July 16 2003 RussCon Report

News

Marty, a RussCon dude from the beginning as well as a friend I gamed with long before RussCon existed, is moving to Houston now, but this was probably not really his last RussCon as he expects to be visiting Austin during mid-weeks and coming to future RussCons. I certainly hope so, and in any case he left several boxes of his games. :) Good luck Marty!

Several strange stresses are in my life lately. I'm exploring Buddhism. I recently read Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha which I recommend.

Game Results

WebOfPower	5	Marty 4 JP 2 BobR 0 RussW -2 BradS -4
Carcassonne	3	Clayton 2 Matt 0 MarkY -2
Cathedral	2	RussW 1 BradS -1
Tichu	2	( JimG Ben ) 1 ( MarkH MarkG ) -1
HedgehogsInAHurry	4	Ben 3 JimG -1 MarkH -1 MarkY -1
Carcassonne	3	BradS 2 Clayton 0 RussW -2
Rumis	4	BradS 3 MarkH 1 RussW -1 Clayton -3
TooManyCooks	4	MarkG 3 JimG 0 MarkY 0 Ben -3
Rumis	3	BradS 2 MarkH 0 RussW -2
Rumis	3	BradS 2 RussW 0 RussD -2
Rumis	2	RussW 1 RussD -1
Tightrope	4	JimG 3 MarkY 1 MarkG -1 Ben -3
LaCitta	3	William 2 Crash 0 Matt -2
Cathedral	2	RussW 1 RussD -1
Guillotine	3	Justin 2 RussW 0 Crash -2
HighBohn	5	JeffF 3 JP 3 MattL 0 Marty -2 BobR -4
Amun-Re	4	MattL 3 JeffF 1 JP -1 Justin -3
Bluff	6	Justin 5 Crash 3 RussW 1 Matt -1 JP -3 William -5

Rumis is an elegant clever new game which MarkH brought. It's an abstract strategy game one could describe as Tetris meets Blokus (which MarkH also introduced to RussCon). I didn't do very well at it, but I liked it and want to play more. If you like Blokus you should check out Rumis. You're trying to get your pieces placed on the board, and they must be contiguous (along sides, rather than corners as in Blokus), but they're 3-dimensional chunks of cubes rather than 2-dimensional chunks of squares. Also it works well with 2-4 players, unlike Blokus which I think is really only best with 4.

Speaking of placement games, Cathedral is getting played quite a bit lately, and I recommend it as a good abstract strategy game that's a good 2-person filler game.

Ratings

Rank Ratings:      
 2.3795 BradS
 1.7918 JimG
 1.5041 Justin
 1.3863 MattL
 1.3218 JeffF
 0.9163 Marty
 0.2877 MarkG
 0.2877 JP
-0.1823 Crash
-0.2877 Clayton
-0.5754 MarkH
-0.6931 Ben
-0.6931 William
-0.9287 RussW
-0.9808 MarkY
-1.3863 Matt
-1.6094 BobR
-2.4849 RussD

Win Ratings:
 3.7658 BradS won 4 of 6
 2.6027 Justin won 2 of 3
 1.5041 JimG won 2 of 4
 1.5041 Ben won 2 of 4
 1.0986 Marty won 1 of 2
 0.9163 William won 1 of 2
 0.8755 MattL won 1 of 2
 0.6286 JeffF won 1 of 2
 0.4055 MarkG won 1 of 3
 0.4055 Clayton won 1 of 3
 0.2231 JP won 1 of 4
-0.2356 RussW won 3 of 10
-0.7340 BobR won 0 of 2
-0.9933 Crash won 0 of 3
-0.9933 Matt won 0 of 3
-1.2685 MarkY won 0 of 4
-1.6740 MarkH won 0 of 4
-1.7918 RussD won 0 of 3

BradS is the Devil! Justin and JimG are Co-Vice-Devils. Ben, Marty, and MattL are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils. RussD is the Generous Angel. I win the Dedicated Award.

If you are confused how the ratings work, you could peruse the FAQ.

Meta Game

SarahM was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Game she mailed out:

The theme is the number three.

Play any game that has three words in its title (not including any subtitle), score 3x3 meta-points; add 3 MPs if you win said game. ;

Play a game with the number three any where in the title or game company's name, score 13 MPs; add 3 MPs if you win said game.

Play a game that can only be played as a three player game, score 3+3 MPs; add 3 MPs if you win said game. ;

The person or persons that comes in third place on any game played, score 3 meta-points.

Wear any article of clothing with the number three (Roman Numerals or binary count), 3 MPs/every three appearing. Or wear exactly three articles of a piece of clothing (i.e. three shirts) and get 3 MPs/total per type of clothing. ;

We played no games that can only be played 3-player. Offhand I can only think of one such game (Greg Costikyan's Web and Starship, which is more of a lengthy complex wargame than a RussCon style game). JP thinks he remembers some Douglas Hofstadter game that was 3-player also.

I was surprised more games with 3-word titles weren't played, however, since they are common. As it happens, only 3 were played (Web Of Power and Call My Bluff and Too Many Cooks).

By my reckoning, here are the game-related meta points earned:

WebOfPower (3 words): 9 to Marty JP BobR RussW BradS + 3 to Marty (winner) BobR (3rd)
Carcassonne: 3 to MarkY (3rd)
HedgehogsInAHurry: 3 to MarkH (3rd)
Carcassonne: 3 to RussW (3rd)
TooManyCooks (3 words): 9 to MarkG JimG MarkY Ben + 3 to MarkG (winner)
Rumis: 3 to RussW (3rd)
Rumis: 3 to RussW (3rd)
Rumis: 3 to RussD (3rd)
Tightrope: 3 to MarkG (3rd)
LaCitta: 3 to Matt (3rd)
Guillotine: 3 to Crash (3rd)
HighBonn: 3 to MattL (3rd)
Amun-Re: 3 to JP (3rd)
CallMyBluff (the official name): 9 to Justin Crash RussW Matt JP William + 3 to Justin (winner) RussW (3rd)

Additionally MarkG wore various triples of clothing and had threes on them, for 18 meta points; BradS has a three for 3 meta points.

(Update, I previously overlooked TooManyCooks as a 3-word title.) So I believe I earned the second most (9+3+3+3+9+3=30), thanks to playing two 3-word games as well as lots of 3rd place finishes, and MarkG got the most (9+3+3+18=33). So MarkG is the Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game.

Links

LA Weekly article about a Korean go club

Matthew Barney versus Donkey Kong explores the Cremaster films (currently showing at the Dobie) and their relation to old video games...

InPassing.org has overheard snippets, as does a cow-orker's much smaller site TomatoFuneral.com

Corsair ergonomic keyboard for pirates

Origami Boulder Company

GameSpot's review of Real Life

Hulk doll's monster willy

ACM Queue's Conversation with Jim Gray has some interesting (if you're a computer geek) thoughts about the increasingly large mass storage of computers

Broadcaster Pat Robertson calls for retirement of justices (and judging from his photo, he's also got bad constipation)