October 31 2001 RussCon Report

hugo

News
Game Results
Meta Party Game Results
Evening's Soundtrack
Ratings
Links
26 of us played 17 games. That's almost a record! There were 4 new folks: MarkH (friend of Dan and Marty), Becky and Tony (friends of Chris and Mindy), and BradSmith (not sure what his connection is!)
RussCon Mailing List Subscription Info
RussCon Report Archives
Previous Report
Next Report
RussCon Info
Russ Zone
Ko Fight Club
Check out my webcomics.
Comicollage: daily ongoing comic jam with 7 artists and no planning ahead! There's a russ strip every Tuesday.

News

I was initially worried when the first 5 or 6 of y'all showed up in lame-ass ordinary clothes, but then costumed folks began pouring in, and there were about 16 of us in costume! This was the first time I'd been at home on Halloween in years, so I had candy for trick-or-treaters for the first time in years. There were about a dozen groups of kids who stopped by. The best moment was when the 10-player Ghost Party group began chanting "Hugo! Hugo!" in the background, which really freaked out some kids.

My zombie costume took a couple hours to finish putting on, and about 40 minutes to wash off 12 hours later... I scared quite a few people at work, even if my dang scabs did keep peeling off. I won the costume contest at my office. (Sadly, I was pretty much the only one in costume...)

Then over the weekend I attended the Austin Celtic Fest for the first time. It was terrific, and I ended up spending all day Saturday and Sunday there. Lots of different bands, playing everything from very traditional Celtic folk and military pipes and drums to all sorts of crossover fusion including congas, didgeridoo, and kickass electric guitar. (Of course no Celtic band could replace Clandestine in my heart...) I was pleased to get there in time Saturday to hear a piobaireachd. Bagpipes, kilts, and more! Saturday there were lots of comely lasses in short plaid skirts, which didn't hurt either. Especially that one comely grunge lass. Comely grunge lasses rule.


Game Results

GhostParty10Marty 9 JP 7 RussD 5 PJ 2 William 2 MarkH -1 Clayton -3 Dan -5 BobR -7 Daniel -9
Vampire3Fred 2 RussW 0 Jerrie -2
GhostParty4Jerrie 3 RussW 1 Fred -1 Clayton -3
Vampire5Marty 4 RussD -1 JP -1 BradSmith -1 Daniel -1
Vampire4ChrisH 3 Mindy 1 JonathanC -1 Dawn -3
Guillotine3BobR 1 MarkH 1 PJ -2
Tichu2( Matt Carly ) 1 ( William Dan ) -1
Carcassonne4Clayton 3 JonathanC 1 RussW -1 Fina -3
Entdecker4BobK 3 Brady 1 MarkH -1 BobR -3
Bluff7Dan 6 William 4 PJ 2 Carly -1 Jeffles -1 Fred -4 Matt -6
GruselWusel3RussW 2 Matt 0 ChrisH -2
SchottenTotten2Matt 1 RussW -1
Guillotine4Tony 3 ChrisH 0 Mindy 0 Becky -3
Tichu2( Fred William ) 1 ( BobK Brady ) -1
GiveMeTheBrain8RussW 7 Dawn -1 JonathanC -1 BobR -1 Matt -1 Becky -1 ChrisH -1 Mindy -1
LaCitta5JP 3 Marty 3 Daniel 0 RussD -2 BradSmith -4
GruselWusel5William 4 Marty 1 Matt 1 BobK -3 JP -3

carcassonneWe traditionally play spooky ghoulish games for Halloween RussCon, so what better game than Carcass One?

Of course Vampire and Ghost Party were played too, and Grusel Wusel (the game with lots of subtly different jack-o-lantern dice), and Give Me The Brain, and Guillotine.


