September 8 1999 RussCon Report

15 of us, including long-lost Laurie, and Sam all the way from Chicago!

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ArmadilloCon is this weekend:

This annual Austin SF con is primarily focused on literary SF (indeed, Wendy helps organize a writer's workshop each year for it). Last year they started a real gaming room as well, and Marty heads that up. It may be a bit pricey if you're only interested in gaming, but if you want to hit the dealer's room, the panels, the pro readings and autographing, the art show, the dance, etc., then I'll see you there! For more info, check out:

http://www.golem-computing.com/dillocon/

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Game Results:

Rheinlaender 4 Bob 3 JonathanC 1 WendyWhe -1 Daniel -3
LostCities 2 JP 1 Harry -1
Bluff 6 RussW 5 Daniel 3 KevinH 1 Clayton -1 Jerrie -3 WendyWhe -5
ZirkusFlohcati 3 William 2 Bob 0 Daniel -2
AufHellerUndPfennig 4 RussW 3 WendyWhe 1 JonathanC -1 Marty -3
AufHellerUndPfennig 4 William 3 JP 1 RussW -1 Harry -3
UnionPacific 6 KevinH 5 Bob 3 Fred 1 Daniel -1 Jerrie -3 Clayton -5
TakeItEasy 3 Daniel 2 Bob 0 William -2
Elfenland 5 Sam 3 Marty 3 JonathanC 0 Laurie -2 WendyWhe -4
Dampfross 3 RussW 2 JP 0 Harry -2
Fossil 6 WendyWhe 5 Bob 3 JP 1 Daniel -1 RussW -3 William -5

During a recent non-RussCon game of Take It Easy, Marty & Brendan & I followed the rulebook's suggestion about verifying the math of the person on your left each round. We HIGHLY recommend this practice, as we found there were almost always errors! (Recall the game last week where I happened to notice Daniel was off by 60 points one round.) Check your results. It can be eye-opening, humbling, and rather amusing...

Auf Heller und Pfennig is Marty's latest Knizia acquisition. It's a good tile-placing game with simple rules. Check it out.

We dug up Fossil for the first time in months. Although a fun change of pace, it seems to suffer from a lack of player control; we all felt like the other players introduce too much chaos for there to be much meaningful planning (even though there is literally no randomness per se in the game).

I see Marty and Sam shared a rare tie in Elfenland!

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Boston, Boston
Dune, Original Sountrack Recording
Failure, Fantastic Planet
Porno for Pyros, Porno for Pyros
Sandblasters, Cactus Stingray

In honor of ArmadilloCon, all these CDs have spaceships on the covers.

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Rank ratings:
 0.7500 Sam (1 game played)
 0.6000 KevinH (2)
 0.5294 Bob (5)
 0.3333 RussW (5)
 0.2727 JP (4)
 0.2000 Fred (1)
 0.0000 Marty (2)
 0.0000 JonathanC (3)
-0.0909 Daniel (6)
-0.1667 William (4)
-0.2000 WendyWhe (5)
-0.5000 Laurie (1)
-0.6000 Clayton (2)
-0.6000 Jerrie (2)
-1.0000 Harry (3)

New Win ratings:
 0.7500 Sam (1)
 0.4444 RussW (5)
 0.4000 KevinH (2)
 0.2857 Marty (2)
 0.2500 William (4)
 0.0000 WendyWhe (5)
-0.0588 Bob (5)
-0.1364 Daniel (6)
-0.1818 JP (4)
-0.2000 Fred (1)
-0.2000 Clayton (2)
-0.2000 Jerrie (2)
-0.4000 JonathanC (3)
-0.5000 Laurie (1)
-0.5000 Harry (3)

Sam pulled a Brady Maneuver. Gotta play 2 or more games to be eligible for Devilhood!

So Kevin & I are Co-Devils. Daniel wins the Dedicated Award. Harry wins the Extremely Generous Angel Award for coming in last in 3 different games. Now that's glory.

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"I will not fear. Fear is the little death."
"No, fear is the mind killer. Orgasm is the little death."
"Oh yeah."

Russ