December
2012
By Douglas Kent 911
Irene Drive, Mesquite, TX 75149
Email: diplomacyworld@yahoo.com or dougray30@yahoo.com
On the web at http://www.whiningkentpigs.com
– or go directly to the Diplomacy section at http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/. Also be sure to visit the official Diplomacy
World website which can be found at http://www.diplomacyworld.net.
All Eternal
Sunshine readers are encouraged to join the free
Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/
to stay up-to-date on any subzine news or errata. We also have our own Eternal Sunshine Twitter
feed at http://www.twitter.com/EternalSunshDip,
and a Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=112223650909
Check out my new Internet radio station, “Music You
Should Know,” at www.live365.com/stations/musicyoushouldknow
Quote Of The Month – “You want to empty your home, you want to empty
your life, of Clementine.” (Howard in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”)
Welcome to Eternal
Sunshine, the only Diplomacy zine that dares to publish Paul Milewski and Jack McHugh in the same issue…the
matter/anti-matter danger is beyond belief, but I’m willing to risk the
annihilation of the known universe for your reading pleasure. Or maybe I am just crazy. Or both. You figure it out.
I’m running behind this month, mainly a result of the Thanksgiving
holiday and a long Saturday night out I treated Heather to. I decided to take her to a nice restaurant
and then a burlesque show being held in the penthouse of one of the best hotels
in Dallas.
I thought Heather would enjoy it, but I couldn’t be certain. Fortunately, she had a great time, and we’re
planning on attending another show sometimes in the next few months. It was nice to give Heather a reason to
really dress up and look absolutely delicious.
She’s ALWAYS beautiful and sexy and gorgeous but Saturday she was simply
stunning. And so were the performers:
beautiful and quite talented. I’m told
burlesque is making a real comeback so check your local area and consider going
to a show.
Thanksgiving was rather nice.
First I had the pleasure of watching the Cowboys lose, which is always a
big plus. Then I cooked a turkey and
stuffing, and Heather and I were able to quietly enjoy our dinner with just our
household family: the two of us, Toby, Sanka, and Kayza. Obviously the
cats and the dog were treated to a big share of the bird. No matter, there was plenty for us. As usual, we were as stuffed as the turkey!
In zine news, we almost started the latest Diplomacy opening, the
Richard Walkerdine Memorial Game, but one player
dropped early in the month and one at the last minute. So there is still a single spot
available. First come first served!
I was also happy to get four Acquire players so quickly. That game starts this issue. Hopefully I won’t screw up the GMing too badly.
Also the new game of Kendo Nagasaki begins this issue, and there’s no
reason you can’t join in now. It doesn’t
hurt you in the slightest to miss a round here and there as long as you study
the guesses and the clues. Check out the
letter column for some terrific hints in the letters there…a number of players
from our just-completed game wrote about what they guessed and how they came to
those conclusions.
I guess that’s about it for this month. NOTE THE DEADLINE! In general, Eternal Sunshine has its final
deadline on the last Tuesday of the month.
The only exception is when that is also the last DAY of the month. Therefore, ES deadlines fall this time on
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Which means….don’t wait until the last minute to send in
orders if you are going to be doing family stuff over the Christmas holiday! You’ll forget, despite my reminder
emails, and fiond a big NMR next to your name (and a
steep decline in your ESI stock value to boot).
That’s it for this month, see you around
the New Year!
Playlist:
Retrospective – Buffalo Springfield; Message in a Box – The Police; Lionheart Love – Shannon Wurst;
Beat Crazy – Joe Jackson.
Last month, we gave
you these hypothetical questions or situations: Three more from Andy Lischett. #1. While helping you move your mother's belongings to a new
home a friend of yours discovers an old camera and a World War II tank periscope
which your mother threw in a dumpster while cleaning. Although both items have
been at your mother's house for over fifty years, you consider them yours
because you rescued them from the trash 30-some years ago and stashed them in
your room. Neither the camera nor the periscope are
especially valuable, but they are "neat." Who do they belong to? #2. After an
emotionally rough week you are running errands on a Saturday morning. You leave
your bank to head to Piggly Wiggly for a loaf of rye
bread and - unexpectedly - as you switch on your car's radio Beethoven's 9th
Symphony begins (or Mozart, or Pink Floyd or Barry Manilow
or Lady Gaga or whatever other crap you happen to adore). You love Beethoven's
9th Symphony. Soul music. You are basking in the
beautiful music as you pull into a parking space at the grocery store but
suddenly realize that if you turn off the engine the music will stop. Even if
you turn the key for the brief time it takes to stop the engine and turn the
radio back on, the moment will be gone and the spell broken. But you ALSO
realize that premium gasoline for your supercharged Duesenberg
Model SJ costs $4.65 per gulp AND that the ozone hole is creeping up on Buenos
Aires. What do you do? #3. One winter Sunday you and your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend
take your nieces and nephews sledding at a public park. There are perhaps 100
to 200 people at the hill. After a few runs down the hill you spot a scarf half
buried in the snow being run over by tubes and sleds and saucers. You like
scarves. They are dashing, and keep your neck warm, and if you wrap one around
the lower half of your face you can rob banks. You watch the scarf for a while
and nobody claims it and nobody appears to be looking for it, so you dodge
screaming kids trying to knock you over and you retrieve the scarf and dust it
off. It is the world's most beautiful
scarf. It is the softest and prettiest scarf you've ever seen. It is mauve and
puce and other warm, pretty colors with funny names. It's not like the disgusting,
scratchy, gray and bile thing from K-Mart that you are wearing. You show the
scarf to your w/g/h/b who agrees that it is the world's most beautiful scarf,
but as you wrap it around your neck she/he says that you can't keep it because
it is obviously an expensive scarf and someone will miss it. It was laying on the hill for at least an hour, you say, and no one
is looking for it. He/she says that you should hang it on the snow fence at the
top of the hill next to that single pink mitten, the cracked saucers and
deflated tubes and garbage cans overflowing hot chocolate cups, because the
owner may come back for it later. No, you wail in agony, it is the world's most
beautiful scarf and at 4:00 am a park worker will pluck it off the fence and
throw it and the mitten and broken saucers and inner tubes and sticky Styrofoam
cups in the back of a big green truck and soon after that it will be
incinerated. What do you do?
Melinda Holley - #1 - If my mother doesn't want them,
then they belong to me. Why is my friend
even thinking of claiming them? 'Course
if it was another member of my family, they'd stand there (items in hand) and
say "You want these?"
#2 - I get another car. Anything
that costs that much to run deserves to be traded in. However, at this particular moment, I turn
off the engine and decide my next stop is somewhere where I can get a decent walkman (or whatever they're called these days) and put my
music on that.
#3 - If I'm that in love with a scarf, I obviously need professional
help. Have I tried running my scarf
through a couple of rinse cycles with a double shot of fabric softener? If I love the scarf that much, I put it on
the fence and wait until the park worker is ready to toss it away and then
claim it. If somebody else claims it, I
ask them where they got it and go get one for myself.
Andy Lichett – These
were not hypothetical to me.
#1 - Although he did not say so, Ron - the friend - wanted to list
and sell the camera and periscope on ebay and split
the money. I instead gave the camera to Carol, who has a few other old cameras
displayed on a shelf. Ron later moved the periscope as if to claim it when the
move is done (it is an ongoing process) and I can't protest since he did pull
it from the garbage.
#2 - I listened through to the end, not caring a whit for Buenos
Aires.
#3 - Twenty years later I'm still grieving the loss of the scarf.
Against my wife Carolyn's wishes I took the scarf home, saying that if
Riverside (where the park is) had a Lost & Found I'd take it there after
work the next day. I then drove the nieces and nephews home and against MY
wishes Carolyn went back to the park and left the scarf on the snow fence,
figuring that turning it in the next evening would be too late. I returned
home, she told me what she'd done, and I went back to the park - now closed -
and the scarf and mitten and garbage were all gone. Forever.
Epilogue: Carolyn felt so bad
that the next day she bought me a $55 scarf which wasn’t nearly as nice as the
presumed-incinerated scarf. Then I returned it because we couldn't afford it
and I felt bad for making Carolyn feel bad.
The
moral of the story? Let your sister-in-law take her own stinking kids sledding.
Richard
Weiss - #1 - Belong to the friend who found them. I had fifty years to ask my Mother for
them. I wouldn’t know they were dumped
except he found them. Tell the story to
the friend, laugh, say I hope he enjoys them and maybe someday one of his kids
will want them after he puts them in the Goodwill Box.
#2 - The moment is already broken. Been a long time since I
was at either a Piggly Wiggly or a JitneyJungle.
Probably the excitement of being back down home would get me jumping out
of the car and ask, “Y’all hear that sublime music?”
#3 - Keep wearing it. If no one notices and
approaches to claim, wear the scarf home.
