From weidman-alx1@kaman.comWed Aug 23 14:30:42 1995 Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 08:21:13 -0400 (EDT) From: "Gregory J. Weidman 703-329-4331" To: Fantasy Rules Subject: Round 42 Proposals Final Status Proposal 42a: ...... I propose that the last sentence of RO7 be changed from At the end of a Round the Player who has collected the most Style Points will be known and addressed as the Wizard in the next Round. to At the end of a Round the Player who has collected the most Style Points will be the Wizard in the next Round. ...... Voting remained open until 2057 GMT on 15 Aug 95. Voting for the proposal: Peter Stein Garth Ronald Doug Storm Dug Dave Vanyel Bruce Voting against the proposal: Stephen Greg Proposal 42a Passed, 10 to 2. I hope someone knows what to do about a change to the RO's. How does the home page get changed? ...... === PROPOSAL 42:B === I propose that the following Reg. Ord. be added for the duration of Round 42: 7a. At the end of the round, a vote will decide the solution to the mystery. All Players will have one (1) day from the end of the round to accuse a fictional Baudsville character of the murder of Mrs. Huggins (and include a solution to the baffling mystery), and then two (2) days after that to vote on their favorite solutions. The winning solution(s) will be determined by a plurality of votes cast. The Player(s) who created the guilty character(s) will receive three (3) bonus style points for the purpose of determining the next round's Wizard. ...... Voting remained open until 19 August 1995, 0545 GMT. Voting for the proposal Dug Greg Voting against the proposal Peter Proposal 42b PASSED 2 to 1. I leave it up to Dug to implement 42b as he sees fit. Apparently it's completely moot. Regards, Greg. From weidman-alx1@kaman.comWed Aug 23 14:30:53 1995 Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 08:25:46 -0400 (EDT) From: "Gregory J. Weidman 703-329-4331" To: Fantasy Rules Subject: Final Summary of Round 42, Archive Ready. Final Status Judge: Greg Da Judge Wizard: Jeremy Dug 8/26/95, 0104 GMT 2.0 Morendil Ineligible 0.5 Peter Ineligible 0.5 Ronald Ineligible -1.0 Stein Ineligible 0.5 Vanyel Ineligible 0.5 Wizard Ineligible 1.0 Others Ineligible ...... Well, it looks like Dug is both the winner (and therefore judge of round 43, and The Wizard. ...... RULE 42:1 Jeremy The Wizard VALID 1.0 Points ...... With hopefully more interesting things going on than in Mr. Rodger's: Theme: People in my neighborhood Sing along everyone! "People that you meet as you're walking down the street, People that you meet each day." >>>Rule 42.1<<< 1) All rules will mention one (and only one) fictional person not mentioned in any previous rules. 2) No rule may mention anyone who was not born in, nor anyone who has ever left, the fictional town of Baudsville. 3) Any action described (or implied) taking place in the town of Baudsville in a rule must take place (have taken place) within 24 hours of any action described (or implied) in the previous valid rule (if there is one). With the aid of several mirrors, Ralph, the only barber in Baudsville, cut his thinning hair on the morning of August 7th, 1995. >>>Rule End<<< ...... Judgment: Doesn't conflict with itself, or with the ROs, so VALID. A stylish idea, somewhat unstylishly implemented. Do we really need to put three separate restrictions on people in a single rule? ...... Rule 42:2 Stein VALID 1.5 Points ...... >>>Rule 42.2<<< When Mrs. Huggins walked past the barbershop that morning the strangest thing happened. After having observed Ralph's ambitious hair-cutting project, she saw, reflected from somewhere in that complex setup of mirrors, a house which she had never seen before. Now, a new house is not an everyday event in Baudsville and she immediately knew that noone would be concerned with anything else for the remains of that day and probably the greater part of the next day as well. >>>Rule End<<< ...... Validity: No problems that I can see. Points: A capital rule! Nice segue from the previous rule, an interesting plot twist, and a rule which eventually expires, but after an as yet indeterminate period of (real) time. Nicely done. You lost points for "noone," however. ...... Rule 42:3 Ronald VALID -1.0 Points ...... >>>> An amusing looking figure was fixing a large board on the new house: ********************** * Welcome to the * * House of Mirrors * * * * owner: * * T.H.E. Wizard * ********************** "Are you Mr. Wizard?" Mrs Huggins asked. "Himself, Madam, at your service", was the polite reply. "Strange, I don't think I ever saw you in our town." "Nevertheless, the rules require that I was born here, and so I was, Madam." Mrs Huggins suddenly felt a strange urge to enter into the House of Mirrors. She pushed the door, entered and saw.... What she saw the next Rule will tell us, no doubt, in all detail. >>>>> ...... Validity: No problems that I see. Points: With only the highest regard for the true Wizard, your name selection shows a certain lack of panache. "Mrs. Huggins" was better. Level shifting such as referring to the rules can be worth much if done well, but is a negative when done as artlessly as in this rule. The rule is okay, not great, and one is left to wonder why Mrs. Huggins would go into a stranger's house without asking. ...... Rule 42:4 Peter VALID 0.5 Points ...... The house truly was a house