September 27 2000 RussCon Report


News
Game Results
Meta Party Game Results
Evening's Soundtrack
Ratings
Links
17 of us! 26 games.

Autumn is upon us! Hoody-hoo!

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currently running a full story of Battle Cry and Dr. Manhattan!

News

There is no gaming at Great Hall Games this Friday because they'll be busy running MillenniumCon! Brady will be running his Battle Cry tournament. I believe you can show up Saturday, pay $20, and be good to go with a whole day of Battle Cry, and the tournament winner gets a Battle Cry set with all the figures painted by Brady! Three years ago at MillenniumCon was when I met Brady, Jonathan & Dawn, and James, at Brady's Settlers tournament, a contributing factor to the formation of RussCon. This year the focus is more strictly on miniatures.
The Tannahill Weavers are playing at Cactus Cafe tonight Thursday September 28. Celtic music. 8:30, $15. Currently I believe Wendy and Dan are both planning on going; I'm still on the fence. (Update: Wendy's not going, nor am I.)
Also Wendy will be appearing on her friend Emily VanderVeer's access TV show. It's about women writers talking about creativity. It's scheduled for Saturday, September 30th, at 6:30 pm on Channel 10.
JeffF writes about the Siesta translation problem mentioned last week:
The flaw has to do with double siestas. The rulebook states that scores can be checked at the end, which contradicts rules about double siesta bonuses since you might make a play which originally helps you and only you, but by the end of the game has helped someone else score. This probably doesn't make much sense if you haven't played. Apparently the end-game checkability is the correct rule, which requires amending the double siesta rule.

Marty adds

For example, sun-redroof-shadow-shadow-shadow-redroof-redroof-sun-sun is a double siesta and scores a total of 8 points: 3 for the siesta starting on the left, 3 for the siesta starting on the right, plus the 2-point bonus for double siesta.

In contrast, sun-redroof-shadow-shadow-shadow-greenroof-redroof-sun-sun is not a double siesta because all the roofs are not the same color. Red still scores 3 for the siesta starting on the left plus 3 for the siesta starting on the right, but does not get the 2-point bonus since there is no double siesta. Green also scores 3 for the siesta starting on the right.

Despite what the rules translation says, it is perfectly acceptable for a double siesta to include a shadow which scores for another player on the perpendicular, even in the case where the opposing player scores on the same play when the double siesta is formed. Also despite what the rules translation says, merely scoring in two different siestas during your turn does not constitute a double siesta.


Game Results

Bluff7Clay 6 Clayton 4 JP 1 WendyWhe 1 Dan -3 ChrisH -3 RussW -6
Frank'sZoo7Dan 6 Clayton 4 Clay 2 Marty 0 ChrisH -2 WendyWhe -4 JP -6
CafeInternational3PJ 2 William 0 Brady -2
Can'tStop3WendyWhe 2 Clayton 0 Clay -2
DurchDieWueste3JeffF 2 Alfred 0 WendyWhe -2
BuriedTreasure3Marty 2 Jeffles 0 Matt -2
Drunter&Drueber4PJ 3 Brady 1 William -1 Matt -3
Dampfross4Carly 3 RussD 1 RussW -1 Jeffles -3
ZirkusFlohcati4JP 2 WendyWhe 2 RussD -1 Dan -3
ZirkusFlohcati4JP 3 Dan 1 WendyWhe -1 William -3
Cribbage2WendyWhe 1 William -1
Cribbage2Brady 1 WendyWhe -1
HedgehogsInAHurry5Jeffles 4 Carly 1 Matt 1 Marty -3 Alfred -3
Cribbage2Brady 1 William -1
Cribbage2William 1 Brady -1
Tayu3RussW 2 PJ 0 JeffF -2
LordOfTheFries3Matt 2 William 0 JP -2
Zero3William 2 JP 0 Matt -2
ZirkusFlohcati3Matt 2 JP 0 William -2
Settlers4RussW 3 JeffF 1 Alfred -2 PJ -2
Euphrates4Marty 3 JP 1 ChrisH -1 Dan -3
MrBond6Carly 3 RussD 3 Matt 3 RussW -1 Jeffles -3 PJ -5
BattleCry2JP 1 Dan -1
Brawl2JP 1 Matt -1
Brawl2JP 1 Matt -1
SafariJack4JeffF 3 RussW 1 Alfred -1 PJ -3