I’ve been told the Torah covers such incidents. The owner has some responsibility in this
case.
Tom Howell - #1 - My
friend.
#2 - I turn the key to the "accessories" position, which
kills the engine, but leaves the radio playing.
I rewired that switch ages ago, just for this very situation...
#3 - Hang it on the fence as requested. Then, I come back at 3:55, just as the park
worker drives his big green truck into the parking lot, and: A) if it's gone,
hope the rightful owner claimed it, and not some scum bag thief; or B) rescue
it from the fence just in time to save it from the park worker, and etc.
Rick Desper - #1 - If my
mother has thrown something in the trash, it doesn't belong to her any more.
#2 - An idling car doesn't burn that much gas.
#3 - Huh?
Andy York - #1 - Why would I have "my"
things at my parents’ house (unless I loaned them something - such as a book).
When I moved out permanently (i.e., got my own place rather than renting a room
in someone else's house), I moved out everything. Well, except the baby grand
piano (mine from my parent's divorce). That was left basically in my father's
control, with him consulting with me if it was to be disposed of (I guess
"right of first dibs"). It no longer exists, so there's no reason to
expect anything of "mine" to be at either parent's house. If, for
some reason, I left something behind for 30 years - it's theirs unless some
other arrangement was made ("when I get rid of XYZ, I'll give it to
you"). That being said, I don't know a parent who wouldn't let their child
take something freely that was to be disposed of otherwise.
#2 - Buy the CD so I can experience anytime I like in the future. But,
for now, turn off the engine unless it only has a few moments left.
#3 - Put it on the fence as I'd only wear a scarf in the most extreme
circumstances.
Dick Martin - #1 - they still belong to you
#2 - let the music play, but turn off the engine (my car doesn't
kill the radio when i turn off the engine. hah! and i regain the moment easily anyways)
#3 - yell "anybody lose a scarf?" and if nobody claims it,
keep it
Don Williams - #1 - In my world, the stuff is
yours. Enjoy! (And that would be considered “cool” stuff by
anyone!)
#2 - Leave it on, there’s more than one way to save the world;
donate something somewhere or clean up the park one afternoon, and remember
that beautiful moment while you do it.
#3 - Hang it on the fence.
It’s not yours. Everything else
is self-justification. Pin a note to it
for the owner to call you and let it go.
Per Westling - #1 - If I
still like them I would explain the situation to my friend, that they are
mine. If I have no interest in them I
would let the friend keep them.
#2 - Isn't it possible to turn of the engine but still have the radio
going? At least I think so in the cars I have been driving. And I don't think
this gas is causing the problems with the ozone hole...But if it would turn of
the music I would probably keep it running for a short while... if it is a very
special moment don't break the magic.
That said I am in favor of
using less gas, both due to peak oil, and due to global warming. The prize I do
not really care about. Think it is too cheap, even here where it cost double to
the US. I think it was a bit depressing
to see all those big cars in the US. You do really live as there was no
tomorrow.
Some years ago, a cold winter
morning, I passed a burger. Outside a man was sitting in his city jeep, with
the engine running, reading his newspaper. Had been studying him for minutes
and he kept on reading. So I knocked on
his window, he lowered it, and I reminded him that there are laws against
running your engine while standing still. Said something
about global warming. He answered something along the line "Good,
the weather is too cold" and pulled up his window...
#3 - I would go with my w/g/h/b line, that is hang
it hoping that the owner finds it.
Jack McHugh - #1 - You argue with your mom over
stuff??? why you'll get when she passes anyway....i'd ask mom if she wanted it...if she didn't want it...
#2 - If the music is that great I’ll buy it....I turn the engine off
#3 - I’d take it or I’d come back just before 4 pm and check the
fence...I really see this as some big moral dilemma.
Robin ap Cynan - #1 - I keep them, but tell my
mother I'm doing so.
#2 - I love
Beethoven- and I just love the engine note of the straight 8 in my supercharged
Duesenberg SJ- so both stay on to the end of the
Finale- especially if it is the 1950 Furtwangler performance from Bayreuth.
#3 - Finders Keepers. It's
MINE MINE MINE.
Marc Ellinger - #1 - This
sounds like the old baseball card scenario that happens to most guys. We spend our youth collecting baseball
cards, go off to school, get jobs, etc., and then mom throws them all in the
trash. In the current scenario, I would
say be magnanimous and let your friend keep the stuff..
(and then hold it over your mom’s head for pitching
your treasures.)
#2 - Really?!? There isn’t any question here,
you keep the car running for the end of the song, the next song after that and
the news that follows. You are paying
the freight and if you can afford it, let it run (particularly if you can afford a
Duisenberg!) As for Buenos Aires, when
the Chinese start cutting back on their ozone emissions, we can discuss the
piddling amount of pollution from the car.
#3 - I think
you stay around and see if anyone returns to claim the scarf. If no one claims it from you, then you keep
it. If someone comes up and asks, then
you happily surrender it.
Heather Taylor - #1 – They belong to you but
apparently you really don’t care that much about them or you would have gotten
them sometime in the last 30 years from your Mother’s house!
#2 – I would
listen for the rest of the song if it gave me that much peace and
tranquility-besides I have OCD and sometimes HAVE to listen until the song is
over-so sorry about the ozone layer and all but what can you expect from a
nut-job like me!
#3 – Leave it on the fence for the rightful owner to claim or
someone else that doesn’t have a conscience-if I really really
had to have it then I would tell my significant other that since they guilted me into leaving it (which obviously they didn’t-I
did it to myself) they have to find and buy me one just like it!
For Next Month (For the time being, I am usually selecting
questions from the game “A Question of Scruples” which was published in 1984 by
High Games Enterprises). Remember you can make
your answers as detailed as you wish.: #1 – On the street
you meet a couple who have recently arrived from South America and want to
remain in the country illegally. They
are destitute. Do you help them? #2 – A fellow nurse and close friend is
neglecting her work and endangering the patients. Do you speak to a supervisor, knowing it may
jeopardize your friend’s career?
The
Sessions
– Obviously, a movie where the main character spends over 20 hours a day in an
iron lung is not going to be an action-packed thriller. Instead, The Sessions is a moving and extremely
well-done film based on the true story of Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes) – a writer
and poet who contracted polio when he was six years old.
The main plot involves Mark’s decision that
he would like to experience sexual intercourse as he approaches 40 years old
(or, as he describes it, nearing his “use by” date). After discussing the situation with his
priest (William H. Macy is a funny and understated performance) he arranges to
meet with a sexual surrogate (Helen Hunt as Cheryl Cohen Green) for up to six
sessions, with the plan of learning about his sexuality and leading up to true
penetration.
The film is as much about the growing
relationship between Mark and Cheryl as it is working through Mark’s past and
his ability to allow himself to feel good.
There is plenty of witty dialogue (Mark uses humor as a defense
mechanism, and to put people at ease), but none of it is fake or forced. Cheryl’s character, through her actions,
reveals the vast differences between a sexual surrogate and a prostitute or call
girl.
Some of the moments are at the same time
quite sad and very beautiful, such as when Cheryl asks Mark if he’d like to
know what she feels like, proceeding to move his hand over her face, skin, and
breasts (Mark is almost completely motionless, but has full sense of touch….his
muscles simply do not work. He can,
however, achieve an erection).
Cheryl and Mark grow closer emotionally as
their sessions proceed, but the film does not follow a Hollywood pattern. Instead, as it is a true story, real life and
its complications are always there to keep things grounded.
I don’t know if this movie has received
enough distribution to generate any Oscar buzz, but it’s worthy of that
consideration. Check your local theaters
and see if before it disappears…and if you miss it, find the DVD.
Seen on DVD – Miller’s Crossing (B-, not the Coen Bros. best but still fun to watch). Bug
(C+, slow and not enough real character development; the curse of putting a
play to film). Eye 10 (B-, I love
the different way the Asian filmmaker looks at the universe, and how creepy
their ghosts are).
Kevin Wilson: Are you sure In game 1, when someone first guessed Cadiz (Rick Desper in round 6) you told them they had the right place
but not the right person. I didn't return
to Bangkok (my guess in round 1) once I was convinced it was Ben F. on the
assumption that you would have said something along the line of "you've
found where I am but not who I am" when I guessed Bangkok in the first round. Is the reason you didn't say something like
that because no one had identified the who yet and we
have to find the who first?
[[The
only reason I did not specify that you had found the location is that it was
the first turn. There’s no set rule, but
in general if you guess the correct location on the first turn I am unlikely to
tell you that you are 100% correct.]]
It
may not have mattered that much. I also
read my map wrong and went the wrong direction having concluded Vientiane was
the closest spot from the previous round.
Not that I may have guessed Bangkok anyway due to the point above. Obviously Tom didn't reach the same
conclusion (or didn’t notice/forgot about the Bangkok guess in the 1st round).
