Finnish Board Game Society BrettspielWelt guide

1. Introduction
BrettspielWelt (Boardgameworld in English) is a German board game website/game server in the
Internet. The address of BrettspielWelt is www.brettspielwelt.de. You can switch the language into
English on the front page but when you play you often meet German players and see German discussion. Don’t be discouraged by this, it’s in fact very easy to get along with board gamers from
other countries .
BrettspielWelt is a very important service to any board gamer because:
• It’s easy to register and you can play for free
• BSW offers THE best selection of well-known board games in a network playable format.
• You can find co-players at all times in BSW.
• Within BSW there is a very active community for board gamers (around medieval city
theme) that offers new friends and help & company for playing.
The user interface of BrettspielWelt might seem confusing in the beginning but with very little
practice and by reading this guide you will be playing with ease soon. In addition to this text you
can find more English documentation and instructions from the www.brettspielwelt.de website and
from Boomer’s website www.brettspielwelt.info.
The reason to learn using BSW? It can be found here. Check this list of board games!
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Spiele/?nation=en.
2. How to register
Before gaming it makes sense to register into BrettspielWelt server. You can try gaming with unregistered nickname and password but registering is worthwhile because:
• Registering doesn’t cost anything and requires very little personal information about you
• It’s easy to register and you can tweak information people see about you when you play
• All games you play will be registered to you nickname and with the points you will go up in
player levels and get more commands you can use in BSW.
• Playing with a shared network connection (computers use so called private IP addresses /
NAT) does not work without registered user accounts.
Start the registration from this address http://www.brettspielwelt.de. Click the flag to switch the
pages to English. In this document it is assumed that you use English. Note! If necessary you can
always switch pages to English by adding /?nation=en to the end of any BSW web link.
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Start the actual registration by clicking the Register button on
the first page. Because you do not have a username and password yet, press Noch kein Brettspielwelt-Mitglied? link in the
bottom of the window (Not a Member of BrettspielWelt?)
Registration page from the BSW’s Community section opens. The information on the page is mandatory. Select your gender and after that type in the nickname you want to use in BrettspielWelt.
Type a suitable password 2 times. Put a working e-mail address to E-mail field. E-mail is used to
send the activation code to you. After that e-mail is needed very seldom and you can always choose
whether to show it to other or not. Next is your date of birth and your country. If you don’t find
your country on the list select Other (Sonstiges).
After registration you will get a message saying that registration was successful and you’ll also receive an e-mail titled “Brettspielwelt-Registrierung”. Click the web link in that message and your
BSW account will activated, you will be logged in to the BSW web site and BSW help page is
shown.
If you want to modify your data or change the information other players see about you click Profile in the BSW web site. If something
went wrong in the user registration you can delete your account by
clicking Delete Name.
You can add your location and contact details to the your profile. Additionally there
are settings for the language used when
game is started from the website or when
you look at BSW web pages.
The last part in the profile shows messages
that are displayed when you log and out of
BSW and teleport in or out from the game
room. Description is shown to every gamer
that checks your information when you are
online. You can check the information for
example using /info command.
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3. How to use BrettspielWelt
You need a computer and a working Internet connection to play in BrettspielWelt. Playing happens
using your browser or a separate BrettspielWelt client program (BSW players talk simply about
client). All games in BSW are programmed using Java language so you need to have Java support
installed on your computer. If necessary, you can install Java from this address (www.java.com)
using Download link. You don’t need a specific operating system or a browser so long as Java support is installed and works properly.
In this example we will play using a browser interface. You can find more information about the separate BSW client from chapter 9. Playing starts by choosing
the right language and pressing Play button on the front page of
www.brettspielwelt.de. Your browser starts the Java support and retrieves the
gaming interface. In the meanwhile it asks our username and password.
Type your username into Name field and your password
to Password field. Sound on/off lets you choose whether
you hear the sound effects from the games or not. Typically it makes sense to keep the sound on so that you notice the changes in taking turns not only by seeing but
also by sound. Note! On the first time it takes longer to
start the playing system because you computer loads
game components from the server. If you experience
any problems in starting the client (e.g. you don’t see graphics) restart you browser and try again.