of mirrors. Mirrors adorned every surface, at every angle, reflecting upon themselves into infinity. Everywhere she looked Mrs. Huggins saw herself, in all shapes and sizes, distorted by the perverse vision of the mirrors. And every reflection-- every single one-- was staring at her with wide, penetrating eyes. Eyes which bored deep into her soul. Eyes which saw everything. Eyes which forgave nothing. Eyes which KNEW. Eyes. They found Mrs. Huggins crumpled on the floor early the next morning, sobbing into her bloody hands. She babbled incoherently, with an occasional moan of, "Oh Tom... Tom..." discernable amidst the madness. When they pulled her hands away, they recoiled in horror-- tears of blood streaked her cheeks. Her eye sockets were empty. Future rules must be missing precisely two "I"s (capital or lower-case), omitted from words of two or more letters in that rule which normally have them. ...... Validity: This one was very close. It hinges on the question: who is "They?" By 42:1.2, it must be Ralph the Barber and T.H.E. Wizard. If "They" includes anyone else, then the rule is invalid. Note that, therefore, it was Ralph and T.H.E. Wizard who recoiled in horror. By the way: Changing "discernible" into "discernable" will not be the same as changing "discernible" into "discernble." Points: Tough call on this one. I'm very strongly ambivalent about the rule, especially because it was so poorly worded, and the validity questions were unnecessarily hairy. Stylish plot, however. I've been wavering between 0.0 and 1.0 points, so I settled on 0.5. ...... Rule 42:5 Morendil (???) INVALID 0.5 Points ...... >>>Rule 42:5<<< The next morning, all of Baudsville was abuzz with the news of poor Mrs Huggins's bizarre accident. Mrs Huggins herself, by now recovered enough to entertain visitors in her nicely decorated hospital room, was as perplexed as anyone as to what had befallen her - try as she mght, she could recall nothing from the previous day, from the moment when she had caught a glimpse of a strange new house in one of the barber's mirrors. "Yes", she was telling Brenda, who was sitting besides her bed somking a cigarette, "that's all I remember - a new house, sitting right here outside the barber's ! I just couldn't beleve my - Oh, dear God !" Brenda tried to comfort the old widow as best she could, but she wasn't very good at it. She was good at one thing, though : finding things out, and she was going to find out what had happened to Mrs Huggins if it cost her her life - or her card. As Baudsville's star reporter, she couldn't afford to fail. She crushed her cigarette on the tiled floor and strode resolutely out of the room, ignoring the outraged cries of the nurse who'd just entered the room. Rules referring to "Brenda" (by this or her full name) will , through vocabulary, plot, or other literary device, establish at least one of three aspects of her character : self-reliance, deep-rooted anxiety, immaturity with regard to financial matters. >>> Rule End<<< ...... Validity: Fortunately, you can't bring in both Brenda and the Nurse in a single rule, according to 42:1.1 I say fortunately, because otherwise, "all" of Baudsville would have been limited to Ralph, Mrs. Huggins, T.H.E. Wizard, Tom, and Brenda. Since this situation would have made it logically impossible to post another rule (Again by 42:1.1), the round would have ended. I ask you all to be very careful with words like "all" and "they" without antecedents, since these can serve to severely limit the game. I know that Peter disagrees, but I'm the judge this round. Points: I like this rule. Nice rule. It had potential. Nothing particularly objectionable about it except for the "somking." I just don't like it well enough to be any more generous than 0.5. ...... Rule 42:6 Dug VALID 1.5 Points ...... === RULE 42:6 === Dr. didit was having lunch at the Bandwidth Cafe when she was summoned to the scene. She ran both of Baudsville's stoplights in her rush across town; even so, she was too late to save the dying Mrs. Huggins. The voice on the phone had described Mr. Wizard's new house, of course, but Dr. didit still hesitated before mounting the steps. One doesn't have to be a doctor to know that houses don't appear overnight, yet this one seemed to have done just that. "Of course," reflected the doctor, glancing around as she knocked quickly and then let herself in, "if any house were to appear magically, this one would be it." The man she met in the mirrored foyer had a pleasant face and a somewhat puzzled expression. He wasted little time on introductions. "Tom Wizard, doctor. Please come this way." "What happened?" "I can't say exactly," replied the bemused gentleman, "However, I can tell you one thing for certain: Belinda Huggins was murdered." All future rules shall pertain in some manner to the question of who killed Mrs. Huggins. ...... Validity Wow. Dug has managed to satisfy rules in a just-barely manner that is truly impressive. I'll allow it under 42:2, and it does indeed satisfy 42:4! Points: Good plot, good rule, it's going to make the rest of the round even more interesting. Nothing incongruous, and in addition to the mystery of who killed poor Belinda, we have the mystery of who exactly "Tom" of 42:4 is. I gather there's some questions which have been raised about 42:4, so if anyone has some thoughts they'd really like to get off their