Hello.

I am playing AGoT for some time, and 2 days ago i participated at my first tournament.

I was pretty surprised when my opponent start to look at my plot deck?! I mean, what the...

He said that it is normal thing to present your plot deck to opponent, so we can know if anyone of us is running Wildfire Assault, Valar Morghulis, or any mass removal plot.

So, we looked at each others plots, and start playing. I didn't saw anyone else looking at other player's plots, and i didn't asked any of my next opponents for plot cards, as any of my opponents didn't asked for my plots.

So, what's the deal?

Is Plot deck public information?

Is a Discard and Dead Pile public, since he played with Discard and Dead Piles face down?

Thanks.

To put it succintly: No.

Plot deck is NOT public information and should be face down. Like all face down cards (Shadows, Hold, etc), unless instructed otherwise, they're only accessible to the owner. The used plot pile is face up, and public information.

Discard and Dead pile ARE public information, and should be face up.

Main deck is hidden from everyone, including owner.

Hand, Shadows, Plot deck and Hold are visible to the owner and hidden to everyone else.

Cards in play, agendas, discard and dead piles, revealed plot, used pile and cards removed from the game are visible to everyone. Additionally, the discard, dead and used piles are ordered and order must be preserved.

Your opponent was horribly incorrect.

I don't mean to be rude, but that does not seem like an honest or casual mistake to me. I have never heard of anyone reading the rules of this game and thinking that getting to look through someone's plot deck pre-game is legal. And I have never heard of any card game rule (let along AGoT) that would lead to an honest misinterpretation that the discard pile is face down.

I really think your opponent purposefully tried to take advantage of your inexperience. I'm sorry you had to run in to such a thing in this community.

In NetRunner (both the original and the new version), on player (the Corp) has face down cards in their discard pile (that player plays most of their cards face down and the cards retain their face down status when discarded). And the other player (the Runner) has ways to flip every card in it face up.

In every other CCG/LCG I know, the discard piles are public information.

But do the rules for NetRunner describe the "face down" status being retained when discarded? Or is it something the designers don't describe in writing because they expect players to assume that's the way games work? For example, I'm guessing a Netrunner player "slumming it" with the AGoT crowd would not assume a face down card discarded from play stays "face down" in the AGoT discard pile (although I could see accidentally doing it in the moment out of habit).

I just cannot think of anything, either specifically in the rules or in generally understood card game mechanics, that would cause someone to read the rules of AGoT and think the dead and discard piles are supposed to be face-down. It seems like a mistake you have to want to make (which makes it no mistake at all...).

It is in the rules, probably because it's so unusual.

Yeah, no. Netrunner involves being acutely conscious of what cards the runner has or has not seen, there is zero chance that you'd presume the same applies to AGOT.

This whole "I get to look at your hidden information but you can't look at my public information" stinks to high heaven. Right up there with designing a melee deck to synergize with other copies of itself at the same table.

I think you should have contacted the TO at once if you have concerns. It is a good policy.