When you log in the first thing you’ll see is the BrettspielWelt game window in English and within
it Game Manager (Spiele Manager) which is used to start new games.
BrettspielWelt is organized around the theme of medieval cities and player communities form their
own towns. There are houses in the towns and within those houses the rooms where all games in
BSW run. There is no need to know more about the town theme if you want to just play board
games. The majority of players in BSW play board games without belonging to any specific town. If
you are interested more about the communities and towns, check chapter 10.
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Toolbar
Games starting up
Message area
Command line
On the top of the game window is a toolbar that gives a shortcut to the most used game commands.
On the bottom of the windows is a grey message area that shows messages from system and other
users. In the very bottom of the window is a command line for typing in messages to other users
and giving BSW game commands that start with /. The /manager command in the example would
move you to the Game Manager window. There’s more information about game commands in Appendix 1.
You can adjust the size of the game window on your screen but it is a good idea to maintain the
proportions of the window so that you see at least a couple lines of the messages in message area.
In the top of the gaming window is a toolbar that offers you shortcuts to some of the BSW commands. The rest of the commands are typed in using the command line.
News
Game
Shows news from BSW administrators and guilds.
From Game you can join into games, start a game and reset a game. If the
game offers options or expansions these can typically be activated from the
game menu too.
Note! If you press the downward arrow next to Game button you get quick
list of all game commands.
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You can close the Game window by pressing the red button in the right top
corner of the window.
You can give all these commands from the command line too if you like
(/join, /start, /reset, /option xx).
GamePartner
Info
Room
Channel
Help
Display
Shows the invitations to starting games and link to Game Manager you can
use to choose the game you would like to play.
Shows information about the gamers in the same room. You can use command /info from the command line to check player info too.
Show the players that are currently in this room.
Shows the chat channels of BSW.
Opens help window.
Changes display size to given resolutions.
Note! You can change what commands are displayed by clicking right mouse
button on toolbar and choosing Configure from the popup menu.
After login you may see
chat windows opening to
your screen. The main chat
#SPV show discussion gamers are having and invitations to come to play with
them. In this window replacement players are invited to play Settlers of
Catan (Siedler) and somebody is looking for a partner to a Tichu game.
At this point you can move
this window so that it does
not disturb you learning.
New BSW players will also
automatically see Newbie
help that assists you in
gaming. You can look for
more help from the BSW
help pages or chat with one
of BSW’s more experienced tutor players if you
have any problems in getting started with gaming.
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4. Starting a game
4.1. Using Game Manager
The most common way to start a game in BSW is to use Game Manager. You can move to Game
Manager by selecting it from Game Partner menu or typing in command /manager to command line
and pressing Enter.
By default Game Manager displays all games that are open. The text after the game logo is:
-
Light green when more players have been requested with /gameyell command. You can join
the game directly by clicking it with a left mouse button.
Dark green when more players have been requested but they cannot directly enter the game.
Brown when players have joined the game but they haven’t yet asked for other players to
join.
Violet when the game is started. At this point the game is removed from the Game Manager
default display.
The following information is shown from every game:
-
The upper row show the game name, active options in parenthesis and players that have
joined the game.
The lower row shows the number of the game room, the name of the room and players that
are in the game room but haven’t joined the game.
Sex and username is shown per each user. Blue frame around icon shows that that the gamer
is a beginner and golden frame symbolizes an advanced player. The green ring shows that
there’s a puppet (programmed game code) in the game room so it’s not player.
Joining a game
If you want to join a game you can do it as follows:
You can join the game by clicking the right mouse button. If you hold
left mouse button over the game a blue popup menu appears. When
Gameroom
you release the mouse button you can join the game by choosing Beitreten or go to game room Zusehen. In the latter case you can ask
is shown in
whether it’s ok to join and then join by /join command or from choosgreen
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ing Join from Game menu.
