January 3 2001 RussCon Report

19 of us played 14 games. Big post-holiday crowd, including new guy Vince. Also Wendy appeared briefly with shrimp dip...

Be sure to send in your entry for the All-Time Fave RussCon Games! See the News for details.

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Now playing: This is how Watchmen met Tyler Durden.

Comicollage: daily ongoing comic jam with 7 artists and no planning ahead! I'm Tuesday.

News

Happy New Year!

Clandestine is coming to the Cactus Cafe January 13. That's a Saturday in 2 weekends. There are 2 shows (7:30 and 10:00). Let me know if you're interested and which show you prefer. All else being equal, I'll go to the early show, after eating dinner at Veggie Heaven first!

Like last year, let's do a RussCon All-Time Top 10 Games list. Email me a weighted list of your favorite games. Allocate 10 points among them. E.g. if you like Settlers a lot and RoboRally some, you might say "Settlers 7; RoboRally 3". If you like 10 games equally, give each of them 1 point. If there's just 1 game you really really really like, give it 10 points. (E.g. Jeffles writes "Honeybears 10".) You get the idea. This is different from how we did it last year when I did it Austin Chronicle style. All RussCon games are eligible. Let's find out what our favorite games are! I'll tabulate the results and report them in a week or two! Just to refresh your memory, here are all the RussCon games in alphabetical order and in order of frequency of play through the end of 2000. (This includes all games played at RussCon, plus a random subset of some other sessions.) (Click here to skip past this long table and get to the Game Results.)

