Fantasy League Sports Cards

 

The sports card industry (specifically baseball cards) crashed in 1994. Fantasy sports existed as early as the 60's, but really caught public attention around 1995. That timing is not coincident.

In both hobbies, fans get to have  surrogate ownership of players, and the market value of those surrogates goes up or down with the performance of those players. At the casual level, being in a fantasy league is just a more publicly acceptable way to collect and play with cards. At the serious level, fantasy is a more viable, faster way to make a profit with your expertise than cards were.

In short, fantasy is just trading cards for grown ups.

But what if physical cards let you draft players?

 

Left-brain creativity

One commonly cited way to improve or maintain mental health is to do something creative, such as painting, drawing, writing, dancing, making music, knitting or cooking. So what's the strategy to gain these benefits if you're not creatively inclined in these or any similar ways? What if you're, say, a statistician or a software engineer?

This post is about acknowledging other, more mathematical means of being creative, that aren't general thought of as traditionally creative. I'm calling these 'left-brain' creative means, which is reductionist, but easy to convey. Whether any of these are artistic in any way is irrelevant.

Martin Gardner was a master of left-brain creativity. He wrote books of mathematical puzzles and novelties, including a version of mini chess mentioned here. Making these challenges was absolutely creative. I would argue that the process of solving these puzzles would also be creative because it requires imagination and decisions that are novel to the solver.

Reiner Knizia has a PhD in mathematics and makes board games for a living. His visual artwork is rudimentary, which is fine because it's meant merely as dressing for the real creative work of abstract sets of rules meant to inspire clever player behaviour.

I mention these two first because I have been disparaged before for being un-creative when I would rely on similar abstractions as outlets. For instance, when told by (now ex-) girlfriend to go try to do something creative, I started working on a farming game I had envisioned, and decided to start with a list of livestock and a draft of their prices in the game. This didn't impress her.

With building toys, I usually made abstract patterns rather than anything that would traditionally have been considered creative. With Lego / Mega Blocks, my most memorable builds were a giant hollow box for holding hockey pucks, and an extremely delicate staircase. With K'nex, my work was always abstract shapes made in an ad-hoc manner.

I enjoy the concept of building toys a lot more more than actually building anything with them. It's a dream of mine that Capsella toys will make a return through 3D printing. Capsella was a toy make of clear plastic capsules with gears inside. It would be difficult, but doable.

There's also this game called Gravity Maze, in which the goal is to drop a marble in one tower of cubes and have it land in a target cube. The game comes with a set of puzzle cards which include a starting configuration of towers and a set of towers that you need to add to finish the maze. The game only comes with 60 such puzzle cards and additional ones aren't available for sale. On one vacation, I took it upon myself to draft a program that could randomly generate configurations and see if they were solutions. It's still in a notebook somewhere. Is this creative? It feels better if I think of it that way; doing this gave me the same joy I imagine someone gets from more traditional creative exploits.

On another vacation, I wrote a proof of concept for Gaussian elimination of a 4x4 matrix where the matrix was populated with fractions. The point was to write the entries of the resulting matrix each as a single fraction. That way, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) could later be made to solve such a matrix in fractions, which avoids the computationally slow method of subtraction, which is typically done through iterated subtraction. Was that creative? It felt a lot like doodling or sketching to decide upon this and solve it.

I was a big fan of Dungeons and Dragons, and later Rifts and GURPS, when I was younger. I almost never played roleplaying games, but I spent a lot of time reading rulebooks and compendiums, and writing my own material such as new monsters. To someone expecting creative work to look more like art, this probably resembled accounting.

This clearly isn't a new discovery to a lot of people. Just looking at websites for chess variants and chess puzzles tell me that much, along with the large custom card making subset of the Magic: The Gathering community tell me this much. There are many people that seem to enjoy making up challenges and rulesets and get creative joy out of it.

If there's a thesis to this post, it's that if you're not inclined to make what would be typically considered art, you can still reap the mental health benefits of being creative through more 'left-brain' means. Other activities worth mentioning, but not from personal experience, include making crossword puzzles, nurikabe puzzles, maps, and fractals. Do something that involves building or making and a lot of small decisions, and don't worry about whether it's expressive, artistic, or traditionally considered creative.

Danni and Jeremy's Wedding Speech

 As requested, here is the speech that was given for Danni-Lynn Laidlaw and Jeremy Strang's wedding last month.

[Party 1] was Danni-Lynn
[Party 2] was Jeremy
[Member of Audience] was Calen, Danni's brother.

Regular text represents my own additions
Italic text is taken verbatim from the Government of British Columbia's standard ceremony,
of which the bold italic parts are immutable and cannot be changed.
Anything in underline is spoken by one of the two parties being married.

The standard ceremony can be found at http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/residents/vital-statistics/marriages/vsa718.pdf

-----------------------------------------------

Majestic Ladies, Handsome Gentlemen, and [Member of Audience].

We have assembled here to acknowledge a force that ruthlessly devoured billions before and will no doubt continue to consume live in their prime until the sky crumbles.

