Info on 18TN (revised June 1998) CURRENT STATUS: As mentioned in my 18GA section, Chris Lawson began to help me in playtesting early versions of 18TN and agreed to help me develop it. Somewhere along the line, Chris decided that the design needed major revisions. Although I didn't necessarily agree with all of his ideas (designers tend to be protective of their "babies", especially their first one), I did want to see the design published in some form. This led to Chris making a number of major changes, one of which was his decision to nename the game 1851. By late 1997 Chris was doing final playtesting and scheduled the game for publication in 1998 (it was published around March 1998 and is beautiful). Chris and I are listed as co-designers but there are many changes between my original 18TN design and 1851. As of today (June 1998), I have no immediate plans to publish 18TN despite the positive feedback I have received when I have taken it to conventions to show off. I think there would be considerable confusion between 18TN and 1851 since the maps are similar and the same railroad corporations are used in each game. I don't want to do anything to hurt sales of 1851. What I am inclined to do instead is continue working along the path of a series of modular games such as 18GA and 18AL which may be followed by a kit that would combine both games into a larger game using a revised map, possibly some new components and new rules. Such a new map may include parts of my 18TN map and some of the railroads. Therefore, the following sections pertain to my earlier version of 18TN and are mainly of historical interest. INTRO: 18TN is a game based on the 18xx system and is primarily set in the State of Tennessee. Let's face it, 18xx games are just too long. While I enjoy epic length games, the trend in 18xx games seems to be "bigger is better". I was at a gaming convention in October 1996 and sat down to play 1870 with four other players. Our game lasted 7 3/4 hours! I decided that there might be a place for shorter games that still capture the flavor of larger 18xx games. I also wanted something that would be more accessible to newer gamers as well as "sometimes gamers" like spouses, etc. I started working on 18TN in 1995 but didn't really have a good way to produce any kind of decent prototype. In 1997 I got a color inkjet printer and picked up Microsoft Publisher for Windows 95. With the help of David Reed and Chris Lawson, I was able to develop a decent looking 18TN prototype. The following is a little information about the original game. Details: 18TN has six railroad corporations including the L&N, the first major railroad to build major lines into Tennessee in 1850. The other railroads include the GM&O, the Southern Railway, the Illinois Central, the Tennessee Central and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis (the Dixie Line). The map extends from roughly Little Rock in the West to Bristol TN/VA in the east. The north/south boundaries are Cinncinnati to Atlanta although a number of these cities are red off board areas. Admittedly, there is a fair amount of Kentucky represented but the primary play area is in Tennessee. There is yellow track printed on the map from Louisville to Bowling Green to simulate the early track building and to enhance the L&N's dominance in Middle Tennessee. The privates are represented by actual ghost railroads around the state. They were situated to add strategical value where possible. In 18TN all privates have the same basic ability. That is that any owning corporation may lay an extra tile in the private company's hex in addition to its regular tile laying phase (like the C&SL in 1830). This simplification as well as a smaller stock chart were done to keep the game moving. Each railroad corporation is allowed two yellow track lays on its first turn of operation only if it wishes. I found this necessary on a map of this scale. There are special yellow tiles for Nashville and Chattanooga. The other special features include an abstract effect caused by the American Civil War. Basically, all railroads lose the income from one of its trains for one turn when the Civil War is triggered (the purchase of the third three train). Depending on when the railroads start, some may not even be effected by this. The effects of the Civil War are just slightly more serious in Atlanta in 18GA . These rules are designed to give each game in this series a local flavor but hopefully won't bog the players down with learning numerous new rules or concepts. Here is a screen shot from my current prototype. This shows the Nashville area. [Image] Around mid 1996 I think, I received a great looking gif file of the whole board courtesy of David Reed. Here it is: [Image] Support: Actually since this game is not published, there is really nothing to support yet. The rules are still evolving to some degree and I will post clarifications/changes in this area. This is the latest Rules document in .txt format This is the same document in a MS Word 6.0 format Frequently Asked Questions Q: Can the game end in a stock round by some player selling all of his holdings and exhausting the bank? A: No, there is a specific rule against it. If the bank runs out of money during a stock round, the game will continue until the end of the next operating round. In other words, all operating companies will get one more operation. If necessary, each player will loan $500 to the bank so it can pay out dividends during the last operating round. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What happens if the Civil War strikes a railroad that lost its train(s) between the time the civil war was triggered and the time it is effected (its next turn to operate)? A: It will move to the left because it has no trains at the time of its income phase as in other 18xx games. If a railroad had a single train (a three for example), when it is effected by the civil war, it is flipped over to indicate that it earns no income for the railroad. However, the stock still moves forward because it is presumed to have earned income, it just used it to repair track, etc. To force a railroad in this situation to back up would just be too severe. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What is the effect of the Civil War on a railroad that just floated between the time the civil war was triggered (purchase of the first three train) and its first opportunity to operate? A: Since a new railroad always backs up on the stock chart for not paying dividends anyway, there is no additional effect for the civil war. During the turn the civil war effects it, it may lay track, place tokens, purchase trains, etc., and operates normally after that. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Watch this area for additional FAQs