Belle of the Ball and Koi Pond at Gen Con 2013

While I'm at home, my Twitter feed is presently 100% Gen Con all the time, but the best moments are when people say they're playing my games! This is the first year I've had a card game for sale and it's been quite lovely to see the response. Here are tweets from the first day of the con!

Played @DanielSolis 's #BelleoftheBall ...a ton of fun!!
— The Cardboard Jungle (@CBJPodcast) August 16, 2013

Open gaming - our #GenCon2013 home away from home. pic.twitter.com/YVCH6NwBj2
— Chris K. (@dicehateme) August 16, 2013

Announcing Pantspantspants Patchpaw! #BelleoftheBall #GenCon2013 pic.twitter.com/tjoZCapo1Y
— Chris K. (@dicehateme) August 16, 2013

Just won @DanielSolis' Belle of the Ball, coming to @kickstarter next week from @dicehateme. Really, really good! #GenCon
— Jason Kotarski (@jasonkotarski) August 16, 2013

A game that looks good but was too complicated to both learn and play during dinner. #GenCon @DanielSolis pic.twitter.com/S9nLDpcVzu
— John du Bois (@JohnduBois) August 15, 2013

@Wininoid We just left DriveThruCards. (BTW @DanielSolis Koi Pond looks gorgeous!)
— Cardboard Edison (@CardboardEdison) August 15, 2013

This is happening @DanielSolis pic.twitter.com/3m6wQtNuV2
— Kicktraq (@Kicktraq) August 15, 2013

Look what I just at #Gencon! @DanielSolis pic.twitter.com/ycDilJzfTE
— Ben Rosset (@BenRosset) August 15, 2013

Picked up koi pond by @DanielSolis really excited about this game. pic.twitter.com/5pI0g2zVds
— Adam Buckingham (@AdamBuckingham) August 15, 2013

Rattlife Game

"This is my job right here.... Make sure the sun's up and the girls are out."

This isn't a man on strike, this is a man happily enjoying the bread, circuses, and whores of a rapidly declining civilization for as long as it lasts. And who can blame him? How could working hard and being responsible provide him what he wants any more effectively?  Does anyone truly believe he would be more attractive to women if he was working retail at an Apple store?

This is what a society following the Female Imperative looks like.  The women go to work in the fields and the men laze about drinking in the sun.

Super Sticky

I have heard a number of complaints the last two days about the unusually humid conditions that have settled in over the region, particularly west of the Cascade crest.  Folks around here are not used to sweating.

 A plot of dew points and winds at 9 PM Thursday tell the story.  Over the western interior and the western side of Cascades, many locations had dew points in the mid-60s.  This is quite high for our area, where dew points generally remain in the mid-40s to mid-50s.   Dew point, the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated (100% relative humidity) is a far better measure of moisture in the air than relative humidity, which also depends on temperature.

In fact, a plot of the dew points at Seattle Tacoma Airport reveals that the dew point Thursday night were the highest for the entire summer!  The air has a bit of that "East Coast" feel to it.

The discomfiture we are feeling now is enhanced by the unusually light winds of the past two days, generally less than than 5 miles per hour.  The reason for the light winds is that the East Pacific High, which helps produce refreshing northerly winds and onshore flow has been replaced by a weak low or trough (see graphic: a surface pressure chart for Thursday night).  The differences in pressure (see solid lines or isobars on the chart) are quite small...thus, weak winds.

Why high dew points and thus serious sweating?   You start with light rain, which evaporates into the relatively warm air...this pushes up the dew point.  The fact the surface is now relatively moist helps of course.  Onshore flow, strangely enough, is relatively dry (low dew point) because the Pacific Ocean is cold (around 50F) and cooler air can't hold as much water vapor as warm air.  So the weak onshore winds (produced by the absence of he Pacific High) allows the dew points to rise in the interior.

The moist, wet conditions we have experienced have produced a lot of low clouds, and the combination of the clouds and the high humidity does not allow the surface to cool effectively (water vapor and clouds absorb and reradiate back down the infrared radiation from the surface).   Thus, the minimum temperatures during the last few days have been high.  Check out a plot of the Sea Tac temps:

Wednesday the temperatures only dropped to about 65F!   A few locations had record high daily minima on Friday morning:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OREGON
451 AM PDT FRI AUG 16 2013

...RECORD HIGHEST LOW TEMPERATURE SET AT VANCOUVER WA...

 A RECORD HIGHEST LOW TEMPERATURE OF 67 DEGREES WAS SET AT VANCOUVER WA
YESTERDAY...AUGUST 15TH 2013. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 65 SET
IN 1950.

...RECORD HIGHEST LOW TEMPERATURE SET AT SALEM OR...

 A RECORD HIGHEST LOW TEMPERATURE OF 65 DEGREES WAS SET AT SALEM OR
YESTERDAY...AUGUST 15TH 2013. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 64 SET
IN 2008.

Remember the stories about increasing summer heat waves that were in the press last month?   This is going to be another example--but I don't think anyone is going to the hospital from it. 

Anyway, our perfect weather will return this weekend, but today's humidity is a reminder of why we are lucky to be living here, rather the humid summer miasma of the eastern U.S.!

Cute pictures

Sitcoms Online is giving every other oldies game show site a run for their money. A thread on the board wonders if game shows could ever make a comeback. Sorry to point out the obvious, but game shows have been cropping up all over TV lately. The comeback is in clear and present progress.

