June 17 1998 RussCon Report

June 17 RussCon Report

June 17 was another stupendous amazing record-breaking night for the seemingly shrinking RussCon! There were only 7 players, and (for the first time in RussCon history) only 1 track of gaming... (Technically there were 8 players, but latecomer Brady arrived 15 minutes into an Acquire game and eventually decided not to wait for it to complete...) Co-Devil James even failed to show. What's up with that? Marty's in England, but still... No RussD, no William, no Jonathan and Dawn, no Ken, and all you other recent regulars... madness! We all felt very lonely playing our mere 1 track of gaming... If you stayed away because of a sudden claustrophobic fear of crowds, it looks like a good time to return to RussCon. (Of course now that I say that, watch us have 20 people again next week!)

This was Randy's special last night of gaming; I suspect that unacknowledged secret grudges and hostilities toward him explain the low turnout. Now Randy knows his True Friends include me, Jay, Clayton, Tim, Doug, JP, and Brady! Everyone else can now look forward to mail bombs from Islamic Jihad.

Early birds were rewarded by free handouts as Randy gave away old games inherited from long-lost gamers Mike & Varis, including old classics Kings and Things, Freedom in the Galaxy, Stellar Conquest, as well as the woefully disappointing Iron Dragon (that pernicious game that fiendishly combines lengthy playing time with completely arbitrary luck). (Indeed, if it hadn't been for Randy being guest of honor, I'd have been compelled to expel him from my house for bringing in Iron Dragon, even if he brought it only to rid himself of the foul thing.)

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Letters to the Editor! The RussCon Management is gratified to receive Letters from our Esteemed Readership, providing Insightful Commentary and Pithy Observations on previously published Reports.

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We wrote:

Next week will be Dr. Randy's last RussCon; he then moves to the Middle East where he'll be teaching mathematics to nubile young college women.

To which Mr. Ronald S. of Chicago, Illinois replied:

	You mean girls with there faces always covered in black.

	Better him than me.

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We wrote:

Speaking of Brendan, he's now the proud father of a new baby, so now he has yet another excuse to avoid coming to RussCon, the bastard! He reports success using dog training techniques on the infant.

To which Mr. Brendan S. of Austin, Texas replied:

Very funny. I had to assure Yvonne you didn't honestly think we were using dog training techniques on our baby.

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June 17 Results

Devil Doug suggested a RoboRally destruction derby variant. After a couple hours of play, we decided that destruction derby did not work well, at least on the Colosseum board! It's really rather hard to hunt and kill other robots... Eventually I knocked JP into a crusher, killing him, and we decided to quit with a 6-way tie among the rest of us... Personally, I want to stick with the racing goal.

Then Tim won Acquire. Doug would have won, but he kept getting distracted by the sophisticated humor of Knights of the Dinner Table...

Randy won Medici, so he'll have a glorious memory from his last RussCon.

I won Lord Of The Fries, and then I won 2 games of Kill Doctor Lucky, making myself the Cheapass master of the evening. Kill Doctor Lucky, with its board of 8 separate loose sheets, provided the opportunity to use a recently acquired plexiglass sheet on top of the board. Thanks again to my plexiglass suppliers Jay & Tim (neither of whom was still around to witness this exciting inaugural event).

Rank ratings:
 0.5217 RussW (6 games played)
 0.2143 Tim (3)
 0.1667 Clayton (1)
 0.1667 Jay (1)
-0.0870 Randy (6)
-0.0870 Doug (6)
-0.5652 JP (6)

Win ratings:
 1.0000 Clayton (1)
 1.0000 Jay (1)
 0.7136 RussW (6)
 0.6500 Tim (3)
-0.0038 Randy (6)
-0.7790 Doug (6)
-1.0000 JP (6)

& spectator Brady, floating off the scale somewhere!

One advantage of a smaller turnout is the smaller computation time involved in creating the partial ordering:

RussW
  \   Jay = Clayton
   \     /
   Tim  /
     \ /
    Randy
      |
     Doug
      |
     JP

So next week I am the Devil. JP gets the special Annoying Angel Award, as well as the very rare distinction of being the only individual not to have won a game that night (which I don't believe has happened before -- normally of course there are several losers). (It's amazing how a large joint victory can change the win ratings distribution!)

See you next Wednesday June 24!

Russ