Here are the revised rules for Spare Squares; speak now with any comments or criticism before they go to print! (Unless. like Scott, you simply don't like the entire concept of a game played over the course of the whole con.)
Objective and Play
The object is to submit the best set of arranged cards in one of four different prize tracks (A-D).
You start with four cards. Beg, trade, win, or steal cards from other players to obtain the cards necessary for a complete set. Submit a set to any BGG.con organizer before Saturday 5:30 pm. Results will be tabulated and winners announced at 10 pm.
Submission Rules
You must adhere to all of the following rules, or your submission will be disqualified:
1. You may submit only one set of cards. Entries must be received by 5:30 pm on Saturday.
2. The number in the center of all submitted cards must be the same, as pictured.
3. You must submit exactly four cards. You must arrange the cards in a 2x2 grid, as pictured. Mark all cards with their location in the grid as follows: TL=top left, TR=top right, BL=bottom left, BR=bottom right.
4. You may rotate cards as required; mark all cards with an up arrow to indicate the top of the card.
5. Submit the cards in an envelope with your name on it.
Scoring
1. On each exterior edge (b), you score as follows:
• 2 points for the two images matching shape
• 3 points for the two images matching filling
• 4 points for the two images matching color
2. Points are cumulative. For example, the set pictured scores 19 points (maximum is 36 points).
Prize Tracks
Your set is assigned to a prize track based on the following:
• Prize track D: All sets that don't match any other track (easy).
• Prize track C: If adjacent images on all interior edges (a) match in shape (medium).
• Prize track B: If adjacent images on all interior edges (a) match in shape and filling (difficult).
• Prize track A: If adjacent images on all interior edges (a) match in shape, filling, and color (fanatic).
Winner and Prizes
There will be one winner in each of the four prize tracks; the winner in each track is the person with the highest scoring set in that track. Ties will be determined randomly. Check out the list of prizes for the winners of each track by the registration area.
5 comments:
This makes you prefer to submit max score in a lower track than submit in a higher track.
I don't really like that.
Instead, I would give scores to interior matches:
All match in shape - 10
All match in filling - 12
All match in color - 15
cumulative, like with exterior.
I would separate tracks based on:
easy - none of the interior match on all 4.
intermediate - score at least one of the three interior scores.
hard - score at least two of the interior scores.
insane - score all 3 of the interior scores.
Thanks for the comment, Poet.
The reason why there is incentive to submit to the harder tracks rather than the easiest track is that fewer people will submit to the harder ones, thereby making your odds of winning much better.
I WANT even the most casual players to want to submit to the easiest track; they won't do it if they know that winning the track is hopeless without spending a lot of time.
That said, your suggestion for less rigid rules regarding the tracks is good. I will look at it.
Yehuda
(track 1 easy through track 4 insane)
I don't know how many people you're expecting to play this, but if there are a very large number of people, there /will/ be someone that scores the maximum score in at least your first 2 tracks. I suspect also in the third.
So if you don't have the maximum possible points in track 2, you rather submit max score in track 1. possibly even track 2 rather than track 3.
My scoring means that track 1 is significantly bigger. Meaning there is more incentive, of the type you speak of, to put it into the second track.
Furthermore, there is much higher variation of score in tracks 2 and 3. Increasing the chance that nobody will max score in those.
And in track 4, well, I'm assuming it's hard enough in your scoring/tracking method that it's unlikely for max score. My system doesn't change the last track at all.
If I understand your system correctly:
In track one, no one will get a bonus for interior matching, because - by definition - the track is for sets that have no interior matching.
In track two, you can get only one of the interior matching bonuses. In track three, you will get two of them. In track four, all submissions will have all three interior bonuses (cancelling them all out, effectively).
Correct?
Yehuda
Correct.This causes higher variation in tracks 2-3, which I would assume would be your core participants.
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