February 14 2001 RussCon Report

13 of us played 18 games. A lighter turnout due to Valentine's Day, but we did have one gaming couple (Jeffles and Carly)!

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Tales of Glory from the Job Hunt Trail

Comicollage: daily ongoing comic jam with 7 artists and no planning ahead! Currently imploding as some of us fail to get our strips up in time! Watch us crash and burn!

News

Thanks to folks who emailed ideas and advice on my browser woes. It seems the roadrunner proxy server is screwed up, so turning that off let me see websites again.

There's a new play from Rude Mechanicals, Requiem for Tesla. Music by Golden Arm Trio! This is probably going to be interesting; if anyone wants to see it with me, let me know.

Game Results

MitListUndTucke	6	JP 5 WendyWhe 3 Marty 1 Dan -1 RussW -3 Daniel -5
Carcassonne	3	RussD 2 WendyWhi 0 Steve -2
GhostParty	3	Harry 2 Jeffles 0 Brady -2
HookOrCrook	4	Carly 3 Harry 1 Jeffles -1 Brady -3
Cartagena	4	Carly 3 Jeffles 1 Harry -1 Brady -3
Chrononauts	4	Marty 3 Daniel -1 WendyWhe -1 JP -1
KingOfTheElves	3	WendyWhi 2 Steve 0 RussD -2
TallyHo	2	Dan 1 RussW -1
SchottenTotten	2	RussW 1 Brady -1
Carcassonne	4	Dan 3 JP 1 Steve -1 RussD -3
Airlines	6	Harry 5 WendyWhi 3 Daniel 1 Carly -1 Jeffles -3 Marty -5
Bluff	5	Carly 4 Daniel 2 WendyWhi 0 Jeffles -2 Harry -4
WebOfPower	5	RussW 4 Steve 2 Brady 0 JP -2 Dan -4
Fight	4	Marty 3 JP 1 WendyWhi -1 RussW -3
SchottenTotten	2	Dan 1 Daniel -1
ZirkusFlohcati	3	RussW 2 Marty 0 Daniel -2
LostCities	2	Daniel 1 RussW -1
TallyHo	2	JP 1 Dan -1

Holy shit, I didn't play Carcassonne!!!

I did however play Marty's suggested game of Mit List und Tuecke, which hadn't been played for a while. There are those who would add "with good reason". I think it's a cool weird confusing trick-taking game, but we all agree it takes a frustratingly long time to play for no apparent reason. I guess since it's such a nonstandard trick-taking game people take longer to try to decide what to do.

I got to play Tally Ho and enjoyed it. There is a high bit of luck, but it's got good tactics as well and is quite enjoyable. Well worth checking out. It's strictly 2 player, and it's suggested you play match style (2 games, switching sides: animals vs hunters). Dan beat me, then in a later game, I'm sad to report JP beat Dan soundly about the head and shoulders with a 76 point victory or some such. It was incredible. Of course, it gives me no pleasure to report this, but it's my duty. I would never stoop to taunting Dan for almost being shut out in the second round.

I seem to have finally gotten the hang of Web of Power.

Other long-lost games got played again: Airlines (the predecessor to Union Pacific) and Fight (the brilliant Cheapass game whose complete rules fit easily on a business card). Long ago there was talk of making a Fight AI tournament, but that project died.

Meta Party Game Results

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

The Diversity Game
You want to play as many different games with as many different people as you can.
Your goal is to maximize the following function:
(# distinct opponents faced) * (# distinct game titles played)
E.g. if I play 2 games, one Settlers against Biff and Eugene, and one Bluff against Biff, Ralph, and Cliff, then I faced 4 distinct opponents and played 2 distinct games, and 4*2 = 8.
If I played 2 games of Bluff, one against Biff and Eugene, and one against Larry and Mary, then my score is 4*1=4.
In case of tie, the player with the LOWER sum (# distinct opponents faced) + (# distinct game titles played) wins. E.g. 4*4=16 beats 8*2=16.
If still a tie, the player who's been a Meta Party Devil the least wins. If still a tie, I'll figure something out.

