July 23 2003 RussCon Report

Game Results

Montgolfiere	5	JP 4 RussW 2 Fred -1 BradS -1 Clayton -4
Cloud9	4	Fred 3 RussW 1 BradS -1 JP -3
Cloud9	4	MarkG 3 RussD 1 Ben -1 Crash -3
Carcassonne	5	RussW 4 BradS 2 Fred 0 JP -2 Clayton -4
Rumis	3	JP 2 RussW 0 Clayton -2
Tichu	2	( MarkG Ben ) 1 ( MarkH JimG ) -1
TooManyCooks	5	MarkG 4 MarkH 2 Crash -1 JimG -1 Ben -4
Exxtra	5	Clayton 4 Matt 2 JP 0 Binkley -2 RussW -4
Settlers	3	BradS 2 Fred 0 Marty -2
Cathedral	2	RussW 1 Crash -1
ZirkusFlohcati	5	JP 4 RussW 2 Matt 0 Clayton -2 Binkley -4
Vampire	4	Clayton 3 BradS 1 Binkley -1 Fina -3
Twixt	2	RussW 1 Crash -1
Survive	4	JP 3 MarkG 1 RussD -1 Matt -3
Montgolfiere	5	JP 4 Binkley 2 Matt 0 MarkG -2 Baron -4

JP pulled ahead early in Montgolfiere and stayed ahead. In Cloud 9, however, Fred was far behind most of the game, then managed to score vast tracts of points in a dramatic reversal of fortune and pull ahead in the end, pipping me by 1 point for the win! Ballooning games were popular this evening for some reason.

The 3-dimensional block placement game Rumis continues to confound and intrigue me.

Ratings

Rank Ratings:     
 5.2338 JP
 3.4012 MarkG
 3.1781 RussW
 1.5041 BradS
 1.0986 Fred
 0.0000 RussD
 0.0000 MarkH
-0.6931 Matt
-0.9808 JimG
-1.0986 Marty
-1.3218 Ben
-1.3863 Fina
-1.6094 Baron
-2.0149 Clayton
-2.0149 Binkley
-3.0603 Crash

Win Ratings:
 6.5793 JP won 5 of 8
 3.1781 MarkG won 3 of 5
 1.9208 Clayton won 2 of 6
 1.6332 RussW won 3 of 8
 0.5345 Fred won 1 of 4
 0.1823 Ben won 1 of 3
 0.0770 BradS won 1 of 5
-0.2231 Baron won 0 of 1
-0.2877 Fina won 0 of 1
-0.4055 Marty won 0 of 1
-0.5754 RussD won 0 of 2
-0.9163 MarkH won 0 of 2
-0.9163 JimG won 0 of 2
-0.9571 Matt won 0 of 4
-0.9571 Binkley won 0 of 4
-1.8971 Crash won 0 of 4

JP is the Devil! MarkG is the Vice-Devil. Clayton and I are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils. Crash is the Generous Angel. Binkley and Crash share the dubious honor of having been bested in the ratings by the infamous Black Baron. JP and I share the Dedicated Award.

If you are confused how the ratings work, you could peruse the FAQ.

Meta Game

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

This week's meta-game will be celebrating "A Mighty Wind" - or in the words of Boris Badenov, "Big Blow Hard"

Any one playing something involving activating wind by blowing gets points... Playing a game (minimum of 2 players) in which wind is manipulated or actively depicted earns 2 meta-points per game and a 3rd meta-point if you win. Playing a wind instrument competently (I'll be the judge) earns 2 meta-points (only one award per person) so Brad, bring your didgeridoo and I'll bring some Balkan bagpipes. (Noisemakers such as dog whistles and sirens will not be considered as competent playing.) Attempting to play the bagpipes will earn you 1 meta-point and probably jeers and laughs from every else. Any item of clothing worn depicting active wind or a wind instrument earns 1 point per item, 2 if its bagpipes. Ties will be decided by a distance spitball contest.

(In the June 11 report I mentioned that Mark plays bagpipes and it would be fun to hear them at RussCon; and I've also mentioned to Brad that didgeridoos would be fun. So we got two great instruments that sound great together! A few years ago I was fortunate enough to hear a fun concert at Cactus Cafe that included bagpipes and didgeridoo as well as violin. But I digress.)

Mark indeed brought a set of bagpipes. We were treated to a short performance which was good fun (and Crash filmed a nice 30 second video of it, which perhaps will end up available here for your viewing pleasure eventually), and then Brad and I each tried them out, which was probably much less fun for the listeners! I have no clue how to finger it or make melodies! Definitely harder than it looks! Also the drone seemed to have a mind of its own and flopped around all over my shoulder and fell down to the side a lot. And the Balkan pipes smell like a stinky wet goat to me. But it was fun!

Brad brought 2 different didgeridoos, and he has the knack for playing it enjoyably well too! Apparently he was able to play it right off the bat, unlike his SO Martha who normally is the musically talented one of the couple. JP, Fred, and I tried playing, but we didn't grok how to make the basic buzzing/droning/trumpeting sound. Fred almost got it going. I totally sucked and was reduced to making submarine aa-OOOO-gaa "dive, captain, dive" noises.

Montgolfiere (the game where we're racing in hot air balloons to reach the moon) has wind and was played twice. Cloud 9 was played under the mistaken belief that it had wind, but it doesn't. Similarly, Survive was claimed to have wind but it turned out not to as the players eventually learned. Heh!

Meanwhile it turns out that BradS misread what the second occurence "item" meant in "Any item of clothing worn depicting active wind or a wind instrument earns 1 point per item" ... it refers to "item of clothing", but he thought it meant each picture of an instrument, so he had a t-shirt with pictures of several instruments on the front, and sewn/pinned to the back of his shirt was a square of cloth with about 15 or 20 more instruments printed on it. So he thought he was earning 20-gazillion points, but really only got 2 points for the shirt; sorry Brad! MarkG reckoned that BradS ended up with 7 points and MarkG ended up with 8, so MarkG is the Meta Devil again (I avert my eyes from the conflict of interest!) and will design next week's Meta Game!

Links

Happy Tree Friends is cute horrific cartoon violence

Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974 has wonderful commentary

cybersex with bloodninja

show and tell galleries has lots of weird record covers

The Onion turned out to be pretty prophetic 2.5 years ago (Bush: "Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over")

Curved lighting looks pretty cool

Photos of UT's Gutenberg Bible

Eric Conveys an Emotion

July 23 2003 RussCon Report

News

Game Results

Ratings

Meta Game

Evening's Soundtrack

Links