I’m not sure whether the issue I’m writing about is a bug or a misunderstanding on my part of the rules of Backgammon, but I had something happen that caught me very much off-guard. By the way, apologies in advance if this is something that is already known. I couldn't find any mention of it after a cursory search of this forum.

I recently played a game where I had born several checkers off the board. At the same time, my opponent had at least one or two checkers on the bar waiting to re-enter. Due to one of my checkers getting hit, I decided to use the doubling cube. My opponent rejected the double and … this is where I was surprised, I was rewarded a win at three times the stakes of the game. It was as though I had scored a backgammon!

To my understanding, if a cube is rejected, a player can only win points at the current stakes of the game. A gammon or backgammon can only be scored when a player has born off all of their checkers. However, this result contradicted my understanding of the rules. When my opponent rejected my double, the current stakes of the game were just at 1 point, but I won 3 points.

I hope this made sense. I honestly believe this was a bug, but if anyone believes I am interpreting the rules improperly, I would be willing to listen. Also, my thanks to everyone involved with the Game Room. The intuitive, accessible design of all of these games is nothing short of genius and a true pleasure to experience.

Hello,

Thank you very much for your report. It perfectly make sense, don't worry.

However, I'm not a backgammon expert at all, so I actually don't know if you are correct or not. One thing is sure, it's an edge case that wasn't thought about.

Can someone confirm or invalidate what is correct here ? If possible with links to official rules if they exists.
Thank you very much.

There are a number of versions but this explains well.

https://bkgm.com/rules.html

Doubling

Backgammon is played for an agreed stake per point. Each game starts at one point. During the course of the game, a player who feels he has a sufficient advantage may propose doubling the stakes. He may do this only at the start of his own turn and before he has rolled the dice.

A player who is offered a double may refuse, in which case he concedes the game and pays one point. Otherwise, he must accept the double and play on for the new higher stakes. A player who accepts a double becomes the owner of the cube

•If the opponent did not bear off a singleman AND has at least one checker on the bar or on his opponent's last 6point, the player wins a Backgammon and 3 points.

Maybe this is the reason you got 3 points as the game was stopped at this point.

It is not a good choice tactically to use the doubling cube if you have a very good chance to win a round by more than 1 point as it is better for your oponent to refuse the doubling cube to save you earning a possible 6.

Personally I don't like the doubling rules so never play it as people only use it near the end of the game when it is obvious they are going to win, not when it is say 60-40 to them and they may lose out with a bit of bad luck.

Hello,

So this was actually a bug. It is normally fixed now with the latest update.
Thank you for the report and happy new year.

Hello,

Thank you for fixing this, Amminiel. I was going to share the specific rules around gammons and backgammons because I think that is more crucial to the topic than rules around the doubling cube actually. However, I will not bore you with the details. That said, I'm grateful for the fix, as I find doubling a very fun supplement to game-play in Backgammon. Edit: I should add that, although I said this bug manifested recently, it was probably three or four months ago and it just happened to be on my mind this weekend. I'm assuming you mean that this bug was fixed in the latest update? I honestly haven't played Backgammon since then, although I plan to now, But, anyway, I apologize if I raised an obsilete alarm.

Hello,
don't worry, no false alarm, this bug was always here.

By the latest update, Aminiel means the latest server update which just happened about 4 hours ago from the time this message was posted, meaning you shouldn't have to update anything on your side and the bug should no longer occur.

Hello,

It was much older than three or four months. In fact the bug was present since backgammon is available on the playroom, several years ago.

While you are working on Backgammon, if you have some time, could you also fix another error in the rules that was here since the start?

Normally, in Backgammon, the first move should never start with a double roll. This is because in the real game, 2 players first roll a die to determine who will play the first move. The one with the greater number of course plays first, and in addition, he plays his first move using these two rolls. So if I roll a 4 and you roll a 6, you play your first move using 6 4. If both of us roll a 6, for example, then we have to re roll. On the Playroom however, the table master always plays first, and he can play whatever roll he gets in the first turn.

Thanks.

Although you are correct Nikola it needs to be pointed out that this issue applies to many games, whether it is the rolling of di/dice, domino, letter or drawing the highest card depending on what game you are playing.

Hello,

I think I'll do as in most other games, choose the player who goes first at random. It's just simpler.
Otherwise OK, no double on the first turn.

Big big thanks for fixing the doubling cube behavior, and yes please, no doubles and a random player at the start of the first round will be amazing too. Beginning the match with a double should just never be a thing. I believe either one or both of these issues were addressed long ago, so thank you for bringing them up again and for caring to fix them. By the way, going a bit off topic but not exactly, randomizing who goes first in scrabble would be awesome too, since according to the official Scrabble rules each player would draw a tile from the bag at the beginning of the game, and the one whose tile is the closest to A goes first.