Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 23:05:37 +0100
From: Tournament Headquarters  (by way of Robert F. Heeter)
Subject: W2WT: Tutorial #3A - Heroes and their Heroics (B)


Rules Tutorial #3:  Heroes and Hero Activities

This is an important tutorial, because Heroes are critical to winning,
and the Tournament Rules for Heroes are a little tricky to understand.
There is also a common WarBOT mistake involving hero bonuses which
has led to a number of deaths (of heroes, not players!).  This is
explained in Part B, along with many useful survival tips.
Please read both parts of this tutorial carefully!

The philosophy behind the Hero rules is that we have to allow players
to revert, since we can't enforce a "no-reverts" rule.  This means
all hero activities have to be regulated, so that reverting doesn't
give any player an advantage.  Also, the rules are designed to minimize
the amount of reverting needed to stay competitive, since reverting
is boring and not fun.

Therefore:
* You are limited to at most one living hero at any time, except
    in "Multiple Hero" rounds (which will be announced in advance).
    Otherwise, some players would cheat by reverting to get a lot of heroes.
    You're not allowed to accept any heroes except using a special
    procedure after your last hero is dead.

* There are no quests.  Otherwise some players would revert for hours to
    get easy quests, and then revert after completing the quest to get
    the best reward.  That wouldn't be fair or fun.

* When you visit a ruin, you can receive at most 1800 gold or 1 ally.
  When you visit a stronghold, you can get up to 3600 gold or 2 allies.
  When you visit an item ruin, you can revert until you survive
    and get the item it contains.  These rules are also designed to
    limit reverting and prevent cheating.  In practice the most time
    is spent reverting to get gold, but it's not bad, and gold is very
    useful!

* If your hero dies, you use a special procedure to replace him/her.
    Similar to normal Warlords, the number of turns you must wait to
    get a new hero depends on how much gold you have.  You can keep at
    most 1 ally with a replacement hero, and the type of ally may be
    restricted to keep the game in balance.  (These restrictions will
    be announced at the start of the game.  The 1-ally limit is so
    players don't feel they must revert extra to get 2 or 3 allies.)
    The exact rules are available via http://www.heeter.net/w2wt/index.html
    Should you lose your hero, ask your Moderator to explain the
    replacement procedure in more detail because it is confusing the first
    time through.  But pray that it happens to someone else first!  :)
    When it comes time to get a new hero, you may wish to plan ahead to
    spend up to two hours reverting, because you are allowed to
    revert until you get a hero in the city you want, with the ally
    you want.  This is the least enjoyable part of the Tournament, but
    our playtesters were willing to go through it to have just
    the right ally in just the right city.

The other aspect of the Hero rules involves reporting the activites of your
hero.  There are three reasons for reporting things:

(1) The game becomes more fun and the Remailer history is more interesting.
(2) By tracking the actions of all heroes, it's easier to catch cheaters.
(3) If you declare what you've done, it's easier to find and fix mistakes.

  For instance, if you visit a stronghold and forget that you can only
  get two allies, you'll report 3-5 allies, and everyone will immediately
  inform you that you have to disband some of them (and possibly replay
  your turn to do so).  Also, if you don't report that a hero has gone up
  a level, other players may miscalculate your bonus, leading to
  battle-odds errors.

The specific things you have to report are listed in the Turn Report
Template discussed in Tutorial #1:

( See http://www.heeter.net/w2home/tournament/RptTempl.html )

Some of the reporting requirements have to do with the hero-replacement
rules, and are designed to keep everyone in the game aware of your
hero replacement status.  You don't need to worry about them unless
you're going through the process of replacing a dead hero.

If anything is confusing, remember the Tenth Commandment: Ask thy Moderator!

A number of very useful tips follow in Part B, read it carefully!

-- Tournament Headquarters