ICE's "New" (1997) Multiplayer Rules - MELE Player Guide

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CDavis7M
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The MELE Player Guide (not the Companion) includes 4 pages of new multiplayer rules. Does anyone use these? I have used the "hazard-limit passing" rule and the "hazard guards only" rule and I like them in Arda and multiplayer. But I am more wondering what people think of the "Enhancer limit" rule (discard the # of hazard enhancers over the # of moving characters). It seems disruptive, and the Rules acknowledge this and provide tips. But is it better overall? Isn't having the hazards get out of hand is some of the charm of multiplayer. Or maybe its only fun in Arda, but not in preconstructed.

Update: I have removed the summary and added the rules:

Multiplayer Rules
The following rules are meant to be used for games with more than two players. Play proceeds as in the Standard Game, except where these rules contradict the Standard rules.

1 Victory Conditions
The marshaling point conditions for playing a Sudden Call card or calling the Free Council are reduced for the multiplayer game. The 1-deck game only requires 18 marshaling points, the 2-deck game requires 22 marshaling points, the 3-deck game requires 25 marshaling points, and the 4-deck game requires 28 marshaling points.

When Sudden Call is played, or the Free Council is called, every other player at the table gets one more turn. Marshaling points only double at the end of the game if none of your opponent's have any points in that category.

Note that a player is eliminated from the game when their Ringwraith or Wizard is eliminated. However, the game does not stop because of this, unless only one player remains in the game.

2 The Cards and the Decks
Sideboards
A Wizard player may place any Wizards into his sideboard, as long as only one Wizard is duplicated in the play deck and sideboard combined, and no more than three copies of the duplicated Wizard are in the play deck and sideboard combined. The sideboard size for each game is increased by five cards.

You may exchange a Wizard card in your hand for one in your sideboard, providing that another player has revealed the Wizard that is in your hand.

You may not halve the hazard limit for your opponent's companies to access your sideboard for hazards.

Unique Resources
When playing with more than four players, uniqueness rules for resources are relaxed. In such a case, a resource card in play only counts for uniqueness if the player to your immediate right or left has it in play. This rule only applies to resources, and does not apply to hazards, characters, Wizards, or Ringwraiths.

3 Getting Ready to Play
At the beginning of the game, each player rolls two dice. The highest roll, rerolling any ties, goes first, with play proceeding clockwise around the table.

The minimum number of resources in a deck is 25, with an equal number of hazards, even when otherwise playing under Council of Lórien guidelines. Each deck must contain, as part of its hazards, at least ten creatures. The following count as 1/2 creatures for deck construction
  • Agents in Wizard decks
  • Dragon Ahunt manifestations
  • Dragon At Home manifestations
  • Cards that can be played as either creatures or events.
A character draft is used in multiplayer games. Each player may start with a pool of 25 characters. The player who is going last reveals a character. That character is now in play and counts for uniqueness. Going around the table counter-clockwise, each player in turn reveals a character. This continues until each player either has 20 mind in characters in play, has five characters in play (six for a Ringwraith), or no longer wishes to reveal any characters. If one player stops revealing characters for any of the above reasons, other players may continue to reveal characters.

After the character draft is over, you may put any unused characters from the character pool into the deck, as long as there are no more than ten characters in the deck.

Example
Four players sit down to a game, in the following order clockwise around the table: Bob, Connie, George, and Scott. They all roll two dice, and Connie rolls higher than any other player. That means Connie will go first, George second, Scott third, and Bob last.

Since Bob is going last, he gets to reveal the first character in the draft. He places Thorin II out as his first character. Now, none of the other players can play Thorin II. Scott plays Aragorn next, since he is sitting counter-clockwise from Bob. This continues around the table until all players have their starting companies in play.

5 Characters and Companies
In addition to the hazard limit, each company in multiplayer play has an enhancer limit. The enhancer limit is equal to the number of characters and allies in the company, with no characters counting as half characters. There is a minimum of two on the enhancer limit. The enhancer limit is the maximum number of creature enhancing long-events and permanent-events that can be in play while the company is moving. A creature enhancing event is defined as an event that has an ongoing effect on a certain class of creatures or attacks. This could include making creatures playable in more situations, taking creatures from the discard pile, increasing the abilities of an attack, or duplicating an attack. This does not include environments that change site paths. If at any time there are more creature enhancers are in play than a moving company's enhancer limit, the current hazard player immediately chooses which enhancer must be discarded. Note that the enhancer limit does not prevent the play of creature enhancing long- and permanent-events, it just limits the number that can be in play at one time.

