4295: The Fight
This post is going to seem flippant in light of things, but what exactly is anyone supposed to do? One psychotic bomber murderer can't possibly have been foreseen: suggestions of stepping up security at theatres is ridiculous as their workers are already underpaid even as ticket prices skyrocket, and most of these one-time shooters pick their targets precisely BECAUSE there aren't any particular protections, which means the "solution" would be to bubble-wrap all of the world so no one could ever hurt anyone, ever ever ever.
It's a familiar reaction, down to the "if someone there had been concealed-carry, they could've taken down the shooter" ignorance of how the ["alleged"] shooter was wearing body armour and had thrown smoke bombs in addition to it being a dark theatre, and all the analyzing won't change the fact that it happened and now will never happen again but NOT because we're now aware of the possiblity of it happening [see above].
About the only interesting thing I can contribute is that I have only been to one midnight showing [by invitation], for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and I have never been to another, but for different reasons [as an adult, my theatre-going experience is consistently that there are too many obnoxious people--I'd rather be nearly the only one at the showing]. So MY chances of being in such a situation go even further down, unless I ironically happen to get someone with particularly poor strategy [see below].
So we finally tried the last of my three questionable game purchases, arguably the best of the three [photo of game on a free chair I liberated from work and seem to have not described 1]:
Nostril citY ["abbreviates" to NY, how 'bout that?] is a Mafia-themed semi-co-op game where the overall goal is to exonerate the Godfather, though the possibility [in truth, likelihood] of a secret Traitor [FBI snitch] means the result isn't quite so clear-cut. The rules are, as apparently usual with these questionable games, not very clear, so I'll try to boil it down for future reference:
GOAL:
- make the Godfather not guilty
SECRET GOAL:
- if an FBI snitch, make the Godfather guilty
WIN CONDITIONS:
- if the Godfather is cleared, the person with the most Respect WHO IS NOT A SNITCH wins
- if the Godfather is guilty, the FBI SNITCH with the most Respect wins
- if the Godfather is guilty AND no one is an FBI snitch, everyone LOSES =(
SETUP:
- All players get three Wiseguys and one Turf [public knowledge]
- All players get two $5k bills, one "innocent" $10k bill, and one "guilty" $10k bill [NOT public knowledge]
- Four Street cards placed on board [public knowledge], excepting Investigations [reshuffled into deck*]
- Remaining money gets shuffled w/ Police Raid card*
*As far as I can tell, shuffling occurs on an as-needed basis, since the only time specified otherwise is after the First Trial. Otherwise, cards run out pretty quickly w/ more than three players.
PHASES:
1. Get Money
2. Buy Shit
3. Bribe Jury
4. [reset]
- Note: Players DO NOT have to take part in a Phase.
PHASE 1: GET MONEY
- Play begins with GovernorFirst Player. [Note: First Player token only changes voluntarily.]
- Active player starts a Cash-In by choosing one Wiseguy to collect the money, one Turf where the Cash-In takes place, and one type of Cash-In. ["tap" chosen Wiseguy/Turf] This may be done as many times as Wiseguy+Turf sets.
* NOTE: Only a max of four Cash-Ins per player per turn can occur: Gambling, Drugs, Hookers, and Racket [colour-based].
* NOTE 2: Cash-Ins MUST be of either the icon or the colour on the Turf [I thought this wasn't the case, but I re-read the rules and it's [ONLY] made clear in the example].
- Active player draws one bill per Turf with the chosen icon/colour, regardless of whether that Turf is "Busy" [tapped].
- Other players are "owed" one bill per Turf--Active player either gives them what is owed in bills OR First Player token [counts as one bill] OR other players draw one Vendetta card per bill they are "cheated" out of. [Active First Player does not change until the next round.]
* NOTE 3: If the Police Raid card comes up, the Active player cannot draw any more money.
PHASE 2: BUY SHIT
- "Auction" for Street cards on the board using "Location" cards [cards for which item is being bidded on: 1, 2, 3, or 4], bids [# of bills placed under the Location card], and Wiseguy going to make the bid [tapped]. Both Location and amount of bid are secret.
- Auction starts with slot #1 and proceeds right. Players bidding on each item reveal their bids as the item is being announced.