So,
Tom is 2 for 2 now having won this one and shared in the win with 4 of the rest
of us in the first. Nice going Tom.
[[…the big show off!]]
Melinda
Holley: Curious thing
regarding bonus question from last time - this actually happened a week ago.
Someone
friended me on Facebook. Apparently we
both went to high school together although for the life of me I don't remember
her or recognize her picture. Still, we
had over 400 people in our senior class so that's not all that surprising. (My younger sister remembered her name,
however.) Anyway, she would spend her
evenings posting all sorts of religious and political postings. I simply shrugged and skipped most of
them. However, they got more and
more...bigoted as time went on. Finally,
she posted one that I felt was offensive and questioned it. At the same time, she posted something
political that was taken out of context and I pointed that out. Then she came out with a really bigoted
statement and I called her hand to it.
Her friends (or I assume they're her friends) immediately supported it
and added to it, including statements that 'Anyone with any intelligence knows
that Islam is NOT a religion'. And, yes,
that's a direct quote.
So
I answered. Now, I realize you can't win
an argument with a bigot but you can make them look stupid. It seems that when you present facts, they
resort to questioning your intelligence.
Apparently, my quoting Abraham Lincoln merely proved that I pull up
second-and third-hand inferior internet sites.
And when you start using words with more than two syllables, they get
horribly offended.
Anyway,
this person who had originally friended me posted that I was full of hatred and
bitterness, obviously I didn't have anything to do with my life except start
arguments, and that I felt I was smarter than anyone else. Mind you, her posting was full of
misspellings and mis-usage of words (pray rather than
prey; their rather than they're).
Naturally, I felt the need to point this out to her and suggested she
invest in a dictionary and thesaurus and learn to use spell-check. (Hey, this is cheap entertainment!) I also told her how much fun I was having
reading the responses to my posts. She
took one more shot at me and said she would prey for
my soul (guess she didn't get the dictionary after all) and unfriended
me.
Gee,
I can't wait for the next high school reunion *snicker*!
Dane Maslen: Looking back at the analysis I did
for WITWIKN, I see that I had identified that series of answers as
corresponding to a small area that included Bangkok (good) but had labelled
them as an unacceptable series (bad). I
didn't keep notes of why I ruled any particular series of answers out, but
looking back at some other notes I can deduce where I went wrong.
In
an effort to interpret 'we lived in different eras' I had chosen, after
consulting Wikipedia, to break history down into Antiquity (pre
500AD), Early Middle Ages (500-1000AD), High Middle Ages (1000-1300AD), Late
Middle Ages (1300-1500AD), Early Modern (1500-1800AD) and Modern (1800AD
onwards). Then I went through and put
everyone into the appropriate era.
Copernicus (1473-1543) and da Vinci (1452-1519) I noted as straddling
eras, but for some reason I noted Michelangelo (1475-1564) as pure Early
Modern. So, irrespective of whether or
not your approach to 'era' had been the same as mine, I'd not correctly
followed my own rules and hence categorised Michelangelo and Franklin as being
in the same era.
Now
that I have equipped myself with a means to do the geographical analysis
without making my brain explode, I shall have to be more careful with my analysis
of your clues!
Tom
Howell:
Kevin, Thanks
for the accolades.
I
suspect that this game is as much a challenge to moderate as to play. Finding just the right balance in each
response must be difficult. Ambiguous
and inclusive - but not too broad - responses seem appropriate; on the other
hand, too explicit responses wouldn't be. What would be the effect on the game
if the first turn's clue was,
"you've found where I am but not who I am"? Twofold, I think. First: the location is narrowed down to as
many explicit cities as players in the game.
Second: This gives no information
on "Kendo"'s identity, effectively
shortening this aspect of the game to a nine turn game. The player on the correct city then must
choose between staying put and moving elsewhere. If he chooses the latter, he may give up
responses to his suggested names; although, he'd know who was closest and could
easily match responses to suggested names.
The trade-off would be that it would take the other players somewhat
longer to figure out the correct location.
If he chooses to stay in his first location, the other players will pile
up there all the sooner. The main
problem becomes: with multiple "closest" names to respond to, the
GM's task becomes a nightmare.
No,
I think that the players must assume that unless the GM's response indicates
that a particular guess is in the wrong location (and there are many subtle
ways to do this) that location is still a possibility. I learned this the hard
way in one of my early Kendo games. Several of us flailed around in the suburbs
until someone finally, and correctly, went back into the "center of town".
As
for this game: (or any Kendo game) I
think the key is figuring out who elicits the responses each turn. Dane, don't feel like the lone stranger
wasting eons on this silly game. One of
the things I've found helpful is to keep my analyses in forms that I can use in
subsequent turns.
In
turn one, I was fairly sure the clue pointed to Kevin Wilson's guess, so moved
that direction, but purposely stayed within the area of which my guess would
have been closest.
In
turn two, you, Kevin W., were the only (other) player who had "stayed
local", so I was then sure about your first guess being closest. However,
from the names suggested, apparently, so did most of the other players. Or, maybe not. Some of them appeared to have only been
responding to the clue without having tried to match it up with one of the
first guesses. The real competition
showed up within your "closest to" area. After comparing life dates of the five
distinct names to my assumption that the clue meant "not a lot more"
than a century earlier,
I
spotted Kevin Tighe's suggestion which fitted both
clues, assuming Rick was closest, and blatantly stole Benjamin from him. Thanks, Kevin (T)! I was sorry to see you drop out of the game
thereafter. At this point, I was pretty
sure the action was all in South East Asia.
But, then came...
Turn
three: in which I tried to whittle away
at the edges of the target area. As did you, Kevin. My
notes indicate that I took a look at Richard Walkerdine's
guesses in Europe, and considered the possibility that Indochina was not
correct. In the end, I narrowed the
possibilities down to Mr. Desper
and Mr. Weiss, and decided that for my current
purposes, it really didn't matter which was closest. Having seen no clue that indicated I should
change horses, I stayed with Benjamin.
Turn
four: My notes indicate only that I was
now sure that Phnom Penh had been the closest in round three. Which, of course, I knew
from having been closest in round four.
Now, I was sure who the four closest guesses were, and the area of
possibility was small enough that it only included one city of any real
size: Bangkok. It also included Ubon
Ratchathani, which Brendan has mentioned in _Damn the
Consequences_, and it was the only other city that I considered. Yes, Kevin, I was acutely aware of your first
turn guess. Perhaps Doug can dig out and
show us the e-mail I sent him about this right after ES69 came out. I eventually decided that Doug was most
likely only using major international cities.
Otherwise, the possibilities become rather unmanageable. My other main consideration was that if
Bangkok was correct, and I guessed Ubon Rat., that
we'd end up with another dog-pile in Bangkok in turn six. I hoped, that in going directly back to Bangkok, that I wouldn't find too many of my competitors
beside me on the airport tarmac. Also,
if I was wrong about Bangkok, whoever found
the correct town in
Thailand would probably share in a smaller 'draw'.
Turn
five: came with several surprises. The first was that no one else picked
Bangkok. The second, stronger surprise, was that only Richard Weiss was even close. I expected more guesses to be at least as
close as Kevin's Dien Bien Phu.
I'd
like to thank Doug for running Kendo.
I'd also like to thank everyone for playing, but especially Kevin
Wilson, Rick Desper, Richard Weiss, Andy Lischett, and Jim Burgess for keeping me on my toes.
Richard Weiss: I protesteth in vain. There are no rules and assumptions that the
GM would include in clue if a location was guessed that was correct and also if
the person was correct. Wrongo.
I liked Christian Huygens as the person with the
most areas of genius and thus Bangkok, in the first round. A number of others did as well, and a ring
went up. Michelangelo was a multiple
genius and of all locations possible, being in Christ Church, painting the
ceiling of the Chapel, was too compelling to resist. At this point I found an internet program
that had air miles between locations.
Southeast Asia and Borneo seemed most probable. Rick Desper
was probably the closest and therefore the person had to be born more than 100
years before Uncle Ho.
Round 3 I got the private clue, in Phnom Penh. Michelangelo was the wrong time period. There was still a sizeable amount of space
feasible. Ho Chi Minh City was close but
Hanoi was too far. For Round 4, with
Hillary visiting Myanmar and maybe Doug was a closet liberal and liked Nobel
Prize winners, imprisoned leaders and thought Aung
San Suu Kyi was sexy, I
picked Yangon. As did
others. I emailed the Boob,
congratulating him on being closest and having picked the right person. He told
me he wasn’t, but thought Rick had been closest once. Rick’s chewing musing
about a pun on the word subjects led me to think about Shakespeare. This time I went and bought a map. I spent hours trying to find a place in Borneo
that met all the criteria. Only in the
last few days did I read over the locations again and realize that Vientiane
was not Venice or Italy. Ah, Benjamin
Franklin, although named earlier, never in the closest city.
