Oct 14 RussCon Report
There were 23 of us, almost a record! (I think we had 24 once.) We had new folks including Steve, plus Jeff's visiting sister Amy!
The RussCon management apologizes for the untimely failure of the air conditioning.
Many games were played, especially Raj, "an outrageous bidding game" that only takes 10 minutes to play.
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I just got in (Monday night) from a long weekend in San Jose for a wedding, so this RussCon Report will be more incoherent and error-filled than usual. Hoody-hoo!
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Tim the Devil brought us an old Cheapass game called Get Out, plus the m&m candies to use as markers. Very amusing rules, cards, and board, but the play seemed to drag on much longer than desirable. We decided to shift into sudden death mode: Jay was the first to score a single life point (out of 4 needed to win), so we dubbed him the victor.
Meanwhile Peter won Durch die Wueste, a game about which I know nothing except it's obviously German.
JonathanC (Sea Biscuit) won Elfenland. (Since Marty wasn't playing.)
William won Egomania.
Tim won RoboRally.
JonathanB (Squeaky) won Ursuppe, the strange German import where each player is a species of amoeba.
Tim won Titan the Arena. I must observe that Alfred knocked out the Cyclops in round one gratuitously, on which I had a visible and a secret bet, and he later realized (too late) that his own secret bet was also on the Cyclops! Thus is justice served, heh-heh-heh.
William won a deterministic Settlers variant that he and KevinH had lobbied for playtesting.
Tim won Mississippi Queen.
William and RussW actually tied a game of Survive!
7 games of Raj were played: Kevin won 1, Kevin & JP tied 1, JP won 2, RussW won 2, and JeffF won 1. This is a wonderful little fast game, and Brady says it's available dirt cheap at MacFrugal's (for like $3 or something). The world needs more outrageous bidding games.
Daniel won Shanghai Trader.
Ken and Harry played that new Avalon Hill fast-paced social game about the Civil War, For the People, until I finally booted them out; there was no clear winner with several turns to go still, so I counted it a draw. (Formally: a joint victory among all players, equivalent to a joint loss as discussed in a previous edition of RussCon Report...)
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Evening's Soundtrack:
Apocalyptica, Inquisition Symphony
Covered in Black (industrial tribute to AC/DC)
Deja Phooey (K-NACK Homegroan volume 2 -- Austin bands cover 70s/80s tunes)
Encomium (tribute to Led Zeppelin)
Lounge-a-palooza ("Taking lounge music to its illogical conclusion.")
Of course the theme was cover versions. The only nonobvious one is the recently released Apocalyptica album: this is a great album from a heavy metal cello quartet from Finland! They do cello covers of Metallica, plus Faith No More, Sepultura, and some original songs. They were on the soundtrack to the recent film Your Friends And Neighbors.
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Rank ratings: 1.0000 Daniel (1 game played) 0.6000 Jay (2) 0.5882 Tim (4) 0.2667 JonathanB (4) 0.2353 William (5) 0.2222 JeffF (2) 0.2000 Peter (2) 0.1333 JP (10) 0.0000 JonathanC (2) 0.0000 KevinH (5) 0.0000 AmyF (1) 0.0000 Harry (1) -0.0556 RussW (11) -0.1111 Jonobie (2) -0.1333 Marty (4) -0.1429 Ken (2) -0.2174 Alfred (8) -0.3077 Steve (3) -0.3333 Clayton (1) -0.3750 James (2) -0.5000 Dawn (2) -0.6250 Doug (2) -0.8182 Brady (3) Win ratings: 1.0000 Daniel (1) 0.8854 Tim (4) 0.6216 Jay (2) 0.5385 William (5) 0.5000 JonathanC (2) 0.4545 Peter (2) 0.2713 JP (10) 0.1667 KevinH (5) 0.0518 JonathanB (4) -0.0581 RussW (11) -1.0000 JeffF (2) -1.0000 AmyF (1) -1.0000 Jonobie (2) -1.0000 Marty (4) -1.0000 Ken (2) -1.0000 Alfred (8) -1.0000 Steve (3) -1.0000 Clayton (1) -1.0000 James (2) -1.0000 Dawn (2) -1.0000 Doug (2) -1.0000 Brady (3)
Note that Harry has no win rating since he only played the adjourned game of For The People. Since this RussCon Report is already late and I'm brain-dead from my San Jose trip, I won't bother with drawing the partial ordering for 23 players or reflecting upon what to do about Harry's apparent lack of a win rating (e.g., is he eligible for an Extra Average Award?)... (By the formula, his win rating is 0/0. Sometime when I'm less sleepy, I'll ponder and philosophize upon whether that should be considered undefined, or converging to 0, or converging to 1. I expect mail from Most Favored Ratings Correspondent DaveB about this matter.)
Fortunately, it is obvious that Daniel is at the top of the heap, with Tim & Jay tied for 2nd. Daniel committed the rare and dangerous Brady Maneuver (playing just 1 game and winning it); to be eligible for Devil, one must play more than one game, hence Tim & Jay are Co-Devils with all the honor and glory and dining table rights which go with it. I believe Jay should be in China around now, but Tim will surely be here to claim the dining table. If not, William is next in command. Then Peter & Squeaky are tied... the total ordering (assuming I haven't brain farted) is:
Daniel (only played 1 game)
Tim & Jay
William
Peter & Squeaky
Sea Biscuit
JP
JeffF
KevinH
RussW
Amy
Jonobie
Marty
Ken
Alfred
Steve
Clayton
James
Dawn
Doug
Brady
with Harry floating off in some unresolved parallel dimension somewhere, perhaps at the midpoint between Russ & Amy...
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Get bumped way up the devil points scale by coming in costume Oct 28! Hoody-hoo!
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See you for gaming this Wednesday Oct 21... and Nothing Else Matters.
Russ
"Tittie bars are to sex as pro wrestling is to sports." (Me, after bachelor party.)