Big Brother Veto Challenge Eight: Not Puerto Rico; but rather Battleship: Pre-game

Okay, Houseguests. My idea is to set up a spreadsheet version of the strategy board game Puerto Rico, originally designed by Andreas Seyfarth, for this Power of Veto challenge. Again, since it sounded like everyone is available, I’m thinking we’ll get together and play at 9 PM Central Thursday evening. I’ll be building player boards and the main reference board on spreadsheets for you guys and will link them here once they’re ready. There is a PDF download of the rule book located here; let me know if you have any problems accessing it.

Puerto Rico is a considerably more complex game than most of what we’ve played this season, and though it can seem a little intimidating at first, once we get into the flow of the game it shouldn’t be too hard (and it should be pretty fun!). The good news is, there’s a number of things that players usually have to keep track of themselves during gameplay that as the mod, I’ll focus on keeping track of instead (with possibly an anonymous helper or two). We should be able to play through emails as normal, and I’ll update everything on the boards as we go.

Let me know whatever questions you have, as well as how much the idea of this freaks you out. I still have a backup idea here that won’t be hard to set up and can run like we normally do turn-based challenges, but I like this game a lot and thought it would make sense to run something big for the final Veto of the season, so if you guys are game to give it a shot, we’ll go with it.

UPDATE

This post is long, so let’s put the new challenge information behind a jump (but I’ll leave the PR stuff there so maybe people will get intrigued to try playing it here sometime in the future).

Big Brother: DK’s Grid Challenge Results

As usual, go check out the board, where you’ll see that Gone With the Blimp was the last player able to move, securing his place in the final three with this Head of Household win. Blimp is safe from nomination this week and must send me his choices of which two of the other three players to nominate for eviction by noon Central tomorrow.

That nomination update will probably be added onto this post. I’m thinking about something pretty ambitious and complex for this next PoV contest, and I’m still working on figuring it out. Since if it happens it would be much easier to play in one session rather than through intermittent turns, I’d like to ask the four players if there’s any time within the next several evenings where a couple hours could be carved out of our schedules to play for the veto. Let me know what you think could work.

NOMINATION UPDATE

Blimp has chosen to nominate:

Barnaby Winstringham. “He didn’t get nominated last week. Don’t want him to feel left out.”

and Silver Berzerker. “The newt thing didn’t work. I’ll try this instead.”

Everybody responded that tomorrow (Thursday) night starting around 9 PM could work, so we’re going to provisionally schedule the veto challenge to take place then (unless I chicken out and run something else that can take turns as we usually do). Keep an eye out on the site here today as I’ll probably post a description/rules of the game so you guys can familiarize yourself with the game and ask me questions before we play it.

Survivor XIII (Writing): Last(ish) Call for Players and Questions about Gameplay

First of all – we didn’t get enough people for a Werewolf game this week. I’ll do a vanilla one next week if we can get up to at least nine. I’ll bank on the seven of you still wanting to play.

Second of all – I’ll put up another HoF podcast tomorrow or the day after.

As for Survivor XIII, it’s getting pretty close because Big Brother is now running its third to last challenge.

I still have about four noobs or players that have taken long hiatuses that are claiming they’re in…if you’re the point of contact for them, let them know time is short. I’ll cap this game at as many as 32 people, though if I go that high, we’ll run two eliminations per challenge for a while.

I have some questions. I’ll make them formal polls if there’s a big debate or whatever.

*I already know the merge size, so I won’t be asking that. These questions are off to a roaring start, eh?
*Those challenges where the team comes up with the best response between them – yea or nay? I feel strongly “yea” about these because they’re quick to judge, which is necessary early on with so many people.
*Challenges that are based more on concept than hard writing – like “create a video game” or “describe the perfect party” – yea or nay?
*Hidden Immunity Idols – yea or nay?
*How should teams be decided? I’ve got nothing against random draw, but drafts are fun too. I’m down for either.

Judging will be done by DK and me. I’d love a third, so if you similarly have no life and could be prompt, and know what the hell you’re talking about at least 60% of the time (our standards are fairly easy to meet), let me know if you’re into judging over playing.

Here’s who we’ve got so far:

Playing (25 so far, if everyone sticks):
Shawn Ashley
Michael Battista
Sarah Bizek
Pete Bruzek
Melissa David
Roman Feeser
Ryan Fossum
Matthew Gilman
Rusty Greene
Bret Highum
Patrick Lofton
Brooks Maki
Margaret Martin
Josh Mitchell
Tom Morgan
Matt Novak
Christina Pepper, maybe
Zack Sauvageau
Gary S
Erik S, Definitely 100% yes
Beau
Colin Woolston
John Wreisner (maybe)
Sarah Wreisner (w/butter, maybe)
Will Young

Talk to me, friends.

Big Brother HoH Challenge Eight: DK’s Grid Challenge

OK, Final Four. We’ve only got a few challenges left. There’s this HoH, the final Power of Veto, and then the final three-part HoH Challenge. As usual, as outgoing HoH, Silver is not eligible to compete in this one. However, once we get to the final three, all players left will be eligible to compete for the final HoH. So no need to be concerned that winning this HoH will keep you out of the final one.