- If a player is the only person to bid on an item, s/he gets to retrieve one bill from the bid and discards the rest.
- If more than one player bids on an item, the highest bidder wins [derp!], and all bid money is discarded.
- If there is a tie bid on an item, NO ONE GETS IT [the card stays where it is], and all bid money is discarded.
* IMPORTANT NOTE: Any player who bids AND DOES NOT WIN ANYTHING THAT PHASE is "cheated" and gets a Vendetta card.
* IMPORTANT NOTE 2: At the end of February [Round 2], the Underboss card replaces whatever is in slot #1 [the replaced card is discarded from the game].
PHASE 2.5: INVESTIGATIONS
- Investigations appear during Phase 4 [reset] and take effect at the start of the next round. These stay in effect until they are bought out.
- Investigations are bid on per above, but bids are combined.
- If the bid goes above [or equals] the Backhander value, the highest bidder wins the card and earns the Respect listed on the card.
- If the bid goes above [or equals] the Backhander value and high bids are tied, no one wins the card, but it is removed from play.
- If the bid is not high enough, all bids are discarded and the card stays in play.
- If only one person bids, s/he does not get to take back a bill per normal auction.
- Investigations not removed generate one point of Guilt for the Godfather during Phase 4.
PHASE 2.75: TITLE CARDS
- When the Underboss card is won in an Auction, the player who wins it gets +3 Respect.
- This player IMMEDIATELY gives the Consigliere [+2 Respect] card to whoever s/he wants [MUST be someone else--one title per person].
- The Consigliere IMMMEDIATELY gives the Primo Capo [+1 Respect] card to whoever s/he wants WHO IS NOT THE UNDERBOSS [or self, derp!].
- Any player who does not get a title card [4 or 5 players] gets a Vendetta card.
PHASE 3: BRIBE JURY
- Active player taps a Wiseguy to send to trial to bribe the jury with ONE bill.
- This bill is placed in the Corruption Pile face down.
PHASE 3.5: ZEALOUS CORRUPTOR
- During the last three rounds [April/May/June], if ONLY ONE player corrupts the jury, s/he gets a Zealous Corruptor card [+1 Respect].
- Cards not won are removed from the game [only one card awarded per round].
PHASE 4: [reset]
- All Wiseguys/Turf are untapped for re-use.
- All players with more than 6 bills discards down to 6 [choose which cards to discard].
- Investigations still on the board make the Godfather more guilty [1 Guilt point per Investigation].
- All empty Street spaces are filled.
- DATE MARKER MOVES WOO TIME PASSING
PHASE 4.5: FIRST TRIAL [end of round 3/March]
- First Player takes all bills from the Corruption Pile.
- All bills are SHUFFLED [this does affect the Verdict].
- The Verdict is moved according to the icon on the bill as it is announced [Guilty or Innocent]. The Verdict cannot be more Guilty/Innocent if it is at max value.
- ALL BILLS ARE SHUFFLED--Corruption Pile, draw pile, discard pile, and Police Raid card.
END PHASE: FINAL VERDICT [at the end of round 6/June, instead of Phase 4]
- All players get one last turn to play Vendetta cards, starting with First Player.
- End Game Bonus cards are awarded as applicable. [In the event of a tie, no one wins the card.]
- All bills in the Corruption Pile are tallied as in First Trial.
- Investigations still on the board make the Godfather more guilty [1 Guilt point per Investigation].
- Any FBI snitches announce themselves.
- FIND OUT WHO IS WINNAR
So we got through most of the game without any Vendetta-ing going on, which is kinda boring. It felt like I got loads of money from Cashing-In even without Cheating anyone [I was the first to have to discard money], to the point where I Cheated Casey just to get some interaction going. At that point, we had been overlooking the "anyone who participates in an auction but does not win anything gets a Vendetta card" rule, which stiffed me out of at least two Vendettas, and Casey had done two Rackets in a turn [though different colours, at least], but we wrote it off as the First Game learning hurdle and kept playing. [Also, Underboss came out a round late, but eh.]
