How to set up an 18xx game using BOARD18

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Revision as of 21:05, 13 October 2015 by Rich (talk | contribs) (→‎Things that you need to do before hand: added more on spread sheets)
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So you and your friends have decided to play an 18xx game via email. And you have also decided to use BOARD18 for this game. So how to begin? This page contains step by step instructions for setting up this game. These instructions assume that you will be using Google services to support your game. This is definitely not the only way to set up a PBEM game.

Things that you need to do before hand

Before you get started setting up the game:

  1. Make sure that a game box for the game that you want to play exists on the BOARD18 web server that you intend to use.
  2. Make sure that each player has created a player ID on the BOARD18 web server that you intend to use.
  3. Make sure that each player has an account on Google and that you know their account email addresses.
  4. Find a spread sheet template to use.

More about spread sheet templates

You need a spread sheet to keep tabs of the trains, money, share certificates and etc. in your game. Spread sheet templates can be found for most 18xx games and there are a lot of places to find these templates. The template must be specific to the game that you wish to play and should contain only the SR1 tab. Be careful when selecting a template, some are better than others. Here are some possible sources:

  1. A tab from a past game that you have finished playing.
  2. My Sheets Be careful, some of these may have errors.
  3. Board Game Geek Be careful, some of these may have errors.

Determining player order

Not being face to face, pulling turn order cards can be hard!
Fortunately, there is a great site that can make this easy.

Go to www.random.org/lists and you will see a list randomizer.
Enter the player's names in the box (one per line) and press the randomize button.

You will be presented with a randomized list that will look something like:

List Randomizer

There were 4 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

Bob
Charley
Abraham
Dan
Timestamp: 2015-10-13 01:21:33 UTC, IP: 108.239.60.106
 

Some 18xx games require other randomization as part of their setup.
The www.random.org web site can be of help with these things too.

Creating the BOARD18 game session

Selecting "Make New Game" from the board18Main page will bring up the board18New page.
This page contains a form that can be used to create a new BOARD18 game session.
The form contains the following fields:

  • Game Name: The name of the game that you are about to create. It must be unique so be creative.
  • Game Box ID: The numeric ID of the game box that you wish to use for the game.
  • # of Players: Must be from 1 to 6. This is a required field.
  • Six Player fields: The first one will be pre-filled with your player ID.

The form also displays a list of the available game boxes and a list of the available players.
Clicking on an available game box will put that game box ID into the form.
Clicking on an available player will add that player to the form.

Creating the spread sheet

Creating the game log

Creating an optional mail list


This page is a stub.
The BOARD18 Project will soon be expanding it.