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Independent Game Forums => Half Meme Press => Topic started by: Paul Czege on August 02, 2005, 10:40:31 AM

Title: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 02, 2005, 10:40:31 AM
I just approved the proof of a roleplaying game. And the printer is tracking to have books to me for Gen Con. So I'm geeked, and decided to have a fun contest. The first person to guess the game gets a free copy of it (retail value $4.00). Here's the two rules:


I think I can say that it's not an impossible challenge. The clues are out there. But it'll definitely require some perceptivity and creative inference.

I'll try to hit this thread at least once a day to confirm/disconfirm guesses.

Good luck,

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: matthijs on August 02, 2005, 12:33:33 PM
"My Life with The Forge"? Where the minions are forum newbies, each scene is a new Big Model thread, and those who make it through the endgame end up with their own theory blogs?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Ben Lehman on August 02, 2005, 12:38:03 PM
Nicotine Girls
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 02, 2005, 12:59:47 PM
Matthijs, not correct, but it sounds like fun.

Ben, not correct, but an excellent guess.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: TonyLB on August 02, 2005, 01:04:22 PM
The Valedictorian's Death?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Ben Lehman on August 02, 2005, 01:06:36 PM
But it will be correct sometime in the future, right?  Nicotine Girls is the best.

yrs--
--Ben
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Joshua Patterson on August 02, 2005, 01:11:50 PM
"How to part Joshua from his money"?

"My Life with Master d20"?

"The Half Selfish Gene"?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: ejh on August 02, 2005, 01:12:26 PM
If I wasn't disqualified, I'd be saying "My Life With Master: d20 Edition"
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Joshua Patterson on August 02, 2005, 01:13:58 PM
Quote from: ejh on August 02, 2005, 01:12:26 PM
If I wasn't disqualified, I'd be saying "My Life With Master: d20 Edition"


Hah!!  Beat you by 30 seconds.  :)
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: ejh on August 02, 2005, 01:15:33 PM
30 seconds late and a dollar short as usual....

Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: quozl on August 02, 2005, 01:39:31 PM
The Wedding Planner?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Andrew Morris on August 02, 2005, 01:43:32 PM
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 02, 2005, 01:44:10 PM
Tony, not correct. (But if I could only figure how to get people to play it!)

Ben, thanks. (And maybe. Maybe next year. It just keeps getting cruelly bumped down the priority list by other projects.)

Joshua, one guess to a customer. (But none correct. Bring your $4 to Gen Con.)

Ed, you're disqualified.

Jonathan, not correct. (That ain't no game. It's a gauntlet!)

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 02, 2005, 02:15:34 PM
Andrew, not correct. (But at some point lightning will strike and I'll realize how to fix the mechanics, and then...)

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 04, 2005, 09:01:47 AM
Okay, so I told you it wouldn't be easy. I believe it's time for a hint:


Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Clinton R. Nixon on August 04, 2005, 09:07:45 AM
Nicotine Trollbabes? 'Cause that would be awesome.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: GB Steve on August 04, 2005, 09:15:33 AM
Quote from: Paul Czege on August 04, 2005, 09:01:47 AMI will not be selling a pdf version of this game.
Damn you Czege, what about us poor foreigners! I guess I'll just have to find someone to raid the Forge stall for me.

As for my guess(es), The Forge? Follow the Yellow Crack Road - a psychotronic game of cars, drugs, ruby slippers and small dogs. How far will you go to get back home?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: lumpley on August 04, 2005, 09:37:11 AM
Am I disqualified?

-Vincent
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: ethan_greer on August 04, 2005, 10:17:10 AM
Dragonlance: A New Beginning.

Heh heh heh.

I have no idea for an actual guess, but thanks to this thread I am now imensely curious.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: ethan_greer on August 04, 2005, 10:17:51 AM
Shit, I also meant to ask, will it be available outside of GenCon?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 04, 2005, 10:42:13 AM
Clinton, not correct. But damn, what's more painful, girls who lack the skills to achieve their dreams, or girls who ruin their own lives in the process of helping others? (I'm not sure I could write another one of these.)

Ethan, not correct. But I promise availability if you're not at GenCon.

Vincent, you are not disqualified.

Steve, not correct. But see my response to Ethan.

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Mike Holmes on August 05, 2005, 03:09:15 PM
Empire of Satanis, The Czege Edition

Mike
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 05, 2005, 04:24:55 PM
Mike, not correct. But a great guess; that one's definitely in the oven.

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Gordon C. Landis on August 05, 2005, 04:57:24 PM
If you've written "Your '50's Name - an RPG add-on for bowling,"  I"m pissed.  Because I was going to do that . . .

Gordon
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 06, 2005, 10:35:07 AM
Gordon, not correct. (We can probably negotiate a quit claim fee if you're worried about competition for that idea.)

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 06, 2005, 10:43:59 AM
The printer beat my expectations. I have the books in hand! And so, a second hint:

My Life with Master takes place in "the vague setting of an unspecified central European country, somewhere around 1805, in and around an unnamed town." This game is more specific, down to the exact year, season, city, and country in which the events of play take place.[/list]

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 06, 2005, 02:25:51 PM
Okay, the third hint, a visual one for visual thinkers, in the style of Concentration:

concentration.jpg (http://www.123.net/~czege/concentration.jpg)[/list]

(Danielle rolled the d30. And yes, Ed's disqualified because it's his artwork!)