1830 3
2038 1
25WordsOrLess 1
666 1
Abalone 1
Acquire 28
AddamsFamily 1
AgeOfRenaissance 2
AirBaron 5
Airlines 4
Aladdin'sDragons 2
Alibi 1
AmFuss 3
AmoebaWars 1
AnHofeDesKoenigs 2
Andromeda 8
ArabianNights 1
ArkhamHorror 3
AtlanticStorm 2
Attacke 1
Attila 1
Auction 2
AufHellerUndPfennig 11
AusbrecherAG 1
AustralianRails 2
Automania 3
BananaRepublic 1
BattleCry 11
BenHurt 1
BigCheese 8
BigCity 11
BitinOffHedz 2
BlackDiamond 4
BlackMornManor 1
BleedingSherwood 4
Bluff 123
Boggle 3
Bohnanza 18
Borderlands 2
Brawl 49
Britannia 1
BritishRails 1
BuddelBande 1
BuriedTreasure 10
Burp 1
ButtonMen 8
CafeInternational 4
Calamity 1
Can'tStop 48
Candidate 2
Canyon 2
Carcassonne 16
CarolusMagnus 4
Cartagena 3
Cathedral 2
Cheops 8
Chinatown 1
ChineseCheckers 1
Chrononauts 1
Cloud9 3
Clue 1
ColoradoRails 3
Condottiere 3
Cosmic 11
Cribbage 7
CultsAcrossAmerica 2
Dampfross 12
David&Goliath 2
Deadwood 2
Democrazy 1
DevilBunny 9
Digging 2
Dilbert 1
Doolittle&Waite 1
Dorada 7
Downtown 7
DragonDelta 4
DragonMaster 2
Drunter&Drueber 8
Dungeon 1
DungeonDice 1
DungeonQuest 3
DurchDieWueste 32
Earthquake 8
EbolaMonkeyHunt 1
Edison 2
Egomania 1
ElCaballero 4
ElGrande 18
Elchfest 1
Elfengold 1
Elfenland 24
Elfenwizards 6
Empire 1
EnGarde 4
EnemyInSight 1
Entdecker 36
Euphrates 62
Europa 2
EveryManForHimself 1
Ex&Hopp 1
ExecutiveDecision 1
Exxtra 10
FamilyBusiness 1
Ferkelei 4
FerroPampas 4
Fight 26
FilthyRich 2
FlinkePinke 7
Fluxx 13
FootballStrategy 2
ForSale 1
ForThePeople 4
FormulaDe 3
FormulaMotorRacing 1
Fossil 7
Frank'sZoo 36
FreightTrain 6
FreshFish 2
FunnyMoney 1
Galaxy 1
Gangsters 1
GetOut 1
GhostParty 17
Giganten 1
GiveMeTheBrain 3
GoldConnection 1
GoldenStrider 1
Goldrausch 3
GolfMania 1
GotherThanThou 1
GrandNationalDerby 2
GreatBrainRobbery 2
GreatDalmuti 1
GreatKhanGame 2
GreatMuseumCaper 4
Groo 6
GruselWusel 1
Guerilla 1
Guggenheim 3
Guillotine 66
Gunfight 1
Halunken&Spelunken 5
Hare&Tortoise 15
HatTrick 6
Hearts 8
HedgehogsInAHurry 5
HellRail 1
HeroesOfAsfar 1
Hexagony 1
HighSociety 12
Hoax 4
HoneyBears 24
HongKong 7
HonorOfTheSamurai 1
HookOrCrook 15
Huzzah 1
I'veCreatedAMonster 1
Ico 4
Ido 1
Illuminati 2
Instinct 3
IronDragon 1
IronHorse 4
It'sMine 4
JumboGrandPrix 2
KKK 2
Kahuna 15
KatzenjammerBlues 3
KillDrLucky 8
KingOfTheElves 3
Konzern 2
Kremlin 2
Landlord 1
LastChance 14
LastPanther 1
Letras 3
LetzteParadies 10
Loewenherz 27
LordOfTheFries 6
LordOfTheRings 2
LostCities 24
LostPueblo 1
LunatixLoop 1
LunchMoney 1
MammaMia 5
Manhattan 10
MasterLabyrinth 7
MaterialWorld 1
McMulti 6
Medici 49
MedievalMerchant 8
MembersOnly 6
MerchantsOfAmsterdam 3
Metropolis 5
MinionHunter 2
MississippiQueen 18
MitListUndTucke 3
ModernArt 14
MoleHill 25
Money 10
Monopoly 1
MonstersRavageAmerica 2
Montgolfiere 11
MrBond 6
Mu 8
MysticWar 2
NichtDieBohne 2
Nile 4
Ohio 3
OhneFurchtUndAdel 4
OrcsAtTheGates 1
Othello 1
Outpost 4
Overthrone 1
Palmyra 6
PartsUnknown 1
Pirat 8
Pit 2
Pits 1
PlagueAndPestilence 5
PonyExpress 1
Priceless 4
Prick 5
Prisma 2
Proconsul 1
Putsch 1
QuoVadis 24
Ra 20
Rainbows 12
Raj 38
ResPublica 12
Restaurant 1
Rheinlaender 11
RicochetRobot 8
RoboRally 35
Rollout 1
RottenFish 4
SafariJack 7
Samarkand 11
Samurai 29
SamuraiSwords 1
SantaFe 7
SaveDrLucky 2
Schanzen 1
SchnapchenJagd 1
SchottenTotten 19
ScotlandYard 1
SecretLabyrinth 2
Settlers 98
SettlersAlexander 1
SettlersCardGame 2
Shanghai 1
ShanghaiTrader 1
Shark 1
Siesta 6
SkyRunner 1
Snit'sRevenge 1
Sokrates 1
SpaceBeans 7
Spammers 2
Spartacus 1
StarVenture 5
StarbaseJeff 2
StephensonsRocket 11
Streetcar 8
Successors 6
Superstition 1
Survive 17
Syzygy 1
TVWars 1
TabulaRasa 2
TajMahal 8
TakeItEasy 6
Tayu 51
ThroneWorld 3
Tightrope 8
Tikal 5
Titan 3
TitanArena 30
Torres 9
TrainsportAustria 18
TrainsportSwitzerland 4
Transsib 2
Tribunal 1
Tripoley 1
Trumpet 2
TurboHearts 1
Tutanchamun 5
Twilight 2
Twins 1
Tycoon 1
UmReifenbreite 1
UncleHappy'sTrainGame 4
UndTschuess 8
UnionPacific 27
Ursuppe 7
ValleyOfKings 1
Vampire 39
Vegas 3
VeldSpoorweg 2
VeryCleverPipeGame 1
Victory 3
Vinci 4
Vino 2
WebOfPower 17
Wettstreit 6
WhatWereYouThinking 2
WhatsThatOnMyHead 2
WheelOfHistory 3
WhichWitch 1
Wimmuln 1
WizWar 6
Wizard 4
WizardKings 1
Wizards 1
Zero 30
ZirkusFlohcati 59
ZumKuckuck 1

