Duplicate protection

Ludagora never lets you receive the same game twice. If you don't know how that works, read the duplicate protection section in how the matching works first.

This page explains how to adjust it.

Two modes, both protect

Above your wants grid there is a control with two options:

• Automatic (what you start with). We do the grouping. Nothing to set up, nothing to do.
• Custom. The same automatic groups are still there, and you can also remove the ones you don't want and build your own.

Switching modes deletes nothing. If you tangle your groups up, go back to Automatic: your groups and your decisions stay saved exactly as you left them, ready for when you come back.

When to switch to Custom

Automatic protection only groups by exact BGG entry. It does not cover these cases:

• Two editions of one game you consider the same, but with different BGG ids.
• Several unrelated games you would accept at most one of.
• A game you want more than one copy of on purpose.

If none of these apply to you, skip this page. Automatic already does the job.

What you see when you open it

One list. Every row is a group that is already protecting you.

Rows marked Automatic are the ones we detected: two or more of your Offerings ask for the same game. They appear on their own and update on their own as your wants change. You never have to add them.

Rows marked Yours are the groups you built.

What a group is

A group ties two or more things together so they are mutually exclusive. At most one of them reaches you. The one exception is a single game: since it expands to all of its copies, one game on its own is already a complete group. That is the shape automatic groups take.

Each item in a group is one of two things:

• A game. It expands on its own to any bare copy of that game you mark now or later. You never have to touch the group when a new copy shows up.
• A specific Offering: a combo, or an item you described by hand. Included as it is. Never broken down into what it holds. Never expanded into anything else.

Building a group by hand takes at least two items, unless it is a single game.

Removing a protection

Removing an automatic group means saying "I accept receiving this game more than once." We ask you first, naming the game.

The row does not disappear. It stays in the list, inactive, with a button to protect it again whenever you want.

You remove one of your own groups by deleting it. If that group covered a game that also had an automatic group, the automatic one comes back.

Editing an automatic group

Adding items to an automatic group makes it yours. It is the same row, changing from Automatic to Yours. No new row appears beside it.

Careful: grouping can also cost you trades

A group is not free. Every group you create is a real rule: at most one of its items reaches you, whether they are copies of one game or completely different games.

Automatic groups never cost you anything, because they only group copies of one game, and you could only have received one anyway.

One of your own groups can tie different games together. That can cost you: if you group two games you could otherwise have received both of, now only one can reach you.

Think about what you group. Only group what you genuinely want treated as mutually exclusive.

A game can sit in more than one group

There is no limit. The same game can sit in several of your groups at once. Each group protects on its own.

If you cover the same game from two different groups, you can still end up receiving it more than once. That is your decision, and your responsibility to account for.

Create, edit, delete

There are only three actions:

• Create a group from the wants you already marked.
• Edit one: add or remove items.
• Delete one whole.

There is no button to combine two groups. If you want that, create the combined group and delete the leftover.

When you can do this

Only during the wants phase. Before it there is nothing to group. After wants close, the pool is frozen.

Example

Situation	What to do
You have two editions of Catan with different BGG ids and consider them the same game	Create a group with both, as game items
You don't care which of three unrelated games reaches you, but you want at most one	Create a group with all three
You want two copies of a game on purpose	Remove its automatic group
A game shows up marked Automatic and you have done nothing yet	It is already protected. Nothing to do

Continue with how the matching works, or go back to Swap-a-ton.