Status Phase, each player will receive 1 Political Card (in addition to 2 Command Counters and 1 Action Card). As an action, for the cost of 1 Command Counter from Strategy Allocation, a player may choose to play any Political Card from his hand.  These agendas will play out just like the ones that come up when playing AssemblySC. During a vote on any political agenda, each player will have the option of exhausting planets to double their influence and/or cashing in Political Cards for votes (1 Political Card = 1 vote). (The same restrictions that apply to the AssemblySC, i.e., three players having found Mecatol Rex, also apply to this option.) 4. Mentak's steal ability may be used immediately after all players have received Trade Goods with Trade II. 5. The Agent Sabotage function is changed as follows: "Once per round, an Agent may Sabotage an Action Card that targets the system in which the Agent is located.  This does not eliminate the Agent."  (Definition of "target": If an AC affects only 1 system, it is "targeting" that system.  If an AC affects more than one system, it is NOT susceptible to an Agent Sabotage.) 6. Artifacts will grant a permanent Victory Point to the first race to unearth it.  To "unearth" an Artifact, the player must retain control of the planet until the following Status Phase (not the next, but the one following).  Artifacts will also act as a technology specialty; this function may be lost if the planet is taken.  Also, this specialty does not count toward any relevant Objectives. 7.  The following technologies will be adjusted as follows: Deep Space Cannon and Magen Defense Grid switch places on the technology tree.  Technologies that had one of these as prerequisities now have the other; e.g. War Sun now as Magen Defense Grid as a prerequisite. Gen Synthesis - All GF receive +1.  Also, GF convert to Shock Troops on a roll of 9 or 10. Integrated Economy - Units may be built at any planet; Space Docks not required.  (Production capacity equal to resource value of planet.) Fleet Logistics - Once per round, as an Action, may remove one Command Counter from the board. 8. Distant Suns comments: Native Intelligence allows scouting of any tile (instead of probing). Natural Wealth yields 1TG per round (at beginning of Status Phase, before claiming Objectives). Fighter Ambush and Hostile Locals are represented by black units; all rules governing them remain the same. 9. Each player begins the game with 3 Space Mines.  These may be traded like Trade Goods. 10. Cruisers gain the Minesweeping ability.  When a fleet containing a Cruiser enters a system with a Space Mines token, the attacking fleet may immediately pay 10 resources to remove the Space Mines with no dice rolls.

:: RULES ::
:: FAQ ::

Question 3:  "If A and B contact. And C and D contact. What happens when:    A takes Trade? Can C and D exchange TAs? A must approve?    E takes Trade? Can anyone exchange TAs? Must E approve?" Answer: The role of the Trademaster (the person with TradeSC) is certainly reduced in the early game.  There is simply no logical way around this.  The answer to whether A must approve a trade between C and D if he doesn't know of their existence is "no".  Their trades will not need approval.  (In my experience, people rarely restrict trading anyway, since it just breeds resentment.)  So anybody can trade with their known neighbors when TradeSC is activated.   Question 4: "Can I reveal an unexplored hex even though no valid path (due to enemy ships) to it exists?" Answer: No.  The ability to reveal tiles is representative of exploratory, or "scout", ships moving through space.  Since these scout ships do not remain in a system if there are enemy ships present, neither would they be allowed to explore a tile adjacent to such a system.  I will amend the rules for exploration to reflect this. As a side note, I imagine this not to be a big issue.  My feeling is that people will likely trade their information on discovered systems, though what they choose to hold back should be interesting to see.   Question 5: "Will game history be kept?  For instance, early on, would players actions/pick lists, etc. be visible to players later?" Answer: One reason to be concerned about this is if you decided to backstab somebody by, say, attacking them at a place you know them to be when they don't know you're even there.  It's a good question.  My intention is to reveal the Summary of the game after the game has completed.  Since the Fog of War is so heavy, there will likely never be a time when everybody knows what everybody else is doing.   Question 6: "Would you like us to create new user accounts to further hide our identities from the other players?  If some other player bumps into me, it might make sense for them to not recognize me by me using some other account." Answer: This shouldn't be necessary.  The need for strict secrecy is to keep the sharing of information to a minimum in the early-to-mid game.  Once two players learn of each other's existence, they will be free to communicate (via pm) as much as they would in a normal game. Each personal page, however, will be password protected.  This will not be a password like you may be accustomed to in a PBeM, however, where the "password" is simply a unique page identifier.  This will actually be protected directories on my server, which is as secure as I can make it.  You will be able to supply your own username and password for this.   Question 7: "Using your example in Question 3, would C and D even know of Trade being played?  After all strategy Cards had been picked, would players receive the identity of what cards were picks, so they can plan out their SA plays before hand?  Example, if Production is taken by another player, would people know it was, so they could save an SA to play on production?" Answer: The answer to all three questions is, yes.  