February 23 2000 RussCon Report

17 of us including new guys Andrew & David from ABG, and JeffW the prodigal gamer who'd not been seen at RussCon for almost 2 years.

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Game Results:

GoldenStrider 5 Bob 4 Tim 2 Marty 0 AndrewABG -2 DavidABG -4
MammaMia 5 Alfred 4 JP 2 BobR 0 JeffF -2 RussW -4
RicochetRobot 2 William 1 TomK -1
LastChance 5 Steve 4 Clayton 2 TomK 0 JP -2 William -4
ResPublica 5 Alfred 4 JeffF 2 BobR 0 RussW -2 JonathanC -4
ZirkusFlohcati 5 Marty 4 Steve 2 William 0 Clayton -2 RussW -4
Raj 4 Marty 3 Steve 1 William -1 RussW -3
FlinkePinke 4 Steve 3 RussW -1 Marty -1 William -1
Andromeda 5 Bob 3 JP 3 Tim 0 AndrewABG -2 DavidABG -4
StarVenture 6 Alfred 5 TomK 3 JeffF 1 JonathanC -1 BobR -3 JeffW -5
Bluff 6 JeffF 5 RussW 3 JonathanC 1 BobR -2 WendyWhe -2 JeffW -5
Brawl 2 William 1 JP -1
Brawl 2 JP 1 William -1
Brawl 2 JP 0 William 0
Frank'sZoo 6 JonathanC 5 JeffF 3 RussW 1 WendyWhe -1 BobR -3 Steve -5
Guggenheim 4 William 3 RussW 1 WendyWhe -1 JP -3
Guggenheim 4 RussW 3 William 1 WendyWhe -1 JP -3

Golden Strider is a card game Tim found on the internet, I think over a year ago. He emailed the rules to the RussCon list, but it never got played until now.

Mamma Mia is enjoyable light German fare about competing for ingredients to build pizzas. Mmmm! It's hard to go too wrong with pizza! Naturally I wish it had fresh garlic instead of pepperoni.

Res Publica continues to convince me that I don't much care for it. Whoever happens to get settlements early seems very likely to win as the rich get richer. And unlike some other games with this problem, e.g. Outpost, the game mechanics themselves are not inherently interesting enough to hold my interest for their own sake.

Flinke Pinke is very enjoyable, short, simple & elegant, kind of a stripped-down Grand National Derby or Titan the Arena.

Star Venture aka Space Camels aka The Andromeda Trains seems to have graduated beyond the playtest stage and into the ranks of "real" games since it was requested to be played (rather than me asking for playtesters). (Plus Alfred was very insistent it count as a real game since it was his third victory of the evening...) BTW, Brendan & I are open to other suggestions for a title...

In the early days of our playing Frank's Zoo we always had an odd number of players, so the middle scorer had no partner. Now it seems like we always play with an even number. Curious.

Guggenheim is an "after dinner" game that's much harder than it sounds; under time pressure, come up with items in various categories that start with certain letters, preferably items that no other player also thought of. With 8 categories and 4 letters, we found that in 5 minutes we each only filled about half of our 32 table entries! Allowing 8 minutes in the next game let us get most of our tables filled. Score 1 point for each answer, or 2 points if no one else thought of the same answer. Like all such after dinner word games, there is the occasional debate whether an answer is legitimate, but it's good fun.

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Evening's Soundtrack:

The Beatles, Abbey Road
The English Patient, Original Soundtrack Recording
Jesus Christ Superstar (London cast)
Michael Nyman, The Draughtsman's Contract
The Who, Quadrophenia

Farewell JeffW, who emigrates soon to England's green and pleasant land, via the road less traveled. Watch out for those dark satanic mills!

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Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Alfred (3 games played)
 0.8750 Bob (2)
 0.4286 Marty (4)
 0.3913 JeffF (5)
 0.2632 Steve (5)
 0.2500 Tim (2)
 0.2000 TomK (3)
 0.0526 JonathanC (4)
 0.0000 Clayton (2)
-0.0417 William (10)
-0.1429 JP (8)
-0.1765 RussW (9)
-0.3125 WendyWhe (4)
-0.3478 BobR (5)
-0.5000 AndrewABG (2)
-1.0000 DavidABG (2)
-1.0000 JeffW (2)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Alfred (3)
 0.8750 Bob (2)
 0.3571 Marty (4)
 0.2105 Steve (5)
 0.1053 JonathanC (4)
 0.0435 JeffF (5)
-0.0417 William (10)
-0.0476 JP (8)
-0.1471 RussW (9)
-0.2000 JeffW (2)
-0.2174 BobR (5)
-0.2500 Clayton (2)
-0.2500 WendyWhe (4)
-0.3000 TomK (3)
-0.3750 Tim (2)
-0.3750 AndrewABG (2)
-0.3750 DavidABG (2)

Oooh, clear and unambiguous: Alfred is the Devil, Bob is Vice-Devil, Marty is Vice-Vice-Devil! Then Steve & JeffF, should it get that far...

William wins the Dedicated Award.

JeffF proposed that ties in Devilhood be broken by number of games played, to encourage winning players not to quit early in the evening, and that sounds reasonable to me.

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Links:

Fans of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a recommended comic series full of Victorian English literary references, will enjoy these illuminating annotations:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7160/annos.html

Repentance is futile. The Infamous LordCo Product Guide:
http://lordco.virtualave.net/

Fear the Mullet! Don't miss the Skullet in Classification Part III:
http://www.mulletsgalore.com/

Lengthy but absorbing account of Peace Corps Days in Sierra Leone:
http://whyy.org/edison/office/lisa/index.html

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"Don't they speak Pig Latin in Pig Rome?"
--Sea Biscuit

Russ