But the board just uses the topic for the web's 7,245,873rd older-is-better bash on everything that's happened in game shows recently. "Drew Carey is a doofus, Wayne Brady is obnoxious and annoying...SCREW STEVE HARVEY AND HIS RATINGS NOW AND FOREVER." How do you screw ratings forever, or at all? Anyway, you've seen this stuff many, many times before.

Still, the board makes an exception for Let's Make a Deal model Tiffany Coyne, who is "smoking hot." I certainly agree, as the picture above demonstrates. And she's not just a pretty face. She's a new mother, and her kid is frighteningly cute, as the picture to the left demonstrates. Congratulations to Ms. Coyne and her husband. As for the Sitcoms Online board, maybe they should try watching some of the new game shows with something of an open mind. They might actually enjoy The Chase, which is about as traditional as traditional game shows can get.

While the cats are away... [9 Lives]

While everyone is away at Gen Con, here's a little treat for those of you like me who are staying home to catch up on work. These are the card designs in-progress for 9 Lives.

You can see a few tweaks to the rules reflected in this design. Gone are the stars you're trying to earn, in their place are cat-scratches you're trying to evade.

I've also given each cat a proper suit, so you can distinguish them at a glance while fanning your cards. I took that a step further, making the suit a color-coded background pattern reminiscent of anime and manga. I thought Kristina Stipetic's art lent itself well to this cartoony style.

The limits of female solipsism

In case you were wondering where they happen to be, this statement by a woman who was not kidnapped and murdered as a little girl tends to indicate they may not actually exist:

The disappearance and death of her best friend never left Kathy. Nothing could fill the space where Maria once was – the games, the laughter, the shared secrets. She was left with survivor's guilt and the social stigma of being connected to a notorious crime.

"It robbed me of my childhood," she said recently. "I was labeled. I was the girl who was with Maria. A lot of parents wouldn't let their girls play with me. They were afraid he'd come back and take their child.

"I couldn't wait to get out of Sycamore. It bothered me my whole life why he took her and not me. For years I would ask myself, 'Was she prettier than I was?'"

Yes, that is clearly the important question, is it not? This spectacular example of unrestrained female solipsism should suffice to illustrate that negs and other forms of rejecting women are considerably more powerful than even the average Game-aware man is capable of grasping.

I am not saying that all women are this solipsistic. They are not. I am simply pointing out that the maximum range of a woman's potential for solipsistic insanity most likely exceeds your ability to imagine it.

So sayeth the survey

As a faux tweet noted, GSN will try a survey show called Mind of a Man.

It's based on a survey of 100 guys. Anybody who's glanced at GSN's ratings lately knows that a certain similar survey show is performing nicely for the network. So it's not amazing that they're attempting another let's-talk-to-the-people effort. The idea is that straight-up knowledge questions are hard, but figuring out what other people think is easy. Or at least easier.

The concept dates back to Match Game if not earlier. We surveyed a bunch of folks and we want you to match their answers. Street Smarts put the surveying on screen, with people who were sometimes (or pretty often) amusingly clueless. And Family Feud, of course, has endured for nearly four decades with surveys saying this and that.

The latest effort from GSN will put celebs into the format. They'll advise the civvie contestants on what the 100 guys are thinking. I don't know why celebs would match the answers any better, but I won't prejudge.

Podcast: Talking Crosby at the DMV, the Pens fake season, whether the Steelers are good, and Ken & Ben Roethlisberger

We talk the insanity of the Pirates being good, the fake Pens season, Crosby at the DMV, whether the Steelers have any good players, Ken and Ben Roethlisberger, how many followers we have on Spreaker, and whether RG3 is annoying. Plus so much more. It's GTOG Radio.

Listen below or check out our Spreaker page. You can also download on iTunes here.



For your reference:

- A recap of the first half of the Pens' fake season.  (Read about the Pens' fake season here)
- Ken Roethlisberger's comments about Ben Roethlisberger.

The First Autumn Weather Arrives in the Northwest

It often happens the second or third week of August.   After weeks of dry, warm weather or perhaps some summertime thunderstorms, that first Pacific frontal system  of the season with substantial clouds and some light precipitation reaches the Northwest coast.  And it is happening right now.

Take a look at the infrared satellite picture at 1 AM today (Wednesday)--you can see the the frontal cloud band stretch northward just offshore our coast towards Vancouver Island and then out to the west.

And the radar image from Langley Hill near Hoquiam showed a nice offshore precipitation band associated with the front.

The official National Weather Service surface analysis indicates a low center and fronts offshore.

This system is rapidly falling apart and most of you won't see much more than a few sprinkles and lots of clouds.  But it is serves as our first warning of the upcoming fall.

The return of precipitation this time of the year is quite evident in the daily climatology at Northwest weather stations.  For example, here is a table produced by Mark Albright, past WA State Climatologist for the precipitation and other parameters at Seattle Tacoma Airport.  The mean daily precipitation (next to last column) of .02 inches during the first 12 days of the month, nearly doubles around the 15th.  More impressively, the frequency of  measurable precipitation goes from 11-15% in the beginning of the month to roughly 25% at the end, with the big transition occurring between the 12th and 24th on average.

Don't get too depressed by this...summer is not over and we often have glorious Septembers.  But  changes in the Northern Hemisphere's weather pattern is now becoming evident and we are leaving the optimal period of warmth and dryness that is so dominant the last week of July and the first week of August.