Example
Minions Stir is a creature enhancer, because it affects the abilities of all Orc and Troll attacks as long as it is in play. Thrice Outnumbered is a creature enhancer because it allows you to retrieve Man hazards from your discard pile. Doors of Night is not a creature enhancer. Although it affects when certain creatures can be play, these effects are on the creature cards. Doors of Night itself has no direct effect on any class of creatures.

Example
Bob moves his company, consisting of Frodo and Beorn. The hazard limit for the company is two, so the event limit is also two. In play before the movement/hazard phase begins are Doors of Night, Minions Stir, Chill Them with Fear and Rank Upon Rank. When the company's movement hazard phase starts, the hazard player must choose one the three enhancers (Doors of Night is not a creature enhancer) to be discarded. Connie is the hazard player, and since she has some Men hazard creatures in her hand, she discards Minions Stir. She also wants to play Thrice Outnumbered. Even though the enhancer limit has been reached, she may play another creature enhancer. However, when Thrice Outnumbered resolves, she must pick another event in play to discard. She chooses to discard Chill Them with Fear.

10 Playing and Drawing Cards
When you move your companies on the first turn, the player to your left is your first hazard player. Each turn after that, the player who is your first hazard player rotates clockwise around the table. Only you and your first hazard player may draw cards based on your movement, discard a card at the end of the turn, or use effects like Thrice Outnumbered that allow cards to be drawn or recycled each turn.

Example
Bob, Connie, George, and Scott are sitting clockwise around the table. On Bob's first turn, Connie will be his first hazard player. George will be Bob's first hazard player on Bob's second turn, and Scott will be the first hazard player on Bob's third turn. On Bob's fourth turn, Connie will be his first hazard player again.

Example
Bob moves a company. Connie is sitting to his left, and George is sitting to Connie's left. Thrice Outnumbered is in play, so Connie can take her Lawless Men card out of her discard pile and shuffle it into her deck. George, since he is not sitting next to Bob, may not take his Ambusher card from his discard pile.

Your first hazard player plays hazards on your companies as normal. When they are done playing hazards, check the hazard limit. If fewer hazards have been played than the hazard limit, play of hazards passes. The player to the left of the first hazard player becomes the new current hazard player and the hazard limit for that company lowers by one. In other words, passing the play of hazards to the left counts as playing a hazard against the hazard limit. This process of playing hazards, and passing the play of hazards to the left, continues until every other player has had a chance to play hazards on the company, or the number of hazards played on the company equals the current hazard limit for that company. Note that for each company that moves each turn, the first hazard player is always the same player. Note also that the reduction in the hazard limit does not effect the company's event limit.

On-guard Cards
You may only play hazards on-guard. When you play a card on-guard, show it to another player, to confirm that it is a hazard.

Twilight
Only the current hazard player and the moving player may play cards, including cards such as Twilight. As an exception to this rule, any player may play a Twilight to protect an environment that he has played previously.

Collusion
Collusion in the play of hazards is strictly prohibited. You may not give advice to another player on which hazards to play.

Long-events
During your long-event phase only remove long-events that were played on your last turn, not long-events that were played on other players' turns.

Example
On his first turn, Bob moves his company, consisting of Thorin, Kili, Gimli, Ioreth and Annalena. The hazard limit for the company is five. Connie is sitting to Bob's left, so she start to play hazards on Bob's company. She plays two hazards, and has no more hazards to play. George is sitting to Connie's left, so he now get to play hazards. However, since the play of hazards has passed, the hazard limit is now four. George plays one hazard, and is done playing hazards. Now the play of hazards passes to Scott, who is sitting on George's left. Again the hazard limit drops, and is now three. Since three hazards have been played on the company, the hazard limit has been met, and Scott does not get a chance to play any hazards on Bob's company.

Bob then moves a second company, with Gandalf and Beorn. Despite all of the passing of the hazard play for Bob's first company, Connie is again the first player to play hazards on Bob's second company.

