June 25 2003 RussCon Report

Game Results

WebOfPower	5	Marty 4 RussW 2 JP 0 Fina -2 MarkH -4
Transamerica	4	Fina 3 RussW 1 MarkH -1 Clayton -3
BalloonCup	2	JP 1 Marty -1
Guillotine	5	RussW 4 MarkY 2 MarkH 0 Clayton -2 Fina -4
Tichu	2	( Fred Tim ) 1 ( Ben BobR ) -1
Exxtra	6	Tim 5 Ben 3 BobR 1 Robby -1 Fred -3 Katy -5
Carcassonne	4	RussW 3 Clayton 1 JP -1 Fina -3
Babel	2	Robby 1 Katy -1
Tichu	2	( MarkY William ) 1 ( Marty MarkH ) -1
Can'tStop	3	William 2 MarkY 0 RussD -2
PuertoRico	4	JeffF 3 MarkG 1 Matt -1 Whendy -3
WebOfPower	5	JeffF 4 Alfred 2 MarkG 0 Matt -2 Crash -4
Acquire	4	JP 3 RussW 1 Fina -1 Clayton -3
Cartagena	4	MarkG 3 Fina 1 RussW -2 Clayton -2
PuertoRico	4	Alfred 3 JP 1 JeffF -1 Crash -3
Brawl	2	JP 1 Crash -1
Brawl	2	JP 1 Crash -1
Brawl	2	JP 1 Crash -1
Amun-Re	3	RussD 2 Matt 0 MarkY -2

Balloon Cup is apparently a 2-player game, and Marty says he knows the designer (from the Gathering).

JP tried picking up some last minute meta points by playing several games of Brawl, but to no avail...

Ratings

Rank Ratings:            
 4.1589 JP (8)
 3.8067 RussW (6)
 2.5903 JeffF (3)
 2.4849 Tim (2)
 2.0794 Alfred (2)
 1.7918 MarkG (3)
 1.7918 William (2)
 0.4055 Robby (2)
 0.2877 MarkY (4)
 0.2231 Ben (2)
 0.2231 Marty (3)
 0.0000 RussD (2)
-0.2231 Fred (2)
-0.4055 BobR (2)
-1.0986 Matt (3)
-1.3863 Whendy (1)
-2.3026 Fina (6)
-2.4849 Katy (2)
-2.7081 MarkH (4)
-3.7534 Clayton (5)
-5.0752 Crash (5)

Win Ratings:  
 3.3604 JP won 5 of 8
 2.7081 JeffF won 2 of 3
 2.4849 Tim won 2 of 2 
 1.9095 RussW won 2 of 6
 1.7918 William won 2 of 2
 1.1632 Alfred won 1 of 2
 0.8755 MarkG won 1 of 3
 0.6931 RussD won 1 of 2
 0.5108 Fred won 1 of 2
 0.5108 Robby won 1 of 2
 0.2231 Marty won 1 of 3
 0.0770 Fina won 1 of 6
-0.2877 Whendy won 0 of 1
-0.3409 MarkY won 1 of 4
-0.8755 Ben won 0 of 2
-0.8755 BobR won 0 of 2
-0.8755 Katy won 0 of 2
-0.9163 Matt won 0 of 3
-1.3739 Clayton won 0 of 5
-1.4271 MarkH won 0 of 4
-2.5903 Crash won 0 of 5

JP is the Devil! JeffF and I are Co-Vice-Devils. Tim is Vice-Vice-Devil. Then William and Alfred. Crash is the Generous Angel.

This week I've trimmed the intermediate numbers from the ratings charts (a suggestion Dan made a long time ago) to narrow them down and make more room for the side by side arrangement.

Meta Game

JP was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Game he mailed out:

This weeks meta game:
Meta Devil Needs some Soul!

<Booming Voice>
You have allowed me to become the Meta Devil.
Foolish Mortals!
Now I will pluck a piece of your puny meta souls each time you play a game.
Bwaa haa haa!!! </Booming Voice>

Anyway, the rules are...
Whenever a group of people start a RussCon game, a number of points are generated equal to the number of people playing the game + 5. Whoever suggested the game gets to distribute the points among those who are playing the game as they see fit. (You could view these points as <Booming Voice> pieces of their puny meta souls </Booming Voice> if you were into flavor text. You could even say that RussCon games have much bigger souls than RussCon gamers, and that's where the +5 comes from... If you were into flavor text... But why would you be?) When people are trying to decide what game to play the suggester of a game may make offers concerning the distribution of these points to convince others to play their game. People can offer points they already have to others in exchange for anything whatsoever.

Everyone who reads this message gets one point. (You may trade points by email before 7pm on Wed.)

Any game played in the backyard generates double points.

Anyone who lends me the new Harry Potter book to read gets an extra 100 pts.

Next weeks meta-devil gets a bonus of 50,000 pts.

Highest number of points at the end of the night wins. Ties broken in favor of whoever makes the most creative suggestion for breaking ties.

After JeffS speculated about winning the Meta Game just by loaning JP the new Harry Potter book, JP weaseled and waffled a bit:

Perhaps those bonus points were a bit misguided. I didn't really expect anyone to actually do it. I mean, I'd be perfectly happy, even eager, to borrow the book from you, Jeff. And I have nothing against you winning the metagame. I'm sure you'd come up with quite an interesting game. But I didn't really intend for this to be the "Who will lend JP a book" metagame. I suppose others would still be free to get these bonus points, so it's not a completely unfair advantage, but still... I can just see myself leaving RussCon with 15 loaned copies of Pheonix.

Maybe it would be best to modify this rule. How about we change it to 5 points to the *first* person to lend me Pheonix by Midnight, Wed. If I'm feeling generous (or guilty for changing the rules), I may throw in some of my own points.

Oh, and everyone who reads this message can have another bonus point. (I realize it's hardly sufficient compensation. ;)

This Meta Game had unforeseen consequences as the Devil gets to suggest games at the table, so as the Devil I raked in a lot of points. There was a variety of odd little deal-making by email, including me earning 2 meta points for saying "I crave Sea Biscuit's sexy meta-points." So the scoring got a bit chaotic, but JP reckoned that I won handily with 52 meta points. JP had 37. Matt had 20. Other people were 10 or less. So I am the Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game!

Links

Spielboy is a euro-games-related web site published quarterly. It's the source of the lovely photo.

Statesman article about the game development school Steve is going to

Net cuts karaoke kings to the quick is a fun article about mondegreens (misheard song lyrics)

cute letter to editor of cactus.org

New airport scans could expose travelers... yep, I'm sure that wouldn't be abused at all, no sirree!

American Traveler Apology shirt says "I'm sorry my president's an idiot. I didn't vote for him." in the 6 official UN languages

June 25 2003 RussCon Report

News

Game Results

Ratings

Meta Game

Evening's Soundtrack

Links