Board Game Arena

If one or more players are eliminated from a race under the special championship rule due to a spinout, or under the BGA implementation if they "give up" the race, how does this affect the availability of adrenaline for the players still in the race (that is, do such eliminated players count as being in the last place(s), as if they were still on the track)? I've had this situation in races before, but I must not have been paying attention to that detail, and I didn't find an answer in the rules, here, or on BGG. For fairness, it seems that giving up should count as if the car was still on the track in last place (the usual case if the player hadn't given up), but I'm not so sure about eliminated cars.

For the case of giving up, I just had an instance of a 7 player race, 3 had finished, 1 had given up, and I was 2nd on the track of the 3 remaining. I didn't get adrenaline, so it must have treated me as the current 5th place out of 7, which I think is appropriate. I'd guess it is the same for elimination due to spinning out with the championship special rule, but I have not verified.

Found in the resolution to the old bug https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=100809 that "player that gave up should still considered behind any cars left."

In the instance I just cited, it appears that the player behind me (7 players, my opponent was 3rd on the track with 1 given up and 3 finished on previous turns) should have had adrenaline on that turn but didn't get it (or at least didn't use it for no apparent reason). I think this is a case of the open bug https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=123574.

This still leaves open the question of how elimination from a race due to spinning out with a special championship rule in effect affects adrenaline. By analogy, at least, such players (on future turns) would be considered as if they were still on the track, behind all the cars on the track. But I don't know if this is the ruling, and if it's implemented here that way.

It's not a bug, it's just the way that the game works. Someone who gives up is still technically on the playing field where they gave up. If that means they're in last place, the last active player does not get the adrenaline, because they're not the furthest behind in the race.

The quit/abandon/forfeit options aren't part of the core rules; they're an acknowledgement by BGA that the online game can't force people to stay for the full length of the game. An 8-player game with someone who has abandoned is still an 8-player game by the way the game is constructed, just with one that's taking no actions.

If the game actually allowed the adrenaline to go to player #7 because #8 quit, THAT would be something that isn't part of the game rules, and could potentially be reported as a bug. The game rules don't take quitters into account at all.

In the case I'm talking about, there was a bug, which I've added to the report at https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=123574. The last two cars on the track get adrenaline if there are at least 5 cars in the race (including cars that have finished). It is clear to me now (until I forget) that cars that have given up count as being on the track behind the remaining cars. I was in a 7 player championship game. At the beginning of a round at the end of the last race, 3 cars had finished. Of the 4 cars left on the track, or counted as left on the track (because the last place car gave up at the beginning of the round), the last two cars should get adrenaline in the round. I was 2nd on the track, so it was correct that I didn't get adrenaline. But my opponent, who was 3rd on the track, should have gotten adrenaline but did not, which I have verified by watching the replay.

I watched all this closely because although I barely won the game on championship points and this bug was not quite decisive (a really bad cluttered hand from the lead car on the track was crucial), my opponent might have passed me otherwise, which I was waiting to possibly happen. And backing up one turn, I was also trying to figure out if I had blundered by slipstreaming on that previous turn, giving my opponent adrenaline they should have had for the turn in question.

I am in an ongoing championship game 507330558 with 7 players, and the first race was played under the special rule with elimination due to spinout. At move 400, I and another player spunout and were eliminated from the race. Of the remaining 5 players, the last 2 on the track were getting adrenaline for the rest of the race. So it appears that the implementation here is that in the case of elimination from a race due to spinout under special championship rules, adrenaline is assigned as if the eliminated cars are not in the race. I'm guessing that if there were only 4 cars left on the track, that only the last car would get adrenaline, but I haven't seen that situation.

I don't like people giving up but if someone is removed from the game for whatever reason, I think that of the presumably easy things to implement the following is best in terms of adrenalin:

For the current race:
-a either the eliminated player's position remains unchanged (but the car itself is removed at end of round) and the number of cars with adrenalin remains the same and ghost player position is taken into account to determine adrenalin
-b or the race is treated as if the eliminated player and car had never been there in the first place
-c or replace the car with a legend
-d or do one or the other depending on the "fill up to N cars" option

For the next race in a championship game and possibly also for players leaving before their first actual round:
- remove the car and player entirely and adjust if needed the number of cars with adrenalin
- or replace the car with a legend
- or do one or the other depending on the "fill up to N cars" option

Obviously, if a player is replaced by a legend, the player remains last and their stats are not impacted by what the legend does.

Personally, I wouldn't be upset if quitters are replaced with Legend NPCs. It keeps the size of the game the same, which can be important for slipstreaming and other player interactions.

1) Players eliminated from a championship race under special rule due to a spinout is part of the game design and should not be changed. I don't know if there is an official ruling about adrenaline, but the apparent BGA implementation, treating the race as if the eliminated cars were never on the track, is okay. If there is a spinout early in the race, the remaining race might as well be treated as if there had been less racers to start with.

2) Players who give up at the end of the race under the BGA implementation ... I don't think it should be allowed with more than one other human left on the track, because it's a minimal hardship to play out a race, just like any other game where you're expected to finish even if you're in a losing position against multiple opponents. But treating such players as if they are in last place for adrenaline purposes, as implemented, makes sense to me, because that's the usual case when someone gives up. The behavior of legends can be much different than regular drivers, and I wouldn't want to see a car that has given up suddenly turn into a legend.

3) Players who quit a game, or are skipped due to clock running out ... would be nice to keep a competitive race going, but as I understand would require a site architecture change that is unlikely to happen. But in any case if some sort of change was implemented, I would again prefer not to see a legend suddenly appear, and would rather the race continue for adrenaline purposes in future rounds as if the quitting car had never been in the race (as in case #1).