There's no rule in the actual rule book about electronic devices because you don't use electronic devices when playing the game. The actual rules are only going to cover the game using the game pieces you're required to play with.

Could it be possible that they allow you to print out dials of older characters that way you don't run into the problems of someone cheating by Turing the dial back to the wrong click.

Possible? Sure. Just about anything is possible.

Whether or not this will be officially allowed at WK events, though, I very much doubt it. If they are already having issues with Print and Play and licensing on existing cards, I suspect very strongly that there is nothing they can do about non-existing documents like old dials on cards.

Has that become official yet? If so I need to bookmark a link.

The last I heard they threatened to make that official with the next who-knows-when rules set. ( FEB 5, 2016 - Design Insight - Visible Dial Revision - http://heroclix.com/design-insight/h...esign-insight/ )

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Also the rules for use will be changed so that in game, the player playing the figure will be able to reference the dial but the opponent cannot view the back of the card that contains the dial.

For reference this is currently covered here....
http://win.wizkids.com/bb/viewtopic....d3614d10a6bded

There is a bullet point on Electronic Devices.

That's not the actual rule book though. The actual rule book has no rules about using electronic devices, because it's just providing rules on how to play the game.

No game's rule book will mention electronic devices unless the game actually requires an electronic device as part of the game.

As somewhat impartial since I don't do tournaments anymore, I think it's best not to pick up figures more than needed, or move the dial more than needed both in terms of avoiding mistakes in putting them back and in terms of time. Tournaments are timed events. Let's keep the game moving.

In a more casual game do whatever you like.

Indeed

Speaking of which, I have heard that the game XCOM:The Board Game interacts with an app.

I also played Alchemists with the App program where you scan the two ingredients and it tells you what chemical results you get Big/Little Positive and Negative combos.

More than just interacts with. It requires it. The app runs the Alien AI for the game. Its the only reason I didn't jump on that game when it came out.

Jordan Weisman's (ya know, the guy that created the entire concept of the Clix base, among about a million other gaming-related things you've heard of) most recent game, Golem Arcana, also relies on app integration.

That should probably be past tense for Golem Arcana...

How's this for a "is this cheating?" question:

I'm playing a game against a friend with the new figures and the new cards. We have the same piece on both our teams. I conveniently take a look at my copy of the figure's card before taking an action involving my opponent's figure.

Cheating or not? It's one of those "letter of the law, it's ok; spirit of the law, it's not" issues that I'm not sure WizKids thought about.

Yeah, I thought I heard it was officially dead. I know it had a..... rocky start. Didn't really follow it, but I can't say I'm surprised. At this point, its kinda his M.O.

This is the kind of issue that's exactly why I think the information should be available to all players, or to no one. Having information available to only one player causes considerably more situations like this to come up.

I was fine with the existing way of dials being hidden information.
I was fine with having dials on cards so that either player can look at them.
I think only allowing one player to look at the dials is a terrible idea, and the worst option of all three.

Oh, WKs thought about it plenty. Obviously its not cheating, and there's no way it can be. All the people whining about dials on cards really didn't think it through, though. Another example of why WKs absolutely shouldn't have listened to those people.

One step forward for the health of the game, 2 steps back, and all that. Half measures and back-peddling like that only harm the game. But I'll get off my soapbox now, since this isn't the General forum.

As you say, I think it's a "against the spirit of the rule," but it isn't exactly a new situation. Technically, any mirror match where you take damage first or start at a different point value (as applicable) opens up this possibility.

It's just one of those things you can't really do anything about.