Vendettas only started getting use around April[?], when Casey swiped my Turfs--leaving me with the one--so I threw [nearly] all my money at the one Turf up for sale, much to Casey's surprise [he expected me to go for Underboss, but I was counting on other means of earning Respect]. I ended up getting only one Vendetta the entire game, a "Shame on You" [-1 Respect]--which I played on C at the last minute [when it was clear I wouldn't get the "most unused Vendettas" achievement], causing him to counter with his Wiseguy who gains two Vendettas when a Vendetta is played against him. Casey chided me for giving him the extra Respect for most Vendettas, but--as it turns out--one of the Vendettas he gained at the end was an FBI snitch...
...meaning, with the Godfather rather Innocent, I won!
XD XD XD XD XD XD XD
So, my complete disregard for strategy gave me an accidental win, which is a bit of an annoyance in the larger scheme of things [at a glance, there seems to be no "counter" for this kind of attack, since there's no further altering of the Verdict after the final Vendettas are played]. I still want to play again, but I think I might not enjoy it as much as "LOL I WIN" =3
Dominion: Mad Trashing hands = Ryan totes win [Bishop is starting to = I don't win, along with Remodel]
Citadels: I admit I got distracted with my new interest in Spider Solitaire [I started playing at work in between renaming files when I feel particularly prone to falling asleep otherwise] in between somewhat long turns and didn't notice when Ryan played the game-ending card. I also somehow didn't think of playing University[?] instead of the other 6-spot, which would've given me two more points for the win... Yay, I have no strategery =(
So, in sum: I am that guy in Yu-Gi-Oh! who plays haphazardly and relies on dumb luck [Katsuya Jonouchi, I think] =p I'm also a fucking addict again, which I think I can only cure by making myself so tired of the thing [Spider Solitaire] that I quit cold turkey [all Zynga games, now]. It's going to take a whille, if Freecell is any indication -_- but it's going to suck if I can't stick with it only at work and not outside of work--either I eat up a load of my free time or I go back to falling asleep at my desk =/
*sigh*
1. Half [well, a third] of the building is being leased out to some peeps in a subsidiary company, so we have all this extra crap that was just taking up space, including a shitload of office chairs, which are taking a trip to the dump. They gave a call for people to take them, so hey, free chair(s)! Also, C won't have to complain about my folding chairs tearing up the carpet and themselves =p If I had an easy way to give away chairs to anyone who needed one, too, I would, but I guess everything can't be as easy to give away as Poorcraft 9_9
It's a familiar reaction, down to the "if someone there had been concealed-carry, they could've taken down the shooter" ignorance of how the ["alleged"] shooter was wearing body armour and had thrown smoke bombs in addition to it being a dark theatre, and all the analyzing won't change the fact that it happened and now will never happen again but NOT because we're now aware of the possiblity of it happening [see above].
About the only interesting thing I can contribute is that I have only been to one midnight showing [by invitation], for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and I have never been to another, but for different reasons [as an adult, my theatre-going experience is consistently that there are too many obnoxious people--I'd rather be nearly the only one at the showing]. So MY chances of being in such a situation go even further down, unless I ironically happen to get someone with particularly poor strategy [see below].
So we finally tried the last of my three questionable game purchases, arguably the best of the three [photo of game on a free chair I liberated from work and seem to have not described 1]:
Nostril citY ["abbreviates" to NY, how 'bout that?] is a Mafia-themed semi-co-op game where the overall goal is to exonerate the Godfather, though the possibility [in truth, likelihood] of a secret Traitor [FBI snitch] means the result isn't quite so clear-cut. The rules are, as apparently usual with these questionable games, not very clear, so I'll try to boil it down for future reference:
GOAL:
- make the Godfather not guilty
SECRET GOAL:
- if an FBI snitch, make the Godfather guilty
WIN CONDITIONS:
- if the Godfather is cleared, the person with the most Respect WHO IS NOT A SNITCH wins
- if the Godfather is guilty, the FBI SNITCH with the most Respect wins
- if the Godfather is guilty AND no one is an FBI snitch, everyone LOSES =(
SETUP:
- All players get three Wiseguys and one Turf [public knowledge]
- All players get two $5k bills, one "innocent" $10k bill, and one "guilty" $10k bill [NOT public knowledge]
- Four Street cards placed on board [public knowledge], excepting Investigations [reshuffled into deck*]
- Remaining money gets shuffled w/ Police Raid card*
*As far as I can tell, shuffling occurs on an as-needed basis, since the only time specified otherwise is after the First Trial. Otherwise, cards run out pretty quickly w/ more than three players.
