1 General

1.1 Philosophy

The game of Flesh and Blood is designed for in-person play, and with that comes the challenge of handling inevitable human error where the rules or policies of the game or tournament are broken. These errors (infractions) can be roughly categorized into gameplay, tournament, and conduct. Gameplay errors are infractions of the game rules as defined by the Comprehensive Rules. Tournament errors are infractions of the tournament rules as defined by Tournament Rules and Policy. Conduct errors are more general infractions that cover behavior and conduct. This document provides a guide for handling these infractions. It categorizes the most common infractions and provides insight into how to address them with procedures and penalties.

When an infraction occurs during an event, the role of a judge is to act as an impartial arbiter to address the infraction by applying procedures and issuing penalties, educating the players, and equalizing any advantage gained. It should be recognized that no document could ever capture the context of every infraction that could occur and provide the exact procedures and penalties nuance it deserves. As such, the Judges for an event are empowered to deviate from this guide to provide the most appropriate ruling for given infractions.

There are three principles behind ruling an infraction: education, equity, and mission.

• Education means ensuring that the player(s) understand the infraction and its consequences. Players should be made aware of the infraction they have committed, what has occurred, why it is an infraction, and what the process is to address it. Players are discouraged from committing an infraction if there is a penalty associated with it and are less likely to commit the same infraction in the future if they are aware of what they have done wrong - even more so when there is an increasing penalty.
• Equity means ensuring that the player(s) lose any advantage from committing the infraction. A procedure should be used to remedy the game state and remove any advantage gained if possible, and a penalty may be applied to introduce an additional disadvantage. Players are less likely to commit infractions if they will always end up in the same or a more disadvantageous situation.
  • Information advantage is when a player gains additional information about the private state of the game that they should not have (e.g. seeing the top card of their deck.)
  • State advantage is when the game state changes to become more favorable to one player (e.g. creating an additional beneficial token.)
  • Strategic advantage is when a player gains strategic information that may influence their future gameplay decisions (e.g. getting advice from a spectator.)
  • Tournament advantage is when a player artificially gains a more favorable standing, or forces a less favorable standing for another player, in the current tournament (e.g. stalling for draw instead of losing.)
• Mission means to balance the education and equity of procedures and penalties with the mission statement of "playing great games". While it is important that procedures and penalties are applied to educate players and equalize advantages, they should be applied in a context that allows the players to play great games. In casual events, games are focused on socialization and creating experiences, so the fixes are liberal and penalties are gentle to allow for better education of players rather than minor advantages gained by any player. In competitive and professional events, games are focused on skill and competition, so the procedures are strict and penalties are harsh to allow for fairness of the game rather than focusing on educating players.

There are three Rules Enforcement Levels (RELs) that a tournament may operate at: Casual, Competitive, and Professional. This document presents a guide for official tournament play at the Competitive and Professional REL.

• Casual rules enforcement is designed for local in-store play, where there is a low barrier to entry, low stakes, and the tournament environment is social and informative. Emphasis is placed on the education and enjoyment of players rather than the strict equity and integrity of each game. See the Flesh and Blood - Casual Procedure Guide for information on ruling at a Casual REL.
• Competitive rules enforcement is designed for competition, where the barrier to entry may still be low, but there are higher stakes and the environment is focused on winning. Infractions are categorized and enforced more rigidly, and fixes and penalties are based on a balance of education and equity.
• Professional rules enforcement is designed for the highest levels of competitive tournaments, where the barrier to entry is high, and the environment is very competitive. Players are expected to play at a level where they are knowledgeable enough about the game that education is less relevant in playing great games than the equity/fairness of each game.

1.2 Handling an Infraction

Infractions are addressed by first identifying what infraction has occurred, and then following the corresponding instructions relevant to the situation.

Judges should not intervene in an ongoing game unless an infraction has occurred or they need to perform an investigation. In addition, judges should not intervene for a Missed Trigger infraction that would have a Caution penalty or an infraction that would have a Caution/Warning penalty but is mutually resolved between the players in a timely manner.

If a penalty is issued for an infraction, the judge must explain the infraction, the procedure for addressing the situation, and the penalty to all players involved. Any penalty of an IP2 or higher should first be confirmed with the Head Judge, except for Tardiness^[3.1] and Decklist Error^[3.4]. If a player commits more than one related infraction, procedures for each infraction are applied separately, but only the highest penalty of all infractions is issued (instead of issuing multiple penalties). A time extension for the round should be issued to the players involved if the ruling has taken more than one minute, rounded up to the minute.

Judges are not immune to making mistakes. When a judge makes a mistake, the first step is to acknowledge the mistake, apologize to those involved, and work towards fixing it if possible. If a judge's mistake leads to a player committing a violation, the Head Judge may consider the mistake as a possible reason for deviation.