For the final round, Chang Mie was in the wrong
sector. Bangkok was the only large city
that made sense. I picked the famous
Monkey City of Thailand as the next closest.
Oh well. My pain was in
vain.
Doug, I had a great time and spent a bunch of time
on the game. That means it was
great. Thanks. I do hate to be at the whimsical mercy of a
GM without scruples and who like Hannah in the story, maybe likes cruelty.
[[Thanks to all of you for your Kendo
Nagasaki comments and strategy hints. I
really like this game, even though I never win!]]
The Eternal Sunshine Baseball Prediction Contest Results
Time once again for the annual Eternal Sunshine Baseball
Prediction Contest Results. The contest
was simple: you get one point for each correct division winner, and one point
for correctly selecting the wild card teams (one per league). Then you get two points for each team you
correctly choose as league champion (meaning they play in the World Series),
and three points for correctly picking the World Series winner.
Kevin Tighe is the big winner, crushing the competition by
getting both pennant winners and the World Champ! Kevin has already selected and received his
prize.
The
Twisting Tale
This is a rotating story, with
a different author every issue, and a chapter of 500 words. If you’d like to participate, please email me
and let me know, and I’ll let you know when your turn comes up. We need more particpants! Email me
at dougray30@yahoo.com if you’d like
to participate!
Chapter 16 –
“Complicated” by Kevin Tighe
Okay,
here I am at the porno waiting for my contact from inside the police department
to arrive. “A Hard Man is Good to Find” is showing on the screen. The theater smells of urine, the chairs are
threadbare with stuffing coming out of most seats, and the floor is sticky with
– no don't think about that. I don't see
how this theater can stay open. No one
is here and the title tells me that the film is made by some art school drop out. And when
did everyone go hairless. What is the
point of that?
I
hope the contact is alright with me changing the meeting to now. I needed a couple of days to recover from the
beating by Big Brother or whoever he was.
Plus I had to get rid of the good samaritin(?) who took care me.
Life sure can get complicated.
Where is this guy?
A
voice behind me says, “Cool, I enjoy seeing these Joe Thomber
films. That guy is so artsy. Glad you can finally make it. It's not like I've had to figure out a way to
keep the target in custody while you lick your wounds.”
“Hey,” I reply, “Does the
word concussion mean anything to you?
I've had to do impossible things just to stay alive and retrieve these
samples.”
His
voice stays behind me as he moves to my right side. “Sure, I heard about the girl's bike and the
bruisers in the truck. I know it can get
complicated, but your last two targets were just plain screw ups. The boss says . . .”
“The
hell they were. I got the samples. It's not my fault they didn't pan out . . .”
“Ahem. The boss says.” He takes a long sigh, “Hey,
you want to hear a story about Trashcan Man?”
“No.”
“Not
really a question. You see Trashcan Man
was this guy who was completely devoted to his boss. He would do anything and go anywhere for
him. He would say things like 'My life
for you.' Problem was he was a screw
up. No matter how hard he tried things
just didn't go very well for the people around him. His last final act to do the right thing
ended up killing him and his boss and whole bunch of other people. Now the boss had this right hand man named
Lloyd who did all his dirty work. But
the boss never told Lloyd about Trashcan Man and that's why everybody got all
blown up.”
The
contact sticks a syringe into the man's neck and slowly pushs
the poison into his vein. “Now you see
here Trashy, OUR boss does tell Lloyd about everybody. So Lloyd can take care of the screw ups before
things get out of hand. There I can see
you're relaxing already. You're a good
loyal man. The boss really does like
you, but like I said before, it's . . . well, you know. Now just stay there and someone will find you
at closing.”
He
fixes the head so it looks like he is sleeping and gives him a gentle tap on
the shoulder. “Thank you, Stephan King,
you tell some good stories.”
“Lloyd”
walks out of the theater and heads down toward the front doors. He sees a little girl smoking a cigarette by
the doors. “What the hell kind of place
is this”, he thinks, “She
can't be more than eight or nine, and her eyes look so cruel.” He shudders and moves outside.
The
girl with the cruel eyes snuffs out her smoke and follows him.
It's
about to get complicated.
Next up – Chapter 17 by Don Williams
LIFEBOAT!
A game of
survival, bad breath, and fish odor…
This is the simple game of Lifeboat. Everyone plays this, whether you participate
or not. Each turn everyone still alive
in the lifeboat may make a single vote to throw someone off the lifeboat, or a
single vote to remove one vote from yourself (a
defensive measure). The high vote getter
is thrown overboard, as well as any player getting 2 or more net votes (due to
the damage caused when Sanka was tossed overboard). In a tie, everyone with that score is thrown
over. Last one in the boat wins. I’ll probably give a prize, as usual. Press
is encouraged. Note that the votes
themselves are NOT revealed. I just
simply announce who is thrown overboard.
If you’re not listed as in the lifeboat right now but want to be, email
me and I will add you next issue. If you
are listed and don’t’ want to be…well, too bad.
There is no suicide in this game; you just can ignore it if you want
to.
Currently
in the lifeboat:
George Bush,
Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell. While there, they
see a red phone and ask
what the phone is for. The devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.
Putin asks to call Russia and talks for
5 minutes. When he is finished, the devil informs him that the cost is a
million dollars, so Putin writes him a check.
Next, Queen Elizabeth calls England and
talks for 30 minutes. When she is finished, the devil informs her that the cost
is 6 million dollars, so she writes him a check.
Finally, George Bush gets his turn and
talks for 4 hours.
When he is
finished the devil informs him that
the cost is $5.00.
When Putin hears this, he goes
ballistic and asks the devil why Bush got to call the USA so cheaply.
The devil
smiles and replies, "Since Obama took over, the country has gone to hell,
so it's a local call."
The
Letters of King George III
by Paul Milewski
I recently finished reading The Letters
of King George III, Bonamy Dobree,
editor, originally published in 1935.
There are many conclusions to be drawn.
I mention but a few. One of these
was the similarity of the systems in Britain at the time and in the United
States for the head of the Executive Branch (the King in the case of Britain)
to appoint his own cabinet ministers regardless of which parties, if any, held
the majority in the legislature.
Speaking of royal scandals arising from
questionable behavior of heirs to the throne, on August 28, 1781 George III
wrote to his Prime Minister Lord North [page 140]:
I am sorry to be obliged to open a subject to Lord North that
has long given me much pain, but I can rather do it on paper than in conversation; it is a subject of which I know
he is not ignorant. My eldest son got
last year into a very improper connection with an actress and woman of
indifferent character through the friendly assistance of Lord Malden; a
multitude of letters passed which she has threatened to publish unless he, in
short, bought them off her. He had made
her very foolish promises, which undoubtedly, by her conduct to him, she
entirely cancelled. I have thought it
right to authorize the getting them from her, and have employed Lieut. Col. Hotham, on whose discretion I could depend, to manage the
business. He has now brought it to a
conclusion, and has her consent to get these letters on her receiving £5,000,
undoubtedly an enormous sum; but I wish to get my son out of his shameful
scrape…
On February 1, 1801, George III wrote to
his Prime Minister at the time, William Pitt [page 242 et
seq.] to express his unwillingness to consent to emancipation of
Catholics:
I should not do justice to the warm impulse of my heart if I
entered on the subject most unpleasant to my mind without first expressing that
the cordial affection I have for Mr. Pitt, as well as high opinion of his
talents and integrity, greatly add to my uneasiness on this occasion; but a
sense of religious as well as political duty has made me, from the moment I
mounted the throne, consider the Oath that the wisdom of our forefathers has
enjoined the Kings of this realm to take at their Coronation, and enforced by
the obligation of instantly following it in the course of the ceremony with
taking the Sacrament, as so binding a religious obligation on me to maintain
the fundamental maxims on which our Constitution is placed, namely the Church
of England being the established one, and that those who hold employments in
the State must be members of it, and consequently obliged not only to take
oaths against Popery, but to receive the Holy Communion agreeably to the rites
of the Church of England.
This principle of duty must therefore prevent me from
discussing any proposition tending to destroy this groundwork of our happy
Constitution, and much more so that now mentioned by Mr. Pitt, which is no less
than the complete overthrow of the whole fabric.
Not until the The
Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 was passed by Parliament in 1829 were
members of the Catholic Church permitted to sit in the parliament at
Westminster. Prior to that, you had to
be a member of the Church of England.
Seven of the thirteen colonies had
state-run churches that discriminated against other religious groups. In the
Puritan and Anglican colonies, nonconformists were fined, banished, whipped,
and even imprisoned for practicing their religion in ways not authorized by the
established church. In one instance,
three Baptist preachers, Louis and Joseph Craig and Aaron Bledsoe, were brought
to trial for preaching. This was against the laws of Virginia and the charge
was disturbing the peace. The clerk was reading in a slow deliberate manner
these words from the indictment, "For preaching the gospel of the Son of
God." After the prosecuting
attorney had his say, Patrick Henry arose, stretched out his hand for the
document and addressed the court.
