November 10 1999 RussCon Report

Suddenly the player drought is over: 22 players, and 5 games in parallel most of the evening. Hoody-hoo!

Last chance to tell me if you want in on the group to see silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with live music by Friends of Dean Martinez at Alamo Drafthouse Friday November 19. I'll be buying tickets very soon.

Our favorite gambling addict (I won't say his name since you're supposed to be anonymous in 12-step programs, right?) reports taking a bus trip to a Louisiana casino, leaving 5pm Sunday afternoon, gambling and eating crappy breakfast buffet food from 1am till 7am Monday morning, then returning to Austin 1pm Monday afternoon. What a godawful surreal sleepdeprived nightmare trip that sounds like. But that's just me.

Alfred writes:
Hooray! RussCon has been selected by GMT to participate in the Galaxy Playtesting. A copy should be here by next week.

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Game Results:

HighSociety 5 RussW 4 JonathanB 2 Marty 0 Alfred -2 WendyWhe -4
DurchDieWueste 4 JeffF 3 Jonobie 1 Fred -1 JonathanC -3
HoneyBears 5 Jayson 4 RussW 2 AndrewY 0 WendyWhe -2 JonathanB -4
Tayu 3 WendyWhe 2 JonathanB 0 RussW -2
MississippiQueen 5 Tim 4 Clayton 2 William 0 JP -2 Bob -4
BitinOffHedz 7 Tim 0 William 0 JP 0 Bob 0 Fred 0 Harry 0 Clayton 0
LostCities 2 William 1 Tim -1
Medici 6 Steve 5 JeffF 3 Jayson 1 JonathanC -1 AndrewY -3 JeffD -5
Guillotine 5 JeffD 3 Jayson 3 AndrewY -1 WendyWhe -1 Steve -4
McMulti 4 KevinH 3 Alfred 1 ChrisH -1 Marty -3
LetzteParadies 5 JonathanB 4 JeffF 2 William -1 RussW -1 Tim -4
Tayu 3 RussW 2 JonathanC 0 JeffF -2
RicochetRobot 5 Alfred 4 Tim 1 William 1 ChrisH -2 JonathanB -4
Guillotine 5 Jayson 4 AndrewY 2 Steve -1 WendyWhe -1 JeffD -4
Euphrates 4 Bob 3 JP 1 Allen -1 Fred -3
Fluxx 5 Tim 4 William -1 Alfred -1 JonathanC -1 ChrisH -1
Calamity 3 Marty 2 Harry 0 KevinH -2
Metropolis 3 AndrewY 2 Jayson 0 Steve -2
Can'tStop 4 Tim 3 William 0 JonathanB 0 Alfred -3
Pirat 5 JonathanC 4 KevinH 2 Harry 0 RussW -3 Marty -3
Bluff 6 Alfred 5 JeffF 3 JonathanC 1 William -1 Marty -3 RussW -5
Siesta 4 Bob 3 ChrisH 1 JP -1 Allen -3
Hearts 4 JeffF 3 RussW 1 Alfred -1 William -3

Bitin' off Hedz can become very very noisy. I guess dinosaurs are like that.

Squeaky & I confirmed that 2 players who antagonize each other in Tayu will certainly lose to the flood. Sea Biscuit & JeffF confirmed that 2 players who cooperate can still lose to the flood.

Sea Biscuit and Kevin proved that you don't need the rules explained to win Pirat.

There are further disturbing rumors about "Dirty Harry", this time involving a certain violated agreement concerning insurance policies. No respect for the law. I swear, it's Elfenland all over again. Can't the man keep out of trouble?

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Apollo Four Forty, Electro Glide in Blue
Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Remnants of a Deeper Purity
Fortran 5, Blues
George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
The Moody Blues, Days of Future Passed

These go out to our RussCon listeners with the blues. (Pretend I said that in a deep suave DJ voice.)

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Rank ratings:
 0.6316 Jayson (5 games played)
 0.5455 JeffF (6)
 0.3333 KevinH (3)
 0.3333 Jonobie (1)
 0.2692 Tim (7)
 0.2000 Clayton (2)
 0.1250 Bob (4)
 0.1154 Alfred (7)
 0.0000 JonathanC (6)
 0.0000 AndrewY (5)
 0.0000 Harry (3)
-0.0714 RussW (8)
-0.0952 JonathanB (6)
-0.1176 William (9)
-0.1250 JP (4)
-0.1333 Steve (4)
-0.2143 ChrisH (4)
-0.3333 Fred (3)
-0.3333 WendyWhe (5)
-0.3889 Marty (5)
-0.4615 JeffD (3)
-0.6667 Allen (2)

New Win ratings:
 0.4737 Jayson (5)
 0.3125 Bob (4)
 0.3077 Tim (7)
 0.1538 Alfred (7)
 0.1111 KevinH (3)
 0.0909 JeffF (6)
 0.0769 JeffD (3)
 0.0667 Steve (4)
 0.0000 RussW (8)
-0.0435 JonathanC (6)
-0.0476 JonathanB (6)
-0.1000 Clayton (2)
-0.1111 Marty (5)
-0.1579 AndrewY (5)
-0.1667 Harry (3)
-0.1667 Fred (3)
-0.1667 WendyWhe (5)
-0.1765 William (9)
-0.1875 JP (4)
-0.2857 ChrisH (4)
-0.3333 Jonobie (1)
-0.3333 Allen (2)

Jayson is the Devil! Then a 4-way tie among Bob, Jeff, Kevin, and Tim. William wins the Dedicated Award. Allen wins the Generous Angel Award.

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Yet Still Even More Links:

MS Outlook users should be aware of a new virus danger that can hit you even if you don't open attached files. Merely having the preview pane enabled will activate it.
http://www.wired.com/news/reuters/0,1349,32434,00.html
http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/CWFlash/9911103bubble

Those who enjoy fuming about idiotic software patents should check out this latest lunacy...
Surprise! Y2K fix was patented
And owner wants part of the $600 billion spent on fixes
http://www.msnbc.com/news/333372.asp

Hearts (and other card game) info:
http://www.ccnet.com/~paulp/software/hearts/berns.htm
http://w3.one.net/~dbarker/cards/hearts.html

Settlers of Catan variants:
http://members.tripod.com/Wiyum/spiel/settlers/expansion1.html

If you want to play Scrabble, X-Com, or other Hasbro games by email with someone you might check out these. They're designed to be easily integrated into your email:
http://www.emailgames.com/index.html

Some of you probably got email about the wacky Turkish guy with the wacky webpage, widely ridiculed for saying things like "I like sex!" (what a nut, who could possibly like sex?) and "Come visit me. I invitate you!" It turns out his page was hacked and sabotaged to say that stuff. Another stirring human interest drama unfolds before our very eyes.
http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/primall/mahir/index.html

A reminder about the daily-turn-based online fantasy war PC game several of us are playing. Did I mention it's designed by Greg Costikyan? And there's cockroach riding dwarven cavalry?
http://www.station.sony.com/fantasywar

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He left on Sunday.
He left on Sunday!
He left on SUNDAY!
HE LEFT ON SUNDAY!

Russ