SoloPlay_IntheYearoftheDragon_v1.pdf | In the Year of the Dragon

Joe Salamone

(joe_salamone)

United States

Aggravating people worldwide since 1964

I gave this a "trial run" last night and found it to be very enjoyable. Just a couple of questions:

1. Is the end-of-game scoring in the SoloPlay rules in addition to the scoring in the original rules or does it completely take the place of the original rules?

2. Do you shuffle the action tiles before every action round or do you leave them on the board in their original set-up configuration?

Thanks. I also recentky printed the VASCO DA GAMA SoloPlay rules and hope to give that game a try very soon.

Posted Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:39 pm
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SoloPlayGames

(GameRulesforOne)

United States

Alabama

joe_salamone wrote:

1. Is the end-of-game scoring in the SoloPlay rules in addition to the scoring in the original rules or does it completely take the place of the original rules?

Answer: I see what you mean. I should not have mentioned the yuan and fireworks (normal scoring) in the additional end game scoring section. I should have said that you perform all normal end game scoring: people, monks and fireworks/yuan and then add/subtract the additional items that I mention.

joe_salamone wrote:

2. Do you shuffle the action tiles before every action round or do you leave them on the board in their original set-up configuration?

Answer: The action tiles (privilege, research etc) are shuffled and laid out per normal rules at the beginning of each round.

Thanks for your comments and let me know how you do with Vasco da Gama.

Edited Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:39 pm
Posted Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:50 am
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Jacek Malinowski

(jax900)

Poland
Warszawa
Poland (Polska)

Hello,
I have a question - what do you exactly mean by occupied person tile?
I don't quite understand when you pay 1VP/2 yuans when selecting occupied (by game's marker) person tile. Initially I thought you have to pay only if you put your coin on exactly the same tile, on which the game's marker is situated. BUT there is a sentence (in the paragraph about selecting occupied person tile) saying something about the range of game's marker - does this sentence mean that if you place a coin in the range of game's marker, that constitutes as placing your coin on occupied space?? I'm puzzled..

Posted Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:31 am
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Frederick Lai

(fredlaiwl)

Hong-Kong
Unspecified
Unspecified

I have two questions about the "player's coin":

1. In the setup section, the rule says that the player has to place a gold coin above the person selection area. What is meant by "above"? Does it mean "above" the whole area or on one particular person tile? If it is the latter, which character should the player place the gold coin on?

2. After the game starts, does the location of the gold coin remain the same throughout the whole game? If not, how does the location change?

One more question
On page 2 of the rules: Playing the Game 1. a. iii. the rule says, Limitation: The research action cannot be chosen in back to back rounds at any time ...

Excuse me. I'm not a native English speaker and I don't understand what does the phrase "back to back" means. I look up a dictionary and can't find any entry explaining it. Does "back to back" mean consecutive?

Thank you for any answer.

Edited Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:14 am
Posted Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:00 am
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SoloPlayGames

(GameRulesforOne)

United States

Alabama

jax900 wrote:

I have a question - what do you exactly mean by occupied person tile?

Answer:In the selection person phase there are 2 opposing "PSMs" (person selection markers) "blocking"(occupied) your ability to choose those persons without cost. The coin is you and the "value" of the person marker that your coin on is the orthogonal range that you can "move" your coin(PSM) during the person selection phase.

So you only pay if you choose a person that a game PSM is on or if you want to move your PSM(coin) beyond the range of the person tile it started moving from.

Edited Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:49 pm
Posted Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:32 pm
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SoloPlayGames

(GameRulesforOne)

United States

Alabama

fredlaiwl wrote:

1. In the setup section, the rule says that the player has to place a gold coin above the person selection area. What is meant by "above"? Does it mean "above" the whole area or on one particular person tile? If it is the latter, which character should the player place the gold coin on?

Answer: I just place the coin in the "used" person card discard space. The location is not relevant and the note in the setup is to make sure that you have all of the components that you will need out on the board so as not to confuse your money with the gold "PSM-person selection marker" coin.

fredlaiwl wrote:

2. After the game starts, does the location of the gold coin remain the same throughout the whole game? If not, how does the location change?

Answer: In the 1st person selection round the coin(PSM) can be placed on any person tile that you would like to select. This will be its starting point for the game.

