Hey, I think we should revive this game. It was good fun. For those unfamiliar with the game, the aim is to try to predict the amount of time to the next post. Here are the rules again:
GuyBarry wrote:This game is named in honour of Graham Walker, founding member of The Grumbleweeds, who sadly died last June. It has no connection with any similarly-named game on the forum.
The rules are as follows:
(1) Any player can post a claim for points, in the form "X points" where X is any positive integer.
(2) If the time difference between a claim for X points and the next post in the thread is X minutes or more, the player gains X points. If the time difference is less than X minutes, the player loses X points.
(3) No player may make two consecutive claims for points.
So for example:
Player A claims "20 points" at 12:00.
Player B claims "30 points" at 12:22. Player A gains 20 points.
Player C claims "10 points" at 12:50. Player B loses 30 points.
Player D posts "This game is stupid" at 13:02. Player C gains 10 points.
Player C claims "10 points" at 13:05. Invalid since player C made the last claim for points.
Player A claims "20 points" at 13:20. No points scored.
For the purposes of this trial run, the winner is the first player to 100 points. If a player makes a claim that would take him/her over 100 points and there are no posts within the allotted time, the player automatically wins - there is no need to wait for another post.
Two other things: please don't edit your posts. I can't change the settings on the forum so it'll have to be "scout's honour".
Also, the person making the last post at night has an unfair advantage, so I'm going to impose a period of "downtime" between midnight and 6am, which isn't counted for the purposes of the game. So for instance the length of time between 23:50 and 06:10 is assumed to be 20 minutes. Any posts during the downtime will be ignored.
Any questions? I won't start the game for 24 hours.
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
Oh, another thing: in this game invalid claims neither gain nor lose any points. There's no concept of a "spoiler" - you're just trying to predict the time of the next post, irrespective of what it is.
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
You can post comments, queries etc. in the game thread (but please try to make them relevant to the game!). From the point of view of the game, they will be treated like any other post - i.e. if the previous post was a claim then they will "stop the clock".
You can post a claim and a comment in the same post, but for clarity please ensure that the claim comes first.
You can make two posts in a row, as long as they're not both claims.
The "downtime" idea hasn't been tried before. For the purposes of this trial run it'll operate like this: the latest timestamp allowed on a game post is 23:59, and the earliest is 06:00 (which is deemed to be one minute later for game purposes). Posts with timestamps from 00:00 to 05:59 inclusive will not be regarded as part of the game. I may review this after the trial.
I'll start the trial game, probably around 7pm tonight. After that the winner of each game gets to start the next one. The winning post for the trial is 100 points but this may be extended for future games if the trial goes well.
I'll keep score during the game and attempt to post regular updates throughout. This game can be rather fast and furious though!
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
GuyBarry wrote:
The rules are as follows:
(1) Any player can post a claim for points, in the form "X points" where X is any positive integer.
For the pedants amongst you, when X = 1 the appropriate claim is "1 point", not "1 points". (Someone was bound to try it on )
Times are measured by the forum clock, as in Tumbleweed. So if a post timestamped "12:00" is followed by another one timestamped "12:00", 0 minutes are deemed to have elapsed, even though in reality it might be as much as 59 seconds. Conversely, if a post timestamped "12:00" is followed by one timestamped "12:01", then 1 minute is deemed to have elapsed, even though it might only be a few seconds later.
Looking for other potential loopholes...
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
I'll make the opening post at some unspecified time between 18:30 and 19:00. Brief summary of the game: the aim is to predict how long it'll be before the next person makes a post in the thread (of any type). If someone gets in before the time you specify (in minutes), you lose the points; if they don't you gain the points. That's pretty much it.
No idea how this is going to go, but good luck everyone...
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
And in this less-than-gripping contest the scores are currently: GuyBarry 2, Rest of the World 0. Oh well. I'm signing off shortly so plenty of time for someone else to take the lead...
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
Well I've checked the rules very thoroughly, and it would seem that "5 weed" is not a valid claim in this game. Furthermore, since I'm the person who made the last claim for points, I can't claim again under rule (3). So the scores stay exactly as they are until someone makes a valid claim, and that claim is either fulfilled or not.
But thanks for trying...
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
I'm going out now for a few hours. With the game this quiet, I wonder if someone will gamble on claiming the entire 100 points in one go and attempting to win the game outright?
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
Clearly no genuine interest so far, so I'll declare the game void. I'm going to tweak the rules slightly and have one more go. If it doesn't work this time then I'm giving up.
The changes are:
- winning post increased to 500 points
- size of claims limited to 100 points
- no "downtime" rule
So here are the amended rules. (I've reworded rule (3) to make it less ambiguous, and clarified some of the others.)
(1) Any player can post a claim for points, in the form "X point(s)" where X is any positive integer from 1 to 100.
(2) If the time difference between a claim for X points and the next post in the thread is X minutes or more, the player gains X points. If the time difference is less than X minutes, the player loses X points. All posts in the thread are deemed to "stop the clock".
(3) No player may make two successive claims for points without another valid claim between them. Consecutive posts by the same player are allowed as long as they are not both claims.
(4) There is no score or penalty for invalid claims.
(5) Comments and queries relevant to the game may be posted in the thread. They stop the clock like all other posts. They may be included in claim posts as long as the claim is included first.
(6) The winner is the first player to 500 points. The winning-post is deemed to have been passed as soon as the allotted time is reached (e.g. if a player is on 490 points, claims 10 points and 10 minutes pass without another post, that player is deemed to have won).
This game will start as soon as anyone makes a VALID CLAIM. I won't join in until someone has done so.
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015
Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
First to 100000 in the 2015+ Tumbleweed contest. Winner of a few rounds of a diverse range of quizzes/games. Some decent times in alternative challenges as a fiftysomething who merely walks briskly. Briefly led All The Actons.
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