1 2038
1 25WordsOrLess
1 666
1 Abalone
1 AddamsFamily
1 Alibi
1 AmoebaWars
1 ArabianNights
1 Attacke
1 Attila
1 AusbrecherAG
1 BananaRepublic
1 BenHurt
1 BlackMornManor
1 Britannia
1 BritishRails
1 BuddelBande
1 Burp
1 Calamity
1 Chinatown
1 ChineseCheckers
1 Chrononauts
1 Clue
1 Democrazy
1 Dilbert
1 Doolittle&Waite
1 Dungeon
1 DungeonDice
1 EbolaMonkeyHunt
1 Egomania
1 Elchfest
1 Elfengold
1 Empire
1 EnemyInSight
1 EveryManForHimself
1 Ex&Hopp
1 ExecutiveDecision
1 FamilyBusiness
1 ForSale
1 FormulaMotorRacing
1 FunnyMoney
1 Galaxy
1 Gangsters
1 GetOut
1 Giganten
1 GoldConnection
1 GoldenStrider
1 GolfMania
1 GotherThanThou
1 GreatDalmuti
1 GruselWusel
1 Guerilla
1 Gunfight
1 HellRail
1 HeroesOfAsfar
1 Hexagony
1 HonorOfTheSamurai
1 Huzzah
1 I'veCreatedAMonster
1 Ido
1 IronDragon
1 Landlord
1 LastPanther
1 LostPueblo
1 LunatixLoop
1 LunchMoney
1 MaterialWorld
1 Monopoly
1 OrcsAtTheGates
1 Othello
1 Overthrone
1 PartsUnknown
1 Pits
1 PonyExpress
1 Proconsul
1 Putsch
1 Restaurant
1 Rollout
1 SamuraiSwords
1 Schanzen
1 SchnapchenJagd
1 ScotlandYard
1 SettlersAlexander
1 Shanghai
1 ShanghaiTrader
1 Shark
1 SkyRunner
1 Snit'sRevenge
1 Sokrates
1 Spartacus
1 Superstition
1 Syzygy
1 TVWars
1 Tribunal
1 Tripoley
1 TurboHearts
1 Twins
1 Tycoon
1 UmReifenbreite
1 ValleyOfKings
1 VeryCleverPipeGame
1 WhichWitch
1 Wimmuln
1 WizardKings
1 Wizards
1 ZumKuckuck
2 AgeOfRenaissance
2 Aladdin'sDragons
2 AnHofeDesKoenigs
2 AtlanticStorm
2 Auction
2 AustralianRails
2 BitinOffHedz
2 Borderlands
2 Candidate
2 Canyon
2 Cathedral
2 CultsAcrossAmerica
2 David&Goliath
2 Deadwood
2 Digging
2 DragonMaster
2 Edison
2 Europa
2 FilthyRich
2 FootballStrategy
2 FreshFish
2 GrandNationalDerby
2 GreatBrainRobbery
2 GreatKhanGame
2 Illuminati
2 JumboGrandPrix
2 KKK
2 Konzern
2 Kremlin
2 LordOfTheRings
2 MinionHunter
2 MonstersRavageAmerica
2 MysticWar
2 NichtDieBohne
2 Pit
2 Prisma
2 SaveDrLucky
2 SecretLabyrinth
2 SettlersCardGame
2 Spammers
2 StarbaseJeff
2 TabulaRasa
2 Transsib
2 Trumpet
2 Twilight
2 VeldSpoorweg
2 Vino
2 WhatWereYouThinking
2 WhatsThatOnMyHead
3 1830
3 AmFuss
3 ArkhamHorror
3 Automania
3 Boggle
3 Cartagena
3 Cloud9
3 ColoradoRails
3 Condottiere
3 DungeonQuest
3 FormulaDe
3 GiveMeTheBrain
3 Goldrausch
3 Guggenheim
3 Instinct
3 KatzenjammerBlues
3 KingOfTheElves
3 Letras
3 MerchantsOfAmsterdam
3 MitListUndTucke
3 Ohio
3 ThroneWorld
3 Titan
3 Vegas
3 Victory
3 WheelOfHistory
4 Airlines
4 BlackDiamond
4 BleedingSherwood
4 CafeInternational
4 CarolusMagnus
4 DragonDelta
4 ElCaballero
4 EnGarde
4 Ferkelei
4 FerroPampas
4 ForThePeople
4 GreatMuseumCaper
4 Hoax
4 Ico
4 IronHorse
4 It'sMine
4 Nile
4 OhneFurchtUndAdel
4 Outpost
4 Priceless
4 RottenFish
4 TrainsportSwitzerland
4 UncleHappy'sTrainGame
4 Vinci
4 Wizard
5 AirBaron
5 Halunken&Spelunken
5 HedgehogsInAHurry
5 MammaMia
5 Metropolis
5 PlagueAndPestilence
5 Prick
5 StarVenture
5 Tikal
5 Tutanchamun
6 Elfenwizards
6 FreightTrain
6 Groo
6 HatTrick
6 LordOfTheFries
6 McMulti
6 MembersOnly
6 MrBond
6 Palmyra
6 Siesta
6 Successors
6 TakeItEasy
6 Wettstreit
6 WizWar
7 Cribbage
7 Dorada
7 Downtown
7 FlinkePinke
7 Fossil
7 HongKong
7 MasterLabyrinth
7 SafariJack
7 SantaFe
7 SpaceBeans
7 Ursuppe
8 Andromeda
8 BigCheese
8 ButtonMen
8 Cheops
8 Drunter&Drueber
8 Earthquake
8 Hearts
8 KillDrLucky
8 MedievalMerchant
8 Mu
8 Pirat
8 RicochetRobot
8 Streetcar
8 TajMahal
8 Tightrope
8 UndTschuess
9 DevilBunny
9 Torres
10 BuriedTreasure
10 Exxtra
10 LetzteParadies
10 Manhattan
10 Money
11 AufHellerUndPfennig
11 BattleCry
11 BigCity
11 Cosmic
11 Montgolfiere
11 Rheinlaender
11 Samarkand
11 StephensonsRocket
12 Dampfross
12 HighSociety
12 Rainbows
12 ResPublica
13 Fluxx
14 LastChance
14 ModernArt
15 Hare&Tortoise
15 HookOrCrook
15 Kahuna
16 Carcassonne
17 GhostParty
17 Survive
17 WebOfPower
18 Bohnanza
18 ElGrande
18 MississippiQueen
18 TrainsportAustria
19 SchottenTotten
20 Ra
24 Elfenland
24 HoneyBears
24 LostCities
24 QuoVadis
25 MoleHill
26 Fight
27 Loewenherz
27 UnionPacific
28 Acquire
29 Samurai
30 TitanArena
30 Zero
32 DurchDieWueste
35 RoboRally
36 Entdecker
36 Frank'sZoo
38 Raj
39 Vampire
48 Can'tStop
49 Brawl
49 Medici
51 Tayu
59 ZirkusFlohcati
62 Euphrates
66 Guillotine
98 Settlers
123 Bluff