Online Games Come Alive Thanks to Computer Teamplay

 

Online games area unit a full heap of fun, primarily as a result of you'll pay hours enjoying against others rather than pestering computer-controlled AI enemies that before long become alittle inevitable. However, as you and your mates travel the length and breadth of the many virtual worlds vanquishing many an human foe, spare a plan for the hard-working team of computers that makes your hours of enjoyment potential.

Whatever variety of device, or devices, on that you'll favor to play on-line browser games, from smartphones to PCs, the pc behind the screen isn't the one doing most of the work. In fact, it's simply the ultimate link in a very long, convoluted chain of boxes, wires and radio transmitters that enables you to do battle in virtual worlds containing players United Nations agency, in reality, is also thousands of miles apart. the important workhouses of the web vice world, the boxes of computers at the center of the chain, area unit called 'game servers'; if fantasy MMORPG will typically appear to be a thought of players' imaginations then the virtual game world on the screen is sometimes several figments of computers' recollections.

'Servers' area unit merely computers on the web that host info on the market on-line. as an example after you browse emails you're not reading them off your laptop, your area unit reading them off a server, in all probability somewhere in geographic region, via your laptop; therefore you'll browse your emails on any computer connected to the web. though storing, receiving and causation emails won't be too strenuous, coordinating  a complete game, with its world, programming scripts and every one its players' details, may be a powerful raise. For this reason game servers area unit terribly powerful computers and sometimes over one server is required to store everything, that brings its own organisational complexities. For the most important browser games with Brobdingnagian fantasy worlds, this could cause numerous electrical sweating on the a part of the sport servers!

Think of it this way; as you dash through streets within the latest strategy game or tire your brain out with a bout of strategy vice, somewhere in a very closely monitored space computers are whirring away as they send one another info concerning that street you're in, wherever the opposite players area unit, what number kills you've got etc., before causation it to your laptop that brings it all up ahead of your eyes. Of course, in but a second all this information has been dynamical way quicker than you'll sustain with. For some, Brobdingnagian MMORPG computer code is put in on your laptop to create the complete method easier; the servers will then instruct that computer code on the way to modification instead of having to send each blade of grass across the web.

The most widespread on-line games area unit programmed exploitation Flash, a language designed to be used on the web. As a result, Flash games are often loaded from the server terribly quickly then don't got to communicate with it more, instead 'cookies' and different temporary files area unit keep on your laptop and these track any recordable changes within the game, like win/loss stats. though intelligent laptop teamplay cannot match that folks, it on the Q.T. underpins all of our on-line vice successes.

Finding Great Flight Simulator Games Online

 

It is onerous to seek out a decent trainer game recently. Ever since Microsoft determined to maneuver from the intense trainer market to the a lot of casual market, with the discharge of Microsoft Flight, it's become nearly not possible to seek out serious games with a practical flight model. the great news is that there square measure some attention-grabbing, visually appealing trainer games on-line, and plenty of of them provide a spread of management choices from "arcade" to "full sim" modes.

The Best trainer Games on-line

One of the most effective on-line flying games at the instant is War Thunder. this is often a web simulation with a powerful stress on aerial combat. the sport is unengaged to play, and you'll be able to participate in battles against alternative players, or play single-player matches against the AI. War Thunder remains in development, and there square measure plans to feature foot and tanks to the sport, however that doesn't deduct from its core, that may be a serious flight sim game. you'll be able to play War Thunder in casual flight mode employing a keyboard and mouse, otherwise you will opt for one among the a lot of advanced choices. The realistic choice is sweet for casual flight-sim fans, and therefore the "Historic" modes square measure geared toward serious fliers WHO wish the total expertise, as well as correct take-offs and landings.

Another in style trainer game is World of Warplanes. This game includes a slightly a lot of casual flight mode than War Thunder, however it's ideal for people that wish associate action-focused flying expertise. World of Warplanes is unengaged to play, and is out there as a transfer for each the laptop and therefore the Xbox 360.

If you wish a game which might be vie in your browser, attempt the Google Earth trainer. This includes a less realistic flight model, however permits you to fly around real cities that square measure generated from the satellite views in Google Earth. you'll be able to chat with alternative users whereas you play.

There also are several Flash primarily based flight simulators

games on-line. These tend to be a lot of casual experiences, and don't need a heavy data of the way to management the craft. However, they will be lots of fun. One in style flash game is heavier-than-air craft trainer - a mission-based flight sim wherever you pilot a traveler plane and have to be compelled to safely get your passengers to their destination.

Before you put in any on-line games, make certain to analysis them fastidiously. Games from well-known developers like Gaijin or War recreation square measure safe to transfer and install, however there square measure several scammers out there thus you must not transfer a game created by a corporation you have got ne'er detected of. solely use installers from the developer's official website, and don't use cheats or hacks to undertake to boost your craft or get more cash. If anyone offers you a link to such cheats, ignore them. All can|which will|that may} happen if you run the cheat is that you just will lose your account.

Game Over? Not Anymore!

Video games are condemned by virtually each parent and each news agency round the world, claims like they increase violence in kids, waste time, ends up in poor sight and then several different claims. a number of these claims perhaps true, however this doesn't negate the very fact that there area unit plenty of advantages behind taking part in video games. initial before i purchase into the advantages, let ME American state the age vary that play video games and see what variety of problems these individuals might encounter and the way video games might facilitate resolve them. From what I've seen from my very own experiences and taking note of others, the cohort that play video games might begin from nine years till late 40's. this can be a awfully giant cohort, and every cluster have their own problems and issues, from addictions (smoking, medication and alcohol) to fret from day to day activities that i feel could be a default in most age teams. Well, when some analysis I even have found that a awfully straightforward and low cost cure compared to medication area unit video games. in line with analysis performed in many universities, video games might facilitate cut back stress, improve weight loss and rank, i'll do a fast precis regarding every profit.