chest, please send them to me. Nice Job. ...... Rule 42:7 Vanyel VALID 0.5 Points ...... >>>> Harold Jenkins, Baudsville's resident bum, woke up with a start, noticng the new house and then rememberng the odd events of the day before. He was largely unconcerned with the new house, though; he pursued his daily existence without much care for the events around him. he just woke up, and got out of his meagre home, a shoebox in the middle of the road. However, in pursuing his daily service to the town of Baudsville (that of keeping the road clean (by licking it clean, with his tongue)), he noticed several very large footprints in the mud near the new house. So large, in fact, that he couldn't immediately identify them (he was good at identifying shoeprints, because of his job). Apparently there was a pair of oversize shoes somewhere in town, and they had been worn--to cover up identity? Not liking his inability to identify the shoe, he decided to ask at least one question of any person who entered or left the house. "Oh well," thought Harold, "at least this life is better than it was living in the septic tank." He yawned and sat on the front step of the house to wait. >>>> ...... Validity Vanyel says that this rule takes place around the same time that Tom Wizard (who is either "Tom... Tom..." or T.H.E. Wizard, but not both) and the good doctor are discovering Mrs. Huggins body. However, Harold is "largely unconcerned" with the house, so it must be either in the evening of that day, (8 August) or before lunchtime on the following day (9 August) according to 42:2 and 42:1.3. Since Harold is a good citizen, deeply concerned about his job, I doubt that he would be such a late riser as to wake up in the evening, so I'm going to interpret this as happening the day after Mrs. Huggins dies, which would make it 9 August, before lunchtime. I am assuming that the footprints are intended to somehow pertain to the question of who killed Mrs. Huggins, according to 42:6. Points Fine. On a scale of 1 to 7, I give it a 4.5, which is the same as 0.5 points. ...... Rule 42:8 Stein INVALID -1.0 Points ...... Laura's first thought was to investigate the house immediately, but something in her keen doctor's mind told her that it might not be wise to enter this mysterious house alone. So she decided first to pick up her Alexei, the undefeated Baudsville wrestling champion for three years. He was a good friend of hers even if his brain seemed strangely twisted. This might however prove to be helpful to in order to solve the murder mrs. Huggins, who so clearly was conceived by an equally twisted brain. In fact, a mind for puzzles would be absolutely necessary to untangle the mystery. When she arrived at Alexei's house she saw that he had added two more doors to his house and numbered them i, ii and i. "Alexei," she shouted "Where art thou?". "My dear Iddy!" Alexei responded cheerfully from within the house, "I'm behind the door that speaks the greatest number of points in space from which no arrangement exists that makes it possible to view the entire surface of a sphere." >>>>> ...... Validity The question of whether iii is a word is only the tip of the iceberg in the validity problems of this rule. Points Perhaps the next round can involve mathematical puzzles, this one involves the people of Baudsville. ...... RULE 42.9 Dug VALID 0.5 POINTS ...... ==== RULE 42.9 ==== The doctor and Tom Wizard barely noticed Harold when they left the house. Ralph had a way of disappearing into the background even when he was sitting on the steps. "Well, Mr. Wizard, you'll finally have your house to yourself," the doctor was saying. "Sorry that took so long. Now I guess I'll go see Em." "Why Em?" asked Harold. He was ignored. "Em? ..." asked Tom Wizard. He got an answer. "Em deLeeder, the ringmaster of the Baudsville Circus. She and her husband, Tom the Clown, run the local mortuary." "Of course. I knew that." said Tom Wizard, though he clearly did not. "Doctor, before you go, I meant to ask you earlier, did you see a..." Ralph the Barber waved from across the street, "Hey there, Doc!" Suddenly, Tom Wizard was very interested in getting back inside. "I, uh..., you see, hm, thank you, Doctor," he murmured as he backed through the door. Just as Tom was disappearing, Harold managed to get off a question. "See a...?" he asked plaintively. Once again, he got no answer. "Hiya, Doc! Hey, was that Chef Killimoff just now?" asked Ralph, as he trotted up the steps. "Chef ... huh?" "You remember, the stage name for that Native American singer with the pleasant face who used to dress up in all those costumes for each performance." "I never saw him in concert," said the doctor, "but now that you mention it, he does look like the posters. And yet, he told me that he was in the Navy!" "In the Navy," muttered Harold, shifting to a lower step. It was then that the doctor noticed him. "I wonder how much Harold knows about this situation," she thought. "Something tells me I should be listening to him more carefully." How much does Harold know? Just who is involved in Mrs. Huggins untimely demise? The next rule will narrow the suspect list to three, giving full names & aliases for each possible murderer. ==== RULE END ==== Validity: This one's tricky, but I think it works. Style: The obscure reference to the theme of this round is a nice touch. Let's Celebrate. ......