January 2 2002 RussCon Report

News

Meta Party Game

Here is the Meta Game I decreed for this week:

White Elephant Gift Exchange

I had never done a white elephant gift exchange until this year, when I got involved in two, and moderated both.

Since many of us probably got at least one less then optimal gift this holiday season, here's your chance to share the love and pass it on!

Players bring a wrapped unmarked gift. Around 9pm or so, we'll do the gift exchange. Each player will receive a random number from 1 to n. Then iterate:

Player i has the choice of stealing an unwrapped owned gift from some earlier player j<i, or taking a random wrapped unowned gift from the booty pile. Anyone who's been robbed can then take a random wrapped gift from the pile, or (more entertainingly) they can steal an unwrapped owned gift from anyone. Chain reactions of successive thefts are possible and good fun. A spiffy gift may well get stolen several times. No gift may be stolen more than 5 times. There is a simple ko rule: you cannot immediately steal back from the player who just stole from you.

The gift you bring doesn't have to be something you received over the holidays; it can be whatever. You could even buy something for the event if you're desperate. You are discouraged from bringing a complete garbage gift, because the Meta Devil is the player who brought the spiffiest gift -- which is of course the gift which was stolen the most times! In case of tie, there will be a vote among all present for which gift was spiffiest. To avoid any tainted appearance of conflict of interest and unseemly bribery and threats, try to keep donor identities anonymous until the Meta winning gift has been determined.

Our Most Assiduous Reader may notice that if the spiffiest gift happens to be unwrapped last from the pile, it will not get stolen at all, and so it will unjustly earn 0 meta points. If you want your gift unwrapped early, wrap it enticingly. Conversely, if you don't care about being Meta Devil and just want to get rid of some piece of crap, well, I think you're good to go.

This turned out to be quite a fun event! I did 3 white elephants recently, and this was by far the most fun. There were several boardgames (Last Chance, Rage, etc.) given, and lots of other nifty prizes, plus some wacky goofy ones such as the infamous ugly orange butt monster. I was pleased to acquire the One Ring and vow to use it for good. All the boardgames were stolen the maximum number of times (5), as were several other gifts, so a vote was held to determine the spiffiest gift. The winner was a Speed Racer action figure, donated by Matt, so Matt is the Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game.

Rank ratings:
 1.0000 JeffF (2 games played)    
 1.0000 Jerrie (1)
 0.7500 Jeffles (3)
 0.6000 Whendy (2)
 0.5000 RussD (2)
 0.4286 BradSmith (2)
 0.2500 Matt (2)
 0.2000 Clayton (2)
 0.1429 William (2)
 0.1429 Lale (2)
 0.0000 RussW (2)
 0.0000 Bonnie (1)
-0.3846 Marty (3)
-0.5000 JP (1)
-0.6000 Ben (2)
-0.6000 BobR (2)
-0.7143 Brad (2)
-1.0000 MattL (2)
-1.0000 Steve (2)
-1.0000 Robby (1)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 JeffF (2)
 1.0000 Jerrie (1)
 0.6000 Whendy (2)
 0.3750 Matt (2)
 0.2857 William (2)
 0.2500 Jeffles (3)
 0.2000 Clayton (2)
 0.0000 Ben (2)
-0.2308 Marty (3)
-0.2500 RussD (2)
-0.2500 RussW (2)
-0.2500 JP (1)
-0.2857 BradSmith (2)
-0.2857 Lale (2)
-0.2857 Brad (2)
-0.2857 MattL (2)
-0.4000 BobR (2)
-0.4000 Steve (2)
-0.5000 Bonnie (1)
-0.5000 Robby (1)