Stress and depression are known  lately to be "illness of the century", wherever prescription pills have reached market sales in 2008 of just about $ eleven billion and that i would not be shocked if this sales volume a minimum of doubled till 2012, however sadly i do not have this volume. in fact some cases area unit solely treatable with prescribed drugs, however i am positive that plenty of cases might be resolved with simply video games. Studies have shown that video games have constant impact as anti-depressant medication on the a part of the brain that produces monoamine neurotransmitter, that is chargeable for the mood shift that happens when ingesting anti-depressant medication. Now, you get constant result and while not the habit-forming aspect effects of those medication. Being absorbed in an exceedingly game will distract your mind from all pain and discomfort which might then facilitate your brain build up a tolerance to the pain a lot of easier; hospitals area unit starting to encourage kids to play video games when having a painful injury.

Looking at video games consoles just like the Nintendo Wii and also the Microsoft Xbox 360, they need taken video games to a brand new level, were the user won't be the couch and appearance just like the lazy stereotype gamer; however it's engaged the user to induce up, move and jump around so as to win and to be ready to play. These consoles became extremely popular, and also the demand for additional active games has been increasing daily. Now, plenty of the games for these consoles area unit targeting compute routines and deviating from the everyday "game over" vogue games, it is a compute that would be done daily and a inducement to people WHO have a time constraint to figure go into the gymnasium or sporting club.

Some individuals face some problems in creating new friends, and a few lack the social talent to become a part of a bunch. however within the large world of on-line gambling, these problems aren't any longer there. you'll be a part of any network, and instantly play on-line along with your friends and new ones. you do not have to be compelled to be smart trying or charming, you only ought to knowledge to play and also the rest can follow. From my very own experiences, I even have created friends through gambling networks everywhere the planet, individuals i'd haven't met except on-line and would haven't had the affiliation that we've got to day unless we tend to were taking part in these games. The conception isn't being on-line, however before we are saying a word to every different, we tend to have already got one thing in common that we tend to like taking part in this precise game; thus you have already got a minor foundation in your relationship.

Finally, because of the word limit I couldn't cite all the opposite advantages that result from taking part in video games, however i am positive that individuals can begin to understand the importance of those games in an exceedingly child's upbringing and if controlled might improve your life considerably.

The hidden costs of inequitable divorce

Dr. Helen shares Shawn Smith's thoughts after reading Men on Strike:

The bias against men in divorce and family law causes direct damage in some relationships. I’ve known dozens of men who choose to tolerate awful treatment from their wives because their only alternative is a divorce that promises financial ruin and part-time fatherhood. There is a reduced incentive for a woman of immature or low character to monitor her behavior if she stands to profit from divorce. It’s like having a job in which she will win the lottery if she gets fired. The courts have established a moral hazard for which men pay the price....

If the burden of divorce were more equitably shared, these men would have standing to push for changes in behavior, and the women in their lives would have an incentive to raise their maturity level, improve their communication, and beef up their coping skills. Not so ironically, the possibility of a painful divorce can lead to better behavior, which leads to healthier relationships. But as it stands, men who choose their wives poorly might pay the price for decades (along with any children who are involved) because the courts not only allow for bad behavior from abusive women, they indirectly encourage it.

This may be true.  But it occurs to me there is another set of unexpected consequences that stem from unequitable divorce laws, and they are considerably more significant than immature behavior on the part of some married women. The rise of "silver divorce" has been in the news of late, as "the number of over-60s divorcing has increased by over a third in 10 years."

I haven't read any statistics on whether it is disproportionately women leaving men or the other way around, but based on the fact that it is described as people waiting until the children have grown before ending the marriage, I strongly suspect that it is men who are filing more of them.  First, because women tend to be more impatient than men, second because child support creates a financial incentive for women and a disincentive for men to file for divorce when children are still in the picture, and third because every individual who has ever told me that they intend to wait until the youngest child is 18 before filing for divorce has been male.

It would be interesting to see if the 4/1 female to male divorce ratio holds up in silver divorces, as the lower the ratio, the stronger the indication that more men are simply biding their time until they can safely exit the marriage on more equitable terms.

Nor is that the only potential consequence, as it occurs to me that men who are biding their time would be well-served by refusing to work hard or to build household wealth, since they already know that they are going to lose at least half of whatever wealth they manage to accumulate. So, divorce may not only have significant negative effects on children, but on the economy as well as it creates significant disincentives for the single most productive class, the married male with children, to produce anything.

Puppy Pile: A Card Game about Puppies and Treats

Every time I play Reiner Knizia's Poison, I want to hack it into something a little more robust. But then I realize I'd probably be re-inventing Paul Peterson's Smash Up. Surely there is a middle ground somewhere between the two extremes. After all, the Hearts family of evasion trick-taking games is vast and old, so I bet we could come up with something a little gamery while still keeping it approachable. Here's a first attempt at it.

