May 22 2002 RussCon Report

News

If you enjoy cool weird live theater, see Rude Mechanicals' production of El Paraiso which ends on Saturday this weekend.

Meta Party Game

Ok, the Meta Game is to play Star Wars Epic Duels. Earn a meta point each time you play. High score wins.

But wait, there's more! So much more. That's not a moon, it's a space station! Or something.

The SWED games are played with teams of good guys versus bad guys -- life-and-death battles for the fate of the galaxy! This is serious business. It's important everyone do their duty to defend the Republic (or the Empire, as the case may be). At the end of each game, each team should vote to determine who their most valuable player was -- who was most crucial to defeating the enemy team, or to put it another way: in whom was the Force strongest? On each team, the player with most votes earns a bonus meta point.

And most importantly of all, since this is the game of wacky Star Wars quoting and roleplaying and spoofing, ALL players in the game should also vote to determine who was the most entertaining player, or to put it another way: who ogled Amidala's bare midriff and performed the Yoda ball-squeeze most amusingly?

Thus the scoring for each game of SWED is:

+ 1 meta point to everyone in the game

+ 1 meta point to the most valuable player on each team. For each team, this is voted on by the team members. I.e. all the bad guys vote for the most kickass bad guy and all the good guys vote for the most kickass good guy.

+ 1 meta point to the most entertaining player in the game. This is voted on by ALL the players in the game. And for that matter, interested spectators are permitted to vote on this! And it is legitimate to consider someone not very entertaining if they agonize too long or too frequently.

A plurality (not majority) is needed to win a vote. Normally votes should be resolved quickly by vocal acclamation (you know, like a vote in the Senate where everyone says "Hear, hear!") If not, then go to ballots that are revealed simultaneously. You cannot vote for yourself. Vote for whoever you think is genuinely most deserving of the award other than yourself. Be honorable, even if you're a bad guy. You may abstain... if you're a cowardly politician.

In case of tie votes, split the meta point equally between the tying players. E.g. 2 good guys are equally valuable on their 4 player team, and each gets 2 votes. Then they each earn 0.5 meta points.)

Thus in theory you could earn 3 meta points from playing 1 game of SWED, if you shoot a fatal shot through Darth Vader's helmet while kicking Boba Fett's rocket pack so it malfunctions and he flies right into the Emperor's crackling lightning bolt finger thingies like a moth in a bug zapper (so your teammates vote for you) and you also performed a moving Chewbacca/Jar-Jar love scene with tender Wookiee moans (so that everyone votes for you). Oh yes, this is going to be fun.

By the way, in case anyone cares to play a non-team "destruction derby" version of SWED, then there are of course no team-voted bonuses, but the winner will earn a bonus meta point. I.e. the losers earn 1 meta point and the 1 winner earns 2 meta points. I doubt ties for victory occur (i.e. the last 2 players die in the same instant), but if it is, the winners split the bonus meta point.

To enable us to play many games of this fine bit of ludicrously ridiculous mayhem (what else can you call a game where Anakin Skywalker can fight against his own future self Darth Vader?), I award one more set of special meta awards:

1 bonus meta point if you bring a set of SWED this week. Dan and Daniel(*) both have copies, how about YOU? How can you NOT own this fun game? Think of all the cool painted plastic figures! Did I mention Amidala's bare midriff?

May the Force be with you.

(*) Daniel emailed me that he bought Star Wars Epic Battles, but I assume he meant Star Wars Epic Duels and is just dazed and confused from being out too long in the hot Tatooine suns or something.

We played both team and free for all games. We corrected a few rules misconceptions also.

I didn't clearly specify, but a 2 player game would be considered free for all rather than team for meta purposes (since you can't vote for yourself anyway), so I just give the winner an extra meta point in those.

By the way, I note in passing that Dan is electionphobic (and doesn't know how to pronounce Amidala), but he still makes the best Wookiee noises. And Fred (who played Amidala) earned one of his meta points for demonstrating his special live impression of the Amidala midriff flash. Anyway, by my reckoning here are the meta scores:

7 Daniel
6.5 RussW
6 Brady
5 JimG
4 JP
3 Dan
3 Steve
2 Fred
2 RussD
2 DaveB
2 Dudley
1.5 Whendy
1 Allen

Rank ratings:
 1.0000 JimG (4 games played)    
 1.0000 Clay (2)
 0.6000 JP (4)
 0.5385 Allen (6)
 0.4286 DaveB (3)
 0.3333 Fred (3)
 0.2000 MarkH (1)
 0.0000 RussW (6)
 0.0000 Tim (3)
 0.0000 Clayton (2)
-0.1538 Dudley (6)
-0.1538 William (3)
-0.1667 Daniel (6)
-0.3333 Steve (4)
-0.4615 MarkY (3)
-0.5714 RussD (3)
-0.6000 Brady (5)
-0.6667 Sarah (3)
-1.0000 Dan (3)
-1.0000 Whendy (1)

New Win Ratings:
 1.0000 JimG (4)
 1.0000 Clay (2)
 0.4286 DaveB (3)
 0.4000 JP (4)
 0.3077 Allen (6)
 0.1667 RussW (6)
 0.1667 Tim (3)
-0.1000 Brady (5)
-0.1538 Dudley (6)
-0.1667 Fred (3)
-0.1667 Sarah (3)
-0.2000 MarkH (1)
-0.2308 William (3)
-0.2308 MarkY (3)
-0.3333 Clayton (2)
-0.3333 Daniel (6)
-0.3333 Steve (4)
-0.4286 RussD (3)
-1.0000 Dan (3)
-1.0000 Whendy (1)