Jump to content

acroPHILIA #4 - Sign up and rules discussion


yomi

Recommended Posts

Welcome everyone to the sign up thread of the fourth game of acrophilia :)



The basic principle of the game is for the players first to create a clue pointing at an ASOIF character they are assigned fitting to one of two given acronyms and then to guess at which characters the clues of the other players hint. The characters of one round all fit a theme to simplify the guessing.



A registry of the theme used so far and an overview over the first three games including links to the game threads can be found here.



Concerning the start of the fourth game



Unless anyone tells me he or she is very unhappy with this, I'll hand out the first characters on Thursday, the 4th december, and the deadline for the first clues will be on Thursday, the 11th december.




Details



Length: The game will consist of five rounds.



Number of players: I would be happy about many players. I think I can handle as many as 30.



Game play:


  • Step 1: The host will send a character via PM to every player and post two random acronyms (without Q, X and Z) in the game thread.
  • Step 2: The players will create clues pointing to the character they are assigned fitting to one of the two given acronyms1. The clues should point mostly to the intended character (sadly, both the host and the author are bad judges for that as they both know which character the clue is supposed to hint at). It is not allowed to use character names or nicknames, and I intend to be strict about this. I will allow the use of places names and family sigils, though.
  • Step 3: The host will post the list of clues in the game thread.
  • Step 4: The players will try to figure out the characters and the theme. They may send PMs with up to three preliminary character yes-no-questions (e.g. "Is the answer to clue #5 Davos Seaworth?" or "Is the character of clue #8 a Westerosi?") and one preliminary theme guess (e.g. "Is the theme 'Youngest siblings'?") to the host. The host will answer these PMs with "Yes" or "No" or "Phrase your question more clearly" or, in the case of the theme, "Close". The preliminary guesses may be asked one by one and the players may choose the order.
  • Step 5: The players send their final lists with all character guesses, the theme guess and a vote for their favourite clue (other than their own) via PM to the host. For the sake of the host the players mark their own clue by striking through it or writing something like "mine" behind it.
  • Step 6: The host will work hard and calculate how much points each player gets. She will then post the results in the game thread.

To speed things up, the next round usually starts already after Step 3 of the current round, so except at the beginning of round 1 and the end of round 5 there is always a list of clues to answer AND a new clue to create.



Points:


  • Author points: The author of a clue will get 1 point for each player who anwered his or her clue correctly.
  • Guessing points: The player gets 3 points for each clue he or she guessed correctly.
  • Theme points: The player gets 4 points if he or she guesses the theme correctly and 2 points if the theme guess is close enough to the intended theme.
  • Voting points: The player gets 3 points for handing in a favourite clue vote.
  • Favourite clue points: The author of a clue will get 1 point for each favourite clue vote his or her clue received.


Miscellaneous:


  • Time: You'll usually have just under a week to produce a clue and again this time to hand in your final guesses. I'll likely give more time during the holidays. You'll be informed about the deadlines when I hand out the acronyms or post the clue lists. If you know you'll have problems finishing within the deadline, please tell so ahead of time. It's no big deal to grant another day or two or three, but it's annoying when everyone has to wait for a clue and if you're late with your answers I might just go ahead and calculate the scores anyway.
  • Theme clues: I'm considering to create clues for the theme and hide them among the character clues. If I'll do so, I'll announce it when posting the lists.
  • Experimental oddities: Depending on how many players there'll be, I'll hand out every character (except one if the number of players is odd) twice in round 2. Depending on the number of players and on how well round 2 is received I might do so again in round 4. I might consider to change the guessing points (it should be easier to guess a character if he or she is presented by two clues and thus worth less points) or the theme points (with less characters representing the theme it might be more difficult to guess and thus worth more points)



Please feel free to comment on the rules and let me know where you see possible improvements.



Good luck and much fun to all players!







1All first and only the first letters count. "Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" would thus be LABSEOR and not LASER, and "A torroidal LHC apparatus" would be ATLA and not ATLAS.






List of signed up players:


  1. Dolorous Gabe
  2. Woofless
  3. lil' ghost
  4. a shadow
  5. redriver
  6. Emmit
  7. Lady Blizzardborn
  8. Castellan
  9. Q the Cat
  10. Ser Not Appearing
  11. Queen_Cersei_II
  12. Rhaena Sandship
  13. Fragile Bird
Link to comment
Share on other sites

All sounds great yomi.

I was going to suggest a bit of a gap between the end of shadow's game and the start of yours because both shadow and Fragile Bird have perceived a degree of game fatigue amongst players of Acrophobia and Acrophilia.