Wow, we played Dampfross again, this time on the Kentucky/Tennessee map ('cause hey, it's sort of Civil War related or something)! Used a house rule that the first round budget is 1 and second round is 2, rather than rolling the die. This works nicely for not screwing the later people who can get blocked from building out if a high number is rolled early.

battle cryThis week JP and Dan played a match of Battle Cry. JP won Shiloh as Union 6 to 3 and as CSA 6 to 4. I suggest JP, the winner, send the results in to the database.

settlersDamned if we didn't have another very long game of Settlers! This may have lasted almost 2 hours. I must say it's fun to be playing this classic again. If you haven't played it in a while, you ought to give it another whirl.

Due to the Meta Party Game, I played Safari Jack. It's a cute little game, though rather chaotic and luck-based, but that's mitigated by it not taking too long. It ends quicker than you might think.

I performed awesomely as the flood in Tayu. I bid 25. I held PJ down to 8 and JeffF down to 4. Woohoo! Fear my mighty water channeling abilities, or something.


Meta Party Game Results

We inaugurated the first meta party game. Here were the rules sent out earlier in the week:

This week, everyone who wants to play should arrive by 7:15 at the latest. We'll each write 3 properties on index cards, then shuffle and deal them out. The properties will describe types of games; they should be potentially silly, but neither too obscure nor too common, and they should be fairly clear-cut. E.g.

"designed by Reiner Knizia" (now no one should use this obvious one!)
"includes wooden pieces"
"has won an award"
"has a single-word title (in its original language)"
"has a picture of an animal on the cover art"

You get the idea. Be creative. Don't make 'em TOO obscure because that's mean, plus you might get randomly dealt your own cards! If you do something about titles, the default assumption is you're talking about the original language title, and all words (including "a", "the") count, unless you specify otherwise...

Then we all try to play games that night which fall into the categories on the 3 cards we were dealt. When you do, please note it on the appropriate index card (or cards -- a given game might fulfill more than one of your 3 goals), and be sure to give 'em to me when you leave. I'll verify them (judges' decision is final, sorry Tennessee) and figure out who wins. Multiple plays of a game only count once... (which reminds me, we're talking properties of the game themselves, not of the game sessions, e.g. "play a game with Russ" or "play a game at the table" wouldn't be legal properties.)

Scoring could be done various ways... We decided to try saying your score is equal to the median of the 3 card scores. High score wins. Ties broken by sum of scores, then max score. The winner is the Meta Party Devil, and they get the honor of thinking up some meta party game for next week...

10 of us played! Here are the results (sorted from best score to worst). Since I found the variety of properties people wrote of interest, I have tediously reproduced them here as well, along with the qualifying games. Mere coincidence that I & JP, the inventors of the game, came in first & second? I don't think so! We're just too meta for the rest of y'all!
RussW
4 2 2
involves creating routes
Dampfross
Tayu
Safari Jack
Settlers
Game's container has no colors; only black & white.
Before I Kill You Mr. Bond
Safari Jack
Games that are not "color blind friendly" i.e. games that have pieces which need to be distinguishable, but which are only different by color.
Dampfross
Settlers
JP
4 2 0
purple cards
Zero
Frank's Zoo
Zircus Flohcati
Brawl
at least one game piece must have a diacritical mark (umlaut, accent grave, etc.)
Euphrat & Tigris
Zirkus Flohcati
Sid Sackson Game
WendyWhe
3 1 0
CARD GAME
Frank's Zoo
Zirkus Flohcati
Cribbage
CHILDREN'S GAME
Can't Stop
Involves desert or wasteland in some way; to some extent, great or trivial.
Durch Die Wueste
Dan
3 1 0
The game must NOT involve death or killing.
Bluff
Frank's Zoo
Zirkus Flohcati
There must be at least one red playing piece.
Euphrat & Tigris
Cheapass Games
RussD
1 1 0
purple pieces
Dampfross
has wooden components
Dampfross
Something in the name, game board, cards, etc. must refer to something on the African continent.
Jeffles
1 1 0
Uses hexes
Dampfross
Game involves players earning money
Dampfross
You buy and/or sell stock.
ChrisH
1 1 0
Game includes art of cartoon animal drawings.
Frank's Zoo
Either fire or water must be represented on game board
Euphrat & Tigris
Has some form of track-building.
Clay
1 0 0
animals
Frank's Zoo
This game must have spherical or cylindrical game pieces involved.
GAME INVOLVING ROBOTS
Clayton
1 0 0
The game must have a red piece/player/team.
Bluff
There must be no German text on the packaging or game
Game has a non-random method for determining who goes first
Carly
0 0 0
game must have both plastic and wooden game pieces
(Carly wrote nothing, although I believe the dice in Dampfross are plastic!)
uses exactly 52 CARDS
Has a bear
(Here she was betrayed by Jeffles, who wrote this card but neglected to bring Honey Bears or Bear Buddies)
We found this to be a fun experience. Several folks remarked that it was encouraging them to play games they didn't normally play. On the other hand it also discouraged people from playing some games they might otherwise have played.

