From blahedo@quincy.eduMon Aug 21 13:22:54 1995 Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 04:44:31 -0500 (CDT) From: Don Blaheta To: Fantasy Rules Committee Subject: End of Round 40: Judgement, Summary, Comments End of round... comments and answers at the end. The new Judge is Dug, the Wizard is Jeremy. Good work! All times GMT. Name Eligibility SP ========= =================== == Dug 15 Jul 1995 21:05 1 ========= =================== == Jeremy 12 Jul 1995 19:14 3 Stein 8 Jul 1995 01:51 2 Other 8 Jul 1995 00:00 - Peter 7 Jul 1995 18:34 0 ========= =================== == RULE 40:1 --VALID-- 1 Jul, 1:51 Style Points: **2** (Stein) >>>> So now we're throwing word puzzles at each other. Well here's something to start us off: "She maligns this stool" The puzzle is to find a quite remarkable feature of this sentence. And unless a previous rule has explicitly stated what is so special about it, shall no rule that does not contain a sentence sharing the same property be judged valid. >>>> Judgment: It's a nice first Rule. It's pretty straightforward, and the restriction is good for a start--not too tight, but not trivial. Style: The restriction is absolutely lovely... in order to free anyone else from the restriction, the would-be benefactor must first come up with such a sentence emself. Knowing human nature, and that old adage "misery loves company", I can guess how that'll turn out... Of course, I'm sure that there are a number of "quite remarkable features" of that sentence. I do expect explanations, though, and it had better truly be "quite remarkable"... :) RULE 40:2 --VALID-- 1 Jul, 18:34 Style Points: 0 (Peter) >>>>> All rules in this round must contain a word puzzle which does not require knowledge of a language other than English in order to be solved. The slacks fit. The shirt is loose. Her belt hurts. Your shoes are snug. The blanks below can be filled in with the names of nine different animals, one letter per blank. As you use a letter, cross it off the list. When you're done, some letters will be left over. Any future rule using any word which can be formed by rearranging all the leftover letters, or any synonym of such a word, shall be INVALID. AAAAAAAAAAAACCCDDDEEEEEEEGGGHIIJKLLLLMMNNNNNOOOOOPPRRRRRSSTTUUUUVVW -------- ----- --------- -------- ------ ------ -------- ----- ------- >>>>> Judgement: This rule nicely fits the prior restriction. Style Points: The restriction is kind of neat, but it is slightly unstylish to make such a tedious puzzle for everyone to work through, and highly unstylish to not even give a hint as to the content of these 9 words. I like the restriction enough, though, that I figure it balanced out. [Note: Peter has since indicated that all words are animals, and listed in alphabetical order. --DJ] RULE 40:3 --VALID-- 3 Jul, 07:37 Style Points: *1* (Dug) >>>>> Your shoes are snug. My belt is tight. They need new pants. She eats gravy. Okay, now that I've got that over with, I can get on with my attempt at a rule. Not that I didn't like the Wizard's first rule. In fact, Wizard, I thought your rule was outstanding. Mine will be a bare-fisted pass at wordplay. Your gloved tone beats this pass. That's for sure! Of course, a player's style points should be (IMHO)determined by how e answers the previous problem. And in that sense, I think I've done rather well. You see, I've actually included an illegal word from 40:2. Your job (i.e. the required word puzzle) is to find it. And just to make things fun, all valid future rules must "include" a prohibited word as well. (Too bad this isn't the paradox round, huh?) Doesn't matter how the word is included, as long as it does not do so _exactly_ like a previous rule (valid or invalid) did. >>>>> Judgment: Well, it meets the previous two requirements, if only barely. Style Points: This rule practically flaunts 40:2, which in retrospect has a rather odd flaw which has nothing to do with how this rule "semi-broke" it. In any case, I like the way this rule almost breaks 40:2 in two different ways, but doesn't *really* break it. :) (Bare-fisted pass at wordplay, indeed.) RULE 40:4 --VALID-- 6 Jul, 19:14 Style Points: **2** (Jeremy) >>>>>> The next valid rule will provide a five by five array of letters (a word square) such that each string of five letters read down or across is consistent with one of the clues given below. Hint: the first clue corresponds to the first word across the top of the square, the rest are in random order. 