Gameroom
If the game room is shown in other colors open the menu by pressing
is shown in
lef mouse button and choose Zusehen. When you enter the game room
dark green
ask permission to join the game and then join by /join command or
or brown.
from choosing Join from Game menu.
Note! It is possible to join games directly with Beitreten command but in general it’s very polite to
ask for permission first becuase other players may have their own plans regarding gaming and game
company.
Browsing for a game and starting a new game
If you want to play a game that is now shown in Game
Manager window press the Mitspieler Gesucht button. It
opens a list of all games you can play in BrettspielWelt.
Games are organized in groups so that it’s easier for you to
find a certain game. If you click for example Zwei Personen
Spiele you will se all games that are for two players. Alle
Spiele opens list of all games in BSW. In the lower part of
the list are the newest additions to online games in BSW.
If you choose Mitspieler Gesucht you will be transferred
back to the list of active game calls.
If you select a certain game from the list
you see all rooms where you can play it.
If you want to select an empty room and
start calling game company for yourself
press left mouse button over the game
room and choose Eröffnen. That opens
the game and sends a request for new
players to everybody.
4.2. Use of ghook command
If you know already that you game partner is waiting for you in some gaming room (e.g. after you
have exchanged messages in chat window) you can enter the right game room and load the game by
using ghook command. Type /ghook following the player name (e.g. /ghook JoeLamer) into the
command line and you will be transferred to the proper room. You see game invitations that mention ghook command and the user name very often in BSW chat windows.
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4.3. Other ways to start the game
In addition to previous examples there
are also other ways to start games in
BSW. If you have just finished a game
you can quicky check game calls from
the Game Partner menu. Mitspieler-Rufe
list shows all active game invitations at
any given moment. From list you see the
username of the player that sent the invitation, the level of the player (W/K 0-21)
and the game he or she would like to
play. If you click one of the invitations
you will be transferred into the room
where the game is running and players
are waiting for you.
Brettspielwelt towns may have their own
game managers that still use the older
display where games are grouped in
chests and games are shown as pictures
of the game. On this display you click the
game you want to play and you are
shown a list of game rooms in this town.
Every room shows the name of the game.
If there is a * before the name then the
game is in progress. If gamers are next to
the table they have joined the game. You
can joint the game by pressing Join and
watch the game by pressing Visit button.
You can start a new game by entering an
empty room and calling for other players
with /gameyell command.
If you get lost in the game windows you can always return to Game Manager by typing /manager
into the command line and pressing Enter.
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5. Playing the games
Playing a game in BrettspielWelt follows very often a certain routine independent on the way the
game was actually started. The chosen game is loaded into the game window and in addition to that
you see (depending on the game) other information like player information, game tokens, buttons to
activate things in the game etc. The game in our example is Carcassonne.
Game play typically starts with greeting the players in the room. With this little compliment players
also notice that somebody enters the room for playing games or watching and is not just passing by.
A short ”Hi!” or ”Hallo” is often enough. The reason I’m mentioning the German phrases is that
you will see them very often and it makes sense to know the basic phrases in a typical game play.
Messages are sent to other users by typing them into command line and pressing Enter after that.
All messages in a room are shown in the message field.
If you have not sent the game invitation and enter the room after others it is polite to ask if you can
join the game. In some cases players might want to play in a smaller group so it’s important that
you don’t be to pushy. Asking for permission happens by asking ”May I join?” or ”Darf ich ?” in
German. Persons typically answer by saying something like ”Join”, ”ok”, ”Ja” or even ”j”. Typically it does not make sense to join the game before you got permission.
You have to join into the game from Game menu or using /join command from the command line.
If you choose an empty game window and invite others in you can already join in and be ready to
welcome other games into the play.
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Before game start and also before getting more players in it makes sense to choose the options you
want to use in the game. You can find the options from the Game menu. Part of the options change
the way game works and it’s good to set them on early on so that other players see how you want to
play. Additionally there are some options that are common to all BSW games: invisible (game is
not shown in Game Manager), host (only the player that joined first can set options and e.g. start the
game) and drawseat (start order is randomized).