I modified the Devil Points software to tally these results, and here they are:

Opponents played:
Brady 7 Carly Dan Harry JP Jeffles RussW Steve
Carly 6 Brady Daniel Harry Jeffles Marty WendyWhi
Dan 8 Brady Daniel JP Marty RussD RussW Steve WendyWhe
Daniel 9 Carly Dan Harry JP Jeffles Marty RussW WendyWhe WendyWhi
Harry 6 Brady Carly Daniel Jeffles Marty WendyWhi
JP 9 Brady Dan Daniel Marty RussD RussW Steve WendyWhe WendyWhi
Jeffles 6 Brady Carly Daniel Harry Marty WendyWhi
Marty 9 Carly Dan Daniel Harry JP Jeffles RussW WendyWhe WendyWhi
RussD 4 Dan JP Steve WendyWhi
RussW 8 Brady Dan Daniel JP Marty Steve WendyWhe WendyWhi
Steve 6 Brady Dan JP RussD RussW WendyWhi
WendyWhe 5 Dan Daniel JP Marty RussW
WendyWhi 9 Carly Daniel Harry JP Jeffles Marty RussD RussW Steve
Titles played:
Brady 5 Cartagena GhostParty HookOrCrook SchottenTotten WebOfPower
Carly 4 Airlines Bluff Cartagena HookOrCrook
Dan 5 Carcassonne MitListUndTucke SchottenTotten TallyHo WebOfPower
Daniel 7 Airlines Bluff Chrononauts LostCities MitListUndTucke SchottenTotten ZirkusFlohcati
Harry 5 Airlines Bluff Cartagena GhostParty HookOrCrook
JP 6 Carcassonne Chrononauts Fight MitListUndTucke TallyHo WebOfPower
Jeffles 5 Airlines Bluff Cartagena GhostParty HookOrCrook
Marty 5 Airlines Chrononauts Fight MitListUndTucke ZirkusFlohcati
RussD 2 Carcassonne KingOfTheElves
RussW 7 Fight LostCities MitListUndTucke SchottenTotten TallyHo WebOfPower ZirkusFlohcati
Steve 3 Carcassonne KingOfTheElves WebOfPower
WendyWhe 2 Chrononauts MitListUndTucke
WendyWhi 5 Airlines Bluff Carcassonne Fight KingOfTheElves
Meta Party Points:
Brady 5 * 7 = 35
Carly 4 * 6 = 24
Dan 5 * 8 = 40
Daniel 7 * 9 = 63
Harry 5 * 6 = 30
JP 6 * 9 = 54
Jeffles 5 * 6 = 30
Marty 5 * 9 = 45
RussD 2 * 4 = 8
RussW 7 * 8 = 56
Steve 3 * 6 = 18
WendyWhe 2 * 5 = 10
WendyWhi 5 * 9 = 45

Thus Daniel is the winner, with 63 meta party points! I was Vice-Meta-Devil, with JP close behind me. RussD had the least diverse gaming experience of us all.

Evening's Soundtrack

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Music from the motion picture soundtrack
The Breeders, Last Splash
Hole, Teenage Whore
Rasputina, Thanks for the Ether
Timbuk3, A Hundred Lovers

twin peaks breeders hole rasputina

Ratings

Rank ratings:
 0.6000 Carly (4 games played)
 0.2632 JP (6)
 0.2500 WendyWhi (5)
 0.2500 WendyWhe (2)
 0.1765 Harry (5)
 0.1111 Marty (5)
-0.0588 RussW (7)
-0.0667 Dan (6)
-0.0909 Steve (4)
-0.2381 Daniel (7)
-0.2941 Jeffles (5)
-0.4286 RussD (3)
-0.6923 Brady (5)

New Win ratings:
 0.6000 Carly (4)
 0.2353 Harry (5)
 0.1765 RussW (7)
 0.1667 Marty (5)
 0.1333 Dan (6)
 0.1053 JP (6)
 0.0000 RussD (3)
-0.1250 WendyWhi (5)
-0.2381 Daniel (7)
-0.2500 WendyWhe (2)
-0.2941 Jeffles (5)
-0.3636 Steve (4)
-0.3846 Brady (5)

Carly is the Devil! JP is Vice-Devil; Harry is Vice-Vice-Devil. Then me. Daniel and I share the Dedicated Award. Brady is the Generous Angel!

Links

Possible Discovery of an Automobile Used In the JFK Conspiracy seems to be a conspiracy theorist's sincere page that actually includes the claim "Jay Lake's CIA connections add to those sinister implications." Believe it or not, this is talking about RussCon's very own Jay Lake. As Jay emailed me, "Yes, me. Really me. It's a long section discussing me and an old business partner of mine, with a reference to my dad. As far as I can tell, this is not a joke. ie, the guy seriously thinks I was a CIA operative of some kind investigating his coverage of JFK conspiracy theories."

Arkham has dark art and objects, much of it Lovecraftian.

nobscan.com exists to show scanned pictures of male genitalia in flaccid and humorous states. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Lambiek is Europe's oldest antiquarian comic store... and a good website about comics! It includes an impressive comiclopedia: a searchable gallery of comic artist biographies and artwork examples.

Linux comes to the big screen.

have a heart

Russ