"May it please your worships, I think
I heard read by the prosecutor as I entered this house, the paper I now hold in
my hand. If I have rightly understood, the king's attorney of this colony has
framed an indictment for the purpose of arraigning and punishing by
imprisonment inoffensive persons before the bar of this court, for a crime of
great magnitude — as disturbers of the peace. May it please the court, what did
I hear read? Did I hear it distinctly, or was it a mistake of my own? ‘For preaching the gospel of the Son of God!’ Pausing, he
slowly waved the paper three times around his head, then, lifting up his hands
and eyes to heaven, with extraordinary and impressive energy, he exclaimed,
"Great God!"
Mr. Henry resumed. "May it please
your worships, when the yoke of oppression which has reached the wilderness of
America, and the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and civil power, is about
to be dissevered, liberty of conscience, is about to awake from her slumbering
and inquire into the reason of such charges as I find exhibited here today in
this indictment!
“If I am not deceived, according to the
contents of the paper I now hold in my hand, these men are accused of'
preaching the gospel of the Son of God. Great God!"
After a pause, he again waved the
indictment around his head.
"May it please your worships, from
the period when our fathers left the land of their nativity for settlement in
these American wilds for liberty — for civil and religious liberty — for
liberty of conscience to worship their Creator according to their conceptions
of Heaven's revealed will from that moment despotism was crushed; her fetters
of darkness were broken.
“But, may it please your Worships, permit me to inquire once more, for what are these
men about to be tried? This paper says 'for preaching the Gospel of the Son of
God.' Great God. For preaching the Savior to Adam's
fallen race."
After another pause, in tones of thunder he inquired, "What law have they
violated?" Then, for the third
time, in a slow, dignified manner, he lifted his eyes to heaven, and waved the
indictment around his head.
The first amendment assures us that
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof." It was framed in response
to the intolerance represented by George III’s phrase, “…the Church of England
being the established one…”
MAJOR MESSUP YM Correction
for October’s Kim Philby Report, 14 November 2012
Orders Due: 48 hours before Doug’s deadline.
Need to include:
Round 4 is messed-up.
We are back on Roll 2 for Round 4 (4:2).
I did not roll the dice again last month, so the same sequence showed
again. There is a new roll posted above.
Let me know what dice you want to keep and how many to toss. I have posted the dice you kept after Roll 1
(Round 4:1).
Round 5 Roll 2 (Round 5:2) were also the same dice as Roll
1, so there are new Round 5, Roll 2 dice.
I believe I have posted the dice you wanted kept after Round 5:1. Let me
know what dice you want to keep and how many to toss for Round 5:2.
Round 6, Roll 1 has five dice rolled, same as before the
correction. Let me know which of those
you wish to keep.
We will end up finishing Round 4 and Round 5 at the same
time. Eventually we will get back in
sequence when we have Round 6:3, Round 7:2; and Round 8:1.
Deadline remains two days before Doug’s Eternal Sunshine
deadline. Kevin has notified me he’s
gone and may be without internet. He did
provide Round 6:1 orders. If he does not meet the
deadline, I will delay reporting.
Yahtzee Game: Kim Philby
Round 3, How Scored
Players: Scored
Doug Kent 15
in the fives
Kevin Wilson 15
in the fives
Geoff Kemp 24
in Three of a Kind
Dane Maslen 25 in Full House
Round 4, Roll 2: 1,1,3
Players: Kept
Doug Kent 1,2,3,4
Kevin Wilson 1,2
Geoff Kemp 1,2,3,4
Dane Maslen 1,2,3,4
Round 5, Roll 2: 6,2,2
Players: Kept
Doug Kent
4,5,6
Kevin Wilson
6,6
Geoff Kemp
6,6
Dane Maslen 6,6
Round 6, Roll 1: 2,2,2,5,6
Players: Kept
Doug Kent
Kevin Wilson
Geoff Kemp
Dane Maslen
|
Upper
|
Doug Kent
|
Kevin Wilson
|
Geoff Kemp
|
Dane Maslen
|
|
Ace = 1
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
Twos = 2
|
|
|
|
|
|
Threes = 3
|
15 (Rd3)
|
15 (Rd3)
|
|
|
|
Fours = 4
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fives = 5
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sixes = 6
|
24
|
24
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bonus +35 if >63
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Upper
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lower
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 of a Kind
|
|
|
24 (Rd3)
|
|
|
4 of a Kind
|
|
|
28
|
28
|
|
Full House = 25
|
|
|
|
25 (Rd3)
|
|
Sm Straight =
30
|
|
30
|
|
30
|
|
Lg Straight =
40
|
|
|
40
|
|
|
YAHTZEE = 50
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chance
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yahtzee Bonus
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Lower
|
|
|
|
|
|
GRAND TOTAL
|
40
|
69
|
92
|
83
|
Please let me know if there are still major oopsies.
Major oopsies. Richard.
ACQUIRE
Player Aid Sheet
Goal:
To finish the game with more
cash than any other player.
Setup:
1. Set up the game tray according to
the picture on the overleaf of the rule booklet.
2. Put the game board in the center
of the table with the gray tiles face down near it.
3. Designate a “banker” and a “stock
broker” to handle distribution of stock certificates (if desired). The banker distributes $6,000 to each player:
• Four $1,000 notes
• Three $500 notes
• Five $100 notes
4. The banker keeps the rest of the
money in front of him in four piles.
5. To determine who goes first, each
player draws one of the face down gray tiles and
places it on the board. The player whose
tile is closest to “A-1” goes first.
• Note that if during this process
two tiles are adjacent to each other they are considered unincorporated until a
third tile is placed adjacent to them.
6. All players draw 6 tiles and keep
them face down in front of them.
Turn Summary:
1. Play a tile onto the game board
onto its matching space.
2. Buy stocks or any active
corporation. No more than three stock
individual certificates can be purchased in one turn.
3. Draw a new tile to replace the
tile that has been played.
Game Play:
1. Playing a tile – Depending on how
a tile is played, one of four things can happen:
• The tile is not adjacent to other
tiles and is “unincorporated”. (note that “adjacent”
always refers to orthogonal)
• The tile is adjacent to another
“unincorporated” tile and so forms a “corporation”.
• When a corporation is formed the
player selects an available building from the tray and places it on any one of
the corporation’s tiles.
• The player then gets one free
stock certificate for founding the corporation.
• The tile is adjacent to an
existing corporation, in which case the corporation grows in size by one tile
and its stock increases in value according to the stock value chart.
• A corporation that is 11 tiles or more in size is “safe” and cannot be merged with
(see below).
• A safe corporation can absorb a
smaller corporation through merger, but can never be absorbed itself.
• A tile cannot be placed in a
location that would cause two safe corporations to merge. Such a tile is discarded and redrawn from the
existing supply.
• The tile is placed adjacent to
two (or more) existing corporations. In
this case the two corporations merge:
• Count the number of tiles in each
corporation (do not include the merging tile in the count for either)
• The larger corporation always
absorbs the smaller corporation.
• If corporations are the same
size, the mergemaker determines which survives.
• Remove the building from the
smaller corporation and return it to the tray.
• All players reveal how many stock
certificates the hold in the now defunct corporation. The player with the most becomes the
“Majority Stockholder” while the player with the next most becomes the
“Minority Stockholder”.
• The Majority Stockholder receives
the bonus indicated by cross-referencing the number of tiles in the defunct
corporation and type of corporation (small, medium, large). The Minority stockholder receives the bonus
indicated in the next column to the right.
• If one player is both the sole
stockholder in a corporation, that player gets both bonuses.
• If there is a tie for Majority
Stockholder, add the majority and minority bonus and divide evenly between
those who are tied. The Minority
Stockholder gets nothing.
• If there is a tie for Minority
Stockholder, split the Minority Stockholder bonus indicated among those tied.
• Players must not decide what to
do with their defunct stock. They may
(starting with the mergemaker):
• Hold – The player can keep the
stock certificates from the defunct company anticipating that it will be
founded again.
• Sell – The player can sell their
stock certificates back to the bank for the market value of the corporation
directly before the merger.
• Trade – The player can trade
stock in for stock of the surviving company at a rate of 2 to 1.
• Note that a player can perform
any combination of the above with their remaining stock certificates.
• If a tile is placed that merges
more than one corporation, the larger one survives and the smaller ones become
defunct. The corporations are absorbed
one at a time from largest to smallest.
2. Buying Stock – A player can buy up
to three individual stock certificates from active corporations.
• Stock prices are determined as
follows:
• Find the name of the corporation
in which stock is being purchased
• Reference down that column to
find how many tiles in size the corporation currently is
• Cross-reference that to the stock
price column for the cost per certificate.
