Intentional Cheating part 2: The Majors

We are fast approaching the culmination of the tournament season with GenCon in a mere 2 weeks for a vast majority of the North American crowd, with the World Championships fast approaching for the European crowd and anyone else capable and willing to make the trip.

Unsurprisingly, the major events bring with them the worst of people's behavior when it comes to cheating. Whether it is because the material prizes surpass other tournaments, the story prize is particularly sought after, the fame (or notoriety) of winning is too much to resist, or because a person just wants to win badly enough, there are numerous reasons anyone who would be so inclined to cheat would attempt it. This means that it is extra important that you are armed with the knowledge of the methods cheaters employ so that you may spot the cheat and stop the cheater in their tracks.

Before I move into discussing various methods of cheating for which one should watch, I would like to make sure everyone has read my earlier post about calling a judge. If you haven't, I will wait for you to go read that post before I continue.

(*whistling*)
(*tapping foot*)
(*looks at watch*)

Done? Good. It is important when you play in these events that you keep in mind that no one can stop a cheater without calling a judge. If you manage to catch them, but don't call a judge, then not only might they cheat you in the future, but they might also cheat someone else, as well as having no mark against them if they should get caught by someone in the future.

Also, always bring a small notepad, a few pens, and a willingness to write down each game state change. The importance of this practice will become apparent later on; for now, let's get to exploring how people cheat and some simple ways to either stop it from happening, or get the perpetrator apprehended.

Method 1 - The Slow Play

This is possibly one of the easiest methods of cheating to spot as the floor rules specifically have a rule covering the average amount of time that any one decision should take and you can tell when someone slows the pace of their play dramatically, especially in the face of a game changing occurrence (such as losing a major battle) or series of actions that are clearly leading up to a game changing occurrence (those gut-wrenching series of actions that lead up to the dishonor bomb or enlightenment.)

Besides a person just taking too long to make a decision, there are other warning signs that should also assist you in determining if a player is stalling. Do they seem angry or hostile if you politely ask them to increase their pace of play? While I am sure that it is frustrating to have an opponent that is beating the pants off of you ask you to increase your pace of play while you try to figure out the perfect way to use your cards to win the game, we are under a time limit and you need to show some courtesy to all of your opponents and act at a more time-friendly speed.

Do they have excuses as to why it takes them 30 or 40 seconds to pass after each time you take an action? Again, we are working against a clock with timed rounds.

Once something like this starts to happen, you should call a judge immediately. There is no surer way to get the game moving at a proper pace or, barring that, that a player gets disqualified for their stalling tactics.

Method 2 - Drawing Extra Cards

This is a biggie. You have to be particularly vigilant to spot this one. Once you get into elimination rounds, active judging by multiple judges should help keep track of your opponent's card draw. Still, it is important to note that you are the only person that can keep track of your opponents and their card drawing; you shouldn't rely on anyone else.

There are many ways that your opponent can draw extra cards for which you should be on the look out. From just taking two cards at once, to drawing early for the end of the turn then "forgetting" something that they go back to do then drawing for the end of their turn again, to using abilities that allow card draw more than once per turn. Your opponent may also fidget, flick their fate cards, re-arrange them, any number of little tricks to keep you from paying very close attention to what they are doing. There are far more ways one could wind up drawing extra cards, but all of them can be tracked.

Tracking card draw is easy enough if you are willing to put just a little effort into it. First, use some sort of counter to keep track of abilities, and ask your opponent to do the same. Since there is no strict requirement to have a physical marker for tracking whether an ability is used or not, make sure you note each turn which cards have used which abilities.

Boy, sure would be nice to have some way to keep track of all of the possible things you could be tracking in a game. Good thing I told you earlier to bring a notepad and a few pens. This is traditionally the best way to keep track of many things, game state changes included. There are many card games that require the pen and paper method for tracking things such as life/health and game state changes, and even though L5R is not one of them, it is still an exceptionally reliable way.

That being said, write down anything your opponent does from using their stronghold to drawing a card for the end of the turn. If there is a question, you can always reconstruct the sequence of gameplay events in order to establish whether your opponent is doing anything underhanded.

In addition to keeping track of all of the game state changes, frequently ask your opponent how many cards they have in their hand. If you have kept accurate track, the number should be consistent with your records. If you have not, you should be able to easily figure out where the difference is coming from. If there is any question, please call a judge. That is why they are there.

