So I am going to choose my wording as carefully as I can as to not cause any assumptions and I am going to leave names and venue out as I don't want to cause problems if I am wrong and there really isn't a problem there...

I wouldn't say I am a NEW Heroclix player any more but I have not played as long as some. I just want to know from other judges and the community if there is a problem here I should bring to the attention of Wizkids. Some things have made me raise eyebrows but I accepted it because I didn't know well enough to say "Hey wait, what?" when I brought some of these to local friends who have played for years, I was told my next stop should be here.

Just to list a couple things: A friend and I constructed our force went to where we play, sat down and then we were promptly told to change our force and remove our infinity gauntlet. When I asked why, I was told that I have to change it not because we were playing in an age that it was not "standard" but because it's so powerful and not everyone has one.... I used to play Magic and while I don't anymore it felt to me like I was being told I can't play wrath of God against my opponent because he didn't pull one... I am very friendly to the kids who come in with about 3 clix to their name and I try and help them, even lend them things for the tournament before it starts so they can have a fighting chance against the seasoned players but I don't think anyone should be told "you can't play that, not everybody has one to play" like I am sharing candy in class.

The other recent occurrence came when I was told build a theme team for the weekend tournament, which I know is sharing a keyword. I wanted point clarification from the rulebook (yes I looked at most recent one) and saw:

"A keyword can either be generic or named. Generic keywords are listed in Figure 16. Any keyword that is not generic is a named keyword. If the shared keyword is a generic keyword, your force must include at least
three characters for each 300 points (or fraction thereof) of the game’s build total to be considered a themed team. If the shared keyword is a named keyword, your force must include at least two characters for each 300 points (or fraction thereof) of the game’s build total to be considered a themed team."

So I built my team (they DID have generic keywords but 100% of my team had the same keyword.) and then was told "you cannot use that team because those keywords are not named" despite me checking the rulebook for construction and it clearly stating they can be either.

The final thing was when I played my first tournament I played against a LOTR team. Four weeks ago I had obtained my own LOTR, put Legolas on a team and then was told "Our venue has not figured out a rule for Epic actions yet" despite back in Sept (I think, maybe Oct) I played against a LOTR team in our venue, for a tournament. I didn't understand why the conversion was suddenly such a mystery when months ago we seemed to have it settled.

If there is some heroclix rule about the gauntlet, keywords in tournaments that I don't know about because I am still kind of new then be all means please set me straight and I apologize. But if not... how do I RESPECTFULLY say you know "I'm sorry I am using my gauntlet" I don't want to be disrespectful to him, but if the rule book takes precedence I want it to stay that way.

The first thing you should know is that the judge at the venue is always right. This can really suck when you know he's not, but he's still the judge. If it is the judge that is telling you these things, then I would recommend getting a list of house rules from him/her. All of the things you mentioned could be covered under those.

If you cannot make any headway with your local judge, then it might be time to talk to the venue provider about getting the judge replaced.

Venues, to me, should have clearly written down rules for what is allowed and what isn't allowed. While it sounds as if the judge is being unreasonable, take into account that the touranment scenarios and such are just suggestions. However, if you do find a rule that they have overlooked or disagree with, don't point out the wrong in front of everybody. First, speak to them in private and show them how it is wrong. Tell them these things need to be printed out and/or written down for everybody to see prior to the event to avoid such confusion. If it happens again, then maybe you need to do the public showing of how it's being done wrong.

Well, at the end of the day, the venue can run the events however they want.

I play at a couple of places and at some of them we have made a rule of no Gauntlet and no Utility Belt (for most events excluding No Man's Land and the like) because those resources often seem to suck the fun out of playing. So if they want to 'house rule' it that those items can't be used it is totally within their rights. I will just say that they should inform everyone of this before hand so that they can bring the appropriate teams and not have a situation like yours where you had to rebuild. Do they post the events on a site that maybe you are not aware of which has these build limitations ahead of time? Or do they just tell people at the last event what the next will be?

And in reference to the keyword issue: What was the build total and how many figures where on your team? Did you perhaps not have enough? Or, perhaps, the event was meant to be only Named keyworded teams? I only ask because it feels like there are some small but important bits of info missing from your description of what transpired. Maybe it was like I have already mentioned and some of the built restrictions weren't known to you.