1. Removed excess water 2. Utilization 3. Amorphous solid 4. A misdirected beam of light? 5. Type of goat 6. Contains carpals 7. Does A.S.L. 8. It flows upstream? 9. Long shots for Jordan (slang) 10.She got a trumped-up divorce Another hint: One of the "illegal" words can be found in the correct answer, word-search style. P.S. Just to be safe... My belt is tight. <<<<<< Judgement: Sorry I took so long, but I needed Jeremy's response to confirm that he had not violated the other Rules. He hasn't. (Heh.) Style: I was wondering if anyone would do this... but Jeremy managed to follow 40:1 in an entirely different way from anyone else. The fact that this led Peter to lose his eligibility is quite stylish. RULE 40:5 --INVALID-- 7 Jul, 9:00 Style Points: *0* (Peter) >>>>> Each row of letters in the puzzle below can be rearranged to form two or more words which fit in the blanks below that row (consider the * and # symbols to be blanks). Once the blanks (including * and # symbols) are properly filled, players would be well advised to read each row in sequence and heed their instructions. The letters occupying the * and # spaces form two separate groups which satisfy 40:3 in a manner particularly appropriate for this rule. And, since the only players still eligible already know the secret of 40:1, I might as well spill the beans here: the special property of the sentence was that you could delete the first letter of each word and have a new, valid sentence. The next sentence is an example of this. Your gold shoe flies there. AEFLLRTUU *-------- ELMRSSTUU ---#---*- ACINNOOTTW --*------- ADFOORSTW #-------- AEEELNSSTV ---------# CEEHHILRSTTW ----*-#----- AAAGIMNNORT --#-------- ACEEHHORT -*------- >>>>> Judgement: This rule doesn't include the word square required by 40:4. Sorry about that, Peter. Style: Well, jumping the gun unnecessarily was a tad unstylish, but not enough to dock Style Points. RULE 40:6 --VALID-- 8 Jul, 21:05 Style Points: 0 (Dug) >>>>>> Let's take care of the restrictions. For 40:3 and 40:4 - WRUNG RESAL IVANA SIGNS TREYS As for 40:1, I would argue that 40:5, even though it is currently invalid, would satisfy the "explanation" condition. However, my arguments don't seem to be going anywhere this round, so rather than take a chance, I will let you know the following. The towns want chills. Finally, my own puzzle (40:2). It may be weak, but I don't have a whole lot of time to work with. Below you will find two columns (A & B). First match the words in column B to the words in column A. Some words in B may go well with more than one word in A, but there is one best fit for all the words. Then use the numbers following the words in column B (in their new order) to come up with a five-letter word. The next valid rule must begin with this word. COLUMN A COLUMN B -------- -------- ONE CROWD (1) TWO HERE (18) THREE TIME (19) FOUR POUND (20) FIVE SOME (20) >>>>>> Judgement: The requirement of 40:1 has been met; you provide a puzzle as required by 40:2; you semi-include an illegal word in your wordmatrix as required by 40:3; you include the correct wordmatrix as required by 40:4. Style: Your puzzle is too easy and can be solved merely by anagramming the numbers and "working backwards". That's not *un*stylish, but it certainly isn't nearly as stylish as it could be. RULE 40:7 --INVALID-- 12 Jul, 17:45 Style Points: 1 (Jeremy) >>>>>> Start with this classic riddle: "What is in my pocket?" All the clues are hidden, but remember: not all foes become truly nasty, forcing absolute victory. Easy as one, two, three! Next, come up with three, three-word headlines (you know, like MAN KILLS HAMSTER) which, together, have a feature undoubtedly *more* remarkable than "She maligns this tool" (which is remarkable for being convertable to "He aligns his tool" by dropping first letters, among other things). Clues: 1) Bird-calling students practice aloud. 