April 11 2001 RussCon Report

News

Meta Party Game Results

Brady was the Meta Party Devil. Mailing list subscribers will be aware of his initial proposal which was the most controversial meta game in all history, since it changed the rules of the "real" games being played. This spawned an unusually lengthy and interesting email thread. Since there was some strong resistance to this meta game, here is the replacement Meta Party Game Brady emailed out:

"Devil Take The Hindmost" is dead.

There's a new meta-party devil game in town called "Snapshot."

"Snapshot" is true meta game. It will not impact adversely on your Devil rating and there are no frightening features. You are strongly encouraged to play your best.

Object: To score the most Russcon devil points during the "Snapshot" time checkpoints.

How to play: Come to Russcon. Play games as you normally would.

Scoring: Beginning at 7:30 p.m. and every 45 minutes thereafter until 10:30 p.m., a snapshot of the Russcon gaming scores for all games currently in play will be taken. I (or anyone that sees a time checkpoint has arrived) will announce "Snapshot!" At that point, players must record the current standing of everone in their respective game groups on a slip of paper. Write the name of the game, the individuals involved, and their current devil points, (+3, +1, 0, -2, etc.) and the word "Snapshot" followed by the time. (The time isn't especially important, the word SNAPSHOT is!) At the end of the evening, all the Snapshot tallies will be gathered up. Russ will compute the mean scores of every player just like he would normal Devilhood standings. (Or whatever it is he does with the scores after Russcon.) The person who would normally be the "Russcon Devil" for the Snapshot scores is instead the new Meta Party Game Devil. Special colored notepads will be provided to keep track of your Snapshot scores.

Scoring for games beginning and/or ending on a time checkpoint: If games are being set up, are in their first round of turns, or are being scored when "Snapshot!" is announced, those games are NOT counted in the Snapshot Metagame tally.

Time checkpoints: 7:30, 8:15, 9:00, 9:45, and 10:30 p.m.

Russcon Devil scoring: After recording the snapshot scores, continue play. When the game is over, record your scores in the Russcon Notebook. DO NOT record Snapshot scores in the Russcon Notebook!

Abstaining: If an individual does not wish to be included in the final Snapshot Metagame tally for Meta Party Devil, they need to let the scorekeeper know to strikethrough their name on the Snapshot tally for that and every game they play. Since they are involved in the game, all scores will stand. They simply decide to forfeit being the Meta Party Game Devil

Special cases: If you are playing a game where points are hidden from view, ask a third party russconner to record your scores and keep the tally away from the players. (I think placing the tallies face-down on the piano top may be a good idea.) If no points have been scored yet or it is in doubt what the true standings are, do not record the Snapshot. Record the scores at the next Snapshot time checkpoint if the game is still in play at that time.

Notes: I will provide handouts with these rules on them at Russcon. Tell your friends in hiding that "Hindmost" is dead and that "Snapshot" is being played instead. If they ask to explain it, just tell them, "We play like always, only we also score Devil Points during certain times to ultimately determine the Meta Party Devil. It is not Hindmost. That's all you really need to know."

That is all. We'll take care of anything not covered on the wing at Russcon.

After careful pondering, I'll state officially that after the controversy of "Devil take the hindmost", future meta games will not introduce new rules into "real" games. (As always, the meta game might cause players to play differently in a real game, but they shouldn't alter the rules of the real games.)