Lots of venues have house rules

The issue is when the house rules drift from being "we want to encourage X" to "we are playing a whole new game"

Restrictions on force composition are common by scenario - I played a "do your job" scenario wherein all characters had to have a job type keyword

You could have others, you could have a theme based on a different keyword but everyone had to have one of the select words

I was fine with that (well, beyond most of my clix in another city and kind of having to throw together a team ... that just coincidentally happened to work really well together!)

What I don't like is when the venue starts things like "character X is underpowered, I am changing his point value", complete and total rewording of powers (Stealth doesn't work when you are adjacent)

This smacks of "I am a lousy player because I cannot figure ways around powers" or "this is my favourite character and he is damn well going to be the best in the game"

What? That is one silly suggestion.

So because ONE guy has a problem with the local Judge, it's the Judge that has to be replaced? How do we know that the OP isn't the one causing problems and making life hard for the judge? If the OP has a problem, and can't resolve them, then he/she should find a new venue.

If the majority of the players are happy with their current judge, I see no reason that the judge needs to be replaced. How would you like it if you were a judge, and you had some new guy come in and tell the venue that you had to get kicked out because he/she didn't like the way you ran things.

A judge should only ever be replaced if the MAJORITY of the REGULAR players want that to happen, or if the judge is doing bad things like stealing players figures or something like that.

Sounds confusing to me. I hope there is a better venue that you can find.

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I wouldn't call it a problem, it's not like him and I argue or butt heads we have more respect for each other than that. However you should know that it was the "MAJORITY of the REGULAR players" that share in my opinion that it is kind of sometimes. I would not personally suggest, or agree, that the judge needs to be replaced. And I am a REGULAR player, but disagree that only people who can make it every week have opinions that matter. I was asking because I didn't know and now I do. I appreciate the information. I was asking because I would show up prepared and then be told I suddenly wasn't. I will suggest to him that we should have a house rule list and that the fyi of the next tournie could be posted on the venue website (which absolutely offers this) so there are less surprises as suggested above.

The is a huge difference between a house rule and a ruling. House rules should be declared before game play and can include changes to any normal rule. A ruling however should always be to interpret the official written text as perfectly as possible. Those are completely different things and should not be confused with each other.

Out of curiosity, how is the venue provider supposed to know that they have a bad judge if players are not supposed to complain about him? I agree that it would totally suck to be a judge and be replaced after one new guy complained about me. Frankly I hope that any venue possess enough common sense to not make such a decision based on one person's complaint. However, if multiple people start going to the provider to complain about the judge, then it is probably in the provider's best interest to talk to the judge to find out what is going on.

That is the vibe I am getting as well. It seems like some things are getting 'lost in translation' here.

The best thing for the TS to do, would be to talk to the judge privately about all of this before/after the next tournament, and see if they can square this all away.

IMO, the things listed by the TS are not that egregious, and seem more like simple misunderstandings.

Vote with your feet. If you hate playing someplace, don't play there. If its because of the judge, don't play there as long as they are the judge.

I suppose if you have only 1 venue, it could be considered a problem - but you could always coordinate a group of like-minded players and play someplace different.

Unless you need prizes (which are OFTEN easy to buy - the missed out SoG kit is a bear to find for me ) it could be a real blast to get together and run impromptu games.

Heck, as I type this I might consider it myself. Nothing official - maybe a monthly get together to bash some plastic with loose organization. The venue might be open to it even if there is only one place.

"Hey owner, a few of my friends aren't interested in playing in tournaments but we need a place to play. Would it be cool if we used your space. We can guarantee buying a case with every set to show our thanks."

If you can get 6 or 8 people, the case would be around 25 to 40 bucks a player and gives you a steady stream of figures as prizes or some sealed events. That's not bad at all. I'd be sure not to choose a night to compete directly with the 'official' tournaments (that who be lame) and just play your games for fun.

Worst case scenario - you have fun. Best case scenario, the judge changes or steps down or is replaced - potentially by "you" since this was your idea (and you are getting more players).

While Judge rules vs Rulebook could be a problem, I think it could be a bigger problem when its Rulebook vs Errata. <-- That is maddening!

To me this just sounds like OP didnt know the scenerios fully. AT the venue I play, we have these every week along with nml and they are always different. There are some that have house rule to use no resources except nml.

Does the event maker right these scenerios somewhere you can check? Ours has a list of upcoming events for the month.