THE RULES OF FOURPLAY



500-503 Player's and Offices


500. Offices and Colors

Each Player owns an Office. The Pieces of a Player are then owned by that Office. When the Rules refer to a Piece owned by a Player, it means a Piece owned by that Player's Office. A Player controls (that is, moves on the Board, places on the Board, trades, or destroys) only the Pieces owned by his Office. All Players must publically name their Offices before that Office can own any Pieces. A Player may not select an Office name already selected by another Player.
Players must publically declare a set of colors (sort of like sports teams) associated w/ their Office before that Office can own any Pieces. The minimum is one color, the maximum is two main colors w/ 2 trim colors. A Player may not select a set of colors already selected by another Player.

Article the First: Each Player, as his option, may maintain a personal Office page.

Article the Second: Such page will be maintained and updated by the owning Player using his own web space, not that of the Fourplay website.

Article the Third: It shall be the duty of the Fourplay Webmaster (Ben at present) to incorporate the appropriate links to these pages as they are received.

Article the Fourth: Such links will be attached to each Player's name in the Office listings of the Fourplay main page.


501. Mascots

A. Each Player must declare a Piece to be the Mascot for his Office.
    (i) Each Player must choose exactly one Piece, which he owns, to be his Mascot, and announce it publically.
    (ii) Each Player must name his Mascot; he can not use a Mascot name which has already been chosen by another Player.
    (iii) The Player may designate any Piece he owns to be his Mascot with the following exceptions:
        (a) The Player's King may not be designated Mascot.
        (b) The Player may not designate a Piece Mascot if that Piece's Definition states that the Piece is uncapturable, or if that Piece's Definition states that the Piece may not be designated a Mascot.
    (iv) When a Player submits his Setup Proposal to the Collector in phase 2 of the game, the Player's Mascot must be placed on the board, or his proposal is invalid.
B. When a Player captures a Mascot, the Piece becomes the property of the capturing Player (as with any other capture), but the Piece still remains the Mascot of the Office for which it was originally Mascot. When a Player captures a Mascot, he must immediately place it back on the Board as part of the same turn (and in accordance with all the Rules of placement).


502. Trophies

Trophies are ownable non-purchasable non-tradable entities which are awarded to the Players according to the Rules. Their purpose is to represent the glory of the pPlayer's acheivements, so that he may gloat over other Players.

At the end of each Game Cycle, the following Trophies are awarded:
    (i) To the Player who still had his King on the board at the end of the Cycle, he receives one Winner of the Game Cycle Trophy. It is a most prestigious Trophy.
    (ii) To each Player who captured a King during the Cycle, those Players receive one King Trophy for each King they captured during that Cycle. The King Trophy is a prestigious Trophy, altho not nearly as much as the WotGC Trophy.
    (iii) To the Player who was the last to have his King captured during the Cycle, he receives a Runner-up Trophy. It is a fairly prestigious Trophy.
    (iv) To the Player who was the second to last to have his King captured during the Cycle, he receives a 2nd-Runner-up Trohpy. It is not an especially prestigious Trophy.
    (v) To the Player who was the first to have his King captured during the Cycle, he receives a Big Dork Trophy. It is not a good Trophy to have.
    (vi) To the Player who received the most Neutron Gems during the Cycle, he receives a Neutron Trophy. It is a nice Trophy to have.
    (vii) To each Player who owns a Mascot that is not their own, those Players each receieve one Mascot Trophy for each Mascot that is not their own. The Mascot Trohpy is a prestigious Trophy, worth slightly less than a King Trophy.

Once a Player's Office owns a Trophy, the Office continues to own the Trophy unless the Rules describe how the Office can get rid of the Trophy (in other words, an Office can't just dump unwanted Trophies).


503. Points

A. Each Player receives Points. Initially each Player has zero Points. A Player can only receive Points as described in the Rules. Points are only purchasable as described by the Rules. Points are not tradable.

B. Whoever has the most Points is considered to be winning the Game and may gloat (only in a friendly manner) over the other Players.

C. At the end of each Game Cycle, after Trophies are awarded for that Cycle, each Player who does not have the most Points must write a poem (any form) in praise of the Player with the most Points, and submit that poem publically. (If the leading Player considers any poem to be unsatisfactory, he may ask for a new one. If the offending poet refuses, the leading Player may ask for a Call for Judgement). It is illegal for any Poem to contain 'They Might Be Giants' references.

D. Points are assigned as follows:

For each Winner of the Game Cycle Trophy a Player has, he receives 100 points.
For each Runner-up Trophy a Player has, he recieves 40 points.
For each 2nd Runner-up Trophy a Player has, he receives 20 points.
For each Big Dork Trophy a Player has, he receives -10 points.
For each King Trophy a Player has, he receives 25 points.
For each Mascot Trophy a Player has, he receives 15 points.
For each Neutron Trophy a Player has, he receives 15 points.


503. Trades

At any time during the game, 2 Players agree to trade items that they own and are tradable.
To make a trade, 2 Players must both agree on which items will be traded. They may use whatever communications they desire to arrange and negotiate the trade. Players may only trade items which they own. Once the Players have agreed on the trade, the trade actually occurs when one Player announces the trade publically, and the other announces 'I agree to this trade.'
$F, off-board Pieces, and Neutron Gems owned by Player's Offices are tradable. On-board pieces are not tradable as long as they are on the Board. However, a Piece's definition may state that the Piece is untradable; such Rules take Precedence over this one.
Points and Trophies are not tradable.


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