After that more players might be invited using /gameyell command that was mentioned before.
When more persons are waited (and especially if no more appears) players might discuss whether
more players are needed and is there a need to limit the amount of players in the game. Players
might also ask if more players are waited or would it be ok to start already. The typical german
terms for two person play is ”2er”, for three ”3er” etc.
Games start with /start command or choosing Start from the Game menu. Note! It considered unpolite to start a game somebody else begun. Depending on the game players might see cards, tiles
etc. appearing in the game window. The standard way to mark an active player in BSW is to put the
players name within asterisks (e.g. *JoeLamer*).
In the beginning of the game players often wishes each other lots of fun in the game and good luck.
The typical terms are ”Have fun”, ”hf” or ”Viel Spass”, ”VS” in German and ”Good luck”, ”gl”,
”Viel Glück” or ”VG”,”. These are routines but especially with two player it is polite to answer. A
typical quick way to anwer is ”The same” or ”dito” (and the last one is not a typo ).
It makes sense to play the game with no long breaks because they might irritate other players. If you
are a beginner with the game mention that to others so that they understand you delays and slower
play. You can send messages to other during game play and it makes the gaming more fun. Do not
mock other players though or type messages when it is your turn.
When game is over BSW server counts the points and shows them to players. Now it’s time to
thank other players by saying ”Thanks”, ”thx”, ”good game!” and something similar. German
players typically answer with ”grats” or ”gratsi”. If the game was especially exciting or fun let others know that.
Tell to other users what you’re doing after the game. You can ask for a new round with a question ”Continue?” or why not even ask for a possibility to revenge ”rev?” . If you want to end the
playing it’s again a good idea to tell other players that you ”Have to go” and add the wish to meet
and game again by saying ”See you!” or shortly ”Cu!”
You can start a new game by resetting the previous on with /reset command or from the Game
menu with the same command. After that you can join in again. If you do not plan to play this
game, move for example to Game Manager so that other players do not wonder your stay in the
game room and start inviting you to a new game.
If you want to end up gaming in BSW close your browser or BSW client window. There is no need
to log out separately from BrettspielWelt.
Note! This is just an example of a typical gaming session but with these instructions you get easily
started.
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5.1. If player drops off the game
Because gaming in BrettspielWelt happens using computers many computer or communication related errors may happen and stop your game play. You see quite sometimes situations where players’ computer does not display the game correctly or the connection to game server breaks. Here are
some tips to these situations.
Game does not respond
There might be lag in communication with communication to server or server might be overloaded.
Type a short test message like “test” or “..” to command line and see what happens. If the server or
client does not respond by showing your test message in the message area wait for a second. If
nothing happens in a long time (let’s say a minute) proceed to next step.
I have problems in my game play
Send a message to other players (if possible) that your having problems in game play e.g. ”Problem
with computer”. Take a note about some person that was in the same game room as you. Go out
from the game into Game Manager window or to some other window. Try to reload the game by
using /ghook command with the player name that was in the same room where game is running
(e.g. JoeLamer). If this does not help close your browser or BSW client program, log in and retry
with /ghook command. If game loads now properly or the broken connection to server is up try to
sit back to your previous game seat by giving command /join with your position in the game. If you
were sitting in the 3rd place in the game, give command /join 3. Other players accept your request
to get back with /accept command. Remember to thank everybody from their patience.
We lost a player from your game
In the beginning you should wait for a little while so that the missing player has time to do everything that was mentioned above. If the same player returns you can accept him/her in with /accept
command. It the player does not return and you play a long game where just giving up would annoying you can invite a new player in with /gameyell command (e.g. /gameyell Replacement
needed!). New player can join the game play with the above /join x - /accept procedure. Players that
are stucked in the game can be removed from game with /remove command so that they or others
can join in as again.