Method 3 - Honor Manipulation

This is a method that I don't see used frequently, but is often one of the easiest means of cheating. How many people run with those disc honor counters? You know, the top plate with a hole that spins around atop a numbered dial where only one number is visible at a time? Yeah, those things get bumped, jostled, and moved to half-way points between two numbers all of the time. An unscrupulous player could easily gain 4 or 5 honor over the course of a protracted game using this method if you aren't keeping close track.

So what is the best way to counter this dastardly tactic? The first answer is to write down not only your own honor but that of your opponent in your notebook. This also allows you to keep track of each gain and loss, and why it was taken. You will often see judges at events do this during the elimination rounds when there is active judging, and for good reason. Writing this information down is the best way to recreate the game state should there be a question.

Again, if your track doesn't match with your opponent's, you should understand why. If you do not, or you feel your opponent is being shady or evasive, call a judge. They will be able to sort it out.

The lesson here is to keep track of your honor as well as that of your opponent. Even if you don't have a notebook, an additional honor counter, or a pair of dice that are clearly able to be differentiated as 'ones' and 'tens' dice should also help. Just understand that these methods are far less reliable than pen and paper.

In addition to the manipulation of the honor totals, not tracking the proper amount of gains or losses is also a problem. Again, this is a sub-set of manipulation of the honor counter and can be solved easily enough by keeping track of your opponent's honor totals yourself.

Method 4 - Misrepresentation of the Game State

Ok, this is a difficult one on which to catch your opponent, and may ultimately not even be punishable as cheating. This is a tactic where your opponent doesn't accurately and obviously track some aspect of the game state in order to mislead or confuse their opponent. This could be as simple as having a bowed dishonored personality facing the same direction as all of their other bowed, but honorable, personalities. This could also be as blatant as lying about force totals in an army, or withholding effects of cards when specifically asked what the card does. While some of these may not be cheating by the strictest definition of the rules, it is still something important to watch for.

The easiest way to avoid game state manipulation is to write down all of the changes. Barring this, you can ask your opponent to keep track of them so that they are clearly designated in some way. If your opponent is not willing to take this simple measure, call a judge and force the issue.

Read all of your opponents cards if you don't know what they do. You only have yourself to blame if you aren't paying attention and you try to shoot something that reduces the strength of a ranged attack and now can't kill it. Don't ask your opponent. They may tell you, but they may also leave off critical text in how a card is worded that affects various interactions.

When totaling force for any reason, do your own total and work with your opponent to resolve any force discrepancies. If you do your own total and it is wrong in your opponent's favor, he is not likely to tell you that you are wrong, so make sure that as battles are taking place, changes to force totals are written down so that you always have an accurate track, and that you keep track of anything that changes any card's force, and an army's total force, for any reason.

Method 5 - Scouting

Scouting is against the floor rules, so don't do it. Scouting is basically doing anything that allows you to find out what an opponent has in their deck prior to playing that person. In the floor rules it is more strictly defined as watching active tournament games. No one will ever be able to stop their friends from regaling them with stories about their latest win or loss, nor about what cards were involved and what opponent they were facing; this is especially true if their opponent is a well-known player.

No one really expects to be able to stop that type of scouting, but you should be aware when people who are not involved in your game are nearby and possibly watching your game. Even if they are not involved in the tournament themselves, they may, however unlikely, be watching and scouting for a friend. All you have to do is ask politely and explain that it could be scouting. If the person is unwilling to move away, simply call over a judge and ask the person to be removed from the vicinity of the game.

There is a more sinister cousin to scouting that involves people associated with your opponent trying to watch your game from an angle to see your cards to allow some sort of signaling or communication of your hand to your opponent. While no one has been caught doing this, it is not out of the realm of possibility. Guard against this by careful hand placement and by watching to see if your opponent appears to be watching something (or someone) else. Just pay attention and you can save yourself from being cheated in this fashion.

Method 6 - Misreporting Results

This is an easy one to spot and an easy one to fix, so I won't cover it in great detail. Winner reports the match result and actually pay attention to those standings that are printed between rounds. It is easy and you aren't doing anything better, so please follow those simple methods of avoiding misreported results.


I am sure that there are more methods of intentionally cheating, and as I think of more, do more research, and have more input from other players, they will be added to this site as well. I felt it was important to get the biggest and most obvious methods of cheating down and on the site before everyone started heading to GenCon, that way the largest number of players are armed with the knowledge of how to avoid being cheated and how to make sure cheaters get punished if they are, indeed, cheating.

Again, pay attention, write things down, and call a judge if there is a problem. I can't stress this enough. Only you can keep yourself from getting cheated, no one is going to do it for you.