From: jhildeb1@cc.swarthmore.edu (Jeff Hildebrand)
Subject: Several questions generated by a game.
Organization: Don's Merry Horde of Topologists
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 06:34:44 GMT

1) The phrasing on Crystal is not very clear. When precisely does Crystal
tell people how many tokens they can bring along? The issue was critical
because Delegator was also in the game. What happened was Crystal told some
people to take their tokens home, then Delegator changed the main player.
Crystal then argued that since the former main player was now an ally he
could send away tokens from that player. Now everyone else said "Wait a
second, you can't get both players that way." Thinking about it now, I think
the way it should work is that both Crystal and Delegator happen at the end
of the allies commit phase and if they both are used then the timing rules
kick in to say which happens first. Yes?

2) Is the wording on the Super Virus flare bad? It says that you may
multiply the tokens in the challenge by the challenge card "even if you are
an ally." I think it should be "when" you are an ally. This came up in the
game tonight. I was playing Doppleganger/Virus and Aura was in the game too.
So I discovered when someone came up with the Virus flare and next time I
was main player went after it. (Everyone else saw the flare and knew what I
was going after.) However one of the other players then played the wild
Doppleganger flare on me (I had a base in his system) and then proceeded to
royally hose me. Since someone was attacking one of my home bases which was
void, I was multiplying by 0. Oops. He took control of my hand and played
the 40 that I had. That was fine, nasty as hell, but clearly legal. He then
played my Super Virus flare because it has that particular wording. And I
had to admit that by the letter of the card he was right, it could be played
then, but that the flare was badly phrased. Other super flares which have
similar effects (i.e. play as ally) are phrased "when you are an ally." Thus
wouldn't it be reasonable to change the Virus flare to be similar?

3) We got into an argument about what defines "Every player must be able to
meet this condition" for the Schitzoid's additional win condition. The person
playing it wanted to make it that you had to have 6 foreign bases and only 1
home base. It was pointed out that if he approached that condition, he would
lose his power and so the Schitzoid conditions would go away and he could
never win by meeting the conditions. On the other hand it was pointed out
that he was not preventing anyone from winning the game. True he couldn't
win the game by meeting the Schitzoid conditions, but if he did have that
situation he would win the game since the win rules revent to normal and he
had them met. So the question is: is the proposed condition an acceptable
one?

	Not a question but a comment. I discovered how much fun mind games
are with Cosmic. Everyone was wondering why I was intentionally stripping my
home bases on futile challenges. Then I played the Wild Schitzoid flare...
Heh, heh, heh. (Switched my system and color with another player who was
very annoyed to find that he had suddenly lost his powers. :)

-Jeff
-- 
Jeff Hildebrand, The Shaggy TA		       	   hildebra@math.wisc.edu
"The following statement  is an editorial viewpoint  and does not reflect 
the views of WSRN-FM, its employees, or mutant drosophila" - Off the Cuff
"You can't confuse us; we're not listening to you!"  -  topology students
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