Subject: MN: Re: Real-life Crescent

From: "Kevan Davis" <kevan@z...>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 23:17:04 +0100

I've just found this sitting in my "half-replied to" folder. Ptchsk. I'd
almost made a couple of half-interesting points, so here it is completed.

>It would have to be a rather edited version... Many of the possessions
>would be gone, for example, and probably charge as well. The board I have
>in mind, though, is quite complicated enough to handle a lot of data...
>4-sided Circle Line state marker, dials to keep track of time, dry-erase
>board for home and damaged stations...

Hmm. Perhaps feasible, then, if trimmed down enough, although you'd have to
be careful that the trimmage didn't unbalance anything. Taking away the
fiddlier mathematical aspects of the game (Charge and Game Time), you might
be able to get away with keeping sufficient information on the board - Homes
and Damaged Stations can, of course, just have markers at those Stations.
Hmm.

>You could keep it relatively fast paced, as long as everyone was reasonably
>familiar with the game, had appropriate reference cards, and maybe a time
>limit.

I get the feeling it won't be that easy to translate, myself; much of the
game we play here is tilted towards lengthy consideration, and any attempt
to play the thing face to face would hit snags. Keeping track of everyone's
LV is going to be fiddly without use of a Laser Display-Board, and even then
it'll still take a lot of glancing to and fro over the board to see just
what everyone's up to.

Shoddy board game (well, the travel edition, at least) "The London Game"
uses the reasonable approach of a die-based LV - you roll a six-sided die
and move that many stations along the line you're on (stop at an interchange
to change). Something like that would probably be preferable for a real-life
boardgame of Crescent, I suspect.

And that's just LV. Tokens become quite different when they're gathered in
piles in front of players - does Paul have six or seven Blacks, there? I'd
better not ask, it'd give away my thoughts, and I've only got two minutes
anyway. Game Time: Did Dunx take fifty-five or sixty-five minutes to perform
those Actions? Wait while I add them up.

Playing on a board does add an awful lot to the game - play would be much
clearer if we all saw pieces being moved station-by-station around the map -
but I think we've probably got far too much luggage to carry up that
escalator.

Worth debating for eternity, though.

>Actually, if anyone's interested, I have a text file for a card game a
>friend of mine and I created, called Leviathan - sort of like a cross
>between Magic and Go Fish, with heavy doses of sarcasm.

"Go Fish" rings bells, but only tiny ones, and they seem to lack labels.
Sounds an intriguing thing, anyway - cough up a URL or mail the thing to me,
if you have a moment.

If anyone wants the Word file of the cards that I've put together for
"Mornington Bartok", by the way, just give the nod.

>That's my other
>other project right now (after building the robots from Mystery Science
>Theater 3000

Ah, the one thing I miss about having cable television within walking
distance.

>I do have a poster varnished onto wood, with nice brass hinges and handles,
>and holes drilled in each station for pegs, plus a box of assorded pawns,
>pegs, and tokens.

Beautiful, I'm sure. Any scanned photos of the thing for us to envy?

>Funny thing is, I'd been playing games similar to MC and Cress and Cheddar
>Gorge all through high-school; my friends and I were always making up
>elaborate non-games on the spot. It was a bit of a shock when I first
>discovered MC several years ago...

Cheapass Games - a fine company which various people have suddenly started
recommending to me - have a nice coin-based MC-style game on their Web site,
along with some other interesting little games (including, of course, one
that I already made up a version of - the 'complete a three-letter-word'
game is *far* more interesting if you play it on a 'one point for a
three-letter word, two for a four, four for a five, etc.' basis, and just
carry on until the board's full).

www.cheapass.com, anyway. My Web connection seems to be a bit ill at the
moment, so I can't find the direct reference to the coin game, nor check the
name of the three-letter word one. Still. It's there somewhere.

>Maybe if I ever manage to make a Pilgrimage, I'll teach you all to play
>Fligett's Nodules, Kleimnot & Tchuse, and Ring the Frog.

Now that I seem to have the loose change for a social life again, perhaps
it's time to wonder if any of the Pilgrims would have any idea who I was.
When's the next one due?

Kevan

--
kevan@d...
http://members.xoom.com/asabove

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