PHASES:
1. Get Money
2. Buy Shit
3. Bribe Jury
4. [reset]
- Note: Players DO NOT have to take part in a Phase.
PHASE 1: GET MONEY
- Play begins with GovernorFirst Player. [Note: First Player token only changes voluntarily.]
- Active player starts a Cash-In by choosing one Wiseguy to collect the money, one Turf where the Cash-In takes place, and one type of Cash-In. ["tap" chosen Wiseguy/Turf] This may be done as many times as Wiseguy+Turf sets.
* NOTE: Only a max of four Cash-Ins per player per turn can occur: Gambling, Drugs, Hookers, and Racket [colour-based].
* NOTE 2: Cash-Ins MUST be of either the icon or the colour on the Turf [I thought this wasn't the case, but I re-read the rules and it's [ONLY] made clear in the example].
- Active player draws one bill per Turf with the chosen icon/colour, regardless of whether that Turf is "Busy" [tapped].
- Other players are "owed" one bill per Turf--Active player either gives them what is owed in bills OR First Player token [counts as one bill] OR other players draw one Vendetta card per bill they are "cheated" out of. [Active First Player does not change until the next round.]
* NOTE 3: If the Police Raid card comes up, the Active player cannot draw any more money.
PHASE 2: BUY SHIT
- "Auction" for Street cards on the board using "Location" cards [cards for which item is being bidded on: 1, 2, 3, or 4], bids [# of bills placed under the Location card], and Wiseguy going to make the bid [tapped]. Both Location and amount of bid are secret.
- Auction starts with slot #1 and proceeds right. Players bidding on each item reveal their bids as the item is being announced.
- If a player is the only person to bid on an item, s/he gets to retrieve one bill from the bid and discards the rest.
- If more than one player bids on an item, the highest bidder wins [derp!], and all bid money is discarded.
- If there is a tie bid on an item, NO ONE GETS IT [the card stays where it is], and all bid money is discarded.
* IMPORTANT NOTE: Any player who bids AND DOES NOT WIN ANYTHING THAT PHASE is "cheated" and gets a Vendetta card.
* IMPORTANT NOTE 2: At the end of February [Round 2], the Underboss card replaces whatever is in slot #1 [the replaced card is discarded from the game].
PHASE 2.5: INVESTIGATIONS
- Investigations appear during Phase 4 [reset] and take effect at the start of the next round. These stay in effect until they are bought out.
- Investigations are bid on per above, but bids are combined.
- If the bid goes above [or equals] the Backhander value, the highest bidder wins the card and earns the Respect listed on the card.
- If the bid goes above [or equals] the Backhander value and high bids are tied, no one wins the card, but it is removed from play.
- If the bid is not high enough, all bids are discarded and the card stays in play.
- If only one person bids, s/he does not get to take back a bill per normal auction.
- Investigations not removed generate one point of Guilt for the Godfather during Phase 4.
PHASE 2.75: TITLE CARDS
- When the Underboss card is won in an Auction, the player who wins it gets +3 Respect.
- This player IMMEDIATELY gives the Consigliere [+2 Respect] card to whoever s/he wants [MUST be someone else--one title per person].
- The Consigliere IMMMEDIATELY gives the Primo Capo [+1 Respect] card to whoever s/he wants WHO IS NOT THE UNDERBOSS [or self, derp!].
- Any player who does not get a title card [4 or 5 players] gets a Vendetta card.
PHASE 3: BRIBE JURY
- Active player taps a Wiseguy to send to trial to bribe the jury with ONE bill.
- This bill is placed in the Corruption Pile face down.
PHASE 3.5: ZEALOUS CORRUPTOR
- During the last three rounds [April/May/June], if ONLY ONE player corrupts the jury, s/he gets a Zealous Corruptor card [+1 Respect].
- Cards not won are removed from the game [only one card awarded per round].
PHASE 4: [reset]
- All Wiseguys/Turf are untapped for re-use.
