Death Star Dial

ASK FANTASY FLIGHT 

Q: If a DS player forgets to advance the Death Star Dial during his balance phase and notices that he forgot later during that turn, is it now too late?

A: This is actually a tricky question, in that "forgetting" can be used by the dark side player to create an advantage. For instance, if it is left at 8, the light side player might be less inclined to defend and objective than if it was at 10...so the DS player conveniently "forgets," plays through the conflict phase and destroys an objective, and only then claims, "Oh, I forgot to advance the dial in the balance phase..." This could have been an honest mistake, or it could have been angle shooting. Best practice on "forgotten" or overlooked things that were mandatory, but missed by both players, is that the situation can be corrected as long as neither player has made any decisions since the forgotten moment.

So if they catch it quickly, at the beginning of the next phase, for instance, it can be corrected. If some play has gone by, however, it becomes a situation where "you both missed it at the time, and decisions have been made based on the consequential game state, so it's too late to go back now." Note that it is mandatory that the dial advances, so if I was judging and I noticed the players forget to advance it, I would immediately ask that it be advanced.

The main thing to keep in mind here is that it is both player's responsibility to maintain an accurate game state. If a situation develops where an incorrect game state becomes a big issue, I would probably give both players a warning, and remind them that keeping the dial accurate is part of the game and they should both pay attention to it. We don't want a situation where the light side player is remaining silent and eager for his first opportunity to take an action so that he can "screw" his opponent out of moving the dial.