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USBGF Rules Reboot - proposal - public comment welcome

Posted By: Colin Owen
Date: Friday, 7 July 2017, at 11:57 p.m.

In Response To: USBGF Rules Reboot - proposal - public comment welcome (TarHeelFan)

"I find there are more players opposed to baffle boxes than in favor."

I don't doubt this is true, in the sense that the number of players who decline to use one, when asked, currently exceeds those that bring them. But to what extent should organisers be influenced by this? Why should it make a difference whether more than 90% of players want to use them, or less than 10%?

It's clear that a baffle box is a superior method of delivering a random roll: It doesn't require players to shake and roll properly - many of whom don't - hence reducing doubt and ill feeling; it nullifies the potential of a genuine dice mechanic (for example, by holding a die near the top of the cup and dropping it onto the board); it is faster (certainly without a cup, and maybe also with); it reduces cocked dice, even under the new rule; and it virtually eliminates any potential issue of non-simultaneous rolling. That's a lot of advantages, all things that argue for Preference.

Let's not forget the large middle ground of players who, though they don't have a baffle box, nonetheless consent to using one. Would it really make such a difference to them if the opponent could have insisted anyway?

There is a half way house between Option and Preference: roll for the choice. It respects the wishes of both parties, and also reflects the incidence of both camps in the playing population. If there were two totally intractable camps, pro and anti- baffle box, and the pro formed say 10% of the population then, with Baffle Box Option, only 1% of matches would involve both players using a box. If they rolled for the right however, it would revert back to 10%. (As to how the roll or rolls would be taken for this choice, it should be clear that the baffle box player can require the box to be used and, the opponent, or maybe even either player, can require a cup in addition.)

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