RE: [spoon-discuss] Puzzle Games

["Craig" <ragnarok@xxxxxxxxx>]

>>>>> and the general premise is that the players are on a small map, say
>>>>> 5x5, on which they move around and create new rules. New rules, once
>>>>
>>>> That could get a bit crowded.
>>
>>> Oh, I dunno...I've got five people failing to find each other on an
>>> 8x8...
>>
>>>> Hey, how about making a deliberately crowded game based on those
>>>> puzzles where you slide the pieces around? Maybe you gain a point
>>>> every checkpoint in which you move and you lose a point in every
>>>> checkpoint in which you can't move?
>>
>>> We could go a step beyond that...Ever hear of a game called Master
>> Labyrinth?  It's
>>> a board game with tiles that show pieces of corridors.  All but one
>>> of them
>> fit in a grid;
>>> each turn, a player takes the extra tile and uses it to shift a row
>>> over by
>> one, freeing
>>> up a new tile.  Anyone and anything on the shifted tiles is shifted
>>> with
>> them; anyone
>>> and anything on the freed-up tile wraps around to the other side.
>>
>> We could do several such subgames - that's what INH is for, right?
>>
>> I suggest the following, but am not entirely sure how to incorporate
>> it as
>> an INH subgame. I encourage Wonko to help me.
>>
>> All players wishing to join inform the game's moderator, who places
>> them in
>> a grid. They are then all shown the full grid, and anyone may move
>> into an
>> adjacent empty space at any time. Each checkpoint, all players who have
>> moved at least once during the checkpoint receive a point, and all
>> others
>> lose a point. No player may move if e was the most recent player to
>> make a
>> move, nor may any player move into a space which e has occupied during
>> the
>> past checkpoint.
>>
>> The grid should be the smallest size square or near-square that fits
>> all the
>> players and at least one empty space. So if only 5 people want to
>> play, it
>> will be 2x3, meaning that there is only one empty space.

>Doesn't this basically mean that whoever responds fastest wins? At any
>given time, at most four people will be able to move, and all of them
>will have exactly one available move; Whoever posts first gets the move.

Yes, but this frees up another open space. This is because the space they
were in is now empty.

>> Another possibility might be to assign people to desired neighbors,
>> and give
>> or take points based on how many of their desired neighbors they are
>> adjacent to. The neighbors should be chosen such that the players can
>> arrange themselves in a partial grid with all players next to their
>> desired
>> neighbors, but they should then be scattered such that nobody starts
>> out
>> next to their desired neighbors. If the arrangement was made right,
>> they
>> could never all be next to the right people (cf Sam Loyd's "fifteeen"
>> puzzle).

>There needs to be more than one blank square; otherwise, it becomes
>just like the above, where most Contestants can't do anything, and the
>two or three who can do something only have one available move.

Two or three blank squares is probably ideal, in both situations.

Note that the latter encourages cooperation, but only to a limited degree.

 -- Teucer

"Nothing exciting here except the day the volcano went off under us and
killed everyone in a torrent of fire. Yep, pretty dull."
 -Baron von Skippy

ragnarok@xxxxxxxxx
teucer@xxxxxxxxxx



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