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Larry L. on August 06, 2005, 04:34:33 PM
I know I'm missing a word here. However, I will not allow this goddam contest to consume any more of my Saturday afternoon, so I'm going to guess:

Bacchanal

Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: GB Steve on August 06, 2005, 05:30:16 PM
I found a couple of references to Bachanalia. Tolstoy painted a picture in 1808 (http://www.oceansbridge.com/art/customer/product.php?productid=18474&cat=3128&page=1&maincat=T), and Schopenhauer talks about it too, in The World as Will and Idea (http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3964) in 1818.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 07, 2005, 01:07:26 AM
Larry, that is correct. Congratulations! You got it just from the Concentration puzzle, and not from having read my pseudonymously submitted entry (http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Bacchanal.php) to the Game Chef competition and thinking it had my stylistic fingerprint? (Score one for visual thinkers.) Are you going to be at GenCon? If not, PM me your mailing address.

(Incidentally, our playtest was a blast, and actually resulted in just very minor changes.)

Mike, I apologize for getting up your nose on the Game Chef forums.

Vincent, I apologize for lying to you on the phone.

Paul


I wrote and submitted it as M. Paul Buja. My Life with Master is a multiply award-winning game. I didn't want that to influence the judges.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: matthijs on August 07, 2005, 01:45:07 AM
Quote from: Paul Czege on August 04, 2005, 10:42:13 AMBut I promise availability if you're not at GenCon.

So... I'm not at GenCon. Will you be sending Satyr messengers to Norway?
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Larry L. on August 07, 2005, 07:33:42 AM
Well holy crap.

Yes, it was from the picture (BACC) and a crossword puzzle dictionary. The satyr dude kinda backed it up.

No, I actually went through every Game Chef and 24-hour RPG entry but found no Czege. I didn't actually think to look at the names of all those games, I mean if the word Czege doesn't appear on the page...

I also went through way too many backposts on the Forge, hoping Paul would have let the beans slip.

I will send an envoy all the way to Indianapolis just to pick this up.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Mike Holmes on August 08, 2005, 10:58:24 AM
I got it this morning as soon as I saw the picture. Not that I even put it together with the game posted to IGC. I just saw BAC and Bacchus, and would have guessed the name from that. Too easy!

;-)

Sending Eero, Matthijs?

Mike
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: matthijs on August 08, 2005, 11:40:59 AM
Quote from: Mike Holmes on August 08, 2005, 10:58:24 AMSending Eero, Matthijs?

Finland, Finland, Finland... the country where I'd quite like to be... just playing with Eero, or watching TV... Probably just as easy & expensive to get the game from the U. S. for me, actually.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Eero Tuovinen on August 08, 2005, 08:33:08 PM
Quote from: Paul Czege on August 07, 2005, 01:07:26 AM

I wrote and submitted it as M. Paul Buja. My Life with Master is a multiply award-winning game. I didn't want that to influence the judges.

Wha- where-!- Paul, you bastard! I was thinking that that's one game Paul Czege would be proud of. I just couldn't have guessed that one in a million years, I was sure that Paul's all burned out on design and resigned to sipping margueritas at his dreamland ranch. Glad to be wrong. And a false name, of all things! Now I'll have to read all those IGC games with an eye to whether they could after all be from one of my favourite designers. Call me elitist, but that personal connection to a designer's body of work gives me loads of new interest.

<grumble>Using false names is just not fair. I wouldn't dream of personally congratulating a M. Paul Buja on a fine game, and thus I miss my chance of telling Paul how impressed I was with the keen vision the game sets on an extremely marginal genre. Just not fair on fans.</grumble>

So, the next question: is the game available for retail? If it is, you know your fans in Finland will want it. Based on the IGC version, I expect that they'll be quite satisfied with their favourite bad-boy designer, too.
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Paul Czege on August 09, 2005, 12:59:58 PM
Larry, just let me know who's picking it up on your behalf. After all that work, you certainly earned it.

Mike, I blame Danielle's dice rolling. I guess the answer to whether an rpg designer can be recognized by his technique will have to wait for another day.

Eero, I think we can work something out. I'm sending you an email. But you should know that the rules of the print version aren't substantially changed from the pdf version that remains free in the Game Chef archives. I had expected the playtest to reveal mechanical issues, which I'd fix for the print version. But it played so great, better than the examples suggest, that I made only minor text changes.

Paul
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Sean on August 11, 2005, 11:33:17 PM
FWIW, Paul, I liked the 'no soldiers in your opening die pool' fix on the basis of a first reading. Kira thought this game was cool though, when I described it to her. That's not a normal occurrence. Maybe you should run this instead of MLwM come October....I'd play. (But I'd like to play MLwM as well, of course.)
Title: Re: Half Meme Press First Annual Unplanned Contest
Post by: Victor Gijsbers on August 19, 2005, 06:55:52 PM
The Bacchanal PDF is the second text I ever read which contained the word demesne. Guess what the first text was - yep, My Life with Master. I sure hope all future Paul Czege games will contain this subtle trademark as well. :)