Meta Party Game

This week's Meta Game was of course the Halloween Costume Contest. I used the Australian voting system for this (you can list more than one candidate on your ballot, in order of preference, and then the lowest ranked candidates are eliminated until some candidate has a majority of votes -- if you don't know how this works, I'm sure you can read about it on the web someplace).
dan and chris As it turns out there were 14 ballots submitted, and it was a close competition between Dan and Carly:

RussW1
Mindy1
ChrisH2
Dan5
Carly5

So RussW & Mindy were knocked from contention; the 2 people voting for Russ & Mindy had Carly listed as their 2nd preference. Thus we now had:

ChrisH2
Dan5
Carly7

So still no majority. Eliminating Chris next, we found the 2 people who voted for Chris first also listed Carly as their 2nd preference, so Carly ended up with 9 votes, winning a majority.

carly and dawn

It seems that primitive Viking technology is no match for long legs and a short skirt, thus Carly is the 2001 Halloween RussCon Costume Contest Winner and the Meta Party Devil for next time! So Carly will design the next Meta Party Game.


Evening's Soundtrack

Type O Negative, Slow, Deep and Hard
Type O Negative, The Origin of the Feces
Type O Negative, Bloody Kisses
Type O Negative, October Rust
Type O Negative, World Coming Down

Music by my favorite spooky industrial metal goth band.


Ratings

Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Tony (1 game played)   
 0.8095 Marty (4)
 0.4762 William (5)
 0.4444 RussW (6)
 0.2857 JP (4)
 0.2000 Jerrie (2)
 0.1176 PJ (3)
 0.1176 RussD (3)
 0.0000 Dan (3)
 0.0000 Carly (2)
 0.0000 ChrisH (4)
 0.0000 Mindy (3)
 0.0000 Brady (2)
-0.0714 MarkH (3)
-0.0769 JonathanC (3)
-0.1250 BobK (3)
-0.1667 Fred (4)
-0.1667 Jeffles (1)
-0.1905 Matt (6)
-0.2000 Clayton (3)
-0.4000 Becky (2)
-0.4000 Dawn (2)
-0.4762 BobR (4)
-0.5882 Daniel (3)
-0.6250 BradSmith (2)
-1.0000 Fina (1)
New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Tony (1)
 0.7143 Marty (4)
 0.4000 Jerrie (2)
 0.2778 RussW (6)
 0.2500 Dan (3)
 0.1250 BobK (3)
 0.0952 William (5)
 0.0833 Fred (4)
 0.0667 Clayton (3)
 0.0000 Carly (2)
 0.0000 ChrisH (4)
 0.0000 JP (4)
-0.0714 MarkH (3)
-0.0952 BobR (4)
-0.0952 Matt (6)
-0.1667 Jeffles (1)
-0.2000 Becky (2)
-0.2000 Dawn (2)
-0.2308 Mindy (3)
-0.2308 JonathanC (3)
-0.2353 PJ (3)
-0.2353 RussD (3)
-0.2353 Daniel (3)
-0.3333 Fina (1)
-0.3750 BradSmith (2)
-0.5000 Brady (2)
Tony only played one game, so pulled a Brady Maneuver and is ineligible for Devilhood. Thus Marty is the Devil! I am Vice-Devil! Carly and Chris both won the rare and coveted Extra Average Award.

Links

Dan's Halloween RussCon photo page.

My Halloween RussCon photo page.

Boardgames.about.com 8x8 game design contest.

What Robot are you? After taking this quiz, I learned that I am Data.

Image analogies is very cool computer graphics geekery where the computer generates new images from old using human-supplied analogies.

Guess the Dictator or Television Sit-Com Character will guess a character you're thinking of by asking you a series of yes/no questions. I confess I was damn surprised and impressed when it got my character in about 20 questions or so:

I win again! You are player number 25 to have chosen Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks. I knew you were Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks from the start, but I strung you along for a while to make it seem more sporting. I hope that one day you will overcome the powerful sense of humiliation that you now feel. Until then, good luck.

sing macabre songs
and we'll dance 'til dawn
on All Hallows Eve

Russ