So the big thing with Poison is that you're trying to have the lowest score after a series of rounds. There are three cauldrons into which you're dropping potions and poisons. If you force the sum in a cauldron to exceed 13, you must take the cards currently in the cauldron and replace them with your new card. In the end of the round, you score 1 point per potion in your possession, 2 points per poison. You score no points for a specific type of potion if you possess the most of that potion, so you might try to "shoot the moon" once you're committed to a particular potion.

Smash Up is much more complicated, but the core of it is relatively similar. Instead of cauldrons, there are bases in which you drop minions. When the sum of Minion ranks exceeds the base's Defense rank, then the base is broken and anyone who has minions scores points as determined by that base. There are additional player-based effects by playing certain minions in certain bases, plus the bases themselves have special effects when they're broken. All this adds up to a very approachable, but distinctly gamer-oriented game.

I'm trying to figure out how we can add more depth to Poison without going so far as to make variable player powers. We can add persistent effects from round-to-round, which would make this a bit more strategic though.


PUPPY PILE
A Trick-Taking Game for 2-6 Players
This game is about piles of puppies chomping on dog treats. It has a deck of cards showing puppies in various breeds and quantities. Each card also shows a number of dog treats.


SETUP
Shuffle the whole deck and deal it all to each player. It's okay if this makes uneven hands. The youngest player takes the first turn in the first round. In each round thereafter, the first player role passes to the left.


PLAY
On your turn, take a card from your hand and place it in the middle of the table, starting or adding to the puppy pile.

• If the sum of puppies is thus greater than the sum of treats, you take all the cards that were in the pile and replace it with the card you just played. Keep collected cards face down in front of you.

In the example above, you played 2 Malamutes, which puts the sum of puppies at 7, which is greater than the sum of treats. You take the three cards already in the pile and replace them with the card you just played.


END OF ROUND
The round ends when all players hands are empty. Any puppies left in the pile are not collected by anyone.

Count how many of each breed you've collected. You score points equal to the fewest of a breed you've taken.

So in the example above, you score 1 point because the lowest quantity of a breed you have is 1 Labrador.

Make a note of the breed(s) you scored this round, because you'll get a breed bonus for collecting that breed in future rounds.


BREED BONUS
If you score a breed that you've collected in the past, you'll score the following bonus points.

Scored Once Before: Score x2 Points Now
Scored Twice Before: Score x3 Points Now
Scored Four Times Before: Score x4 Points Now
Scored Five Times Before: Score x5 Points Now


END OF GAME
The game lasts for one round per player. The player with the most points wins!

Ratings: syndies mostly lose a little

Syndicated game shows mostly gave a little ground in the week of July 29-August 4. There was a smidgen of good news for Mr. Harvey, though. And as always, the pecking order among the five shows remained the same. TVNewsCheck has all the household ratings...

Wheel of Fortune 5.9 - down a tick

Jeopardy 5.5 - also down a tick, to imitate the soulmate

Family Feud 4.6 - up a tick in the bit of good news

Millionaire 2.3 - down a couple ticks as Meredith's time is almost up

Baggage 1.0 - flat for poor Jerry

The top four made the syndie list at TV by the Numbers. Their viewership averages: Wheel of Fortune 9.1 million (weekend repeat 4.4 million), Jeopardy 8.2 million, Family Feud 6.8 million, Millionaire 3.2 million. The endlessly ballyhooed battle between CBS and Time Warner Cable really doesn't seem to have affected the numbers much.

In its second week GSN's The Chase pulled okay but not particularly good numbers: 397K total viewers and 141K 18-49 folks. The demo number is pretty decent for GSN.

Espionage: The Card Game [Prototype G]

This game has been long in-development and kept offline longer than usual, but I think it's finally ready for public playtesting. It's best described as a Gamer's version of Liars' Dice, but with cards instead of dice. It lifts the hot potato elements from Kakerlakenpoker and mashes them all up with a spy theme.

[[DOWNLOAD]]


THE THEME
You are a spy tracker. Employed by your secretive organization, it’s your job to monitor the espionage activity across the world. Keep your sources active, as they’re your best tool for deducing which global actors are in play.


THE GOAL
This is a game of bluffing and deduction. Be the first player to score three points or to be the last player with active Sources.


GAME COMPONENTS
Each card in the game depicts a spy who is either a Face, Hacker, or Muscle; working for either Agency, Bureau, or Command; in either New York City, London, or Moscow. There are nine of each attribute throughout the deck.

Each spy is a unique combination of one role, faction and city, for a total of 27 unique spies. The deck also includes  five Mercenaries and four Traitors.

There are also several Source tokens, but these are not mixed into the general deck.

SETUP THE GAME
Each player gets a set of Source tokens. Each Source token is double-sided, showing that they’re either ACTIVE or UNDERGROUND. Everyone’s Sources begin with the ACTIVE side up.

2 Players: Six Sources per player.
3 Players: Four Sources per player.
4 Players: Three Sources per player.


SETUP EACH ROUND
Shuffle the cards into a single deck and deal each player a full hand of cards face-down. The number of cards you can keep in your hand is determined by the number of your active sources. If you have five active sources, your hand limit is five cards.

The most honest player makes the first bid of the game. Thereafter whoever lost the last round makes the first bid. If the loser was eliminated the last round, the winner of the bid makes the first bid. Bidding is explained below.


PLAYING YOUR TURN
On your turn, you may BID, RAISE, CALL or SPOT.

Then choose another player to take the next turn. Turns do not proceed clockwise. You choose who goes next.


BID
Out loud, guess the minimum number of a role, faction or city you think is in all players’ hands. You may not bid a lower number than has been previously stated, but you may bid the same number while changing the role, faction or city.

