December 4 2002 RussCon Report

News

Thanks to the Meta Game there was more food than average... Yum! Thanks Zack for bringing a huge pot of tasty vegetarian lentil/bean soup (and I've been enjoying the leftovers...!) JimG brought a tasty cheese pizza. William brought almond chocolate cake. MarkH brought cookies, and MarkY brought raisins and funky Asian black sesame seed crackers.

The Willow Band was fun. Not as polished or gelled as Clandestine, and the fiddle seemed to need more volume. Clandestine fans might be amused that EJ was the talkative charismatic one of this new trio. And the cute girl played fiddle while the weathered middle aged guy played guitar: cognitive dissonance. Anyway, I enjoyed it. Seeing the final performances of Clandestine, it somehow seemed pleasing to also see the first performances of EJ's new band. Whendy didn't enjoy it as much as I did.

Let me know if you are interested in RussCon gaming on Wednesday December 25; I am deciding whether or not there will be RussCon As Usual on Christmas, and could probably be easily talked into it if there is interest.

Game Results

Cathedral	2	RussW 1 Dudley -1
Tichu	2	( MarkH Steve ) 1 ( Ben Zack ) -1
PuertoRico	5	Daniel 4 JP 2 Dudley 0 Meng -2 RussW -4
AufHellerUndPfennig	3	William 2 JimG 0 Whendy -2
WhatsThatOnMyHead	4	Zack 2 Ben 2 MarkH -1 MarkY -3
CarcassonneHunters	4	RussD 3 Clayton 1 Fina -1 Allen -3
TooManyCooks	3	JP 2 Meng 0 Daniel -2
Tichu	2	( JimG Marty ) 1 ( Whendy William ) -1
StephensonsRocket	3	Steve 2 RussW 0 Dudley -2
Tichu	2	( Ben Zack ) 1 ( MarkH MarkY ) -1
Cribbage	2	William 1 MarkY -1
CarcassonneHunters	4	Whendy 3 Clayton 1 JP -1 Daniel -3
Bluff	6	RussW 5 MarkY 3 Daniel 1 Zack -1 William -3 JP -5

A few weeks without Puerto Rico practice, and I lose all my mad skillz. That new-fangled Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers has been distracting me! So I played Puerto Rico (badly) and other good old games like Cathedral and Stephensons Rocket and Bluff.

Meta Game

JP was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Game JP mailed out:

This meta game is to give thanks for Peace and Love and Good Happiness Stuff. Err, not really. Actually, it's just loosely themed around thanksgiving dinner.

Gain 2 meta points when:
A) You bring a Thanksgiving related food.
(I'll be very generous in judging what fits this category.)

Gain 1 meta point when:
B) You eat some Thanksgiving related food.
C) You play a game at the Adult Table. (in the dining room)

Lose 1 meta point when:
D) You play a game at the Kid's Table. (in the breakfast nook)
   (It's just too embarrassing to sit at the kid's table.)
E) You fail to say "Thank You" when earning a point from rule B or C.
   (The "Thank You" need not be addressed to anyone in particular.)
   (You may say it at any time while eating/playing.)

Note that playing on the floor doesn't earn or lose you points. Only animals eat Thanksgiving Dinner on the floor, and they don't embarrass easily. Besides, sitting on the floor is punishment enough.

Record points in The Book.

Whendy inquired:

So on the food one can bring for Meta points, must it be edible? Or still be edible, to be more clear? I'm thinking some leftover turkey in my refrigerator might be green & moldy by Wed night...

JP clarified:

In order for a person to get meta points for bringing food, someone must eat some of that food and not get sick.

Dan exulted:

Cool! One of the few games where vomiting can be used for competitive advantage!

So anyway, JP snuck away without computing the winner. The bastard. I give Zack a moral victory in any case for going to the trouble of making his tasty and nutritious home-made stew, which I ended up eating 3 bowls of that night. But anyway, JP stuck me with the task of computing the Meta Devil. People who earned 2 points for bringing Thansgiving food: Zack, JimG, William, MarkH, MarkY. People who ate food and recorded it: RussW (5), JP (5), Dudley (4), Daniel (4), Whendy (2). Then there are the table points. In the end, I think these are the scores (of people who earned points for anything):

JP 8
Daniel 7
RussW 7
Dudley 6
Whendy 3
Meng 2
JimG 2
William 1
Zack -1
MarkH -1
MarkY -1
Steve -1
Ben -3

So JP is again the Meta Devil, and will design and score next week's Meta Game!

Reminder of the new incentive to compete in the Meta Game: The Meta Devil gets full table rights, just like a regular Devil from now on, so they could stake out the dining table or the kitchen table. Of course Vice-Devils continue to get secondary dibs on the tables if no higher-ranking Devil or Meta Devil takes a table.

Ratings

New Multiplicative Rank Ratings:    
 1.7918 6.0000 Steve (2)
 1.3863 4.0000 RussD (1)
 0.8755 2.4000 RussW (4)
 0.8109 2.2500 Clayton (2)
 0.6931 2.0000 Ben (3)
 0.6931 2.0000 Marty (1)
 0.6931 2.0000 JimG (2)
 0.4055 1.5000 Zack (4)
 0.1823 1.2000 William (4)
-0.4055 0.6667 JP (4)
-0.4055 0.6667 Whendy (3)
-0.4055 0.6667 Fina (1)
-0.4055 0.6667 MarkH (3)
-0.5878 0.5556 Daniel (4)
-0.6931 0.5000 Meng (2)
-1.3863 0.2500 Allen (1)
-1.7918 0.1667 Dudley (3)
-1.8563 0.1563 MarkY (4)

New Multiplicative Win Ratings:
 1.8563 6.4000 RussW won 2 of 4
 1.7918 6.0000 Steve won 2 of 2
 1.3863 4.0000 RussD won 1 of 1
 0.9163 2.5000 William won 2 of 4
 0.7340 2.0833 Daniel won 1 of 4
 0.6931 2.0000 Ben won 2 of 3
 0.6931 2.0000 Marty won 1 of 1
 0.5108 1.6667 Zack won 2 of 4
 0.4055 1.5000 JP won 1 of 4
 0.2877 1.3333 JimG won 1 of 2
 0.2877 1.3333 Whendy won 1 of 3
-0.2877 0.7500 Fina won 0 of 1
-0.2877 0.7500 Allen won 0 of 1
-0.5754 0.5625 Clayton won 0 of 2
-0.6286 0.5333 Meng won 0 of 2
-0.6931 0.5000 MarkH won 1 of 3
-1.3218 0.2667 Dudley won 0 of 3
-2.2618 0.1042 MarkY won 0 of 4

Steve and I are Co-Devils! RussD is Vice-Devil. Clayton, Ben, and William are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils. MarkY is the Generous Angel.

December 4 2002 RussCon Report

News

Game Results

Meta Game

Evening's Soundtrack

Ratings

Links