Deviations
In some cases, an exceptional situation cannot be cleanly categorized into one of the sections listed in this document, or the recommended procedure/penalty for an infraction does not accurately address the situation in line with the three guiding principles of education, equity, and mission.

In these cases, the Head Judge has the authority to deviate from the recommendations and apply a modified procedure and/or issue a modified penalty. If they do, the Head Judge is expected to explain the standard policy and the reason for the deviation to all players involved. Judges can and should confer with the Head Judge and recommend a deviation when they think it is necessary, but the decision to deviate should ultimately be left to the Head Judge to ensure that deviations are made with consistency for the tournament. Reasons for deviating from policy include but are not limited to:

• A player who has technically committed a gameplay infraction is given a Warning, but a deviation from the recommended procedure would produce a far more equitable game state.
• A player has committed an infraction and the procedure or penalty does not address the exceptional circumstances in a way that is fair.
• A player has committed many related infractions at once, and only an increased penalty would equalize the advantage gained.

Infractions in this guide are presented in their most common form; if an infraction occurs that diverges from this form, it is up to the judges to decide on the fix and/or penalty that should apply and up to the Head Judge to approve. When deciding on a fix and/or penalty for an infraction, one should start with the most relevant infraction and diverge with these three questions in mind:

• Will this help players learn? (education)
• Will this make the situation fair? (equity)
• Will this ensure that players will play great games? (mission)

The procedures and penalties in this guide both educate judges on the recommended way to rule the most common infractions and protect them from being liable in the application of rulings. If a judge makes a ruling that is in line with the procedures and penalties presented in this guide, any complaints become directed at the policy itself rather than the judge. In addition, this guide lays out the expectations for players, which helps them to play better games because they can expect consistency in the procedures and penalties for committing infractions. This is not the case for deviations and should be considered when applying a procedure or penalty that deviates from this guide.

1.3 Types of Procedures

Procedures are a tool for judges to make changes to the game state and restore its integrity. Procedures should only be used when appropriate to the situation - procedures that are irrelevant to an infraction should not be used in place of a penalty when trying to restore equity (e.g. destroying a permanent to penalize drawing an extra card).

Rewind the game state
Rewinding the game state means altering the game state entirely to a previous legal game state. When performed correctly, this procedure removes any possible state advantage a player may have gained through illegal action. However, it does not address information advantage (a player cannot be made to forget something) and in certain situations, it may introduce a strategic advantage.

A simple rewind involves reversing the last action(s) of a player and is used to fix infractions that are caught immediately.

A full rewind involves reversing many actions and is used when either player has made additional actions after the infraction had occurred. In general, a full rewind should not be attempted if the Judge cannot guarantee that the previous legal game state will be constructed correctly or if the rewind would involve revealing additional information to either player.

Partial fix
Partially fixing the game state means artificially altering the game state. When performed correctly, this procedure can aid in equalizing a state advantage gained by a player from an infraction. Partial fixes aim to be a way to restore the integrity of the game without having to significantly interfere, such as when you rewind the game state or introduce a harsher penalty like an IP2 in order to equalize a state advantage.

In general, partial fixes should not be performed if a player likely made a strategic decision based on the result of the infraction or if the illegal action (and its consequences) is too complex to be partially fixed.

Partial fixes include (but are not limited to) the following:

• If a player is on an incorrect life total, adjust the life total to be correct.
• If a player made an illegal choice for a layer on the stack or a card in the arena, that player makes a choice that would have been legal at the time.
• If a card should have moved to/from a player's hand and the player hasn't drawn up to their intellect since, that card moves to the correct zone.
• If a card should have moved between non-hand zones or was moved into an incorrect zone, the card is still known to all players, and it does not majorly disrupt the game to do so, move the card to the correct zone.
• If a card should have been revealed or otherwise shown to a Player, show that card. If a card should have been turned face-up or face-down, that card is turned face-up/face-down.
• If a counter should have been added to, removed from, or moved between cards, those cards are still known to all players, and it does not majorly disrupt the game to do so, add/remove/move that counter.
• If a player should have lost the game due to an effect or the life total of their hero being reduced to 0, that player loses the game.

Effects are triggered from partial fixes only if they would have otherwise triggered at the correct time. The triggered-layer is then put onto the stack at the closest appropriate place as if it had triggered without the illegal action occurring.