For example, if the current bid is “At least five spies are hackers,” you could bid “At least five spies are working for Agency,” or “At least five spies are in Moscow.”


RAISE
You may increase the number currently being bid. You may also change the role, faction or city being bid.

For example, if the current bid was “At least five spies are in Moscow,” you could raise “At least SIX spies are in Moscow,” or “At least SIX spies are HACKERS!”


CALL
If you believe the current bid is incorrect (in other words, that there are fewer than stated number of roles, factions or cities)  you may say “CALL,” at which point all players reveal their entire hands.

Count how many of that role, faction or city are out there. Any Mercenary cards add to this number. Any Traitor cards subtract from this number.

• If the bid is correct (there are at least that many role, faction or city): One of the Caller’s Sources goes underground.
• If the bid was incorrect: (there are fewer than that many role, faction or city): One of the bidder’s Sources goes underground.

This ends the round. Whoever lost this bid makes the first bid in the next round. If that player was eliminated, then the winner makes the first bid next round.


SPOT
If you believe the current bid is exactly correct, you may say “SPOT,” at which point all players reveal their entire hands.

Count how many of that role, faction or city are out there. Any Mercenary cards add to this number. Any Traitor cards subtract from this number.

• If the Spotter is correct (there are exactly that many role, faction or city): One of the bidder’s Sources goes underground and the Spotter gains 1 point.
• If the Spotter was incorrect: (there are fewer or more than that many role, faction or city): One of the Spotter’s Sources goes underground and the bidder gains 1 point.

This ends the round. Whoever lost this bid makes the first bid in the next round. If that player was eliminated, then the winner makes the first bid next round.


EXAMPLE OF COUNTING AFTER A CALL OR SPOT

ENDGAME AND VICTORY
The player who reaches 3 points or is the last player with active Sources wins!

The skills that men lack

Sorry, gentlemen, but in the surveyed opinion of women, it would appear they just don't need us for the important things anymore:

TOP 10 SKILLS MEN LACK

1.Buying clothes for partner 52 per cent
2. Remembering anniversary 41 per cent
3. Dancing 33 per cent
4. Ironing 31 per cent
5. Cooking 30 per cent
6. Domestic chores 30 per cent
7. Buying gifts 28 per cent
8. Multi-tasking 22 per cent
9. Keeping up with fashion 22 per cent
10. Picking furniture 21 per cent

1. Feature, not bug.  It means he's not latently homosexual.
2. Perhaps he's simply trying to forget.
3. The fact that all women think they can dance doesn't mean they can actually do so.  As it happens, with one exception, all the best dancers I know are men.
4. Fair enough.
5. Fair enough.
6. Being uninterested in doing them to the woman's standard does not indicate inability.
7. I would be willing to bet that men are much better at buying gifts for women than the other way around.  Raise your hand if a romantic interest ever spent more than $5,000 on you... I see a lot of hands, but not many belong to men.
8. True... but again, feature not bug.  It's called "ability to focus".
9. Seriously?  In the immortal words of Derrick Coleman, whoop-de-damn-do.
10. Again, the disinclination to select furniture that women like does not indicate inability.

Now, consider how many of these vital skills are necessary for building or even maintaining civilization in light of how  the article was reporting on "a survey finds women really don't rate men as much use at all."

But, upon further reflection, it's probably true.  Without men, women would probably find it very nearly as easy to keep up on fashion and pick out furniture for their grass huts as they do now.

Heavy Thunderstorm Rain Closes State Route 20

The eastern slopes of the Cascades are susceptible to very heavy thunderstorm rains during the summer and on Saturday night it happened again.

On Friday through Sunday, the region was covered by a moist, relatively unstable air mass that brought strong thunderstorm activity and lots of lightning.   The proximate cause was an upper level low that was slowly moving up the coast, resulting in southeasterly flow in the lower atmosphere (see 500 hPa map, roughly 18,000 ft, for Saturday at 5 PM below).

As the moist air approached the eastern slopes Washington Cascades it was forced to rise and instability was released, producing lots of thunderstorms, some with intense rain and much lightning.  A particularly, intense thunderstorm cell passed across the North Cascades between 8 and 10 PM Saturday, here is a radar image for 8:49 PM Saturday. Red indicates very heavy rain.

Not impressed yet?  Here is a higher resolution radar image (from Camano Island radar) five minutes earlier (8:54 PM).  WOW.  Look closely and you will see the color blue in the center of this storm.  Very rare.  The figure indicates the highest composite reflectivity (the highest reflectivity in a vertical column) was 69, which is associated with hail and torrential rain.  You will also notice more showers to the south.

 How high was this monster?  The radar suggested about 40,000 ft, very high for our neck of the woods (see figure)

There were no surface observations under that storm.  But we can see the total precipitation for the entire thunderstorm period (based on radar) in the following figure.  Keep in mind that radar-based precipitation totals are rough estimates and that the north Cascades blocked a lot of the radar echo.  Clearly, the eastern side of the Cascades was hammered, with some places getting 4-6 inches over a several day period.  I cannot imagine what happened under that intense thunderstorm over the North Cascades.

With rain wetting the soil over the past day and then being hit by a deluge that certainly was well over an inch in an hour, there were mudslides and debris flows over portions of the north Cascades, including a section of State Route 20.   That road was covered with mud, rocks, and trees--in some places as deep as 25 feet.  WSDOT has closed the SR 20 from mile markers 147 to 157.   Take a look at some of the amazing photos provided by  WSDOT personnel.  You got to appreciate the folks at WSDOT, having to deal with massive slides like this and collapsing bridges on I5.