Here is the one area where it simply isn't possible to play TI3 and not have this element.  When you go to select a Strategy Card, you will know which ones have already been selected.  All players will know which three were not selected.  And all players will be informed when a Strategy Card is played; I expect this to be one of the primary uses of the PBeM thread, in fact.   Question 8: "Regarding Artifacts, are you saying that once a player holds it for 2 rounds, they will never lose that point, even if they lose control of the planet it was found on?  Do dud artifacts pay 3 TGs, like we play (house rule) (instant Rare Minerals)?" Answer: Yes, once a player receives the Victory Point for the Artifact they cannot lose said point.  This reflects the glory of being the initial discoverer of something like the long-lost Lazax Armory, a glory which can contribute to a race's acceding to the Imperial throne. There are no dud Artifacts.   Question 9: "Regarding Integrated Economy: does this mean that I can build units on any planet I "control", or "own", or "any system that isn't blockaded" even if that system isn't activated?" Answer: The system will need to be activated in order to build in it.  The Tactical (or Transfer) Action remains the same; the only difference is when you reach the Production step of the Action.  At that time, you may produce units at a planet, even if there is no Space Dock there.   Question 10: "Regarding the definition of "control": are you going to use the standard game definition, which would imply that a player couldn't use a tactical retreat to retreat to their HS if they didn't have any non-fighter ships there?" Answer: No, I am not using the standard game definition.  As mentioned above in Reply #2, point 2: "A Transfer Action will be allowable between two systems as long as you control all the planets in both systems and there are no enemy units present (i.e. the systems can be empty but for control markers)."  To me, this just makes sense.  You should be able to retreat wherever you want, so long as you're not backing into somebody.   Question 11: "So is the map going to be a regular 3 ring hex or is it going to be open space and we have to find Mecatol Rex?  (Because if I notice the edge of space in one direction, I'll know exactly where Mecatol Rex is.)" Answer: It is a unique map.   Question 12: "So bascially, Empowerment will give a player 2 ACs, 1 PC and the Speaker token, so that they can pick first next turn?  You mention that once 3 players have discovered MR, Empowerment will become Assembly, is this something that is only revealed to the three players who've reached MR?  Or does everyone in the game get to see the switch?  If it is revealed only to the three players (which feels pretty cool to me), would ONLY those three players (or however many players have made contact with MR) get to vote on Agendas?  If after empowerment is swapped to Assembly, will the "speaker" only get to choose players (to vote on a law) who've also discovered MR?  Just to be clear, for Empowerment to switch to Assembly three players need only discover MR, not each other?" Answer: Yes; 2AC, 1PC, and Speaker.  Yes; only those three will know that the card is now Assembly.  Yes; only those three will be able to vote (nobody else has representatives there yet).  Yes; the Speaker will only get to choose from available voting blocs. And let me clarify the last question a little more.  It is certainly possible that three separate players could discover Mecatol Rex without discovering each other.  In that event, you would discover the other races that are present there in the council chamber, but you would not know the players themselves.   Question 13: "Your minor change #3 seems to hint that if a player choose to play a card from his hand, all players will vote on it as well. if this is the case, will players get to see how many votes each unseen player has?" Answer: This question has been resolved in the answer to Question 1.  These PC in your hand cannot be played until Mecatol Rex is "active".  Specifically, until it's active for you. But you mention another interesting point.  Will you know how many votes another player has?  This is relevant, because you may not know which planets another player has.  The answer to this is, yes.  Number of votes to voting members will be known.   Question 14: "Will it be possible to trade contact information? For example, if I contact player A, who had previously contacted player B, could player A give me access to player B? Or if player A gives me map info and shows me a system owned by player B, will I be able to make contact?" Answer: Whatever you can do, you can do.  So if, to use your example, Player A wants to tell you who Player B is, he can.  I will not treat this as actual "contact" for purposes of Trade II and map-revealing, though.  However, if Player B has given Player A map information, that is now Player A's, too, and he may share it with whoever he wants to.   Question 15: "Menatak: Can you explain a bit regarding how their stealing ability works with unseen opponents, seen opponents, and moved to after trade?" Answer: In the event that Mentak is in the game, they may only steal from opponents they know about.  Immediately after known opponents receive Trade Goods, Mentak may steal one (if they have at least three, of course).   Question 16: "When we look at our 'map' will we at least have some indication of the directions we can go explore?  Or is there a chance that we'll slam our ships into the "edge" of the universe, would they bounce?" Answer: You will know which directions you can go.  The initial maps on the website do not directly contain this information, so I will supply it.  Subsequent updates to the maps, though, will.