Board Game Arena

There seems to be somewhat different cultures about what kind of chat is permitted.

With friends I play with IRL, the rules are simple – absolutely everything is allowed except showing your cards. Here are some examples. All these things are said by a vice, or a renegade pretending to be a vice.

1) Ask the sheriff if it's okay to fire a gatling or provoke indians, and refrain from doing so if the sheriff says no;
2) When playing General store, ask the sheriff first which card they want, and then assume any other player picking that card to be evil;
3) When having only one card in hand, that being a particularly good card, tell the sheriff which card it is and that the sheriff can panic-take it if they so desire. (In fact, in our IRL games this works even if there are more cards in hand; we just lift that one card slightly above the others. Of course, the sheriff still makes the decision to actually take it or not.)

On the other hand, some players seem to be very much against this behaviour. It actually came to me as a surprise. I always thought that discussion like this (and as a part of it, lying, too) would be a core part of the game.

Would it be possible to make some options about this visible when creating the game in the first place.

I would consider talking about the cards in your hand or what to do with them to be cheating (and even more so if you manipulate the positioning of your cards to show another player which is which). This is quite different from claiming (real or bluffed) roles, which is fine, according to the makers of the game.

In any game where some info is deliberately hidden from other players, making that info public goes against the spirit of the game IMO.

If you want the option to be allowed to 'cheat', it should be a training game only option, not one where you potentially earn ELO as a result.

My company IRL does the same way, also I'm strongly vote for total free speech. And I was surprised too when I met players which were agaist of talking.

Official rules (at least, in Russia) say nothing, but FAQ says:
Q01. Can players talk during the game?
A. Of course! That’s one of the most amusing aspects of the game. However, players cannot ask questions directly related to the playing of the cards (e.g. they cannot ask the Sheriff if they can play a Gatling).

Your given examples of talking are:
1) 'cheating' confirmed by FAQ.
2) as I inderstand, it is not 'cheating' as player doesn't ask about playing cards.
3) first, lifting one card above other in this case is 'cheating': random must be random (as FAQ says), BGA adaptation follows it, I follow too. About talking...

FAQ's 'Players cannot ask questions directly related to the playing of the cards' is unclear cringe. Asking a permission to play a card is bad. Ok. We can't show our cards, but can we say what we have in hand? FAQ doesn't restrict it. So, instead of 'Sheriff, can I play Gatling?' (omg, what a cheating) you may ask 'Sheriff, do u have a missed?' (rules allow to say anything about cards in hand, as I know). And, after this, u will decide how to use Gatling.
There are even more unclear situations. The best way to avoid it is to ignore Q01/A , we all have to talk what we want. By the way, BGA adaptation already ignores it, u can use a chat in any way. The one problem here is fanatics who sure u have to believe in their prejudices.

Very well, if the official rules say so. In my edition, which is quite old, they don't.

Showing cards would be somewhat comparable to taking a screenshot, posting it in the net and sharing link to other players; I understand that that is forbidden. In other cases, telling about cards is not equal to showing them, because anyone can lie. Lying and catching liars is part of the fun.

This was discussed for many times already.
Online gameplay has its specifics which differ it from offline.
Shortly, we do not tell anything about cards in hand, openly or secretly. This is forbidden. If any player still does it he will get red thumb and "never play again" aftermatch.

Oami wrote: ↑19 June 2023, 17:34 Showing cards would be somewhat comparable to taking a screenshot, posting it in the net and sharing link to other players; I understand that that is forbidden. In other cases, telling about cards is not equal to showing them, because anyone can lie. Lying and catching liars is part of the fun.

I agree