- All players with more than 6 bills discards down to 6 [choose which cards to discard].
- Investigations still on the board make the Godfather more guilty [1 Guilt point per Investigation].
- All empty Street spaces are filled.
- DATE MARKER MOVES WOO TIME PASSING
PHASE 4.5: FIRST TRIAL [end of round 3/March]
- First Player takes all bills from the Corruption Pile.
- All bills are SHUFFLED [this does affect the Verdict].
- The Verdict is moved according to the icon on the bill as it is announced [Guilty or Innocent]. The Verdict cannot be more Guilty/Innocent if it is at max value.
- ALL BILLS ARE SHUFFLED--Corruption Pile, draw pile, discard pile, and Police Raid card.
END PHASE: FINAL VERDICT [at the end of round 6/June, instead of Phase 4]
- All players get one last turn to play Vendetta cards, starting with First Player.
- End Game Bonus cards are awarded as applicable. [In the event of a tie, no one wins the card.]
- All bills in the Corruption Pile are tallied as in First Trial.
- Investigations still on the board make the Godfather more guilty [1 Guilt point per Investigation].
- Any FBI snitches announce themselves.
- FIND OUT WHO IS WINNAR
So we got through most of the game without any Vendetta-ing going on, which is kinda boring. It felt like I got loads of money from Cashing-In even without Cheating anyone [I was the first to have to discard money], to the point where I Cheated Casey just to get some interaction going. At that point, we had been overlooking the "anyone who participates in an auction but does not win anything gets a Vendetta card" rule, which stiffed me out of at least two Vendettas, and Casey had done two Rackets in a turn [though different colours, at least], but we wrote it off as the First Game learning hurdle and kept playing. [Also, Underboss came out a round late, but eh.]
Vendettas only started getting use around April[?], when Casey swiped my Turfs--leaving me with the one--so I threw [nearly] all my money at the one Turf up for sale, much to Casey's surprise [he expected me to go for Underboss, but I was counting on other means of earning Respect]. I ended up getting only one Vendetta the entire game, a "Shame on You" [-1 Respect]--which I played on C at the last minute [when it was clear I wouldn't get the "most unused Vendettas" achievement], causing him to counter with his Wiseguy who gains two Vendettas when a Vendetta is played against him. Casey chided me for giving him the extra Respect for most Vendettas, but--as it turns out--one of the Vendettas he gained at the end was an FBI snitch...
...meaning, with the Godfather rather Innocent, I won!
XD XD XD XD XD XD XD
So, my complete disregard for strategy gave me an accidental win, which is a bit of an annoyance in the larger scheme of things [at a glance, there seems to be no "counter" for this kind of attack, since there's no further altering of the Verdict after the final Vendettas are played]. I still want to play again, but I think I might not enjoy it as much as "LOL I WIN" =3
Dominion: Mad Trashing hands = Ryan totes win [Bishop is starting to = I don't win, along with Remodel]
Citadels: I admit I got distracted with my new interest in Spider Solitaire [I started playing at work in between renaming files when I feel particularly prone to falling asleep otherwise] in between somewhat long turns and didn't notice when Ryan played the game-ending card. I also somehow didn't think of playing University[?] instead of the other 6-spot, which would've given me two more points for the win... Yay, I have no strategery =(
So, in sum: I am that guy in Yu-Gi-Oh! who plays haphazardly and relies on dumb luck [Katsuya Jonouchi, I think] =p I'm also a fucking addict again, which I think I can only cure by making myself so tired of the thing [Spider Solitaire] that I quit cold turkey [all Zynga games, now]. It's going to take a whille, if Freecell is any indication -_- but it's going to suck if I can't stick with it only at work and not outside of work--either I eat up a load of my free time or I go back to falling asleep at my desk =/
*sigh*
1. Half [well, a third] of the building is being leased out to some peeps in a subsidiary company, so we have all this extra crap that was just taking up space, including a shitload of office chairs, which are taking a trip to the dump. They gave a call for people to take them, so hey, free chair(s)! Also, C won't have to complain about my folding chairs tearing up the carpet and themselves =p If I had an easy way to give away chairs to anyone who needed one, too, I would, but I guess everything can't be as easy to give away as Poorcraft 9_9