Game has to be restarted
If you want to reset a running game (somebody was lost from the game or you started just before
somebody had time to get in) you can do this with /masterreset. For that command your player level
must be 5. or above and other players must accept the reset with /accept command.
Server restart
As part of system maintenance BSW game servers are rebooted every now and then. If you get a
message about server restart, agree with you fellow players, whether you stop the game there or
come back after restart by rejoining your old positions in the game.
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6. BrettspielWelt player level system
Registered users gain experience by playing games and with experience BSW players rise up in
player levels. The idea of the level system (and registration) is that when you gain experience you
also get new commands you can use and thus enhance your gaming experience in BrettspielWelt.
Some more advanced commands could disturb other players game play or the gaming system and
for that reason they are not available to players that don’t know what to do (and what not) with
them.
BSW level system is modeled after medieval theme from newbie all the way up to the emperor.
Players that play typically multiplayer games are marked with W and there levels are from 0 to 21.
Players that play lot of single user games might be marked with clerical class K. The prerequisite is
that 1/3 of you game experience points come from playing solo games. You can check the English
levels and points you get from each game here:
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/MetaSpiel/Levelsystem/?nation=en
Another handy tool is Player info in Hall of Fame:
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/HallOfFame/SpielerInfo/?nation=en. By typing in your nickname you
see games you have played and Teammates tell with whom you have played.
Every game in BSW has point value that you get after playing one game. Additionally you might
get a 10% bonus by winning the game. Multiuser games give you more points (from 3 to 25) than
single user games (1-2) and the more players there are in the game the more points you will get.
You can check an estimate of your points by using for example the following point checker:
http://www.janbln.de/c32/punkt.php.
7. Communication in BSW
When the amount of played games increases you start to meet familiar players in BSW you like to
play with. Information about whether these persons are around and in general communication with
other players is part gaming in BSW.
With lists you can easily follow whether you friends are playing online. Registered users can use for
example watch lists for this purpose. You add persons to watch list with command /add watch nickname and after you have typed in your friends one by one save the list with command /save. Now
you will hear and see when your friends arrive to BrettspielWelt or are already there when you log
in.
Different tell commands are a good way to communicate between players. The basic command /tell
nickname text sends the typed text to the named user and leaves a chat window open for continuing
the discussion. Other commands (/ttell, /ctell, /mtell and /shout) can be used to communicate to different user groups in BrettspielWelt. For example the /ctell command is very useful if you belong to
some town in BSW. Check the use of these commands from the command listing.
Channels are way to communicate to an unknown group of persons that can (based on the channel
name) come to a certain channel. Channels in BSW might belong to certain gamer group, players
from a certain country or of a certain game. Anybody can create new channels freely and join to
them. Command /channel channel_name creates a channel with this name (if it does not exist already) and opens a chat window for that (e.g. /channel BoardGameGeek). Command /leave channel_name closes the channel down and you won’t see its messages any more.
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9. How to install and use BSW client
You can play in BrettspielWelt using a browser only but if you find yourself spending more time
there it definitely makes sense to install the BSW client program to your computer. Some good reasons:
- Game graphics loads faster
- You can save your nickname and password to a profile file and speed up start
- And most importantly: You can change language settings, tweak menus and keyboard combination so that all necessary game commands, places and persons are easy to access.
You can install a BSW client to your computer from here:
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Hilfe/Client/?nation=en
On first start it takes longer time to start the BSW client because it has load game updates from
server. If you experience any graphics problems, restart the client and try again. If the server status
is red on the client splash screen, the server cannot be contacted and you have to wait before it
comes online again.
You can adjust the client to fit your needs better by editing a file called brettspielwelt.prop in the
BSW client install directory. It makes sense at least to change the language to English and probably
also put your nickname and password in.
Some things you can change by editing brettspielwelt.prop
- Client default language (Nation = en)
- Your nickname and password (Name, Password)
- Start town/room (Room)
- Menus (Menu)
- Keyboard combinations (FKey)
- Size of client window (WinWidth, WinHeight) and it’s position on screen (WinPosX, WinPosY)
- Color of all message windows etc.
