House Rules for RoboRally, when playing with the Ass-Sucking Hooligans (tm): Remember: 1 turn = 5 register phases = a bunch o' parts to resolve "Shove" means pushed, pulled, displaced by an explosion, etc. Programming: -There is a limited time for programming: 3 minutes. Allowances can be made for a player who also has a buzz bomb to program that turn. At three minutes, all unprogrammed registers are filled with unused cards in the player's hand chosen randomly by the player on his left or right. -A card flipped over while being dealt may be accepted or refused by the player it was dealt to. If dealt to nobody in particular, put the card aside. Virtual Bots: -Virtual Bots drop/launch virtual tokens, which affect only virtual bots. Any virtual tokens get removed at the end of the turn because it's annoying to keep them around. Virtual bots themselves don't fire lasers nor push any other bots. -Virtual Bots become real after the laser-fire part of the first register phase where they don't share a space with another bot (virtual or no). -Real Bots don't affect Virtual Bots, nor do they become virtual if they're sharing space with a virtual bot. Damage and Wrenches: -All bots have a capacity for 9 damage points (not 10). When the last register is locked, the bot is destroyed. -Bots have an unlimited number of archive copies. Keep track of how many times a bot has been pulled from an archive by the 'head' counters usually used for the number of copies left. Players should be discouraged from dying too often by helpful pointing and laughing from fellow players. -Repair spots and chopshops take effect at the end of each _phase_ you enter the space. This includes if you were shoved off it and shoved back on in the same phase, but not if you rotated or blocked from moving. Option Cards: -We (the people) recommend that you get a small toy, about the size of the game miniatures, of a cartoon character to stand on the options deck. Players who get an option card must ask the toy politely for an option card. This is to insert some humilty into the players who are playing "Move 1 - Backup" over and over again so they can be war machines. Example: "May I have an option card, Sailor Mercury?" (We've seen Sailor Mercury, Boba Fett, and Maxx's dark isz so far.) -If every player agrees, each robot starts with one random option card. -Archive copies start with no options. Superiour archive copy is almost an exception: if the bot was destroyed still holding the superiour backup (which means it must have died with at least two unlocked registers), then the new bot does not start with 2 points of damage. -Bots may carry half as many options as damage remains, rounding down. If damage would reduce the maximum number of option cards a bot can carry below the amount currently carried, then option cards must be sacrificed to absorb damage until there are enough damage points to carry the options when the dust settles damage is resolved. Example: Pat was so excited about tractoring Ray into a pit that he ignored the buzz bomb that impacted nearby, causing two points of damage. He's carrying tractor beam, fourth gear and mine layer with two points of damage (7/2 = 3.5 for 3 options max). The two points brings him down to 5 points of damage remaining, allowing him to carry only (5/2 = 2.5) two options, so he decides to lose fourth gear to prevent a point of damage. -Option cards that are lost from damage or bot destruction are put into a discard pile. When the option deck is exhausted, do not shuffle in the discards. You kids are having too much fun, or the game is going on way too long -- try to get some checkpoints. -Jump Jets: During the eight spaces of movement before executing the program for bot movement, the bot is considered to be "flying." (see below) -Fire Control does not have precidence over shield, power-down shield, ablative coat or converter. Board Effects: -The mapboards are surrounded by a trench which we are assured is bottomless, but none of the Trench Depth High-Velocity Measurement teams have returned to confirm or deny this. -Dropped tokens are carried by conveyors and currents, vanish in pits, rotated by gears and conveyors, shoved by pushers and moved by portals _if_ the dropped token is somehow moved onto the portal. Mines and missles (drones, buzz bombs) will denonate if shoved or crushed. All other tokens are removed from the board if crushed. Goo is an exception: it is not shoved by pushers, but bots caught in goo will suffer a point of damage if shoved while stuck fast in goo. -Flying items are not affected by portals, dropped tokens, or other flying non-bot items. -Flying items are affected by pushers, crushers, weapons fire, flame throwers, repulsors, explosions, ramps (when going up) and flying bots. Any flying item will stop flying when it tries to move through, shove, gets shoved or takes damage; this means for the flying object either detonation or dropping onto the factory floor in that space. -Flying objects that are off the mapboards at the end of the turn are destroyed by vigilant snipers employed by the Control Computers to make sure nobody gets away... er, with sabotaging this important event ...yeah. Untested: -When a checkpoint is touched, rotate the mapboard the checkpoint is on by one turn clockwise. The Yuggernaut, or Autonobot: -Should a player be lost, to girlfriend or passed out drunk or aliens, leave the player's bot on the board and continue dealing five cards to be the bot's "program" randomly. The bot never fires an optional weapon, walks over pits as if they were open floor, and treats the edge of the mapboards as walls plus a fast U-turn to face away. It's invulnerable to damage, rampaging around causing pleasant havoc for the players who remain. Playing for Points: -Instead of 'head' counters being used to keep track of how often bots have been zapped into burnt tinfoil or crushed into large hubcabs, use them to keep track of points. -A point is awarded for each checkpoint touched in the proper order. -A point is awarded for each bot you (or your launched/laid counter) dealt the final fatal damage point to. -A point is awarded to the one who is the last bot to interfere with a desceased bot's movement on the same turn it died. Example: Pat still has the tractor beam, and decided to pull CJ's shut-down robot onto a conveyor belt that ends in a pit. Ray decides to get back at Pat by pushing CJ's bot off the conveyor belt underneath a crusher. Ray would get the point instead of Pat -- CJ gets two points of damage for the next archive copy and some choice words about Ray's "resuce." -When the last checkpoint is touched then whoever has the most 'heads' at the end of any turn wins. There are no ties; the game goes into "sudden death" if more than one person has the highest number of 'heads.' "Do, or do not; there is no tie." -ControlComputer YODAL-A-E-HOO "There can be only 1." -Hulkbot HiLndr-111.1 Playing with Beer: -"a drink" is defined as 1 fluid ounce of beer, where a typical serving size is 12 ounces in a bottle. Lite beer is not acceptable -- for Roborally or any other drinking game. Strewth, eh? -A player takes a drink each time their bot takes a point of damage (not when a point is inflicted; ie. ablative coat will keep you safe and soberish). -A player takes a drink when the apporpriate checkpoint is touched. Then all other players toast the achievement with a drink, and the player drinks again with the toast. -Option cards come with a complimentary beverage. Take a drink when you draw a card from the option deck (this includes chopshop exchanges and the bio-option, but not re-engineering trades). -If a bot is destroyed, then the player must consume a full serving ("chug" a beer bottle) before returning to the game. The player returns to the game at the start of the turn following the feat of completely drinking the serving. We recommend that you use this opportunity to get rid of your really awful domestic beer by making it the required drink to "chug."