This remorseless and unceasing force is called love. These two, though their forms appear before you, are hopelessly lost -- beyond mourning , really.

Today we witness the passing of [Party 1] and [Party 2] into the penultumate stage of their falling to this force. The true word for this stage makes all who hear it cry blood and vomit leeches. Thankfully I lack the four tongues required to pronounce it. However, even the English word has terrified lesser men before. That word is "marriage".

The state of matrimony, as understood by us, is a state ennobled and enriched by a long and honourable tradition of devotion, set in the basis of the law of the land, assuring each participant an equality before the law, and supporting the common right of each party to the marriage.

There is assumed to be a desire for life-long companionship, and a generous sharing of the help and comfort that a couple ought to have from each other, through whatever circimstances of sickness or health, joy or sorrow, proserity or adversity, the lives of these parties may experience.

Marriage is therefore not to be entered upon thoughtlessly or irresponsibly, but with a due and serious understanding and appreciation of the ends for which it is undertaken, and of the material, intellectual, and emotional factors which will govern its fullfillment.

It is by its nature a state of giving rather than taking, of offering rather than receiving, for marriage requires the giving of one's self to support the marriage and the marriage and the home in which it may flourish.

It is into this high and serious state that these two persons desire to unite.

Therefore: 

I charge and require of you both in the presence of these witnesses, that if either of you know of any legal impediment to this marriage, you do now reveal the same.

Let [Party 1] repeat after me:

"I solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, [Person 1] may not be joined in matrimony to [Person 2]."

Let [Party 2] repeat after me:

"I solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, [Person 2] may not be joined in matrimony to [Person 1]."
  There having been no reason given why this couple may not be married, nor any reasonless jibbering that could be interpreted as such, I ask you to give answer to these questions.

Do you [Party 1] undertake to afford to [Party 2] the love of your person, the comfort of your companionship,m and the patience of your understanding, to respect the dignity of their person, their own inalienable personal rights, and to recognize the right of counsel and the consultation upon all matters relating to the present, future, and alternate realities of the household established by this marriage?

(A prompt of  'do you, or do you not' may help here)

[Party 1]: I do. 


Do you [Party 2] undertake to afford to [Party 1] the love of your person, the comfort of your companionship,m and the patience of your understanding, to respect the dignity of their person, their own inalienable personal rights, and to recognize the right of counsel and the consultation upon all matters relating to the present, future, and alternate realities of the household established by this marriage?

(Again, a prompt of  'do you, or do you not' may help here. Especially because doing it twice makes it sound planned)

[Party 2]: I do. 

 Let the couple join their right hands, claws, tentacles, feelers, probosci, or pseudopods, and let [Party 1] repeat after me.

I call on those present to witness that I, [Party 1], take [Party 2] to be my lawful wedded (wife/husband/spouse), to have and hold, from this day forward, in madness and in health, in whatever circumstances life may hold for us.

and let [Party 1] repeat after me.

I call on those present to witness that I, [Party 1], take [Party 2] to be my lawful wedded (wife/husband/spouse), to have and hold, from this day forward, in madness and in health, in whatever circumstances life may hold for us.
  Inasmuch as you have made this declaration of your vows concerning one another, and have set these rings before me, I ask that now these rings be used and regarded as a seal and a confirmation and acceptance of the vows you have made.

Let [Party 1] place the ring on the third noodly appendage of [Party 2]'s left hand, repeat after me:

With this ring, as the token and pledge of the vow and covenant of my word, I call upon those persons present, and those unpersons lurking among us beyond mortal sight, that I, [Party 1], do take thee [Party 2], to be my lawful wedded (wife/husband/spouse)

 Let [Party 2] say after me:

In receiving this ring, being the token and pledge of the covenant of your word, I call upon those persons present to witness that I [Party 2] do take thee [Party 1] to be my lawful wedded (wife/husband/spouse).


Let [Party 2] place the ring on the third noodly appendage of [Party 1]'s left hand, repeat after me:

With this ring, as the token and pledge of the vow and covenant of my word, I call upon those persons present, and those unpersons lurking among us beyond mortal sight, that I, [Party 2], do take thee [Party 1], to be my lawful wedded (wife/husband/spouse)

 Let [Party 1] say after me:

In receiving this ring, being the token and pledge of the covenant of your word, I call upon those persons present to witness that I [Party 1] do take thee [Party 2] to be my lawful wedded (wife/husband/spouse).


And now, forasmuch as you [Party 1] and [Party 2] have consented to legal wedlock, and have declared your solemn intention in this company, before these witnesses, and in my presence, and have exchanged these rings as the pledge of your vows to each other, now upon the authority vested in me by the province of British Columbia, I pronounce you as duly married.

You may kiss.

Kuzdu Update - Lock and Key

New Material:

First, there is a new dungeon available: Lock and Key, which features a pair of new spaces. Most of the map is sparse for treasure except for an optional room in the middle that become available about 2/3 through the map. I'm worried that on its own the treasure hoard is available too late to matter, but it could be just right for any meta-game rewards that are incorporated later.

