ANY BCIT FOLKS OUT THERE? Specifically if you work as IT staff at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. I have a Very Signficant Favour to ask, and I'll make it worth your while. Drop me a line at the address on the bottom left!
NAGGING ABOUT NAGGING: Remember, the deadline for the current UF contest is at the end of this month! Send in your panel-by-panel description of a nag strip (those charming, captivating strips you see occasionally during a sponsorship drive inviting you to Send Money) with the subject:"UF Contest Entry: Nag Strip" And please -- only one entry per person! If you send in more than one I'll only consider the first one you submit. The winner will see his/her submission in the next sponsorship drive, and will get some kind of spiffy prize. Send your entry to my usual email addie. Good luck!
ENGINES OF RECRIMINATION: A bright fellow by the name of Charlie C. at the University of Dayton sent in a four-player version of the Engines of Discrimination cardgame that was featured as a Sunday cartoon a couple weeks ago. I tried it and the new rules look solid, so I present them below for your edification. Nicely done, Mr. C!
Engines Of Discrimination -- "The Google vs. Yahoo Cage Match Game" DRAFT 1 24 Feb 2004
A Card Game by UserFriendly's J.D. "Illiad" Frazer
Four-player version developed from the two-player version by Charlie Cotterman
OBJECTIVE: to successfully collect the most search requests
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 (or 4 -- see Special Instructions)
BITS NEEDED: three (3) standard decks of playing cards
SETUP: Shuffle each deck individually. Give each player one deck (these are the player decks) and place the third deck (the search deck) between the two players. (Special Instructions -- SI -- for four players -- the search deck lies in the center of the table. The four players are in two teams, sitting across from each other as in standard card-playing fashion. The player deck is given to one player on each team.)
One team plays as Google. The other team plays as Yahoo.
At the start, the Google player gets 5 cards from his Player deck. The Yahoo player is dealt 4 cards from his Player deck. Keep the cards secret. (SI - respective team members get the number of cards from their Player decks as stated above.)
Each card from 2 to 10 is worth face value. Aces count as ones. Face cards have no value but represent images. Suits are ignored.
The Yahoo player goes first. (SI - the Yahoo players cut for low card from the Search deck. Low card goes first.)
TURN SEQUENCE:
- Draw a card from the Search deck and turn it face up in the middle of the table. This represents a Search Request by Joe User.
- Both players choose one card from their hand that is as close to matching the value of the Search Request as possible. These Search Results are placed face up next to the Search Request. Both cards are revealed at the same time. The player who played the card that comes closest to the Search Request wins the search and puts the card to the side. These cards are totalled (number of cards) at the end of the game to determine the winner. (SI -- All four players choose a card from their hand that is as close as possible to matching the value of the Search Request. These Search Results are all revealed at the same time. The player who played the card that comes closest to the Search Request wins the search and puts the card to the side, to be totalled (number of cards) at the end of the Set. All other players' cards are returned to their hands.)
- If both players match the Search Request, or both players play cards that are the same difference from the Search Request, the player who won the last Search Request wins this one as well. If this happens on the first play of the game, the players' cards are returned to their hands and a new Search Request is drawn. This procedure continues until a Search Request is won.
EXAMPLE: The Search Request is a 5. Google plays a 3 and Yahoo plays a 7. As both played cards are 2 points away from the Search Request, this is a tie. If Yahoo won the last Search Request, it would win this one as well. (SI - in a 4 player game, all MATCHES to the Search Request are put aside for scoring (2, 3, or all 4 players). Otherwise, only the card closest in value to the Search Request is put aside for scoring, first one played per team if both players have the same value card. All other players' cards are returned to their hands. Ties are handled for scoring as stated for the Two Player game and as above.)
- If the Search Request is a face card (K, Q, or J), only an exact match will win the hand. If no one can make an exact match, the search request is simply discarded.
- Draw enough cards to fill your hand back up to full (4 cards for Yahoo, 5 cards for Google). (SI - the player who won the Search Request has the option of filling his hand from either the team player deck or blindly from their partner's hand. The partner then refills their hand from the team player deck. If a team member draws the last card from their team deck and is short the required number of cards, play continues as if they had the correct number of cards.)
- Play passes to the left. The game ends when any of the three decks are used up. (SI - the Search Request deck is reshuffled and reused when it is used up. The Set is won when one team has used its Player deck and one of the team members is out of cards. The Game is won best two sets out of three.)
Special For Yahoo: In a tie for a Search Request, if you can play another card that is only one point further away from the search request, you win the tie. EXAMPLE: the Search Request is a 9. Google plays a 10 and Yahoo plays an 8 for a tie. If Yahoo is able to play a 7 right now, Yahoo wins the tie. (SI - if EITHER player on Yahoo can or did play the 7, Yahoo wins the tie.)
Special for Google: Once during the game, you can declare an IPO at the beginning of your turn. You instantly fill your hand with an additional 4 cards. You do not draw new cards until your hand has dropped below your usual 5 cards. (SI - either Google player can declare an IPO for their team once per Set, 3x per Game.)
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