This is the home page for a Boardgame Players Association “Play By Email” tournament for Terra Mystica. It is open only to members of the Boardgame Players Association (BPA). It you attend the World Boardgaming Championship (WBC), and are up to date on your registration fees, then you are already a member. If not, you can purchase a “PBEM Membership” for $10 from this website: www.boardgamers.org. This tournament will award laurels and contribute to the annual Caesar award, all of which is tracked through that same website.
GM: Ryan Feathers
Format
All games will be 4-player games. We will use the base game rules with the following additions and modifications:
We will be using the variable turn order (VTO) rule introduced in the Fire and Ice Expansion
We will be using the following content from the 2015 mini-expansion
- 4 new town tiles
- Shipping bonus tile
- Temple round scoring tile
Group Stage: Everyone who joins the event will play in 4 asynch games, which will launch simultaneously. As best as possible, players will be put into 7 player groups. Within those groups you will play every other player in your group exactly twice. Every player will start from each position (1st pick, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) exactly once. As necessary there may be a few groups of 6 or 8 players to make the overall numbers work. Players in those groups will still pick from each position exactly once.
You will be awarded 10 points for winning a game, 6 for finishing 2nd, 3 for 3rd, and 1 for 4th. Players who drop from a game will be awarded 0 points. The top point-earners from within each group will advance to the next round. As needed we will advance additional players to the next round based on the remaining player(s) with the most points. Tiebreaker will be average percentage of winners score across all 4 games played.
Semifinal Stage: This stage will only be necessary if 57 or more players enter the tournament. All group winners will advance to this stage. Then, we will advance additional players based on those who have the most points until we have a total player count that is a multiple of 7. These players will be put into groups of 7 and play 4 asynchronous games, just like the group stage. Group winners will advance to the finals, along with those remaining players who have the most points from the Semifinal round. Tiebreaker will be total points in the heat round, then percentage of winners score across the 4 games played in the SF stage.
Final Stage: 7 players will advance to this stage. They will be placed into 4 simultaneous games with each of the other finalists in 2 of them. Every finalist will be seated in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seat exactly once. Furthermore the games will be set up such that every finalist will be seated before every other finalist exactly once, as well as being seated after every other finalist exactly once. We use the same scale of points for each finish position as in the semifinals and group stages, and the final standings go by the points earned in the final stage. (Ties in the final stage will be broken by semifinal points, then group points, then average % of winner’s scores in the finals)
Note on Ties: There are no in game tiebreaker rules in Terra Mystica and this tournament will not use any either. For all players who end a game tied at a certain position they will share the points. For example if two players tie for 1st within a game they will both be awarded 8 points. (Splitting the 10 and 6 points for 1st and 2nd place).
Pace of Play: Games will be on a timer. Every player has an 8 hour grace period for every move, so their timer does not start deducting until after 8 hours. Therefore if a person diligently checked and made their moves every 8 hours they would never have any time deducted off of their clock. Games will be set to a time of 5 days plus 1 day per round. This still allows for a fairly leisurely pace of play while ensuring very slow players will get dropped so that games can end in a reasonable amount of time. In general this timer should ensure that games finish in about 8 weeks, with most finishing quicker than that. If you do wind up dropping in a game due to slow play you will be awarded 0 points for the game, regardless of your actual finish position.
Platform
Games will be played on https://terra.snellman.net/ using the above described settings. Just to reiterate that means games will have the following options in effect: Mini Expansion #1 (town tiles), Shipping bonus tile, Temple round scoring tile, and Turn order determined by passing order. Additionally the Time limit will be set to Chess Clock with settings of 5 days initial, 1 day added per round, and a grace period of 8 hours.
The platform does have one ease-of-life adjustment to the game rules; it does not strictly enforce turn order on leech decisions. This means that players can take turns even while another player may still have a leech decision to make. This helps speed up the pace of play dramatically. If you ever want to strictly enforce turn order for a leech decision, you can use the wait command to force that player to make their decision before you take your turn.
If there are any questions about how to use the platform please reach out to the GM Ryan Feathers.
Schedule
Registration Opens: September 17, 2018
Registration Closes: November 1, 2018
Group Stage Begins: Early November, 2018
Semifinals Begin: Mid January, 2018 (If Needed)
Finals Begin: Mid-March 2018, or if no SF needed, Mid-January 2018