Optional Rules
These rules are not official multiplayer rules, but you may find they suit your casual play group. Make sure everyone who sits down at the table is aware of the optional rules in play.

First Hazard Player
If you move to a site where another player already has a company, that player may choose to be the first hazard player, instead of the normal first hazard player. If two other players have companies at that site, and both want to be the first hazard player, both players must make a roll. The highest roller is the first hazard player, rerolling all ties. This optional rule allows you to use your hazards to defend your companies from your opponent's influence attempts.

Seating Arrangement
When rolling to see who goes first, reroll all ties, not just ties for the high roll. Players sit around the table in the descending order of their die rolls. Play proceeds as normal. If you randomize the seating arrangements like this, you can prevent players jockeying for table position. You can no longer try to sit next to certain people to gain advantage.

Wizard Draft
Use this rule only when also using the random seating arrangement optional rule. The player going first declares which Wizard or Ringwraith he is playing, then the second player declares, and so on around the table. You may place three copies of your Wizard or Ringwraith in your deck, but no other Wizards in your deck or sideboard. You may not reveal yourself as a Wizard or Ringwraith other than the one you declared.

In a multiplayer game, you are much more likely to be beaten to the Wizard or Ringwraith you wanted to reveal yourself as. This rule eliminates that frustration, but is not appropriate for impromptu games, where you cannot easily make changes to your deck.

Wizard Death
As an optional rule, the game ends after everyone has had one turn after the first Wizard or Ringwraith is eliminated. This optional rule keeps players eliminated early from having to wait a long time before being able to join another game.

Another solution for this problem is to give a player whose Wizard or Ringwraith is eliminated (including all corruption check failures) -5 MP off of their final total. That player may not reveal another Wizard or Ringwraith.

A Final note on Book-keeping
A multiplayer game requires more bookkeeping than a two player game, and you should be prepared. Each player should have a different kind of marker, small enough to place in the corner of a card. Different colored glass beads work perfectly, and are available in many game stores.

One thing to keep track of is the first hazard player. You can keep track of this with a die, with the number corresponding to how far around the table the first hazard player is from the moving player. Start with the die on one, indicating that the first hazard player is the first player clockwise around the table from the moving player. Each time the player who went first starts a turn after the first, advance the die one number. When the die is on two, the first hazard player is the second player clockwise around the table, and so on. When the die would be set to the number of players in the game, reset it to one instead.

An alternate method to keep track of the first hazard player is for each player to have a unique marker. At the beginning of the game, give your marker to the player on your left. Each time the player who went first starts a turn after his first, all players pass the markers they have to their left. If you get your own marker, pass it to the left again. The first hazard player is the player with your marker.

You will also need to keep track of who played what hazards. This includes hazard events played on companies or characters, and creatures in marshaling point piles or in play as trophies. You will also need to mark long-events, as to whose turn they were played on. On that player's next long-event phase, discard those hazards.
Last edited by CDavis7M on Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dirhaval
Posts: 791
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:39 am

My limited playing of the game is a few games online and one tournament. I have made the 48-player game of six 8-divisions (4 hero vs 4 minion per division. Lowering the hazard limit by one when passing is a must else resource player will be decimated. I prefer to have all the hazards in play, but this game of mine is for 24 turns. If you want to have fun, then give all characters +1 to corruption checks for each item borne.

I also include an On-guard rule: Play as usual, but do not lower the hazard limit value if not zero for the first hazard player. If hazard limit value is made zero by play of hazards by other players, then discard the on-guard card. That is, give others a chance to play hazards. A hazard limit of two will not pass if on-guard card is played. If another plays Long Winter, then discard the on-guard card.

Collusion: I thought about this if players have companies at the same site. There was a council.

What about decoys? That is use a character as normal, but face-down to start. Counts as a character in all ways, but is revealed if needed through Gnaw with Words, facing a strike, etc... Give the enemy doubt. May keep this as 2 turns max to avoid lenthy memory of DI, GI.

I like making effects universial like Rebuild the Town.
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CDavis7M
Posts: 2816
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:10 am
Location: California

I updated the first post to include the full multiplayer rules instead of a summary.
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