June 10 RussCon Report

June 10 was a slow night, with only 12 gamers... and only 2 tracks of gaming. Jay and Tim both brought me plexiglass sheets which look cool; ironically we didn't actually use them since it was a low turnout. We would have used one to secure the loose map pieces of Kill Dr. Lucky, but JP's maddening vacillations caused us not to play Kill Dr. Lucky after all... We almost played Kill Dr. JP!

There is an anecdote associated with the glass incident last week. At work, I spoke with JeffW & his pregnant wife, telling her she should come to RussCon, because of the great story she'd have to tell if she went into labor in a group of 20 gamers. Jeff shook his head and said, "I can see it now... 'I thought if I stepped on the CENTER of the baby's head, it would be ok!'"

Next week will be Dr. Randy's last RussCon; he then moves to the Middle East where he'll be teaching mathematics to nubile young college women.

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Results:

Your host RussW won Euphrates. RussD decided that he still has no knack for this game, and I won't argue. In all fairness, he did suffer 2 different catastrophes which each knocked 2 leaders off the map.

Doug won Titan the Arena.

Doug also won 3-player Loewenherz.

JP won 7-player RoboRally, breaking Tim's uncanny winning streak (but Tim still came in 2nd!) Randy got the distinction of being the only eliminated robot. We chose the boards randomly this time, and it worked out well. We also used the Crash & Burn option cards for the first time ever. The Crab Legs (which let you shift to the side) saved my bacon on the chasm board in a very dicey situation. Jay used the Big Jet to fly 8 squares.

James won Downtown.

Doug brought the new Cheapass game Lord of the Fries, the spiritual successor to Give Me The Brain! We played a 7-player hand of it, which Randy won quite handily (40 points, 2nd place was Tim with 19 points). It's a cute little game, but I wouldn't call it great. It's not as funny/weird as Give Me The Brain! It was quick and interesting enough that I'd play it again, though.

Finally we played 7-player Settlers with the peanut map (Peanut! Peanut!), which James won. This went a bit late, as we wrapped up at 3am... Final scores: 10 7 6 6 6 5 5.

Thus Doug & James each won 2, and RussW, Randy, and JP each won 1 game.

Rank ratings:
 0.5000 Clayton (1 game played)
 0.4286 James (5)
 0.2381 Doug (5)
 0.1429 RussW (4)
 0.1364 Tim (4)
-0.0476 Randy (4)
-0.1111 RussD (2)
-0.1429 JP (4)
-0.3333 JonathanB (2)
-0.4000 William (3)
-0.6000 Jay (2)
-1.0000 Stefan (1)

Win ratings:
 0.4649 Doug (5)
 0.4077 James (5)
 0.2727 RussW (4)
 0.2308 JP (4)
 0.2308 Randy (4)
-1.0000 Clayton (1)
-1.0000 Tim (4)
-1.0000 RussD (2)
-1.0000 JonathanB (2)
-1.0000 William (3)
-1.0000 Jay (2)
-1.0000 Stefan (1)

This gives the partial order:

      Doug James
Clayton  \ /
   |    RussW
   |   / |  |   
   |  /  |  |
   | / Randy|
  Tim  /    |
    \ /    JP
   RussD  /
      \  /
   JonathanB
       |
    William
       |
      Jay
       |
     Stefan

If you then compute
(#opponents I'm above - #opponents above me)
and
(#levels I'm above - #levels above me)

You get:

Doug = James (9,7)
Clayton (6,6)
RussW (6,5)
Randy (2,3)
Tim (1,3)
JP (1,2)
RussD (-2,1)
JonathanB (-5,-1)
William (-7,-3)
Jay (-9,-5)
Stefan (-11,-7)

We have a tie between Doug & James! Doug is the Devil for 2nd week in a row, and he shares the glory with co-Devil James. Knowing them, they'll probably want to play Successors or Lords of the Sierra Madre or some other annoying long game on the table!

Stefan successfully pulls off the dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver (playing just 1 game and coming in last).

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I've been leaving copies of Knights of the Dinner Table out for folks to browse, and they're proving to be popular. If you haven't seen 'em, check 'em out, especially if you've ever played a RPG. It's a funny comic book series about a group of gamers. Terrible art, riddled with typoes, yet very very funny and true. Available at fine game and comic stores near you.

Folks who enjoy fast farcical theater should check out The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), still showing at the Faulk theater on NE corner of 4th & Brazos (2 blocks east of Congress). 3 guys perform all the Shakespeare plays (abridged). Good fun. Check the paper for details.

See you next time!
Russ