Are cheatsheets cheating?

[rhyaeris]

If I had a cheatsheet on how to make good moves in chess, and I refer to that cheatsheet during the game, I think we can all agree that would be cheating.

If I had a cheatsheet that listed the dice roll probabilities (1 to 5 dice) in Dragonwood, perhaps that wouldn't be cheating since it's mostly written under "Strategy Tips"?
What if I wrote out an extended table (1 to 6 dice)?

Where do you draw the line? Which games do you think are OK to make cheatsheets for? Or is this just a slippery slope?

[aesche]

Would you allow something at a RL table or not? Only with or also without the same helper being directly available to all players at the table?

[rhyaeris]

Those are indeed key considerations. That might be the answer here. Thank you.

[Silene]

And do the same rules apply to turn-based tables as to RT?

[vigorousRoll]

Would you allow something at a RL table or not? Only with or also without the same helper being directly available to all players at the table?

Back when I competed in a 10-member fantasy football league, we’d all come in on Draft Day with different cheat sheets. Some might carry printouts from ESPN, others from CBS or Fantasy Pros. I always brought in a handwritten sheet, based on my own work. While some would kiddingly peek over my shoulder at my notes and I’d feign hiding them, no one ever fussed about actually getting to see them….even though I won 3 championships over the 5 years I was there. I think they got a kick about the over-the-top work I put in.

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As far as chess goes, a cheatsheet can only take you so far. I don’t think it would be that uncommon for the best move in a unique, complicated middle game position to be a play that “breaks the rules” of what a cheatsheet would generally advise. If a BGA member’s ELO reaches “strong player” status…especially in chess, it’s not going to be because of any cheatsheets that might be in their possession.

There are some games on BGA where I’ll refer to dice probability charts frequently and I expect that my opponents will be doing so too. But these charts are just a stepping stone to what really makes the difference between defeat or victory. That’s because BGA offers so many games that put you in difficult, prickly, and unique situations where you have to call on all your skills and stamina to assess and assimilate all the different details and factors that are going on in a game-specific situation (factors that are often pulling you in opposite directions) and cobble together plays you can be comfortable with. The dice charts are just a quick input to the custom made probability calcs, decision trees, and projected-course-of-play diagrams that one can construct to deal with the specifics of the situation at hand. When the game is over, the dice charts are instantly ready to serve you in the next. But the custom-made analysis that really made the difference for the victory expires at the end of that game because the details and events of the next game will be so profoundly different. That’s why I wouldn’t sweat using dice probability charts, even if you’ve charted yours a little more thoroughly than the reference version. ELO doesn’t measure your tools, it measures your skills.

I couldn’t help here but supply a little input from the world of golf. Here are a couple of quotes from Jack Nicklaus’s autobiography:

While winning the U.S. Amateur in 1959, Jack was struck by the regimen of one of his opponents in match play, Gene Andrews.

“Perhaps his greatest eccentricity was the painstaking use of notebooks, compiled during practice, containing highly detailed distance charts, plus meticulous contour maps of all the putting surfaces.”

A couple years later Jack would take the Amateur title again at Pebble Beach but not without some challenges.

“In practice, the Pacific blustery winds, combined with firm fairways and greens, had been giving me fits on approach-shot yardages. When I mentioned the problem to my friend Deane Beman, he responded, “Then why don’t you measure them like me?” As Gene Andrews had been doing for many years, savvy little Deane had by then ingrained the habit of pacing off and noting yardages, while I and almost everyone in the amateur game – and most of the pros, also – continued to rely on visual estimating. Taking Deane’s advice, I found that the more yardages I paced off, the more greens I hit and the closer I got to the cups.”

This became a hallmark of Nicklaus’s career, arriving early at a course to practice it and learn it and take the time to walk off the yardages. Wikipedia says “Nicklaus was the first player to chart and document yardages on the course on a consistent and planned basis.” For a game with such a fussy reputation like golf, where they’ll disqualify a player for innocently signing an incorrect score card, this practice of walking off the yardages was not regarded as cheating.

If Nicklaus could document the yardages, I’d say you could chart the probabilities for Dragonwood beyond just the first 5 dice. You’re not cheating but simply making an effort to learn the game in greater depth than the next guy.

[rhyaeris]

@Silene
>And do the same rules apply to turn-based tables as to RT?
Good question. In chess (at least on *), Daily games which can take 1 day per move or more allow the use of a separate chessboard (to plan moves) as well as opening books/repertoires, but not chess engines. Live games, which are typically 1min~60min in length, prohibit any such help.

For other games, there may be other game-specific etiquette out there that I am not aware of...

@vigorousRoll
Thank you for your detailed answer.
Just to clarify (for any Dragonwood player reading this) my question was a hypothetical one - I don't have a written table for 6 dice as it wouldn't help much anyway It was more to ask a question on where you would draw the line.

And answer that question you did, with numerous good examples.
I've never heard of fantasy football leagues but it certainly sounds DnD-like in nature. It would be understood that written aids are acceptable in such a game. Consensus is important.

I play some chess. Although Grandmasters do occasionally blunder and may benefit from a written anti-blunder checklist, I highly doubt it. As you alluded to, there are many higher-order thinking faculties in play in a game between Masters that a cheatsheet cannot provide - especially when the game goes out of book i.e. when opening knowledge ends and you are on your own.

You raise very valid points especially on ELO, as well as cheatsheets supplying information that is merely a stepping stone to bigger game-specific decisions.
Until the consensus is clear on cheatsheets I will rely on what all players have reference to for the time being, as mentioned by aesche.

But that said, learning a game inside-out is certainly not prohibited, as you mentioned in your golf example. I would expect a top player to memorise certain aspects of the game he/she is a master of, if there is no cheatsheet to refer to.

(Your comment made me look up the Rules of Golf and I am stunned at the length of this document...)

By the way if your username (Roll) is Megaman-related, that's really cool.

*Moderator edit: please do not specifically name other gaming platforms

[vigorousRoll]

By the way if your username (Roll) is Megaman-related, that's really cool.

When I signed up to BGA, I wanted to pick a name that reflected my personal history with board games.

While playing family-favorite Hotels (cousin of Monopoly), my sister and niece were famous for just gently nudging the dice off their hand to roll a 1 whenever they landed on my property whereas i wanted them to roll a 6 and pay for 6 nights instead of just 1. I would protest, "C'mon, give that dice a vigorous roll !! "

[KillJaw]

Chess has a few rules a noob could forget/confuse. En passant. Castling. Pawn promotion. In check or queen in danger courtesies. Draw or stalemate conditions.

But not... Openings. General strategic advice - knights are stronger near the middle. Definition of tactics - pins, forks.

Lots of board games are complex enough I need a brief rules reference to avoid slowing down gameplay. With my own game copies I have several reference copies to share around the table.

Being generous on this question when teaching a game is better, unless the match is to the death.