• There are only 25 certificates
for each corporation – once those certificates are gone, they can not be purchased (unless there is a merger and stock is
returned to the tray through trade)
3. Finish the turn by drawing one
tile from the supply to replace the tile that was just played. Each player should always have six tiles in
front of them.
4. Ending the Game – The games ends
when one player, during his or her turn, announces that either all active
corporations are safe OR that one corporation has 41 tiles or more. A player does not have to announce that the
game is over if they do not wish to.
After announcing that the game is over, that player may finish their
turn.
• Majority and Minority bonuses are
paid out in the surviving active corporations
• All stocks are sold back at their
market price
Winning the Game:
The player with the most cash wins.
ACQUIRE:
Reference Charts
Turn Order:
1. Place a Tile
2. Buy Stock (up to 3)
3. Draw a Tile
Mergers At a Glance:
1. Two orthogonally adjacent tiles
form a corporation.
2. Count tiles in each corporation,
not counting the merging tile.
3. The Smaller becomes defunct. Remove its building from the board.
4. Player with most stock in defunct
corporation gets Majority Stockholder Bonus.
5. Player with the next most gets the
Minority Stockholder bonus.
6. Players (starting with mergemaker) can then either hold,
sell or trade their remaining stock in the defunct corporation.
7. In multiple mergers, the largest
company survives, and the others are absorbed from largest to smallest.
8. A corporation 11 or more tiles in
size is “safe” and can never be absorbed, but can absorb smaller corporations.
Game End:
The game ends when a player declares that either:
1. All the active corporations are
safe, or
2. One of the active corporations has
reached 41 tiles or more in size.
Play By Mail Changes:
1. Each turn consists of a round plus one extra tile placement for the first
player. This way the first player
rotates.
2. Conditional orders are usually necessary for each turn.
3. If a player does not have conditional orders for a merger he holds shares
in, the default is his shares are sold.
4. If a chain is started but no chain is selected, the GM will select the
least expensive chain.
5. The GM reserves the right to do whatever the heck he wants.
|
Number of Hotels
in Chain on Board
|
Stock
Buying/Selling
Price Per Block
|
Majority Holder's
Bonus
|
|
Luxor
Tower
|
American
Festival
Worldwide
|
Continental
Imperial
|
First
|
Second
|
|
2
|
-
|
-
|
200
|
2,000
|
1,000
|
|
3
|
2
|
-
|
300
|
3,000
|
1,500
|
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
400
|
4,000
|
2,000
|
|
5
|
4
|
3
|
500
|
5,000
|
2,500
|
|
6-10
|
5
|
4
|
600
|
6,000
|
3,000
|
|
11-20
|
6-10
|
5
|
700
|
7,000
|
3,500
|
|
21-30
|
11-20
|
6-10
|
800
|
8,000
|
4,000
|
|
31-40
|
21-30
|
11-20
|
900
|
9,000
|
4,500
|
|
41+
|
31-40
|
21-30
|
1,000
|
10,000
|
5,000
|
|
-
|
41+
|
31-40
|
1,100
|
11,000
|
5,500
|
|
-
|
-
|
41+
|
1,200
|
12,000
|
6,000
|
BALKAN WARS VI WESTERN
PACIFIC 2012Bpb08
WINTER 1909/SPRING 1910
REMEMBER KOSOVO!!
ALBANIA (Burgess): Build
three armies. A Valona S A
Tirana-Skopje, A Tirana-Skopje, A Montenegro-Nish
BULGARIA (Kemp): Build A
Thrace. A Sofia H, F Varna- Dubruja, A Plovdiv
S A Sofia, A Thrace H
GREECE (McHugh): Build F Ath. F Athens-Aegean Sea, A
Salonika-Thrace, F Sparta-Cyclades
RUMANIA (Whining Kent Pig):
F Constanta S A Bucharest- Dubruja, A Bucharest-Dubruja, A Galati-Bucharest
SERBIA (Murphy): A
Belgrade-Montenegro, A Nish S A Belgrade-Montenegro, A Skopje S A
Nish
TURKEY (Whyte): A
Constantinople-Arda, F Izmir- Constantinople, F
Smyrna-Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Emails:
Jim Burgess,
jfburgess@gmail.com
Geoff Kemp,
ggeoff510@aol.com
Jack McHugh,
jwmchughjr@gmail.com
Doug Kent,
dougray30@yahoo.com
Phil Murphy,
philip.murphy@skynet.ie
Brendan Whyte,
obiwonfive@hotmail.com
Underlined moves do not
succeed. The Albanian A Montenegro is dislodged and
may retreat to Hercegovina, Mt. Jara,
Tirana, or off the board. The Serbian A Skopje is
dislodged and may retreat to Macedonia or off the board.
The Fall
1910 Deadline is 3 p.m. Dec. 21.
My contact info: Brad
Wilson, 713 Tasker St. #1, Philadephia,
PA 19148; 215-668-5522 voice/text;
bwdolphin146@yahoo.com or fullfathomfive675@gmail.com.
My apologies about the
delay, which came about from a mortifying reason I was too embarrassed to
mention -- I, the designer of the variant, couldn't find my map and rules.
After MUCH searching they turned up in a box otherwise devoted to recipes. Ah
well.
As a GM I like to
participate in the press. My dateline is PHILADELPHIA and that is the ONLY
dateline off-limits to you as players. Otherwise fire away!!!
PRESS
Crown Prince Philip of
Serbia -- The Serbian government invites all friendly states to make contact
with our foreign diplomatic representatives in their respective capitals to
discuss peaceful co-existence and matters of mutual benefit. Our diplomats look
forward to hearing from your ambassadors.
PHILADELPHIA: Except maybe
Albania's, eh?
Diplomacy (Black Press – Permanent Opening
in ES):
Signed up: Steve Cooley, Don Williams, Jim Burgess, Jeff O’Donnell, Hank Alme, Marc Ellinger. Needs one more. Will be named in honor of Richard Walkerdine.
Gunboat Diplomacy (Black Press): Two signed up, need
five more.
Everybody Plays Diplomacy (Black Press): An ongoing
everyone-plays variant. Rules are in ES
#47. Join in at any time!
Yahtzee!: Richard Weiss is
running a game of Yahtzee! in his subzine Zero Sum, returning from a decades
(?) long absence. Join in now!
By Popular Demand: Join anytime.
Eternal Sunshine Movie Photo Quiz: Join anytime.
Lifeboat: Everybody plays, whether you
actually do anything or not.
Where in the World is Kendo Nagasaki?:
Rules in ES #58. Join anytime!
Standby List:
HELP! I need standby players! – Current
standby list: Richard Weiss, Jim Burgess (Dip only), Hank Alme, Martin
Burgdorf, Paul Milewski (Dip only), Brad Wilson, Kevin Tighe (Dip only), Chris
Babcock, Don Williams, Marc Ellinger, and whoever I beg into it in an emergency.
I’m going to continue to go through my
files and seeing what other variants I can offer, until I find one that gets
enough interest to fill. When I offer a
variant I’ll give it an issue or two, but if nobody signs up I’ll drop the
opening and replace it. If somebody
wants to guest-GM a game of anything, just get in touch. If you have specific game requests please let
me know.
Gamestart – Acquire – “Winterbloom”
Players: Tom Howell, Hank Alme,
Per Westling, and Martin Burgdorf.
This game requires some thinking ahead and
conditional orders. But I’ve played it
before in a zine, and if I can do it you can probably do it in your sleep!
Based on the random tile draw, the first
turn order will be: Martin Burgdorf, Tom Howell, Hank
Alme, Per Westling, and
Martin Burgdorf.
Remember, whoever starts the turn also ends the turn. So next time the order will be the same, but
starting and ending with Tom Howell.
Feel free to ask any questions. Press is encouraged of course. Your tiles will be emailed to you
privately. Good luck!
Deadline
for Turn 1 is December 24th at 7pm my time.
Kremlin
– “Four Stitches”
Players:
Jack McHugh - Communist Party Against Reform (CRAP), Rick Desper - The
Rusty Curtain (RUST), Jim Burgess - Chylak's Galicians (CG), Mark Firth - Trixci (TRI), and Geoff
Kemp - Refuseniks (REF).
Turn 1-B
Starting
Politburo:
Party Chief: Empty.
KGB: Y, Ulan Putschnik, 53, (Strong), CRAP 10
Foreign: Empty
Defense: L, Igor Doberman, 65, CRAP 9
Ideology: U, Wassily
Protzky, 57, (Weak)
Industry: Q, Tigran
Zenjarplan, 60
Economy: W, Leonid Bungaloff,
54
Sport: C, Alexej Goferbrok, 74, +
Candidates: D 73, E 72, H 69, S 58, T 57
People: B 75, F 71, G 70, I 68, J 67, K 66,
N 63, O 62, P 61, R 59, V 55, X 53, Z 50.