(Module 03 - Lock and Key)

The rules have been made more explicit in some cases, and the relic deck has been increased from 16 to 20 cards. The card "Drill Relic" has been replaced - see patch notes for details.

(Kudzu Rules and Relic Cards 2015-03-06)

Other Links:

(Module 01 - The Cavern )

(Module 02 - The Halls of Lorsem )

Patch Notes:

I've made some changes to Kudzu's presentation intended to make it scale up more smoothly. 

- First, I've split off each dungeon into its own document. Each dungeon module includes the playable map for that level, a guiding layout, and an explanation of spaces found on that map. If there are any cards specifically for that map, they will be included.

- Generic Kudzu material such as rules and cards, however, are only found in a separate document. This way, updating the rules means changing one document instead of several. It also reduces legacy issues with players applying older rules to newer versions of the game.

- The card "Drill Relic" has been removed from the game for now. Having the ability to place tiles on walls is exciting, but has the potential to ruin any map where a major barrier is a single wall thick, as in Lock and Key. Cards with wall-breaking abilities will appear later, but attached to specific maps as starter cards.

Other thoughts and plans:

- The next module, Ulee's Pitfall, will not introduce new tiles, but will focus on more challenging uses for letter tiles. Players will start with a Pillar Relic, which allows them to turn letter tiles (and other tiles) into walls.

- Another possibility is 'portal' tiles that allow the player to start a crossword at one portal location and continue it at another. However, there may be memory issues with that. I want to experiment more with "Lock and Key" and tracking which keys have been collected before I try that.

- The logistics of a print-and-play game are more involved than I expected. Making things portable is taking more time than I expected, but hopefully the modularity changes will improve the development flow and allow more time for the creative aspects of the game.

- To my knowledge, nobody is testing the game at the moment, and neither am I. Most of my energy is going into thesis work at the moment, so playtesting and finding other playtesters is going to have to wait until the defense.

- I've been investigating the prospects of making Kudzu an Android game, again after the defense. I want to make the game a net good for the environment, and it seems like the best way to do that is by having a running advertisement bar on the bottom of the game, with a large portion of the revenue going towards either planting trees or buying up carbon permits and letting the permits expire unused. There are some other ideas involving in-game currency and 'cashing out', but the logistics of that are a distraction from game development at the moment.

New Kudzu Material - The Halls of Lorsem

Here is an update to Scrabble Dungeon, which I'm calling Kudzu for the time being to give it a better search niche, and to avoid future lawsuits.

Google Drive link to 2014-12-17 Version

There are only typo fixes to the material that was in the 2014-12-05, but a lot of new material has been added.

Specifically, a new six-room dungeon called "The Halls of Lorsem" and eight new Relics to draw from a random deck.

To avoid this becoming a single unwieldy document, new material will likely be given as separate modules while rule changes will follow future versions of this document.

Some fan-made Dominion cards.

Playwright (3+)
Action
You may overpay for this card. Gain one coin token for each 1 you overpay.
+1 Card, +1 Coin Token

This is a foil to the Guilds card Masterpiece, which is a poor card on its own, but allows to you overpay to put a Silver into your deck for each amount overpaid. 

It's called Playwright because coin token cards traditionally are people, and it seems plausible for a playwright to produce one amazing work and then be only marginally valuable after. What I like about Masterpiece is that it's a viable buy for 7 coins, the 'deadzone', without being board-defining.

Playwright fixes the deadzone problem doubly - it gives you something worth buying for 7, gives you enough coin tokens to prevent issues in the future, or set up for a megaturn.



Dig Site
Victory/Treasure (0*)
This card cannot be bought normally.
You may gain this card when you trash a victory card.
1 VP, +1 Money.


Museum
Victory/Action (0*)
You may gain this card when you trash a card worth 6 or more.
3 VP, +1 Action, +1 VP chip.


Dig Site is intended to give some purchasing power when you trash an Estate, or Overgrown Estate, or beef up Silk Road without much drawback. Museum is a late game vehicle to convert Golds into Victory Points, and it's not a dead card if it ends up in your hand.

Farmland combos brilliantly with either of these cards.

These cards push the bounds of the original game a bit because there's usually at least ten non-basic cards that can be bought in a game. If there's a card with a special gain condition, like Prize, or Madman, it's placed in the game as an attachment to an existing card (Tournament and Hermit, respectively). These could be attached to an... Archeologist card?

The creator of Dominion has said he's not interested in making more cards because the game is complex enough with 220+ cards across all the sets. However, I feel like there's still room for expansion in the single-player mode that's playable online, much like how there are special cards and conditions that are only in Hearthstone's Naxxrammas fights.

American Psychometric

Eight discrete bars tastefully separated from each other, presenting itself as a bar graph of distinct categories instead of a histogram of continuous values. Labelled axes showing popularity values for each car colour on a brushed steel background. My god, it even has the “other” category!