In my book, I talk about several other eastern slope thunderstorm road closures and landslides, such as the 1998 and 2012 events on  the Yakima Canyon road (SR 821).

The eastern slopes of the Cascades is a very beautiful and bountiful place (fragrant pine forests, apples, wind power and more), but it also has its vulnerabilities, including intense thunderstorms, powerful downslope winds, and lightning-induced wildfires.

Here, there and everywhere

Decided to wander around my blogroll to see what's agitating the game show blogosphere.

First, I ran across this excruciatingly detailed chat about gameplay on The Joker's Wild. If you're wondering where the thread came from, you don't know the blogroll very well. Only one forum could chew over as many teensy-weensy details of a really old game show. That would be what's left of what used to be Matt Ottinger's board.

Next, I saw this game show haiku on a GSN-centric blog with attitude. Game show haiku is a little-known literary form. But I like the thought:

BROOKE BURNS LOOKS SO HOT
THE BEAST IS A BIG MONSTER
IN THIS BRIT QUIZ GAME

Brooke is hot, you know. Then I found this charitable prejudgment of Million Second Quiz on another oldies board: "Oh my they think of some ridiculous things to try and put on TV." Too bad they didn't try a remake of The Joker's Wild. At least the oldies guys would have liked it.

Finally, Game Show Newsnet wants an end to the kids week spelling controversy on Jeopardy now that Alex Has Spoken. I never knew Alex had such power.

Where to buy Koi Pond at Gen Con: Booth 1201

If you're going to Gen Con, you can find my card game KOI POND for sale at Booth 1201, where DriveThruRPG, White Wolf and Minion Games are sharing a space this year. Here's a map!


If you can make it there early, you can grab a free promo card made just for the occasion: FOUR WINDS. This is the first in a series of one-card promo expansions that didn't quite make the cut into the basic game.

I hear sometimes that Cats, Cranes and Turtles feel more valuable than koi, mainly because they're worth 1:1 for each koi, whereas building up your own koi collections require careful balance and planning, only to get 1 point for every two matched koi.

With FOUR WINDS, you get the full value of each of your koi, but only in one specific suit. Do you pursue the bonus, making your strategy obvious, or do you play it coy? Visit the booth at Gen Con to pick up your card and find out!

Liars and fools or simply mad?

A successful but childless woman informs her younger counterparts that "any woman who says she's happy to be childless is a liar or a fool":

Where a decade ago, just one in nine women remained childless at 45 and were considered rather peculiar at that, now that figure is closer to one in four. For women with a university education, like me, that figure rises to 43 per cent - an extraordinary figure which signifies a seismic social change....

I had an intern recently, a 21-year-old Oxford graduate, who told me confidently she never wanted kids because it would get in the way of her career. I told her she was mad. While a child-free life looks fun on Facebook, no number of career highs, nights at the theatre, weekends away or adult pleasures can disguise the fact that it feels - there is no other word - empty.

Between today and the end of my life, I hope there are a few more decades. But, as time goes by, the idea of dying without children feels unnatural and sad. Statistics do not reveal whether the 43 per cent of educated women who are child-free are so by choice or by circumstance, but I believe the Motherhood Deniers, waving the flag for the childless life, remain in the minority. Admittedly a far more confident, glamorous, and witty minority than they once were, but a minority nonetheless.

For the rest of us, childlessness is a source of sadness and regret. Most of those 43 per cent will have gone through fertility hell, or never met the right guy, or left it too late, or have any number of unhappy stories.

There are two purposes in life.  The first is to serve and worship God. The second is to have children. The first is a test, the second is a duty. There are very, very few accomplishments of historic note that are more important than the latter; for all that we may lament the loss of their genetics to the human race, Newton and Leibniz arguably contributed more to it than nearly any line of descendants have, however long.

But other than such intellectual sports, whose personal accomplishments can possibly hope to outweigh generations upon generations of accomplishments?  Whose career can be said to be so important that it outweighs all the prospective careers of her children, her children's children, and her children's children's children?  Especially if one considers women's careers, of which fewer than 100 have ever deemed been worthy of historical note.

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote: "Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad."  And the meaningful work of women is bearing and raising the next generation of the human race.  Given that more than 40 percent of educated women have deprived themselves of their reason for existence, it should be no wonder that they have, collectively, gone stark, raving mad.

Short break

I'm taking a short break from the blog, just a couple of days, as all my spare time is going into a very exciting little project which I hope to share with you guys once it's done. I'm translating the Polish army manual for the infantry from 1934 which covers small unit tactics on a team, platoon and company level.

This is part of me helping a friend in the wargaming community since Polish sources about this are hard to find in English and information is needed to give a historically accurate depiction of Polish small unit tactics.

It may appear really nerdy, but the manual is actually very exciting. It's very interesting reading about how the Polish infantry was trained and what was expected of them in different situations. It includes lots of stuff that I would have never been able to imagine, but which correspond with the battle descriptions and memories from the September Campaign told by veterans.