You are required to move the coin(PSM) during each person selection phase to indicate which person you will bring into your palace. Based on the number on the person that you chose from a previous round you will know how far you can move for free your PSM to select a person in the next round. If you want to move your marker further than the range allows, you must pay for each space beyond (young monk = 6 orthogonal spaces).

fredlaiwl wrote:

One more question
On page 2 of the rules: Playing the Game 1. a. iii. the rule says, Limitation: The research action cannot be chosen in back to back rounds at any time ...

Answer: You are correct that "back to back" means consecutive rounds. If you plan on using the scholar action as part of your strategy you need to plan to use him every other round.

Game design note: I found that if you were able to load up on scholars that you could break the game (read this as "score very well") depending on how the events were coming out. I think I had one time where I would be set for the last 3 or 4 rounds so I just chose the scholar action for the remaining rounds of the game and achieved the highest level of victory easily. The every other round situation pulled this "option" back to keep the game balanced amongst the various methods that a player might choose to success. It is much more of a planning and opportunity option now.

Thanks for your questions. Hopefully I answered all of them to your satisfaction.

Posted Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:46 pm
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Javi Santos

(barnyams36)

Spain
sevilla

Just played my first game, and totally loved (even though I made some mistakes and actually took me a bit too long, just because it was first time) I think it does capture the esence of the game. Fantastic job. Just waiting to try also the Notre Dame Solo version, which looks great.

EDIT: Second game, extremely enjoyable, and a nice 94 points!!

It is clear that the character selection mechanism plays a tremedous role in the game. I had to give away 3 points because of selecting occupied characters angry

Edited Wed May 2, 2012 3:15 pm
Posted Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:14 pm
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Javi Santos

(barnyams36)

Spain
sevilla

Played 3 times now, and yesterday my brain had problems to understand how the person phase works exactly for the game-players.

After turning the card, the marker is moved to the closest matching person tile to the current PSM position.

(From this, I understand that the closest is a priority)

But it has to follow a sequence, and that's where I got problems.

1-Unoccupied (in case of tie, younger if applicable)
2-Occupied by the active player
3-Occupied by the other game marker
4-Current position

I would understand that in principle it goes to the closest. But then, if both characters (old and young) are at the same distance, it will go to the one in the sequence. That would mean that if the closest is occupied, and the furthest would be unoccupied, the PSM would go to the occupied one, because it is the closest.

I can only imagine for posibility 3 the situation in which the card is the same as current position, and the other is occupied by the other game marker. Only possible when the deck is reshuffled.

Am I going wrong somewhere?
Thanks a lot in advance

Posted Fri May 11, 2012 11:15 am
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SoloPlayGames

(GameRulesforOne)

United States

Alabama

barnyams36 wrote:

Played 3 times now, and yesterday my brain had problems to understand how the person phase works exactly for the game-players.

After turning the card, the marker is moved to the closest matching person tile to the current PSM position.

(From this, I understand that the closest is a priority)

But it has to follow a sequence, and that's where I got problems.

1-Unoccupied (in case of tie, younger if applicable)
2-Occupied by the active player
3-Occupied by the other game marker
4-Current position

I would understand that in principle it goes to the closest. But then, if both characters (old and young) are at the same distance, it will go to the one in the sequence. That would mean that if the closest is occupied, and the furthest would be unoccupied, the PSM would go to the occupied one, because it is the closest.

I can only imagine for posibility 3 the situation in which the card is the same as current position, and the other is occupied by the other game marker. Only possible when the deck is reshuffled.

Am I going wrong somewhere?
Thanks a lot in advance

Answer: The 4th answer is when both your marker and the game's other marker are on the same person and the person is turned. Since the person is occupied by both you and the game, the marker does not move to that location and therefore is not moved.

Better wording would have been:
2- Occupied by only the active player
3- Occupied by only the other game marker

It is a rare circumstance, but must of happened for me to put it in the rules except that I left out the "only". If it happens the game prefers to occupy both of the same persons versus putting both markers on the same spot.

My apologies for the ambiguity. I had to think hard about why that was in there. Good catch.

Posted Mon May 14, 2012 2:15 am
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