Game Results

Carcassonne	5	RussW 4 Remi 2 Vince 0 PJ -2 Clayton -4
Acquire	4	ChrisH 3 Fred 1 Clayton -1 RussW -3
Medici	6	JP 5 Marty 3 Matt 1 Daniel -1 Jerrie -3 RussD -5
Samarkand	4	Daniel 3 Matt 1 JP -1 PJ -3
Ursuppe	4	Clay 3 JonathanB 1 Kara -1 Jeffles -3
UnionPacific	6	Marty 5 Jeffles 3 JonathanB 1 Fred -1 RussW -3 ChrisH -5
ModernArt	5	Marty 4 Jeffles 2 RussW 0 JonathanB -2 ChrisH -4
Acquire	3	Matt 2 PJ 0 Daniel -2
Settlers	4	Remi 3 Steve -1 Carly -1 Vince -1
VoxPopuli	5	Carly 3 Vince 3 Remi -2 Steve -2 JP -2
Acquire	4	JonathanB 3 RussW 1 Jeffles -1 Marty -3
Entdecker	3	PJ 2 Matt 0 Daniel -2
Can'tStop	3	Carly 2 Steve 0 JP -2
Carcassonne	4	JP 3 PJ 1 Matt -1 Daniel -3

Naturally Carcassonne got played more, even though it's not a money game!

Ursuppe, the amoeba game, hadn't been played in a long time.

The best money game seemed to be Acquire, which got played 3 times! I am amazed some of y'all still haven't played this Sid Sackson classic. It's the Avalon Hill game that's been continuously in print the longest of all their games. Check it out.

unpac In Union Pacific, it definitely seems that the people with the most shares of UnPac end up winning, at least in games with a large number of players. We tried a variant I'd seen on rec.games.board where you start with an extra share of ordinary stock, in addition to the rule we've used lately where you can't take a share of UnPac as your stock, you may only acquire them by burning other shares.

Modern Art is a Knizia classic I'd not played in a while, but like Acquire it gives out large amounts of money and it's a good game, so I wanted to play it again. It's arguably the ultimate auction game, since there are 5 different types of auction in it!

The Entdecker players forgot to record their final money, though it was admittedly rather unlikely that an additional 0 to 12 meta party points would make much difference...