I am the Meta Party Devil, and so I pick next week's Meta Party Game. It shall be simpler than this one with less preparation time which probably won't need to be announced in advance. I am deciding between a couple of choices. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, I'll save the 30 index cards from this meta party game because they might come in handy again...


Evening's Soundtrack

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Living in Austin (Dan's compilation CD which he made last week and gave me a copy -- thanks!)
Family Values: a compilation of songs by Austin lesbian/gay singers and songwriters
The Horse I Ride Has Wings (a project of The Austin Circle of Theaters)
Spoon, "Telephono"

Austin!


Ratings

Rank ratings:
 0.5833 Carly (3 games played)
 0.5714 Clayton (3)
 0.4286 Clay (3)
 0.4000 JeffF (4)
 0.2727 RussD (3)
 0.1333 Marty (4)
 0.0667 JP (11)
 0.0000 Brady (5)
-0.0455 Matt (9)
-0.0833 WendyWhe (8)
-0.0909 RussW (6)
-0.1364 Dan (6)
-0.1429 Jeffles (4)
-0.2778 PJ (6)
-0.2941 William (9)
-0.4000 ChrisH (3)
-0.5000 Alfred (4)

New Win ratings:
 0.4167 Carly (3)
 0.3000 JeffF (4)
 0.2857 Clay (3)
 0.2000 Marty (4)
 0.0667 JP (11)
 0.0455 Matt (9)
 0.0000 RussD (3)
 0.0000 WendyWhe (8)
 0.0000 Dan (6)
-0.0455 RussW (6)
-0.0556 PJ (6)
-0.0714 Jeffles (4)
-0.1250 Brady (5)
-0.2000 ChrisH (3)
-0.2143 Clayton (3)
-0.2353 William (9)
-0.3333 Alfred (4)
Carly is the Devil! Then JeffF, then Clayton & Clay. Alfred is the Generous Angel! JP wins the Dedicated Award.

Links

devil dollRadiskull & Devil Doll is back with a 4th cartoon!

Episode 4: "Love 'N' Stuff!" Continues from Episode 3! Features Candy Angel at the Angel Girl Academy, a solo song from Devil Doll, and a glimpse at a sinister new demon!

OnTap seems to be "The retarded little brother TheSpark never had", both being low-rent versions of The Onion. Then there's The Mushroom, which I have a personal fondness of due to the 19th question in their Penny Arcade interview from a while back.

clown porn If you feel as strongly about clown porn as I do, you'll want to check out Stop Clown Porn Now. clown porn

Battle Cry players should remember to send their results in for Richard Borg's database of scenario statistics; info can be found at the Battle Cry: A Command & Colors Game website. I was going to start compiling stats myself, but I'm sure Richard Borg will get more responses than I would! They probably should have specified that you shouldn't send in results of games played with newbies who aren't yet familiar with the system.

There appears to be a Jar Jar Binks mockumentary in the works. "Fame is the path to the dark side. Fame leads to money. Money leads to women. Women lead to suffering."

Japanese Prints and the World of Go is a CD-ROM for sale from Kiseido with 120 Japanese prints and accompanying text. Cool! I've been saying for a while somebody should make a book of classical go art, and now there's a CD-ROM.


"Safari Jack is different from Starbase Jeff. For one thing, it's got Jack."

Russ