Rebuilding from the Floor (Rules) Up...

The DDM Guild is please to announce the immediate release of the new D&D Miniatures Floor Rules. They offer new solutions for Dungeons and Dragons miniatures players, and should help us move the game forward. The plan from Oranized Play is to keep this document updated frequently, so that when new maps and sets are released, we can make it clear that they are legal.

In particular, we would draw your attention to some of the new rules that the Guild has added. In particular, we will be implementing a new penalty, “Warning with Victory Point Award.” This penalty allows a judge to penalize a player beyond a simple Warning, but without having to go straight to game loss. The standard victory point award is a single turn of victory points. However, judges will be empowered to increase the penalty up to the cost of a particular creature that has been called into question. For example, if a valuable but easy to kill (perhaps due to vulnerability) creature is not placed on the board during setup, the judge can award up to that creature’s point cost to the other player.

We’d also like to point out that there is a new list of Chainmail equivalencies we’ve added. This list is somewhat different than the prior list, and some figures have been changed with respect to which figures they may proxy.

This example also allows us to segue into another somewhat thorny issue. Some figures (for example, Aramil from the first release of the basic Dungeons and Dragons starter set) look exactly like two different figures with two different cards. So which figures can they proxy for? We’ve decided that the answer is either; you can choose these figures to represent either released card, however, you need to clearly indicate at the beginning of the tournament, and during each game (as you encounter new opponents) which creature they will represent.

Limited play remains a beta part of these rules, and we anticipate updating them as we go forward towards the championships next year. We are looking hard at auction drafts and whether we are happy with the current booster draft format. We’d like better integration of new items with sealed as well, to help balance the format while adding new options. Since items are limited by level and keyword, this is going take a bit more time to shake out kinks. I think we’ve improved on last year, but I know we can do better.

So please, grab some friends, take out some minis this weekend and shake up the new floor rules. They should feel familiar, but with new solutions.

The new D&D Miniatures Floor Rules are available immediately and are legal effective March 1st, 2009.