November 21 2001 RussCon Report

turkey

News
Game Results
Meta Party Game Results
Evening's Soundtrack
Ratings
Links
19 of us played 17 games. Long-lost Harry visited from the boonies of Athens, Texas, where he carries a badge. Thanks Harry for giving me some unwanted CDs! (Uh, that is, unwanted by Harry, not by me.)
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News

Well, those darn clouds ruined viewing of the Leonid Meteors last weekend. JP & I were watching for them at 2am at ArmadilloCon. As far as I know, JP is the only one of our merry band who attended both MillenniumCon and ArmadilloCon.

Thanksgiving weekend I went to Houston, which included visits to the Art Car Museum (which was recently investigated by FBI and Secret Service agents, rather bizarrely and ludicrously!), the Menil Museum, and the Printing Museum.


Game Results

Stonehenge2Jeffles 1 Allen -1
Carcassonne3Clayton 2 JP 0 RussW -2
Downtown6Dan 5 Jeffles 2 Allen 2 Tim -1 Sarah -3 Jeremy -5
Metro6Daniel 5 Clayton 3 Matt 1 Jerrie -1 Whendy -3 BobR -5
StephensonsRocket4JP 3 Harry 1 Ben -1 RussW -3
Can'tStop4Ben 3 JP 1 Harry -2 Clayton -2
Tichu2( Matt Ben ) 1 ( Whendy Jerrie ) -1
GhostParty3Sarah 2 Jeffles 0 Tim -2
Tichu2( Ben William ) 1 ( JP BobK ) -1
Tichu2( BobR Dan ) 1 ( William Jerrie ) -1
Tichu2( Matt Whendy ) 1 ( Daniel Marty ) -1
Globbo2RussW 1 Allen -1
CosmicCoasters2RussW 1 JP -1
CosmicCoasters2JP 1 RussW -1
CosmicCoasters2JP 1 RussW -1
CosmicCoasters2RussW 1 JP -1
WhatsThatOnMyHead4Jeffles 3 Matt 1 Harry -2 Daniel -2

carcassonneIt was Thanksgiving last year that I discovered the joys of Carcassonne... hard to believe it's been a year now. Perhaps I will commemorate the event by ceasing to include the Carcassonne image with each RussCon Report...

We had a good close Stephensons Rocket game (final score distribution 43 44 50 53).

Globbo was designed by Allen, so it was with great anticipation and joy that I played him at his own game. My theory after playing with RussD a few weeks ago was that Globbo had the advantage. Turns out RussD and I were misinterpreting a rule (attacking a hex with multiple kids does not kill them all), but still Globbo seems to have an advantage, and I bested Allen at his own game, ultimately creating a 4-headed Globbo along the way.

JP & I played several games of Cosmic Coasters, which proved to be quite nifty. It's a 2 player strategy game played with drink coasters. The game comes with 4; each player uses 1 with the map side up and 1 with the rules side up... Each coaster has a special power, and we discovered that Rapid Transit vs Stinging Defense resulted in quick 10 minute games (as advertised) but Teleport Inhibitor vs Warning System took a very long time (at least 45 minutes, I'd estimate). We're not sure if our playing style just changed or if the latter powers just interacted to make a long game. Anyway, I want to play this game more. Thanks to Jeffles for donating it to RussCon!


Meta Party Game

RussD was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Game he emailed out:

Here's is this week's metagame, which is pretty simple despite the long text. Sadly, I will be on my way to Baton Rouge during the hours of RussCon, so I've tried to exercise more than my usual level of rules writing precision.

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday this week, our metagame will be one of giving thanks. Specifically, to the evening's losers. When playing a game, everyone who doesn't come in last is obviously thankful to the loser for preventing them from experiencing the ignominy of total defeat. So the loser is given a number of "thanks points" equal to the number of players who beat them, and the metagame winner is whoever has the most thanks points at the end of the evening. But anyone who tries to lose all his games is a obviously a turkey, so all of the other players in the game may call the loser a "turkey" and designate another player in the game as the one who receives the thanks points.

By now, the more analytical among us have already started formulating rules questions, so here are the detailed rules:

1. Only games involving more than two players or teams are counted.

2. At the end of the game, the player in last place receives thanks points.

3. Thanks points are equal to the number of players who beat you.

4. If more than one player ties for last place or a team loses, everyone in last place scores thanks points.

5. At the end of the game, all of the players who aren't eligible to score thanks points may declare one or more of the last place players a "turkey". A turkey does not score thanks points. If there are no remaining players scoring thanks points, the rest of the players select by voting or some other means a new player to receive the thanks points. That player then scores thanks points as described above, and the turkey gets nothing.

6. For extra holiday spirit, anyone who brings a Thanksgiving food item can score thanks points. In this case, everyone may cast a ballot with a number from -1 to 3. (We can't be too ungrateful even for bad food.) Whoever brought the food scores thanks points equal to the median ballot value. As host, RussW controls the balloting process and decides the cutoff time for casting ballots.

Finally, although not a rule, to keep logistics manageable, whoever records the game in the RussConNomicon (otherwise known as "The Book",) please record who got the thanks points and how many they got. Feel free to record any turkeys for posterity as well. Also, when you leave, look for a scoresheet on which to record your total thanks points to make life easier on the highly trained yet very overworked RussCon scoring technicians.

Enjoy RussCon, and please thank Russ for being our gracious and unfailing host every week!

As best I can tell from our disorganized records, here are the thanks points earned:
7: RussW
5: BobR Jeremy
3: Daniel JP
2: Allen Clayton Harry Jerrie Tim
1: BobK Marty Whendy William
0: Ben Dan Jeffles Matt
So it just goes to show no one appreciates me more than I do. Or I just come in last a lot. Or something. Thus I am again the Meta Devil.

Evening's Soundtrack

Tori Amos, Crucify
The Flaming Lips, 1984-1990
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin, BBC Sessions
Encomium, A Tribute To Led Zeppelin

All these CDs have a version of one of my favorite Led Zep songs, "Thank You".


Ratings

Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Dan (2 games played)     
 0.5455 Jeffles (4)
 0.5000 Ben (4)
 0.4000 Matt (4)
 0.3000 Clayton (3)
 0.2308 JP (8)
 0.2222 Daniel (3)
 0.0000 William (2)
 0.0000 Allen (3)
-0.1429 Sarah (2)
-0.3333 Harry (3)
-0.4000 RussW (7)
-0.4286 Whendy (3)
-0.4286 Tim (2)
-0.4286 Jerrie (3)
-0.6667 BobR (2)
-1.0000 BobK (1)
-1.0000 Jeremy (1)
-1.0000 Marty (1)
New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Dan (2)
 0.5000 Ben (4)
 0.3333 Daniel (3)
 0.1818 Jeffles (4)
 0.1429 Sarah (2)
 0.0000 Matt (4)
 0.0000 Clayton (3)
 0.0000 JP (8)
 0.0000 William (2)
 0.0000 BobR (2)
-0.1000 RussW (7)
-0.1429 Whendy (3)
-0.2000 Jeremy (1)
-0.2857 Tim (2)
-0.3333 Harry (3)
-0.4286 Allen (3)
-0.4286 Jerrie (3)
-1.0000 BobK (1)
-1.0000 Marty (1)
Dan is the Devil! Ben and Jeffles are Co-Vice-Devils! William wins the Extra Average Award. Marty and BobK pulled the rare and dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver.

Links

Meat Juice!

Houston Press article about the FBI & Secret Service visit to the Art Car Museum.

Dan's MillenniumCon Report.


thank you

Russ