I don't know what others think about that. I will play this whenever it starts but I felt you ought to know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was going to mention a possibility of a break, but I suppose the question will solve itself with seeing how many players will sign up and what they will prefer.



I would like to play, if I can, when it comes :ninja:



One another thing I was going to suggest is making rounds shorter - three to five days, but that might not be possible, if the number of players will reach 30, like the host plans.



Before the current game started, I have as well received an opinion that the rules should be such that each player would be directed to employ the same strategy - what is meant, is that favorite clue points are scrapped and either all players aim to make their clues as easy as possible (and get author points) or they all aim to make them as hard as possible (and only guessing points are counted).



Good luck.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes please.

'Make it so' and 'Engage'

Not to mention - 'Tea. Earl Grey.'

or

'Darmok and Jalad... at Tanagra'

You missed out "I hate you Crusher,you smart Alec juvenile prick".But I like your mom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was going to mention a possibility of a break, but I suppose the question will solve itself with seeing how many players will sign up and what they will prefer.

I would like to play, if I can, when it comes :ninja:

One another thing I was going to suggest is making rounds shorter - three to five days, but that might not be possible, if the number of players will reach 30, like the host plans.

Before the current game started, I have as well received an opinion that the rules should be such that each player would be directed to employ the same strategy - what is meant, is that favorite clue points are scrapped and either all players aim to make their clues as easy as possible (and get author points) or they all aim to make them as hard as possible (and only guessing points are counted).

Good luck.

I'm not certain that favourite clue points should influence the strategy for clue-making in regard of difficulty, or if at all rather in the same direction as author points, i.e. making them not too hard. I at least wouldn't vote for a clue I totally don't get as my favourite. One reason for that surely is a petty "this clue isn't fitting to any character and these grapes are to sour", but I also couldn't really judge if it is a good clue for the character, if I have no idea who the character might be. What makes me vote for a clue is if it makes me laugh, or if I think it's aesthetically appealing or if I'm impressed by its precision, that kind of thing. Of course that's just my personal opinion on what makes a clue a good clue, so it might be good to know how the other players decide on their vote.

And then of course what is an easy clue and what is a funny or a beatiful clue is quiet subjective, too, e.g. one of the clues I considered easy last round got only 5 correct (of 12) guesses, so I would assume that many others did not find it easy.

Yes,I have this essential need to feel inferior to Dolorous Gabe again......

That's why I'm trying to host with more players than him ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not certain that favourite clue points should influence the strategy for clue-making in regard of difficulty, or if at all rather in the same direction as author points, i.e. making them not too hard. I at least wouldn't vote for a clue I totally don't get as my favourite. One reason for that surely is a petty "this clue isn't fitting to any character and these grapes are to sour", but I also couldn't really judge if it is a good clue for the character, if I have no idea who the character might be. What makes me vote for a clue is if it makes me laugh, or if I think it's aesthetically appealing or if I'm impressed by its precision, that kind of thing. Of course that's just my personal opinion on what makes a clue a good clue, so it might be good to know how the other players decide on their vote.

And then of course what is an easy clue and what is a funny or a beatiful clue is quiet subjective, too, e.g. one of the clues I considered easy last round got only 5 correct (of 12) guesses, so I would assume that many others did not find it easy.

I think can not quite see through the comment about favorite points -- if it is in relation to my words, I am very tired. Although I do agree that the part of the suggestion I was handed (everyone aims for easy or everyone aims for hard clues), would have to include an excessive amount of the involvement of the host, who would have to screen the difficulty.

I personally like the favorite clue votes and most likely would not want to sacrifice them for the all easy/difficult clues idea, even though a certain volatility of the game where players might decide to employ different strategies and depend on being favorited by others might not appeal to everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes,I have this essential need to feel inferior to Dolorous Gabe again......

Haha I've had hardly any time to work on the current round properly and may do terribly.

I'm not certain that favourite clue points should influence the strategy for clue-making in regard of difficulty, or if at all rather in the same direction as author points, i.e. making them not too hard. I at least wouldn't vote for a clue I totally don't get as my favourite. One reason for that surely is a petty "this clue isn't fitting to any character and these grapes are to sour", but I also couldn't really judge if it is a good clue for the character, if I have no idea who the character might be. What makes me vote for a clue is if it makes me laugh, or if I think it's aesthetically appealing or if I'm impressed by its precision, that kind of thing. Of course that's just my personal opinion on what makes a clue a good clue, so it might be good to know how the other players decide on their vote.

I toyed with the idea of releasing the answers before the results and info, giving players a couple of days to then vote for their favourite clue with the knowledge of the answers. That way you have a better opportunity to vote for a clue you didn't get but appreciate it's quality with the answer to hand. Players would have to avoid revealing their authorship until the results get published of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...