[Rails-devel] No sale in first (share) round - exact interpretation?

[Stefan F. <ste...@we...>]

There seems to be a rule which is nearly identical for all 18xx:

"There is no sale of company shares during the first round."
See http://www.fwtwr.com/18xx/rules_difference_list/1_3.htm

However what exactly is the definition of the first (share) round?

In most 18xx the game starts with a kind of special distribution 
(auction) of a packet of certificates.

In Rails terminology this is the StartPacket and those rounds are called 
StartRounds.

There can be several StartRounds, if all player passes, a (short) 
OperatingRound starts. In that round only private companies pay their 
fixed dividend.

After the StartPacket is fully sold, a StockRound immediately follows.

Simple question:
The rule "no sale of shares during the first (share) round" is valid for

A) Exactly the first round of the game, including that there the 
StartPacket is on offer. If this round ends by all players passing, the 
second (share) round begins, regardless if the StartPacket was sold or 
not. From this point in the game shares can be sold (as soon as the 
StartPacket is fully sold).

B) The first StockRound that starts/continues immediately after the 
StartPacket was sold.

Or the more complex question:
Or might this be even game dependent?

On a first glance into a few rules my guess is that it might be even the 
latter (not surprisingly in 18xx).

For 1830 and 1835 rules read as A) is correct.

For 1856 and 1870 the rules seem to suggest B) as correct.

The current Rails implementation for all games with that rule is B).

Background:

The cause for this mail is a off-list bug-report by Harald Stieling for 
the 1835 implementation in Rails:

1835 allows to float a company (BY) even if the StartPacket is not fully 
sold (e.g. the M4 or HB are unsold).

So assume that BY floats in the first StartRound, operates once, then 
Rails returns to selling the StartPacket in a second StartRound, 
followed by the first StockRound. Now Rails assume that this is the 
first share round, that no shares can be sold. This implies that no BY 
shares can be sold, even if BY already operated.
This case is clearly against the rules of 1835.

However to fix the bug, it would be great, if their is a general 
consensus how to interpret the "no sale of shares in the first (share) 
round" rule. At least for each 18xx implemented in Rails. ;-)

More comments and views?

Stefan