Siberia: A 82 +
Phase
5 – Funeral Commission
– CRAP declares 6 on U, 2 on C, 4 on Q, and 3 on W. RUST declares 4 on W and 5 on Q. With U, CRAP nominates L as Party Chief. Y, L, and U vote Yes. CRAP now declares 6 on Q, and Q votes Yes. W votes No, and
C votes Yes.
The nomination passes, and L is now Party Chief.
Phase
6 – Replacement Phase
– Using L, CRAP promotes Q to Foreign Policy and C to Defense. L ages 2 to 67. By age, D is promoted to Industry, E to
Sport, and B and F are promoted to Candidate.
Phase
7 – Rehabilitation Phase – No activity.
Phase
8 – Parade Phase
– L waves.
Ending
Politburo:
Party Chief: L, Igor Doberman, 67, CRAP 9
KGB: Y, Ulan Putschnik, 53, (Strong), CRAP 10
Foreign: Q, Tigran
Zenjarplan, 60, (Strong) CRAP 6, RUST 5
Defense: C, Alexej
Goferbrok, 74, +, (Strong) CRAP 2
Ideology: U, Wassily
Protzky, 57, (Weak), CRAP 6
Industry: D, Petr
Niewitko, 73 (Strong)
Economy: W, Leonid Bungaloff,
54, RUST 4, CRAP 3
Sport: E, Karel Krakemheds 72
Candidates:, B 75,
F 71, H 69, S 58, T 57
People: G 70, I 68, J 67, K 66, N 63, O 62,
P 61, R 59, V 55, X 53, Z 50.
Siberia: A 82 +
Waves: CRAP has 1.
PRESS
None. You guys suck.
Deadline
for Turn 2 through Health Phase is December 24th at 7pm my time.
Diplomacy
“Dulcinea” 2008C, W 20
Seasons
separated by player request
Austria (Martin Burgdorf – martin_burgdorf “of” hotmail.com):
Retreat A Denmark - Kiel..
Build
A Vienna..Has A
Belgium, F Brest, A Budapest, A Gascony, A Holland, A Kiel, A Marseilles, A
Moscow, A Norway,
A
Picardy, A Ruhr, A Sweden, A Trieste, A Ukraine, F
Venice, A Vienna, A Warsaw.
England (Kevin Tighe – tigheman “of” yahoo.com):
Build F Edinburgh..Has A Denmark, F
Edinburgh,
F
Helgoland Bight, A London.
Turkey (Jim Burgess
– jfburgess “of” gmail.com): Disbands A Moscow..Has
F Adriatic Sea, F Albania,
F
Apulia, F Black Sea, A Bulgaria, F English Channel, F Gulf of Lyon, F Mid-Atlantic
Ocean, F North Sea,
F
Piedmont, A Rumania, A Serbia, A Sevastopol.
S 21 Deadline is December 25th at 7:00am my time
PRESS
Eng - Aus: So close, so very close. Hah, hah, hah.
“Dulcinea” Diplomacy Bourse
Billy Ray Valentine: Probably in his limousine.
Duke of York: Sells 360 Crowns. Buys 551 Pounds.
Smaug the Dragon: Nothing.
Rothschild: Sells 500 Pounds
and 500 Piastres.
Buys 829 Crowns.
Baron Wuffet: No activity.
Wooden Nickel
Enterprises:
Sells 500 Piastres.
Buys 501 Crowns.
VAIONT Enterprises: Sells 500 Crowns. Buys 499 Piastres.
Insider Trading LLC: Hiding.
Bourse Master: Stands pat.
PRESS
(DUKE OF
YORK to the PIKERS): Now I'm all set, rid of the
accursed Crowns. I sell the last ones in
memory of Lance Anderson's participation in the game, unfortunately his
successor is not worthy of holding his currency. Onward.
Next Bourse Deadline is December 24th at 7:00pm my time
Graustark Diplomacy Game 2006A,
F 19
Austria (Don
Williams – dwilliams “of” fontana.org): A Budapest Supports A Vienna, F Trieste
Hold,
A
Vienna Supports A Budapest.
England (Fred Wiedemeyer – wiedem “of” telus.net): F Aegean Sea – Constantinople, F Belgium Hold,
F Bulgaria(sc) Supports F Aegean Sea
– Constantinople, F Eastern Mediterranean – Smyrna,
F
Mid-Atlantic Ocean Hold, A Moscow Supports A Ukraine –
Sevastopol, F Naples Hold, F Norway Hold,
A
Paris Hold, A Picardy Supports F Belgium, F Spain(sc) Hold, A St Petersburg Hold, A Yorkshire Hold.
France (Hank Alme – almehj “of” alumni.rice.edu): No units.
Germany
(Harley Jordan – harleyj “of” alum.mit.edu):
A Armenia - Ankara (*Fails*),
A
Burgundy Supports A Marseilles, F Denmark Hold, A
Greece Hold, F Holland Hold,
A
Marseilles Supports A Burgundy, A Rome Supports A
Venice, A Rumania Supports A Ukraine – Sevastopol,
A
Serbia Supports F Bulgaria(sc),
A Silesia – Warsaw, F Sweden Hold,
A
Syria Supports F Eastern Mediterranean – Smyrna, A Ukraine – Sevastopol, A
Venice Supports A Rome.
Russia (John Biehl – jerbil “of” shaw.ca): A Ankara Hold, F Black Sea Supports A
Ankara,
F
Constantinople Hold (*Disbanded*).
W 19/S 20 Deadline is December 25th at 7:00am my time
Supply
Center Chart
Austria:
Budapest, Trieste,
Vienna=3, Even
England:
Belgium, Brest, Bulgaria,
Constantinople, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Moscow,
Naples, Norway, Paris, Smyrna, Spain, St Petersburg, Tunis=15,
Build 2
France:
Portugal=1, Plays 1 Short
Germany:
Berlin, Denmark, Greece,
Holland, Kiel, Marseilles, Munich, Rome, Rumania, Serbia,
Sevastopol, Sweden, Venice, Warsaw=14, Even
Russia:
Ankara=1, Remove 1
PRESS:
The Imperial
Bedchamber, Vienna (Oct 31, 1919): The Ghost of all Backstabbers Past
appeared before the German Bootlicker and intoned, "Where is thy stabbishness? Where is they
perfidiousness? Where is thy
past Duckliness? Why wallow in the black stickishness of the Harleyan
Ooze? Booo!"
DON – JIM: Hey, given what
the Europe looks like the Anglo/Even-More-Anglo flag now waving above every
nation on the continent, pre-W’01 sovreign borders look
pretty damn good to me about now. Judge not, lest ye be eliminated.
Diplomacy
“Dublin Boys” 2010D, F 11
Austria (Paul
Milewski – paul.milewski “of” hotmail.com): A Bohemia Supports A Munich,
A
Finland Supports A St Petersburg – Norway, A Livonia - St Petersburg
(*Bounce*),
A
Moscow Supports A Livonia - St Petersburg, A Piedmont - Marseilles
(*Fails*), A Prussia Supports A Berlin,
A
Silesia Supports A Berlin, A St Petersburg - Norway (*Fails*), A Tyrolia Supports A Munich,
A
Venice - Piedmont (*Fails*).
England (Kevin Tighe – tigheman “of” yahoo.com):
F Barents Sea - St Petersburg(nc) (*Bounce*),
F Helgoland
Bight Supports F Kiel, F Kiel Hold, F Mid-Atlantic Ocean Supports F Western
Mediterranean,
F
North Africa - Tunis (*Fails*), F Norway Supports F Barents Sea - St Petersburg(nc),
F
Sweden Supports F Norway, F Western Mediterranean Supports F Spain(sc) - Gulf of Lyon (*Void*).
France (Jeff
O’Donnell – unclestaush “of” yahoo.com): A Burgundy - Munich
(*Fails*),
A
Gascony Supports A Marseilles, A Marseilles Hold, A Ruhr
Supports A Burgundy – Munich,
F Spain(sc) Supports A Marseilles.
Germany
(Melinda Holley – genea5613 “of” aol.com): A Berlin
Supports A Munich,
A
Munich Supports A Berlin (*Cut*).
Turkey (Brad Wilson
- bwdolphin146 “of”yahoo.com): F Aegean
Sea Supports F Ionian Sea, A Apulia Hold,
F
Gulf of Lyon Supports A Piedmont – Marseilles, F
Ionian Sea Supports A Tunis,
F
Rome Supports F Tyrrhenian Sea, A Tunis Hold, F Tuscany
Supports F Gulf of Lyon,
F Tyrrhenian Sea Supports F Gulf of Lyon.
