I'm working on some tournament rules for our local community to cover Store Championship season and I'm trying to get a feel for a rare infraction.

During the activation phase (dials are set and ships have moved), your opponent (or you did this to your opponent) flips a dial that doesn't belong to any of their ships. And I'm not talking with Intelligence Agent.

I did this last year during a casual store event (not a Store kit) and I completely didn't even mean to do it ( we both had rebel dials and I grabbed the wrong one to check). I apologized profusely and we played it out with my dials set as is (they had all been set I was just checking I had the right maneuver dialled in to the right ship).

What I am thinking of doing for tournaments (Store, Regional, National) is make this an infraction that gives a written warning for the first infraction (Fly casual and all and the first time can be a simple mistake) and play game as is, but the second instance would warrant a game loss with a 3rd time resulting in a D.Q. for cheating (normal progression is 3 warnings force a game loss).

What I would like to know is how many times has this occurred out there in the tournament scene?

Is the progression of Warning, to Game Loss, to Disqualification reasonable for this infraction?

Also, if you have any weird tournament interaction that you think should be infraction worthy please post it here so I can see if my draft rulebook covers it.

Have a plan for if someone accidentally slaps their opponents ship and/or base across the room.

True story. I did this last year.

He had pulled the Decimator off the peg for bumps and I didn't realize there were two clear pegs on the base. Went to move my ship and exploded everything. I think it stopped like 3 tables over.

What I would like to know is how many times has this occurred out there in the tournament scene?

I don't think I've ever seen it happen before. But I made a point of marking my dials so I know which are mine and which aren't.

Is the progression of Warning, to Game Loss, to Disqualification reasonable for this infraction?

I'd say a warning is fine, but game loss and the like... that would have to depend on the situation. Does knowing what maneuver that ship makes actually help? I mean clearly it would help in terms of arc dodging and the like... But if there's no way you can take advantage of the knowledge then I'm inclined to say no harm, no foul.

Also it would depend on where the dials are. Is this a big furball and it's hard to keep track of what dials go with what ships? Are the dials marked in anyway, because if they are then that would make it less likely to be an accident.

But then again anytime someone makes this mistake more than once I'd be a bit suspicious.

It happens to us maybe every three weeks or so. But my friend has now done this and it's a great habit. If you're unsure. Use your thumb to block what the maneuver is and show the rest of the dial with the name to your opponent. So they can tell you which dial it is.

Your method works fine I think. 3 strikes would be suspicious in a single day.

I haven't had this happen but I DID have someone flip the whole table on me a few weeks back at my LGS. It was pretty awesome, particularly when he realized the antidote was NOT taped to the bottom of the table. Even better was the look on his face when he realized there WAS no antidote.

I've done it in non-competitive environments. Usually it only happens after dials are set, so it's not a HUGE problem. Still matters when I have repositioning abilities, but it's a very rare problem...

I don't think you can set rules in stone as to what the TO should do in this situation. This is a beer and pretzels game. There is no way you could ever institute precision in a miniatures game that relies on measurement guides instead of pre-measured squares.

The TO needs to assess all situations as they come. Follow the rules as they are written in the FAQ and Rules book. All other situations should be handled in a manner the TO deems fair if the players cannot resolve the situation themselves.

For me. I'd give a warning. The second time I would allow the player to change the dial if they choose to and then state what would happen to the offending player if it happens again. The third time I would institute the ruling I warned with upon the last offense.

this is why i mark my dials

Have a plan for if someone accidentally slaps their opponents ship and/or base across the room.

True story. I did this last year.

He had pulled the Decimator off the peg for bumps and I didn't realize there were two clear pegs on the base. Went to move my ship and exploded everything. I think it stopped like 3 tables over.

i can not imagine this, like what exploded... what is going on in this scenario.

Yea its happened.. to me and by me. Ever been hopped up on energy drinks nicotine etc? These things happen. I think a game loss should be something reserved for the TO to rule rather than a progressive discipline. I think that would really put any player that makes a mistake up tight from there on out.

As an opponent unless I am certain a player is doing it on purpose I would be inclined to be forgiving about the whole thing. Tournament play and casual.

I do this every once in awhile. The other part of my habit is that once I pick up a dial, I start spinning it without looking down, while I'm still examining the board. On about 6 different occasions, I've picked up an enemy dial after they set it, started spinning it without looking down, then had to explain myself while apologizing profusely.

A think it's a testament to "fly casual" and the X-Wing community in general that despite what a boneheaded blunder this is, none of my opponents have ever taken serious issue with this or felt the need to call a judge.

I'm working on doing better.

I place mine on my pilot cards, so this is a non-issue for me.

Have a plan for if someone accidentally slaps their opponents ship and/or base across the room.

True story. I did this last year.

He had pulled the Decimator off the peg for bumps and I didn't realize there were two clear pegs on the base. Went to move my ship and exploded everything. I think it stopped like 3 tables over.

i can not imagine this, like what exploded... what is going on in this scenario.

