Rules
There are two main phases in which players make decisions.
During the Forum Phase, players attempt to grow their faction by persuading senators and equites to join them and may sponsor games to grow their popularity while placating the people.
But the meat of the game is the Senate Phase where players vote for the senators to lead the session, then vote on the motions they put forward. These motions will disburse Rome’s resources - money, fighting forces, generals - to deal with problems or, as ever, to boost the standing of individual senators.
Our primary rules reference is the living rules v1.06 at http://dartagnan.us/RoR/LivingRules_V1.06.pdf .
This quick rules overview might be more appropriate for the peanut gallery: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/498101/republic-rome-rules-explained-valley-games-edition
Note that these rules are comprehensive but not very comprehensible. Players should feel free to ask me about anything that seems unclear. One of these days I’ll get around to writing some rules that approach things in an order that seems logical to me.
We will play with the same set of advanced rules as last game:
- 2.01 Pontifex Maximus
- 2.04 Legionary Disbandment & Recall
- 2.05 Advocates
- 2.06 Passing Laws
Secret game information is limited to cards in hand, players will have a PM containing their hands that I will edit as the game progresses. Feel free to use that message thread for any private communication.
Players may talk to each other by any means desired. No deals made in private are binding. You are welcome to copy me in to these communications or keep them private.
Playing the game on a forum necessitates a few changes to the standard rules, particularly regarding timing of certain actions.
- The HRAO may call for votes from multiple players at once if they wish. Once a player has been called to vote they should do so as soon as possible, in particular they should not wait for further private communication from other players before voting (though of course they’re welcome to read what they have already received).
- When voting, players should say how many votes they are casting to make it easy to keep a tally. Note that if you are spending money to buy extra votes it must be done at this point.
- Faction treasuries are public information. You could all be tracking it anyway.
- We’ll try to keep things fairly flexible with respect to timing of tribunes and assassination attempts. Try to indicate your plan to launch an assassination to me in advance if the timing is important.
- Deals made in the public thread are not binding unless it’s made explicitly clear they are. That lets us keep regular chat in the thread without fear of people trying to enforce it later.
- Binding deals may be cancelled at a later time with the consent of all signatories to the deal.
- When there’s a dispute about a binding deal, I will try to rule by the spirit of the deal if it was made clear at the time. If not, I’ll have to go by the letter. I’m hoping there won’t be any need for arbitration in the first place.
Scenario
We are playing the early republic extended scenario, which is essentially just playing through the early republic deck followed by the middle and late republic decks until we crown a winner or everyone is defeated. In practice we are unlikely to get far into the middle republic deck if we even reach it.