• The Moderators' Toolkit, a very useful collection of "Standard Procedures" for moderators.
• Standard End-of-Game Procedure

N.B. all references to the Practice Round have now been deleted to condense the page.

General Role of the Moderator:

This philosophy is embodied in the "Moderator's Checklist" that follows, which is based on the experiences moderating all the Playtesting, Test Round, Practice Round, and official games to date.

Official Round Moderator's Checklist

1. General Items:
   1. Remember to send messages with "query" or "noarchive" commands, and not "archive" commands, unless you're doing something directly relevant to the game history (like implementing a Lost Player).
   2. If a situation comes up where you don't know what to do, send email to the Moderator's discussion list. All you need to do is email with the subject line "WCMod".

2. Game Setup:
   1. Receive game assignment list from Tournament Headquarters
   2. Keep all games separate from each other, don't let the players in one game know anything about other Official games!
   3. Send an introductory message to the players in the game to introduce yourself and explain what will be happening next.
      1. All moderators remind players to inform Moderator and HQ about vacations.
      2. PC Moderators ask Player #1 to submit a hero name.
      3. PC-Classic Moderators send game # and hero name to Gary Best, gsb@compupick.com, for gamefile editing. PC-Deluxe hero names go to Barry Brook, bbrook@rna.bio.mq.edu.au
      4. Wait until you receive gamefile back from Gary or Barry.
      5. Do NOT send gamefile to the players yet.
      6. Set up each game in the Remailer using the Tournament Game template:
         • For the Official Rounds, the "Privacy" feature should be *ON*, so that players cannot observe or interfere with other games. This *is* the default setting, so there should be no problems.
         • Check a few games set up by other Moderators to be sure you can't access their history files.
         • Put "" as one of the Moderator addresses, along with your own. I will be keeping a complete central archive of the tournament in case it's needed to resolve cheating or other problems. (Like fixing the occasional Remailer New Years' intoxication!) In general I will *not* read any game messages unless you ask me to help you out with a moderating problem!
      7. Send a non-Remailer "Confirmation" message to make sure everyone received the Remailer's "New Game" message. Ask the players to send a query message introducing themselves and confirming that they're ready to go.
      8. Don't send out the gamefile yet; wait for the "Let The War Begin" message from the Official Round Starter! Once that message goes out, send out the gamefile (and rules reminders) as a "noarchive" message!
      9. The War Begins!

   4. Running the Game:
      1. Early on, make sure that all players are "alive" and in the game. Contact Headquarters and the Vacation Guru (Ivan Baird) if you have any problems with disappearing players. We want each of these games to get off to a quick start!
      2. As a moderator, you will still receive all game email and all gamefiles. The focus in the Official Rounds does change, though - now you only deal with rules issues. You should *never* provide tutorial information or advice on gameplay. Early on you will probably need to provide feedback on the turn reports; some players are still learning how to write them well. (This is still true in Round B.)
      3. Make sure the game is moving smoothly; work out any stray file-transfer problems that weren't solved in the earlier rounds. (There *will* be problems!) If a player loses a few timeout due to a file-transmission glitch, give them the benefit of the doubt and use the remailer to reset their timeouts. If a player disappears from the game, isn't known to be on vacation, and runs out of timeouts, the Lost Player Rules apply, and the player is in danger of being ejected from the Tournament. We will not keep players in the tournament who aren't participating.
      4. You shouldn't need to look at gamefiles unless there is a serious problem. Most rules errors can be figured out from the game email. It's better if you look for and point out mistakes, but in the end it is the players' responsibility to double-check each other and police themselves. If you notice a mistake you should bring it up, but if you don't notice, that's okay. The tournament becomes a little unfair if the moderators peek at gamefiles unnecessarily. Do not use this privilege to gain an advantage.
      5. Answer whatever questions come up, providing rules clarifications but no advice on how to actually play. When in doubt, consult the Moderator's discussion group. Remember, moderators may *not* give *any* game-related advice to players - it's unfair to the players not receiving advice. (Advice about how to send gamefiles is okay, of course.)
      6. If the competition gets out of hand and players start taking themselves too seriously, it doesn't hurt to remind them that it's just a game and the purpose is to have fun, so they should lighten up a little! If players are writing abusive email, they get one warning and then they'll be ejected for violating the spirit of the tournament.
      7. Archive as many gamefiles as you can. If you're missing a gamefile that you need to resolve a rules problem or other problems, email me and I'll send you a copy from the official complete archive.
      8. If a player loses their last hero, send the Hero Replacement rules as a query message, since they're tricky to remember.
      9. If a tricky rules situation comes up and you're not sure what to do, it's wise to send a question to Headquarters or the WCMod list. It's not good to make up new rules "on the fly" because other moderators will probably face similar situations, and we want all games to be played with the same rules.
      10. On Turn 17, it's time to remind players about the upcoming End-Of-Game Procedures. Ask Headquarters for the standard end-of-game message (Tutorial #8) if you need a fresh copy.

   5. Ending the Game