It’s a slow day at the widget factory, so the central race computer has prepared a RoboRally tournament for the factory computers. You can be one of those computers. Navigate your robot across conveyor belts, over gears, and past pushers in your effort to be the first to touch all the checkpoints. But watch out for the other robots, not only are they trying to beat you to the checkpoints, but they might even try to push you off course. And don’t forget the lasers mounted throughout the factory, and on each of the other robots too. Easy to learn, hard to master. Beginners welcome but only if you’ve read the rules, played previously, or attended the scheduled demo in Paradise Terrace. Those who are only familiar with the new Hasbro Edition should attend the demo session to learn the differences.

Two of the heats will use 2-board, 3-flag setups that will be pre-determined. As discussed at the 2013 tournament there will be one wacky heat (This will be whatever heat falls on Wednesday, or the first heat if we are not scheduled for Wednesday) which will use a variation on the rules. This year it will be a single board death-match in which the last robot standing will be the winner. Winners will advance as normal. See the GM’s webpage for complete death-match rules.

Heats: Winners Only (HWO)—Only the winners from each heat advance to Round 2—no alternates advance. EVERY winner of a game advances. There is no limit on the number of winners that can be accommodated. Runners-up do not qualify even if the person who finished first in that game has won a previous heat or chooses not to advance to the Final.

Rulings of note:
1) We will be mostly using the original Wizards of the Coast rules which are different from the current Avalon Hill rules. If you have not played with these rules you will need to attend the demonstration session.
2) A robot may spend a turn offboard after being killed to come back at full strength.
3) The robotic arm does update your archive if used to touch a checkpoint—this is not optional
4) You turn in a robot head counter to get another life, so if you have three head counters you actually have four lives including the one you are currently using. (Note for deathmatch, you do not get any head counters)
5) When entering/re-entering the board you may select your facing after seeing your cards.

Advice for beginners: Don’t stop for options (unless it gets you closer to the checkpoint), and don’t be afraid to shutdown, especially when those registers get locked, but don’t overdo it, you do have at least three lives. And remember to update your archive point as often as possible. If you do die, you want to come back as close to the next checkpoint as possible.

 We will once again award the Kaarin Engelmann Memorial Crash & Burn Award certificate & playing aid to a “special” player in each heat/round except the deathmatch heat.