Cards to the top or bottom of the deck
Putting cards to the top or the bottom of the deck means changing the location of specific cards to a position in the deck as decided by one player. If multiple cards are to be put to the top or the bottom of the deck, the opponent chooses the order of the cards and whether it goes to the top or bottom for each card. When performed correctly along with other procedures, this can help equalize information and strategic advantages gained by a player through game or tournament errors. Because the position of cards in the deck is a key part of Flesh and Blood's game design, it is impractical for many infractions to ensure that cards can be shuffled into the randomized portion of a deck, so this procedure takes an alternative approach to create a more equitable game state.

Shuffle into a random portion of the deck
Shuffling into a random portion of the deck means taking the contiguous randomized portion of a deck, adding and removing any cards, and shuffling it before returning it with the non-randomized portions in the correct locations. When performed correctly, this procedure can completely remove the state or information advantage a player may have gained through game or tournament errors. However, due to the fundamental design of Flesh and Blood, the position of cards in the deck is often non-random which makes it difficult to apply this procedure. As such this procedure should only be used as part of a deviation when appropriate for the given game state and infraction.

1.4 Types of Penalties

Penalties are an additional tool for judges to track player infractions, educate players by discouraging them from committing future infractions, and equalize advantages gained by committing infractions. All penalties (except Caution) should be recorded throughout a tournament to track which errors each player has made. When a penalty is upgraded or downgraded, the judge issues a penalty that is more or less severe respectively. Repeated infraction upgrades for gameplay infractions and tournament infractions should not be upgraded beyond game loss.

The following penalties are listed in ascending order of severity.

Severity	Penalty
0	Caution
1	Warning
2	Intellect Penalty
3	Game Loss
4	Disqualification

Caution
A Caution is an informal warning for a minor infraction. Cautions should be used when an infraction is not worth recording for the duration of the tournament, such as when an infraction does not gain the player an advantage, or when the procedure and education are sufficient to remedy the infraction.

Warning
A Warning is a formal warning for a minor infraction. Multiple Warnings for the same or similar infractions may result in an upgrade to a harsher penalty.

Intellect Penalty
An Intellect Penalty (IP) reduces the intellect of a player's hero for a set number of turns. An IP is the lowest form of penalty that has an actionable effect on a player's game. It is more severe than a Warning, but less severe than a Game Loss, which is particularly relevant for best-of-1 formats.

An IP is functionally a game macro with the following text:

Your hero has -1.

If you would create an Intellect Penalty with X counters on it, instead add X turn counters onto this.

If you would draw up to your hero's intellect as an end-of-turn procedure, instead draw that many cards, remove a turn counter from this, and remove it from the game if it has no turn counters on it.

An IP is typically issued for 2 turns (IP2). When a penalty is upgraded or downgraded to an IP, an IP2 is issued.

While a player currently has an IP, they draw 1 less card during the standard end-of-turn procedure (including the first turn of the game) and the number of turns for the penalty decreases by 1. When the IP reaches 0, the penalty is complete and the player is no longer penalized (e.g. an IP2, means they draw 1 fewer card at the end of two turns). If an IP is issued to a player before a game begins, the number of cards they draw up to at the start of the game is reduced by the IP, but the number of turns remaining for the penalty stays the same.

If a player currently has an IP and receives another IP, the current IP is simply extended by that many turns. It is recommended that players put a die on top of their deck to keep track of how many turns of the IP remain.

If IPs (with equal value) are simultaneously issued to all players in a game, the penalty is recorded, but the game resumes as though no player received an IP.

Game Loss
A Game Loss ends the current game and the player is considered to have lost the game. A Game Loss is used when the integrity of the game is irreversibly compromised or as a harsh punishment to educate the player on their actions.

If the player is between games or the current round time has elapsed, the Game Loss applies to the next game they would play during that event.

In a match where players only need to win 1 game to win, a Game Loss will automatically cause the opponent to win the match. If Game Losses are simultaneously issued to both players in a game, the match is recorded as a double match loss.

Disqualification
A Disqualification results in the player being removed from the tournament. A disqualification is the harshest penalty a player can receive and is reserved for actions that compromise the integrity of a tournament as a whole or for severe errors in conduct.

A player who is issued a Disqualification loses their current match (if they are currently playing a match), and is dropped from the tournament. A disqualified player does not receive any additional prizes they are due, but they may keep any prizes they have received up until that point.

When a player is dropped due to Disqualification, they do not have a place in the standings. All players below them will advance in the standings by one. However, if the Disqualification takes place after a cut is made, no additional players move up the standings or advance into the cut.

The disqualified player and the head judges are responsible for completing the disqualification form, which allows them to share their side of the story. The player disqualification form and the head judge disqualification form are available in the Rules and Policy Center. Players who have been disqualified from a Legend Story Studios (LSS) event will have their player status reviewed by the Player Conduct Committee.