Anybody up for a holiday round of Haggle?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
341

And here we go:

Runner-up:
Uncommon Sense
White Cane: 3
White Candle: 5
Green Candle: 5
White Star: 8
White Wreath: 15
White Box * 2: 50
White Tree: 40
Scores 126 points for card values under rules 1-6 and 16.
Two white boxes quadruple the value of his cane, for an extra 9
Gross score: 135
Paid out 10 points owed to Hal Briston.
Total score: 125

And our winner…
Santo Rugger
White Cane: 3
Red Cane: 13
Blue Candle: 5
White Star: 8
Green Box: 25
Red Box: 25
Blue Tree: 40
Red Tree: 40
Scores 159 points for card values under rules 1-6 and 16.
Gross score: 159
Total score: 159

Thanks to everyone who participated, and sorry if the rules were a little unbalanced and slapdash. Still learning how to best run this thing.

Rules will follow in a minute.

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  1. A cane is worth 3 points to start.

  2. A candle is worth 5 points to start.

  3. A star is worth 8 points to start.

  4. A wreath is worth 15 points to start.

  5. A box is worth 25 points to start.

  6. A tree is worth 40 points to start.

  7. Whoever turns in the most counters of a particular color ‘has control’ of that color. If multiple players tie, then they ‘share control’ of that color.

  8. Having control of red is worth 50 points.

  9. Sharing control of red (no matter with how many people) is worth 21 points.

  10. Having control of green will triple the value of your candles and wreaths.

  11. Sharing control of green with 1 other player will give you 5 extra points per star.

  12. Having control of white and at least one blue star will let you ‘steal christmas’ and keep all other players for scoring from their boxes, and any more than one tree per player.

  13. Sharing control of white (no matter with how many people) will cost you 14 points.

  14. Having control of blue gives you 6 points per blue item.

  15. Sharing control of blue with 1 or 2 other people gives you 1 point per green item.

  16. A red cane is worth a 10-point bonus.

  17. A green wreath counts double towards green control.

  18. A white box will double the value of all your canes.

343

Thanks for running this, chrisk!

344

Yeah, thanks Chrisk. It is always fun (even though I usually lose).

345

You’re welcome. I had a lot of fun too. Hope we can do it again sometime. I’d really kind of like to play, if anyone else feels up to being Hagglemaster, but I don’t mind being the one in charge.

Any thoughts, reactions? Pretty clearly the turning point as I saw it was Santo Rugger’s bold trade offer with NAF, getting two trees in exchange for the info that trees were far and away the most valuable cards in play. 80 points swung from B to A in that moment, and nobody else could really catch up.

I loved the ‘stealing christmas’ rule from the moment I thought of it, and hoped that there’d be some scheming and maneuvering to either steal christmas or prevent someone from stealing it - it was only after I had handed out the packets did I realize that I’d given FarmerChick everything she needed to steal christmas. Looks like she traded several of her white cards away and never got a look at rule 12 until the scoring was over.

But it seems that given a little bit more time, NAF might have succeeded in hatching a plot to make Uncommon Sense steal Christmas, which would have toppled Santo Rugger from the top spot, (he’d have lost 90 points with a Christmas theft, putting him well down in the rankings I think,) and handing the win to either US or Revenant, depending on how much US gave up in exchange for the fateful blue star.

I think that next time around, it might be interesting to play with either ‘secret partnerships’, (players are assigned secret partners before play begins, partners can communicate privately, win or lose together,) or a sort of merger agreement in which players can agree to partner up openly during the course of play. Another notion I had was the innovation of trading away ‘shares of credit’, which would be a looser version of mergers. You could trade away 10% or 40% of your credit in the event of a win, or any other proportion, even more than half, and whoever holds that credit ‘shares your victory’ in that degree if you win. (And could then trade it away to someone else without your approval.)

346

Yeah, I really wanted to see that one happen. I think if I had 2 more days or if people had been around a bit more I might have been able to claw my way back up.

I like the idea of partnerships, but I don’t know if I want you to mess with the fundemental balance of the game too much. I like the lose, every mand for himself aspect of the game. I think it would be interesting to allow players to form aliances and choose to become a team. But starting off with that assigment I think makes it a different game. I would be interested to see play cycles added, and maybe a mechenism where silent auctions become a part of the game permanently (no one has to bow out for them to happen.)

I would also like to see some cards that activly hurt players portfolios as well as maybe a limit on how many cards you are allowed to turn in. Everyone can only submit their 5 best cards (or something like that).

347

Yes, all those are possible variations I’ve considered or heard about, the planned silent auction - or a not-so-silent auction where all bidding is in-thread and out loud. You could even be really clever and have other mini-‘games’ announced during the trading run, like a trivia challenge or something - and the first person to answer 3 trivial questions correctly wins some new cards as a prize.

A limitation on submitting only X many cards could be announced as an open rule… it also makes a really nasty secret rule, since anybody who doesn’t see it might have to face a severe penalty for noncompliance.

348

Good job Chris, thanks for hosting.

349

Nice game.

I think it needs a few tweaks. The rule for rule for rule for rule for rule trading made it pretty much impossible to get anywhere. To me, trading for rules got boring really quickly, since the more everyone had the rules the less trading for items was going on.

350

Hmm… what would you tweak to make that better? (If you can think of anything.)

351

Woo whoo, score one for the good guys! This was a pretty fun game, it makes me want to put one together so chrisk can play, too! I was surprised NAF accepted my trade, I thought he’d know me better than that by now. :wink: OTOH, him saying he liked me put a smile on my face. :smiley:

I was really intimidated when the game started and there were almost two full pages of trade offers. Based on the point values I -did- know, I knew trees were valuable, but I didn’t realize they were the most valuable until the final rules were posted.

I, too, would like to see certain items and/or colors worth negative points. I thought white items in this game were going to be.

I tried to follow the people who had a bunch of rules, to see what they wanted, and what they were trying to get rid of. It’s kind of a double edged sword, in that, if you’re in that position, you can’t really “fake” an offer, because you might get called on it. But, depending on who you offer it two, they might not know the rules. I would be very weary of trading with somebody who knew all the rules, if I didn’t, though, because I would be weary that I would get the short end of the stick.

In short, it was a good game, and a fun way to spend the last week of work! :smiley:

And finally, my apologizes to FarmerChick. I didn’t mean to upset you, but I thought that kind of thing was part of the game. Glad to see you joined the boards, I look forward to seeing you around. :slight_smile:

352

Well, white items could have had a penalty associated with them, though that one didn’t end up applying. Threw that one in as a counter-indication for trying, and failing, to steal christmas in a particular way.