All Draw Proposals Fail
W 11/S 12 Deadline is December 25th at 7:00am my time
Supply Center Chart
Austria:
Budapest, Moscow, Rumania,
Serbia, Sevastopol, St Petersburg, Trieste, Venice,
Vienna, Warsaw=10, Even
England:
Denmark, Edinburgh, Holland,
Kiel, Liverpool, London, Norway, Sweden=8, Even
France:
Belgium, Brest, Marseilles,
Paris, Portugal, Spain=6, Build 1
Germany:
Berlin, Munich=2, Even
Turkey:
Ankara, Bulgaria,
Constantinople, Greece, Naples, Rome, Smyrna, Tunis=8, Even
PRESS
Con-Lon: Oooh! Oooh! I like 3-ways too!!!
Ankara: Allman
Brothers again.
Eng-Ger:
World DipCon sounded like way too much fun. Wish I
could have made it that weekend.
Everybody
Plays Diplomacy “Dandelion” 2010Cvj08, W 11/S 12
Player Names or Handles will be shown for any power
they commanded each season.
Remember, in some seasons if we get enough players you
may not wind up commanding any nations.
All press submitted will be printed.
Austria (Brad Wilson): Remove A Vienna, A Trieste.. F
Adriatic Sea - Ionian Sea (*Fails*),
A
Albania - Greece (*Fails*), A Berlin – Kiel, A Bohemia – Galicia, A Budapest
Supports A Serbia – Rumania,
A
Greece - Bulgaria (*Fails*), F Ionian Sea - Aegean Sea (*Fails*), A
Munich – Burgundy, A North Africa Hold,
A
Piedmont – Marseilles, A Serbia – Rumania, F Syria Supports F Ionian Sea -
Aegean Sea (*Fails*),
F
Tuscany - Gulf of Lyon, A Tyrolia
- Munich.
England (Tom Howell): Retreat F St Petersburg(nc) - Barents Sea..Remove F
Barents Sea..
F
English Channel Convoys A London – Brest, F Finland Supports
A Norway - St Petersburg, A London – Brest,
F
Mid-Atlantic Ocean - Spain(nc),
F North Atlantic Ocean - Mid-Atlantic Ocean (*Bounce*),
A
Norway - St Petersburg, F Norwegian Sea – Norway, A Picardy Supports A London -
Brest (*Cut*).
France (Rick Desper): Retreat A Picardy - Paris..
A Paris - Picardy (*Fails*),
F
Portugal - Mid-Atlantic Ocean (*Bounce*).
Russia (John Biehl): Build A Warsaw.. F
Black Sea Supports A Rumania – Bulgaria, A Moscow –
Sevastopol,
A
Rumania – Bulgaria, A St Petersburg – Moscow, A Warsaw
- Silesia.
Turkey (John Biehl): Build F Ankara.. F Ankara – Constantinople, F Constantinople - Aegean Sea,
F Smyrna Supports F Constantinople - Aegean Sea.
F 12 Deadline is December 25th at 7:00am my time
PRESS
All to
George:
What game are you watching?
Austria
Must Not Win: McCrumble is 'crumbling' my
strategy.
Vienna: Ding-dong.
Diplomacy
- “Lighthouse” – 2011A – W 06
Seasons
separated by player request
Austria (Don
Williams – dwilliams “of” fontana.org): Has A
Trieste.
England (Paul Milewski – paul.milewski “of”
hotmail.com):
Has A
Liverpool, F Wales.
France (Kevin Wilson
– ckevinw “of” gmail.com): Build F Brest, A Marseilles.. Has A Belgium, F Brest,
A
Burgundy, F English Channel, F Gulf of Lyon, A Kiel, A Marseilles, F Rome, F
Western Mediterranean.
Germany
(Brad Wilson – bwdolphin146 “of” yahoo.com):
Remove A Munich.. Has
F Helgoland Bight,
A
Holland, F North Sea.
Italy (Melinda
Holley – genea5613 “of” aol.com): Retreat
F Greece - Albania.. Remove F Albania, F Tunis..
Has A
Budapest, A Rumania, A Tyrolia, A Venice, A Vienna.
Russia (Fred Wiedemeyer – wiedem “of” telus.net):
Build A Sevastopol, F St Petersburg(nc).. Has A Apulia,
F
Black Sea, A Bulgaria, F Denmark, A Galicia, F Greece,
F Ionian Sea, F London, A Norway, A Prussia, A Serbia,
A
Sevastopol, A Silesia, F St Petersburg(nc).
Now Proposed – Concession to Russia. Please vote, NVR=No.
S 07 Deadline is December 25th at
7:00am my time
PRESS
BERLIN: Outta
here baby.
Diplomacy
“Jerusalem” 2012A, W 02/S 03
Austria (Melinda
Holley – genea5613 “of” aol.com): A Galicia
Supports A Vienna – Budapest,
F
Greece Hold (*Dislodged*, retreat to Albania or OTB), A Serbia Supports
F Greece (*Cut*),
A
Trieste Supports A Serbia, A Vienna - Budapest.
England (John Biehl – jerbil “of” shaw.ca): Build F Liverpool.. F Liverpool - Irish
Sea,
F London
Supports F English Channel, F Norway – Sweden, F Norwegian Sea - Barents Sea,
F
Skagerrak – Denmark, A Sweden - Finland.
France (Jack McHugh – jwmchughjr “of” gmail.com): F Brest Hold, A Gascony Hold, A Marseilles – Spain,
F
Mid-Atlantic Ocean - Irish Sea (*Fails*), A Picardy - Paris.
Germany
(Don Williams – dwilliams
“of” fontana.org): A Belgium Supports A Burgundy,
A
Burgundy Supports A Picardy – Paris, F English Channel
Supports F Liverpool - Irish Sea,
A
Munich Supports A Burgundy, A Silesia - Warsaw (*Fails*).
Italy (Mark Firth - mark.firth “of” bluefingroup.co.uk): A Apulia - Greece
(*Fails*),
F
Ionian Sea Convoys A Apulia – Greece, F Tyrrhenian Sea
Supports F Ionian Sea, A Venice Hold.
Russia (Richard
Weiss – richardweiss “of” higherquality.com): Disband A Galicia, F Sweden..Build
A Moscow..A St Petersburg Supports French Fleet North Atlantic Ocean to the English
Chanel #5,
F Sevastopol
laughs and spits at the GoobyGobbler, A Ukraine – Warsaw,
A Moscow Supports A Ukraine - Warsaw.
Turkey (Geoff Kemp -
ggeoff510 “of” aol.com): Build A
Constantinople..
F
Aegean Sea Supports A Bulgaria – Greece, F Black Sea - Rumania
(*Fails*), A Bulgaria – Greece,
A
Constantinople – Bulgaria, A Rumania - Serbia (*Fails*).
F 03 Deadline is December 25th at 7:00am my time
PRESS
Russian Jews for Christ to Professor The Boob
who will not be silenced: When caught between the viperous jaws of
liars and cheats on one side and the mightily self-righteous on the other, do I
squeeze out dots to never admit to anything bad Duck Bills?
Russian Southern Baptists for Mormons to Mother Nature: As a substitute, I realize you
are always right – “BUTTER.”
RomneyRyanRussians to A/E/G/T: You are
the 47% damnit! Why is the GM giving you the gifts of his
adjudications? What are you paying him?
Duck, you yourself told me that my recipe to influence the GM should include
“heaping tablespoons of abuse.”
RomneyRyanRussians to Ima Honker, Sir: You lied. You do not deserve to be the Lord of
State. Your ships were not carrying
gawkers wanting to party in celebration of the opening of Salaman Rush Dies in St. Petersburg.
You were terrorists. You
lied. You stole this game from me. My supercomputers said I was going to
win. You were supposed to follow the
same pattern as 08. I’m taking my pieces
and the board home.
By
Popular Demand
Credit goes to Ryk
Downes, I believe, for inventing this.
The goal is to pick something that fits the category and will be the
"most popular" answer. You score points based on the number of
entries that match yours. For example, if the category is "Cats" and
the responses were 7 for Persian, 3 for Calico and 1 for Siamese, everyone who
said Persian would get 7 points, Calico 3 and the lone Siamese would score 1
point. The cumulative total over 10 rounds will determine the overall winner.
Anyone may enter at any point, starting with an equivalent point total of the
lowest cumulative score from the previous round. If a person misses a round,
they'll receive the minimum score from the round added to their cumulative
total. In each round you may specify one of your answers as your Joker answer. Your
score for this answer will be doubled.
In other words, if you apply your Joker to category 3 on a given turn,
and 4 other people give the same answer as you, you get 10 points instead of
5. Players who fail to submit a Joker
for any specific turn will have their Joker automatically applied to the first
category. And, if you want to submit some commentary with your answers, feel
free to. The game will consist of 10
rounds. A prize will be awarded to the
winner. Research is permitted!
Note – This is the regular By Popular
Demand, not the By ALMOST popular demand we did last time.
Round 8 Categories
