Difference between revisions of "Design Document Introduction"

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BOARD18 is a tool for playing [[18xx style game]]s via Email.
{{ReleaseNotice|2.5}}{{Design Document Index}}
BOARD18 is a tool to help people play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18xx 18xx style games] via Email.  


The BOARD18 game session associated with a game will be used to display the game board and the stock market for the game. It will run as a web service accessed via the Firefox web browser running on each players computer. Only players who can log in to the game can update the BOARD18 game session for that game.
The BOARD18 game session associated with a play by email 18xx game will display the game board and the stock market for the game. It allows the players to place tiles and tokens on the game board and to place and move tokens on the stock market.


18xx games are often played via Email, usually using a spread sheet and the CyberBoard program. CyberBoard is a general purpose game board program that runs on each players computer. Linux users must run CyberBoard under WINE. CyberBoard generates and accepts move files that synchronize the various players copies of the game file.  
BOARD18 runs on a web server and it is accessed via [[Design Document Environment#Client Side|the web browser]] running on a players computer. <br>Only players who are assigned/added to the game can update the BOARD18 game session for that game.


I have some problems with CyberBoard and the style of remote play that it supports. To address these problems I have decided to develop an alternative to this current arrangement. BOARD18 is this alternative. It is intended to replace CyberBoard. It will run as a web service accessed via the web browser on each players computer.
<span style="color: Green">A number of applications beside BOARD18 are needed to play an 18xx game via Email.<br>
An overview of one way to set up and run a 'play by email' 18xx game can be found
[[How to set up an 18xx game using BOARD18|here]].</span>


Another open source program, called Rails, is sometimes used to play 18xx games by Email. Rails is a much more ambitious system that combines the graphics functions of CyberBoard with the bookkeeping functions of a spread sheet. It also includes rules enforcement. BOARD18 is not (currently) intended as a replacement for Rails.
[[Category:Design]]

Latest revision as of 16:43, 31 July 2017

This page has been updated to comply with Release 2.5.x of BOARD18.
Design Document edit


BOARD18 is a tool to help people play 18xx style games via Email.

The BOARD18 game session associated with a play by email 18xx game will display the game board and the stock market for the game. It allows the players to place tiles and tokens on the game board and to place and move tokens on the stock market.

BOARD18 runs on a web server and it is accessed via the web browser running on a players computer.
Only players who are assigned/added to the game can update the BOARD18 game session for that game.

A number of applications beside BOARD18 are needed to play an 18xx game via Email.
An overview of one way to set up and run a 'play by email' 18xx game can be found here.