March 3 1999 RussCon Report

There were 23 of us, including a higher than average girl count: Dawn, WendyWhe, Laurie, and Sam visiting from Chicago. Yes, people come from all over the world just to visit RussCon.

This RussCon Report is being emailed with assistance from Marty who has set up a real mailing list. For several reasons not worth going into, the old system was growing rather cumbersome for me. Assuming everything works ok, this replaces the old system.

What's the practical effect for the average RussCon subscriber? Not much difference. This is now a real mailing list. Instead of seeing a bunch of people in the To: field, you'll just see russcon. A few people were on the Bcc list to avoid getting replies-to-all. We're all one big happy family now. Hopefully we can all be judicious about replying to all. (If you feel compelled to reply to all, remember to trim out the unnecessary quoted text.) A few people were on the Bcc list for privacy reasons: now no individuals' email addresses are revealed. If you're needing to reply to me instead of everyone (e.g. to correct a game result or sign up for Laser Quest), remember to email me, not the whole russcon mailing list.

Anyway, we'll see how this works. Thanks Marty!

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Wow. 27 games were played!

TrainsportAustria 5 KevinH 4 Jay 2 Clayton 0 RussW -2 Harry -4
HoneyBears 4 RussW 3 Tim 1 Dawn -1 WendyWhe -3
Entdecker 4 Ken 3 EricH 1 Laurie -1 Sam -3
Can'tStop 3 Jay 2 KevinH -1 Clayton -1
MedievalMerchant 4 Jeffles 3 Doug 1 James -1 JonathanC -3
ElCaballero 4 Daniel 3 Alfred 1 Marty -1 JP -3
Rainbows 3 Ken 2 Sam 0 Laurie -2
LastChance 3 JP 2 EricH 0 Alfred -2
ResPublica 4 Harry 3 Jeffles 0 James 0 Doug -3
Samarkand 5 RussW 4 Dawn 2 Tim 0 Jay -2 JonathanC -4
MoleHill 2 EricH 1 JP -1
MoleHill 2 EricH 1 JP -1
MoleHill 2 EricH 1 JP -1
QuoVadis 5 Tim 4 RussW 2 JonathanC 0 Brady -2 Dawn -4
Samurai 4 Doug 3 James 1 Jeffles -1 Alfred -3
Elfenland 6 Marty 5 Bob 3 Sam 1 Daniel -1 Laurie -4 Ken -4
HoneyBears 4 Marty 3 RussW 1 JP -2 Jeffles -2
Cheops 4 RussW 3 Jeffles 1 Marty -1 JP -3
MoleHill 2 RussW 1 Marty -1
MoleHill 2 Marty 1 RussW -1
MoleHill 2 RussW 1 Marty -1
ElGrande 5 Bob 4 Ken 2 Doug 0 Brady -2 James -4
Kahuna 2 JP 1 Jeffles -1
MoleHill 2 JP 1 Jeffles -1
MoleHill 2 Jeffles 1 JP -1
MoleHill 2 JP 1 Jeffles -1
HoneyBears 5 Marty 4 Doug 2 Bob 0 RussW -2 William -4

Mole Hill is a darned cool 2 player game. Check it out. Honeybears continues to be popular. Sea Biscuit and Dawn brought Samarkand which was fun. Sadly, I have fallen from my summit in Trainsport Austria, as I was bested by Kevin, the master of money games.

A few people have asked about whether I only gather statistics from multiplayer games. I gather 2-player game statistics for games which have luck, or are not familiar classics that some people would have significant experience advantages in. Yes, this is subjective.

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Hole, Celebrity Skin
L7, Smell the Magic
Marilyn Manson, Antichrist Superstar
Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine
No Doubt, No Doubt

Only Clayton had a realistic chance of guessing the theme. These are all bands which Ariel Schrag likes. Who's Ariel Schrag? See http://www.slavelabor.com/potential.html for more info on her if you're interested in semipro comics.

Speaking of musical matters, if anyone has any useful information like recent Consumer Reports etc recommendations about tuner/amps, let me know.

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Rank ratings:
 0.5385 Bob (3 games played)
 0.5000 KevinH (2)
 0.5000 EricH (5)
 0.4545 Tim (3)
 0.4286 Marty (8)
 0.3571 RussW (10)
 0.2500 Daniel (2)
 0.2143 Ken (4)
 0.2000 Jay (3)
 0.1765 Doug (5)
-0.0526 Jeffles (9)
-0.1429 Harry (2)
-0.1667 Clayton (2)
-0.2000 Sam (3)
-0.2727 Dawn (3)
-0.3077 James (4)
-0.3889 JP (11)
-0.5000 Brady (2)
-0.5000 Alfred (3)
-0.6364 JonathanC (3)
-0.7000 Laurie (3)
-1.0000 William (1)
-1.0000 WendyWhe (1)

New Win ratings:
 0.5000 KevinH (2)
 0.4286 Marty (8)
 0.2857 Harry (2)
 0.2500 RussW (10)
 0.2500 Daniel (2)
 0.2143 Ken (4)
 0.1818 Tim (3)
 0.1538 Bob (3)
 0.1250 EricH (5)
 0.0000 Jay (3)
-0.0588 Doug (5)
-0.1111 JP (11)
-0.1579 Jeffles (9)
-0.2500 Brady (2)
-0.2500 William (1)
-0.2727 Dawn (3)
-0.2727 JonathanC (3)
-0.3000 Sam (3)
-0.3000 Laurie (3)
-0.3077 James (4)
-0.3333 Clayton (2)
-0.3333 WendyWhe (1)
-0.3750 Alfred (3)

There are 23 people and a nontrivial partial ordering here, too complex for me to sort out by hand... Kevin and Bob have no one better than them. Kevin's the Devil, Bob is Vice-Devil. Next, Marty and Tim only have 1 person better than them, so they're Co-Vice-Vice-Devil, and that should cover us. If not, Eric & I only have 2 people above us, and the Devil buck stops with me.

William and Wendy both pulled off the rare and dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver (playing only one game and coming in last). JP wins the Dedicated Award.

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The Future:

There's no RussCon March 17... but Marty's organized gaming that night at the Dobie Mall food court, so your Wednesday night gaming needs may still be met! Have fun!

And don't forget that Monday March 22 is Laser Quest! Here's the revised list of people who've told me they're coming (no one's dropped):

Me (duh!)
Jay (who doesn't have to pay since he was the Settlers champ)
Brady
Marty
Eric & Laurie
Sea Biscuit (& Dawn?)
DaveB
Rohan (& friends?)
JP
Squeaky & Kara
Harry
JeffF & Jonobie
Bob
Tim
William (& 2 friends?)
Crispy
Jennifer & Steven
WendyWhe
EricB maybe
WendyWhi (& Rob?)
Jeffles

Remember to get there at 8:15pm if possible. We start at 8:30. It's in the former movie theater in the parking lot north of Highland Mall.

And Thursday April 1 is Thief of Bagdad at Alamo Drafthouse. I have 2nd row tickets for sale, $10 each. There is live music with this silent film classic.

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PV = nRT

Russ