2) Miss Ireland went topless at the stockcar race. 3) A fool married his partner. The next valid rule shall not contain any of the consonants found in the proper answer to the riddle and will provide a sentence sharing the "more remarkable" feature of the three headlines. >>>>>> Judgement: Ok, Dug caught you. The "best fit" for the words in his Rule was determined by vowel order in the matching words... "ONE SOME..." and so on, making "TARTS" the official starting word. Also: the "illegal word" is included in the same way as a previous rule; in 40:4, the word "answer" is also used, which starts with an anagram of the illegal word. Sorry, Jeremy. Style Points: An interesting attempt, the restrictions are absolutely wicked though. ROUND SUMMARY: Wow. I didn't realize what I was getting into when I suggested this round's topic... I knew I was in trouble after that very first rule. I wasn't expecting how difficult some of the puzzles were--if I were a player this round, I never would have finished. There were some complaints about my original SP on Rule 5; I docked Peter a little because he hadn't yet sent me the answers to his puzzle. Dug (among others) sent me a complaint with his answers to 6: "I almost didn't provide you with an answer, since I don't like the idea of being style depending on something outside the rule itself. However, the minor protest would be fruitless at best, and I figured you should know the answer to this one, since it contains a trick." In response to that, I'd like to say that because this round was based on puzzles which had to be solved, if I didn't know the answers, there would be no way I could judge! Oh, I could try to solve them, with some measure of success perhaps, but what if I missolved a puzzle? I think the consequences would be, at the least, undesirable. As to the puzzle content, as I said above, I was rather surprised by the difficulty of some of it. Here, though, are answers to the puzzles: 40:1--Obviously, as seen in 40:7, the remarkable quality of it is that the first letter of each word in the sentence can be removed, leaving a still-intelligible sentence. In 40:4, to throw a wrench in, Jeremy found another property, that the sentence could be anagrammed into another intelligible sentence. Clue #8, "It flows upstream?", meets this condition. The various sentences used, however, for *some* reason, kept tending toward scatological references... "our loved one eats his ass" (!) from 40:3, as the chopped sentence; even the original sentence (both chopped and unchopped) had potentially interesting interpretation... (see also 40:7) 40:2--This was originally intended to have another "R", thus banning the word "ANSWER"--that would have been interesting, certainly. But without the "R" the possible words are "WEANS" and "WANES". The words are as follows: AARDVARK CAMEL CROCODILE ELEPHANT IGUANA JAGUAR MONGOOSE PANDA VULTURE 40:3--The restriction, to "include" the illegal word (WANES, WEANS) somehow, was a little odd, but it was certainly interesting. In 40:3, it appears within the phrase "how e answers"; in 40:4, it is anagrammed into the word "answer"; in 40:5 the "special blanks" (*, #) anagrammed to the illegal words; in 40:6, of course, it is the diagonal of the wordmatrix, and in 40:7 it is anagrammed in the first letters on the first five lines. 40:4--40:1 was met by clue #8, with a different "remarkable quality" (see 40:1), and 40:3 was met by the word "answer". The solution to the wordmatrix is posted in 40:6; note that the words "RIVER" and "LASER" run backwards. 40:5--Unfortunately invalid, this was another rule like 40:2; here are the answers (and the restriction): ALLFUTURE RULESMUST CONTAINTWO WORDSOFAT LEASTSEVEN LETTERSWHICH ANAGRAMINTO EACHOTHER 40:6--40:3 and 40:4 are met with the wordmatrix; 40:1 may have been met by 40:5, but in any case was met with the annoted sentence. The puzzle was a tad weak, but I figured Jeremy would catch the "best fit" thing. Better than I thought, apparently. As I said above, the answer was to match words based on the order of vowels in them. The special word, then, was "TARTS". 40:7--The puzzles were wicked; the first is solved by taking the clue sentence, writing the first letter of each word, and taking that as a 123 cipher; the answer is "My car keys". As if that wasn't sneaky enough, though, he then went on to specify three sentences even more remarkable than 40:1--and there's the clue. The first of these is "CLASS CAWED ORALLY", the second is "LASS AWED RALLY", and the last is "ASS WED ALLY" (scatology again? Naw...) You see, this is the "trick" of 40:1, only moreso. Ah well, another round of the FRC draws to a close. The winner (and thus the Judge) is Dug; the Wizard is Jeremy. Great round--can't wait for the next one! Da Judge -=-=-=-Don Blaheta-=-=-=-blahedo@quincy.edu-=-=-=-dblaheta@aol.com-=-=-=- Ask your boss to reconsider -- it's so difficult to take "Go to hell" for an answer.