I also played a Captain Fantastic that same year with no playfield lights at all … Ruling was to play on.
Go in the A … I mean B! I mean … Hell I don’t know! 
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Right or wrong, I would’ve made the same call. But, if the game was set up properly, you never would’ve had to make the call. Nugent allows you to award points for specials. Did you have the keys? Also, when did you learn the bulb was out?
Not like your strategy is going to change on CF 
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There’s a good thread topic: Pins that you don’t need playfield lights in order to play
WoZ, because usually they’re out anyway…
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Yet another wrinkle on the classic playing-out-of-turn just happened in a league group in which I was playing last night.
P3 earned an extra ball during his ball 2 on Metallica, but didn’t realize it was set to award points but not an extra ball. (He’s a new competitive player.) After his ball was over, the game moved to P4 but he thought he had an extra ball he needed to plunge. As he was pulling back the plunger, a few people (yes, including me) yelled “Don’t!” or similar. This was apparently enough to cause P3 to almost completely stop, but he ended up short plunging with the ball coming very close to, but not quite leaving, the shooter lane.
Interference or no interference?
If you answer “no interference” to this question, what would you say if the short plunge left the shooter lane and went into the trough without hitting any switches, so that P4 was still unaffected?
Because this situation happened in a group I was involved in, I had my deputy step in and make the ruling. I won’t reveal what his ruling actually was until @pinwizj chimes in ( ).
To me, this is one of those edge cases where the rules allow for multiple interpretations based on how you understand the words “plays out of turn”.
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That’s a good example of a weird edge case.
And if that player realizes their wrongful, but short enough plunge, can they bump it off the orbit feed to avoid the sling and hope for a center drain? 
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BURN THE WITCH! 
I’d let this fly as “no interference” since P4 wasn’t impacted and the ball didn’t actually make it into play.
If it left the plunger lane that would be tougher for me to decide on, because now you’re considering anything that isn’t ‘validating playfield’ NOT interference. Which in that case, I’ll call Cayle over to play the start of every one of my JackBot multiballs, crack me off a couple of free JackBot’s, and then leave me with the ball in the plunger lane ready to go 
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You jumped in so quickly that we’re not building suspense (for anyone other than @jdelz I guess), but here’s the ruling that was made:
- No interference. Play on.
Stuff I didn’t mention before:
- Everyone who was watching is only somewhat sure that the ball didn’t leave the shooter lane, but no one actually saw it and remembers with 100% certainty. I remember seeing the launch and assuming it was going to leave the shooter lane, but not actually seeing the latter. I think we’re all in agreement that P3 should get the benefit of the doubt in that situation and the ruling should be made as if the ball wasn’t plunged onto the playfield. Anyone want to argue with that one? (Where’s @Adam?
) - This ruling meant that I got second rather than first place.
- But I was hoping the ruling would go that way (without telling my deputy anything to sway him one way or the other) so that the new player would be the first person ever to learn about this rule first-hand without feeling screwed.
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Maybe the definition of playing has to involve flipping? I mean, it’s not the IPA for a reason. Right? 
But then we’d at a spot where we’d need to assess a player’s intention, and that’s not a fun place for the rules to take anyone.
I like the ruling as it was made, and I also like the policy of the ball leaving the shooter lane and entering the playfield as crossing the line into “playing out of turn”.
Would the same ruling be made on Xs & Os if it caused a player to miss out on their timed skill shot?
but what if he held the left flipper button in, and the too-short-to-leave-shooter-lane plunge wasted P4’s chance to do a Super Skill shot?
(MET’s super skill shot times out even if you plunge too short to get out of the shooter lane. You can even still have an unvalidated playfield and drain your ball, but your super skill shot opportunity is gone)
Ah… an even better example than the MET super skill shot one. I would rule this as interference, because the next player is definitely impacted.
I won my IFPA group game on X’s and O’s on plunging alone.
Great question. Didn’t apply here, but really interesting to think about.
Pretty sure it would have timed out the regular skill shot as well, so would have impacted P4 no matter what he was planning to do.
Another can of worms: Do the TDs out there allow super skill shot attempts on plunged EBs? Obviously, no flipping to hit the ball, but holding down the left flipper on MET and attempting to get the top lanes or maybe the fun double flipper carom into the Mystery Super Skill shot.
And did you know that, at least according to the DMD, the top lane version is really “just” a regular “Skill Shot x 2” (left lane) or “Skill Shot x 4” right lane)?
I don’t like the ruling (but would have made the same call). I won’t even double flip to cancel extra ball buy-in on another player’s ball for fear of interference. I certainly would have told the player that they are getting a warning and to be more careful in the future.
I want the rule to be don’t touch the machine if it is not your turn. However, for many machines, you need to press the flipper to see whose turn it is. I have seen people give their appoinents a “thank you mister Data” without even knowing it when they walked up to the machine during bonus count.
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What if someone accidentally does something like open the gate for super skillshot on corvette? You can certainly change game state without plunging.
At least this one in particular can be undone by a skillful TD.
All of the examples being thrown out above are describing ACTUAL INTERFERENCE, and IMO are different from examples of there not being ANY interference.
If I lose my super skill shot opportunity on Metallica, there’s nothing to discuss. I’ve been interfered with, and the verbiage regarding unintentional interference takes precedent over determining how material the interference actually was.
What about having a tilt warning get through to the next player?
Interference
Allowed (with player warning)
What about having a majestic spinner rip on Meteor and draining so fast that the next player is awarded some low-point spins? (And therefore loses his opportunity for a zero-switch ball save.)
Interference
Allowed