He beat me 100-0 so he wasn't too mad about it.

When I play, I set out my set out my ship cards in front of me. I mark all my ships with different #'s and set each dial on the ship cards when done locking in movement. Then when it's my turn to move I pick up the dial turn it over and place it out in the open space on the board for my opponent to see then move my ship. I know. I'm weird.

I've done it absently, and had it done to me absently. We have always handled it with absolutely no rancor. (Meaning I've never dropped someone into a pit to be eaten for it.) Basically, if we feel someone got an advantage (very rare) we work out a solution, usually along the lines of, "You can now reset to whatever you want, with advntageous knowledge of the board-state." Or, "I won't re-position into a more advantageous position based on what I saw."

It's never been a real problem.

That's what worries me about these rules ... if they mandate harsh penalties for stuff like this, it's going to be really unpleasant.

Now if it's only harsh on the third offense ... that's already covered by the TO's discretion, so I don't really see the point of explicating -- or trying to explicate -- everything to this level of specificity. It seems like it has a good chance of doing more harm than good.

I have done it more than a few times and I'm bloody ashamed of myself every time it has happened, especially since I have marked my own dials to ensure it shouldn't happen! In most cases I have been so quick in realizing that I picked the wrong dial that no real harm was done ie I didn't even see the intended move.

The few times I did see the move clearly I urged my opponent to replan their move. Even if they kept the same move, at the very least I couldn't claim to know the manuever beforehand.

I've done it a couple of times. Not sure if anyone has ever picked mine up.

I'm not a TO but I'd stay away from having anything too formal written to deal with stuff like this. Maybe make some notes to yourself about how you want to remedy stuff (or have in the past) so that you are consistent and don't have too contemplate it too much while people are waiting on a ruling. I'd think that letting the person whose dial was seen pick a new maneuver would be a strong enough deterrent to keep people from doing it on purpose to try and gain some sort of advantage.

I wonder if they would get a 5 year ban from tournaments. ???

Never seen this happen, till last week when I did it. Playing a friend third game of the evening mid way through the turn I fliped over the dial nearest my ship but it was my opponent's which was near by. Funny thing was I couldn't work out what had gone wrong something didn't look right but my friend had to point out it was his dial, since both of us were pulling red and had no other ships left to move it didn't matter, was a friendly game as well, but I really wouldn't want that to happen in a tournament.

It happens especially on mirror matches. Which is why the competitive ruling is that in mirror matches all ships are tagged and dials are placed on the pilot card instead of on the mat next to the ship.

I ve done it and also had people do it to me too. Its easy to mistakenly pick up a dial that's not yours especially in mirror matches.

As a TO I would allow the owner of the dial to reset his dial if he wants.

Which is why the competitive ruling is that in mirror matches all ships are tagged and dials are placed on the pilot card instead of on the mat next to the ship.

Where are you finding this ruling? I don't see any mention of it in the FAQ under "Competitive Play" or in the RRG under "Planning Phase".

According to the rules, dials and all tokens (except for shield and munitions tokens) must be placed in the play area next to the ship that they belong with. I've played against people that keep their dials and tokens on their ship cards but if a situation ever came up where something was being disputed they might have a hard time getting a TO to rule in their favor.

Have a plan for if someone accidentally slaps their opponents ship and/or base across the room.

True story. I did this last year.

He had pulled the Decimator off the peg for bumps and I didn't realize there were two clear pegs on the base. Went to move my ship and exploded everything. I think it stopped like 3 tables over.

I did this too. It's now called, "pulling an Asa."

Which is why the competitive ruling is that in mirror matches all ships are tagged and dials are placed on the pilot card instead of on the mat next to the ship.

Where are you finding this ruling? I don't see any mention of it in the FAQ under "Competitive Play" or in the RRG under "Planning Phase".

According to the rules, dials and all tokens (except for shield and munitions tokens) must be placed in the play area next to the ship that they belong with. I've played against people that keep their dials and tokens on their ship cards but if a situation ever came up where something was being disputed they might have a hard time getting a TO to rule in their favor.

I just went and looked it up. Its in the Tournament Rules (under Mirror Match)

Which is why the competitive ruling is that in mirror matches all ships are tagged and dials are placed on the pilot card instead of on the mat next to the ship.

Where are you finding this ruling? I don't see any mention of it in the FAQ under "Competitive Play" or in the RRG under "Planning Phase".

According to the rules, dials and all tokens (except for shield and munitions tokens) must be placed in the play area next to the ship that they belong with. I've played against people that keep their dials and tokens on their ship cards but if a situation ever came up where something was being disputed they might have a hard time getting a TO to rule in their favor.

I just went and looked it up. Its in the Tournament Rules (under Mirror Match)

Thanks.

Tournament Rules, pg. 3.

"To facilitate a mirror match, each player is required to differentiate their ships