When I was working on my September Campaign book I was very interested in finding stuff on small unit tactics/platoon level operations but it was really hard. I only managed to find this army manual through pure luck after searching the internet. For those of you fluent in Polish here is the original file which I'm translating:http://www.cytadela.aplus.pl/tematy_woj/musztra_new/regpiech.pdf

So the first post when I get back to the blog will most likely be a PDF with the interesting parts of the manual translated into English :-)

A cup full of chess

With not much to report about traditional game shows, I'll post another entry on Internet chess broadcasts. The big one running right now is the 2013 Chess World Cup.

This is a monster knockout tournament - no, they don't literally knock out monsters - with 128 of the world's best players. They're running the thing in Norway, which has experienced a chess boom thanks to a fellow named Magnus. (He's one of the very few top players not in this particular tournament, by the way.) The organizers have scraped up a total prize fund of $1.6 million, which is big money by chess standards. By my standards, too.

The Internet commentators are GM Susan Polgar and IM Lawrence Trent, both of them experienced hosts on the net. The problem is that, at least in the first few rounds, they have so many freaking games to cover. So they tend to miss some interesting happenings. But they hop around the boards as fast as they can, and they conduct postgame interviews with the players intelligently and tactfully. It helps with the English-impaired participants that they know a bunch of languages.

The two finalists get places in next year's candidates tournament to select the challenger for the world championship. They also get a fair amount of money.

Desperate for attention

Dalrock nails an important aspect of intersexual relations:

Feminists desperately crave to be accepted as one of the guys in a mostly futile effort to experience manly pride.  This obsession is core to our integration of the military and is a staple in feminist fiction.  In The Last Psychiatrist’s brilliant review of the Hunger Games he describes the unlikely scene in the movie which has feminists so enthralled:

There’s a banquet and the contestants have to show off their skills, but the overlords are eating a roast pig and bored with Katniss (because she misses a target) so Katniss turns her arrow towards them and shoots an apple.  Katniss says, “you better recognize, mothafuckas!”, flashes a gang sign, and the audience swoons.  That’s when she’s a badass. Yes, she was wonderful in the Games, I’m sure, but what got your adrenaline going, what made her a badass, is showing off her abilities– to men.

TLP goes on to assert that to the delighted female viewers Badass = showing she can compete on a male level, but if you watch the scene it is very obviously not about competing on a male level but instead a plea for attention and acceptance from the men.  The look on Katniss’ face screams:

Notice me!  Take me seriously!

This is exactly how Entertainment Tonight characterized the same scene:

While in the training area getting prepared to enter the arena for the Hunger Games, a literal fight to the death, Jennifer’s character Katniss Everdeen shows her skill with a bow and arrow. But when the game makers seem more interested in a pig that just arrived, an angry Katniss gets their attention.

This is why women like Feisty Women and FeministX are constantly showing up at the leading Game blogs and address direct messages to Roosh, Roissy, and I.  It's not because they disagree with us anymore than they disagree with the average Game blogger, it is because we represent the ultimate currency they crave, which is status male respect.

You're not going to see actresses or female athletes here doing that, because the status is situational.  If a woman is interested in intersexual relations, then the big dogs of Game have status in her eyes and she craves that male attention.

The same thing is true of politics.  When my WND column was nationally syndicated, I used to get long emails telling me how wrong and terrible I was, not infrequently accompanied by pictures.  At the time, I didn't understand it.  Now, of course, the answer is obvious. The same mechanic is at work in the book world; being a real author publishing actual can bring status in the local coffee shop to even the saddest little gamma male.

So, if a woman is angrily attempting to get your attention, relax and enjoy her performance.  She's admitting that she views you as higher status, so if it amuses you, throw her a bone and give her a little of the attention she is seeking.  And remember, the competition in which women engage with each other is largely for male benefit; it's no different than the way a pair of dogs won't wrestle and play-fight with each other without a human audience.

Thunderfest

Last night brought substantial lightning, thunder, and showers as a band of convection moved northward across Washington.  As I will discuss later, these thunderstorms are associated with a upper level low that is moving northward across the Northwest this weekend.

The thunderstorms hit the Puget Sound area around 1:30 PM...here is a nice radar image at 1:57 AM Saturday.  You see a line of heavy showers (reds/oranges), with lighter precipitation (green) following behind.

Here is a wonderful picture of the lightning taken over downtown Seattle by Rod Hoekstra.

There was lots of lightning over eastern Washington and unfortunately some ignited new fires (as warned by the National Weather Service).   Here is a picture (by Draysen Brooks Bechard)  of a new fire near Wenatchee.

Tonight may see a repeat.   Take a look at the upper level forecast map (at 500 hPa, around 18,000 ft) at 5 PM Saturday.  You can see an upper level low over Oregon and a lobe of low pressure, just south of the Oregon/Washington border, that is rotating around it.  Those lobes are associated with upward motion that can force new thunderstorms.

In fact, the latest visible satellite imagery at around 3 PM shows thunderstorms building over eastern Washington, as does the radar (see images).

One of the most useful forecasting tools over the next 6-12 hours in the NOAA/NWS High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) modeling system.  Here is the forecasting for 11 PM Saturday of a simulated radar image.  You will see a band of thunderstorms moving north across Washington, really reminiscent of last night...so be prepared for more thunder!

The low will move northward on Sunday and the weather should calm down with a return to typical (and dry) midsummer conditions.

Update at 5:30 PM Saturday: lighting is widespread over northern Oregon and in a strong cell over the central Washington Cascades.

 10 PM update:  Lots of thunderstorms in a line from eastern Washington to the central Cascades (see radar).

Lightning network data (for hour ending 9:20 PM) shows many hits.

 Rain will be moving into western Washington now...