You can find more information about modifying the .prop file here:
http://brettspielwelt.de/Hilfe/Client/PropDatei/?nation=en
An important note about BSW client (this applies to browser version too) is that firewall port 7670
has to be open for the client to work. If you’re using shared network (NAT) every player has to use
registered nicknames.
10. BrettspielWelt town system
Brettspielwelt is organized around a medieval town theme. In the beginning you might be more
interested about pure gaming but after you have played a little bit it’s probably a good idea to learn
a bit more about the BSW town system. Towns are used to form communities in BSW.
When you register to BSW you become automatically a member of town called ARMfeld. Players
of ARMfeld are considered living in countryside and they don’t have any privileges or obligations
the players in towns have. It is not necessary to belong to any town to play in BSW so why should
you join a town?
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The benefits towns offer to players are:
- A more limited community that might share your interests, speak the same language (e.g.
English) or be from the same country as you.
- Towns have their own chat channels and you can find playing company or persons that can
teach you new games from your own town.
- Townspeople can build buildings into towns and run games in them. They can also belong
to guilds and participate to tournaments between towns.
- You can participate in the decision making of that town and become one of the town officers.
Townspeople have to pay taxes if they want to live there. In practice taxes are paid when player
plays regularly games in the game rooms town offers. You don’t have to play massive amount of
games if you want to belong to a town. Some towns also have mills and forges that create more income for that particular town.
There are currently tens of towns in Brettspielwelt. Some are big and some are small. Take your
time to learn players in BSW and see what group has the same interests as you. If they belong to a
certain town it might be a good idea to consider joining that town.
You can find more information about the town “Meta game” from here:
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/MetaSpiel/?nation=en
11. Useful links
Direct link to this guide: http://www.elisanet.fi/joelamer/bsw_guide.pdf
Rules of all BSW games: http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Spiele/?nation=en
Checking your gamer stats: http://www.brettspielwelt.de/HallOfFame/SpielerInfo/?nation=en
Changing you user data including login/logout messages and user information:
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/User/Profil/?nation=en
Frequently asked questions: http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Hilfe/FAQ/?nation=en
List of all commands you can give from the command line:
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Hilfe/Kommandos/?nation=en
Boomer’s BSW pages: www.brettspielwelt.info
BSW forum in BoardGamegeek:
http://boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewforum&forumid=96&objectid=1&objecttype=forum
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Appendix 1: BrettspielWelt commands
Here’s a short list of most useful commands in Brettspielwelt. You can find the full set of commands explained here: http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Hilfe/Kommandos/?nation=en
Command
/help
/manager
/info player
/tell player
/channel name
/ghook player
/join
/join x
/accept
/gameyell text
/start
/reset
/masterreset
Explanation
Shows a list of all commands and how to use them (in German)
Moves you to Game Manager
Show the statistics, level and personal information of named player
Opens a separate discussion windows with named player
Opens a named chat channel or joins you in if that that channel is already open
Moves you to same room as named player and loads the game in the room
Joins you into a game
Joins you back into the game to your position x if you were dropped off the
game
Accept a player that is trying to join his/hers previous place in the game
Send a game invitation to other players and show text if you have typed it in
Starts the game
Resets the game that hasn’t been started or that is already over
Resets a running game. You have to be at least on level 5 to do this.
Credits:
This text is partially based on the English tutorials and translations Boomer and fellow players in
BSW have created and made available on the website: http://www.brettspielwelt.info/. Kudos to his
ground-breaking work to bring BrettspielWelt to us non-Germans. Similarly praise is in place for all
the hardworking persons behind the whole BrettspielWelt concept and especially of the new web
site. Without you there wouldn’t be too much to write about!
As you surely have noticed my native language is not English. If you find typos or errors in the text
or would like to comment or question this guide, contact me using BoardGameGeek or send directly
e-mail to [email protected].
Hope this helps you too to get started. Cu in BSW!
Markku
(JoeLamer here and there)
Finnish Board Game Society
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