The object of the game is to get your robots through the gates on the north end of each of the five rooms. The winner will be the player who uses the fewest turns to get through all five rooms. Players are dealt a hand of cards, whose size will vary inversely with their two robots' damage. All players compose a program of equal length for each robot in secret and submit it. The remaining cards, if any, are discarded. The robots perform their programs in stages, alternating between robot movement and mechanisms on the factory floor that can affect the robot's movement. The stages are reported on the web site as follows: First, a graphic depiction of the current room and all robots' positions is displayed. Below that, a table describing the events of the stage appears. In the first line of the table are the player's robots' names. The second line displays the operating mode of each robot. When the game starts, all robots appear on their starting square. Unlike the regular game, robots are never virtual. It is far less likely that a robot will be destroyed in the first room, and this is where robots always originate. On the third line, the cards active for that stage are revealed. There are seven kinds of cards: FWD1, FWD2, FWD3, RVS1, LF90, RT90, and UTRN. There are also RVS2, RVS3, IDLE, SLF1, and SRT1 cards, but they are only available after the proper upgrades. Cards are dealt from a pre-set deck. All players have the same opportunity to get cards. The additional cards available after reaching two upgrade stations are dealt in from the beginning. If these cards appear among the cards a player is dealt, but the player cannot use them at this time, they are removed and the first cards in the deck that they can use are added instead. There is an electrified fence around the perimeter of the entire board. If a robot moves to leave the board, whether because of their program or if moved by other robots or board mechanisms, the robot will lose 2 HP and will encounter an obstacle. The next line lists what the outcomes of the cards are. Robot movement and turning reports are exactly as in regular BotWars. There are some items on the board that can affect a robot (or vice versa) as it moves. Robot interaction and "obstacles" are exactly as they are in regular BotWars. There will be new mechanisms in these rooms that you will not have encountered before. Figuring out how they work is part of the challenge. In some cases they work very simply, and in others they are more tricky. In all cases, your job is not necessarily to figure out how the devices work, but to get past them, open the gates and get both your robots through them. Robots are not armed with lasers at the beginning of the game. The only robots on the board (in the first room, at least) are your own two robots, so no lasers are needed. However, there may be an opportunity for a robot to gain a laser as an option later on. Hit points and destruction are exactly as they are in regular BotWars. Damage is as it is in regular BotWars, with these exceptions: Damage fuses registers and prevents your robot from receiving new cards. If a robot's program is long enough to reach a fused register, then any fused registers immediately after that are carried out regardless of the length of the other robot's program. The ninth register is fused first, then the eighth, and so on for each point of damage. Unused (empty) registers that get fused are filled with the first viable card from the top of the unused deck. If one of your robots is destroyed, the other robot may complete its turn. It takes a robot one turn to pass through a room that it has already completed. During such a turn, that robot is out of player control, and will not receive cards during those turns. The program for the other robot may be of any length. For example, if a robot is destroyed during the third room in the series, the replacement robot will take two turns to catch up from its starting point in the first room. A robot destroyed in the first room will be available for programming immediately. Players have an endless supply of robots, but remember that both robots must be ready to leave a room before the next room opens up, so don't waste them. Wrench squares do not act as checkpoints in the Geek-o Challenge. They can only be used to repair damage. After this, the next stage begins, starting with a depiction of the board as it now stands. After all stages are completed, a final graphic showing the state of the board at the end of the turn appears, then the table covering the end-of-turn actions. They are: The robots' names on line 1. The robots' modes on line 2. If a robot's mode was "destroyed" the robot will be reinstated in the indicated square in room number one. The fifth line may not appear. It lists the upgrades stations a robot has visited, if any, and the extra card types it can use. The sixth line may not appear. It lists whatever options, if any, robots have accumulated. Options cannot be sacrificed in place of taking a hit of damage. Finally, a review of HP is given. At this point it is announced whether a player wishes to reboot. A reboot takes an entire turn, but restores all HP. While your robot is rebooting, it cannot execute a program, cannot fire its laser, and cannot interact with a checkpoint. Other robots may still push it, and lasers can damage it. If your robot is damaged during a reboot, you will be missing the usual amount of HP on the turn after. If a robot takes on enough damage to fuse registers, those registers are randomly filled when the robot comes back online. Options and checkpoints are still intact for the player. If a player's robot is rebooting, it receives no cards for that robot, and the other robot's program may be of any length. An additional table may be added at the end if any robot has fused registers. This is for reference so that all players can see what cards are in those registers easily. For each turn, the GM will send out your HP, fused registers, if any, and cards. Send back a program for each robot, and declare whether or not you want to one of your robots to reboot for the turn after. If it matters to you which of two similar program cards (i.e., two FWD1's) should come first, please specify by number. If not, they will be ordered as they appear in your hand. If you have an option, you should also say at what point you would like to sacrifice it in taking a point of damage. Default is at HP 6. Turns should be submitted no later than five days from the day the GM sends out cards. The GM will take up to two days to compile the turn, ask questions, and accept corrections. To be able to play in the Geek-o Challenge, you must submit an original 7x7 board for use in the regular game. You can use any of the board elements provided for in Rules 3.0. I reserve the right to refuse a design as an entry fee if I decide that it cannot or should not be used. (A 7x7 board consisting of nothing but open floor is going to be rejected, for example.) Anything that is interesting will be accepted; I'm not going to be a harsh judge.