Meta Party Game Results

I was the Meta Party Devil. Here is the meta party game I emailed out:

This week's Meta Party Game is the Money Game. Whoever earns the most money in games which have money is the winner. Points are based on the smallest positive amount of money in the game. E.g. Acquire works in units of $100, so if you end an Acquire game with $23000 then you earn 230 points in the meta party game. Stephensons Rocket has $1000 units, so a final score of $23000 (well, technically that would be pounds not dollars, but that doesn't matter) earns 23 points. More formally, let $X be the smallest representable positive amount of money in the game and $Y be your final score; then you earn Y/X meta party devil points from that game. (See, the type of currency cancels out!) In the unlikely event a game is played that has no smallest representable positive amount of money, pretend that it is 1. (Can anyone think of such a game?) If you play a game in which players don't earn money (e.g., Devil Bunny Needs A Ham), then you earn no points. So game recorders, please CLEARLY RECORD points earned in money games for each player. Unrecorded points are forfeit -- just like your puny life!

There were some amusing hypothetical discussions about how to stress this game's specification with pathological money games. Funny Money (last played November 8 2000) has real and counterfeit money in it; would the counterfeit money have counted as meta party points? Probably not, I'd say. Then there's Money (last played February 2 2000) which has multiple denominations; how to score it? I'd say compute the points for each denomination separately and sum them all. Then it was suggested people could play poker (with penny denominations) and start with pots of $20 or so, racking up 2000 meta party points sleazily and quickly. The Cheapass game Fight is another interesting case: is it a money game or not?

Results: Thanks to Acquire and Modern Art, I won. Scores:

player total
points Acquire Medici Samarkand Union
Pacific Modern
Art Acquire Acquire

RussW 1197 295 66 412 424

Marty 979 119 96 471 293

Squeaky 905 74 382 449

Jeffles 900 90 453 357

ChrisH 870 492 54 324

Matt 761 78 56 627

Daniel 555 69 114 372

PJ 524 44 480

Fred 395 328 67

Clayton 320 320

JP 167 121 46

Jerrie 48 48

RussD 47 47

Note PJ, Daniel, and Matt's unrecorded Entdecker money wouldn't have affected the rankings here since the gaps were bigger than 12. If the rules only permitted using a given game title once, then Marty would have been the Meta Party Devil, but there was no such restriction. For the record, I did feel sleazy playing Acquire twice and suggested other money games, but Marty really wanted to play 4-player Acquire, which we know is his favorite, so how could I deny Marty such pleasure? Matt got the highest score from a single game (627). I shall send next week's Meta Party Game to the mailing list soon.

Evening's Soundtrack

The Beatles, Abbey Road You Never Give Me Your Money
Big Black, The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape Big Money
Evita, Premiere American Recording And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out)
Jesus Christ Superstar, A Resurrection Damned For All Time/Blood Money
Roger Waters, In The Flesh Money

Ratings

Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Clay (1 game played)
 0.5294 Marty (4)
 0.4444 Carly (3)
 0.2727 Remi (3)
 0.2000 JonathanB (4)
 0.2000 Matt (5)
 0.1818 Vince (3)
 0.1765 JP (5)
 0.0667 Jeffles (4)
 0.0000 Fred (2)
-0.0526 RussW (5)
-0.1429 PJ (5)
-0.3333 Daniel (5)
-0.3333 Kara (1)
-0.3333 Steve (3)
-0.5000 ChrisH (3)
-0.6000 Jerrie (1)
-0.7143 Clayton (2)
-1.0000 RussD (1)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Clay (1)
 0.4444 Carly (3)
 0.4118 Marty (4)
 0.2353 JP (5)
 0.0909 Vince (3)
 0.0833 ChrisH (3)
 0.0000 Remi (3)
 0.0000 JonathanB (4)
 0.0000 RussW (5)
-0.0667 Daniel (5)
-0.1333 Matt (5)
-0.1429 PJ (5)
-0.2000 Jerrie (1)
-0.2000 RussD (1)
-0.2500 Fred (2)
-0.2667 Jeffles (4)
-0.2857 Clayton (2)
-0.3333 Kara (1)
-0.4444 Steve (3)

Clay pulled off the rare and dangerous Brady Maneuver; you must play more than one game to be eligible to be Devil. So Marty is the Devil! Carly is Vice-Devil. JP is Vice-Vice-Devil, then ChrisH, Remi, and Vince.

Links

The National Library of Medicine's Visible Human Project is a pretty cool video of cross-sections of a body from head to toe.

Penny Arcade fans should see this Wang Theatre photo.

Gothic Martha Stewart.

Fredology: the science of measuring the bumps on Fred's head

Russ