This challenge is one I threw together back in the Survivor All-Stars Create-a-Challenge. It’s a little like Chess Blocker, a little like Sheeple, but not exactly either one. Here’s the rules:

The players are on an 8×8 square grid. They choose their starting positions. Each turn, they must move one square in any available direction: up, down, left, right, or diagonally. Each square that is vacated by a player will be “flipped”, meaning it will be unavailable to be entered again. If a player is left at the end of a turn with no possible moves the next turn, that player is eliminated.

The players will also possess two single-use powers. The first is the ability to switch positions on the board with another player. The second is the ability to override another player’s move and move them instead to a square of the power-using player’s choosing. Again, each of these powers may be used only once by each player. The effects of these powers happen before the players’ normal moves occur.

The players will be assigned a priority order, to account for the possibility that two players attempt to move into the same square, and also, if necessary, for the order of power usage on each other. The player with the lower priority will be informed that his or her chosen square has been occupied and they must choose again. If they are left with no other possible moves they are eliminated. After each move or power conflict that requires priority order to resolve, the player who had the higher priority will be moved to the lowest priority, with the other players moving one priority higher.

The last player left on the board is the winner.

The board is here. Here’s how I’ll determine priority order:

Most challenges won: Blimp 2, Barnaby and Burro 1 each
Fewest times nominated: Barnaby 1, Burro 2

So the order will start at Blimp, Barnaby, Burro. If you guys could send me your starting positions by 9 PM Central tonight, that’d be great. After that, I think we’ll try to get through at least two turns a day. As always, let me know if there are any questions. Good luck, Houseguests.

Big Brother Elimination Seven

Here we go, Houseguests. After this, we’ll be at the momentous number of the final four. Let’s see who’s not making it.

Vote One: Kellifer Lumbermuffins. “Turns out he wasn’t going to win this whole thing. I retract my voting comment from the last time I voted for him.”

PwtP III: The End

Alright, everyone. This is the end. I spent all my creative energy on the outro, so…

…here you go. Two stories about funerals.

Big Brother: Minefield Results

I was told this was supposed to be an egregiously long challenge, but turns out that didn’t take too long at all. Go check out the board here (if you can figure out what anything means on there) and you may be able to notice that, for the first time this season, a nominee has won the Power of Veto, as Gone With the Blimp had the last unsolved board. I am already told Blimp will be using the Veto to remove himself from nomination, so as HoH, Silver will have 24 hours (till 10 PM Central tomorrow) to let me know his replacement nomination of either Barnaby or Burro. After the replacement nomination is made, we’ll get to the next eviction vote.

UPDATE

Here’s Silver’s replacement nomination decision:

El Burro Rosa. “Can’t bring myself to nominate Barnaby.”

So your eviction decision will be between Burro and Kellifer. As always, the two nominees are not required to submit a vote. As HoH, Silver is not allowed to vote except in the event of a tie. The other two players must submit a vote to evict either Burro or Kellifer from the game to me by 9 PM Central Saturday (tomorrow). Again I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post the elimination right away, but I’ll get it up as soon as I can.

Big Brother Nominations and PoV Challenge Seven: Minefield

As Head of Household, it is normally Silver’s duty to nominate two fellow Houseguests for eviction. In this case, since Kellifer Lumbermuffins has already been penalty nominated, Silver made one addition nomination of:

Gone With the Blimp. “He turned me into a newt!”

All five of you will be entered into this Power of Veto competition. It’s called Minefield.

In the first part, you’ll each create a 7×7 grid with mines placed on it. You’re required to place 23 mines on your grid, and there must be at least one clear path somewhere from D7 to E1 (numbers down the side and letters across the top) on your grid.

You must submit your grid to me by 9 PM Central Wednesday (tomorrow). After everyone’s grids are in, I’ll explain to you how the next part of the challenge – crossing the minefields – will proceed. If anyone doesn’t submit a grid by the deadline, they’ll be counted as a nonsub and receive one BB strike.

Big Brother: Snakes on a Plane Results

Go look at the board, Houseguests, but if you’d like me to spoil it for you:

Barnaby had 0 points,
Burro had 45 points,
and Silver had 78 points.

Silver Berzerker is our first repeat HoH of the season. Silver is safe from nomination this week, and since Kellifer is already nominated, must send me one other choice for nomination by Wednesday (tomorrow) at noon Central. After the nominations are completed, we’ll get to the next Power of Veto challenge.

Werewolf XXI Next Week?

There seems to be a call for Werewolf around here. I’d be willing to run a Wire-themed game next week, starting probably Monday, if there’s enough interest.

I won’t spend a lot of time putting roles together at this point because I don’t know if we’ll have the people. If we get nine or more, I’ll consider it good and start creating roles. Spoiler alert: Omar’s a neutral and Stringer will be mind-numbingly powerful, or at least awesome in some way.

Sign up here, and I’ll update the roster when I can. If we don’t get the people, I’ll try again later. Colin also has a 30 Rock-themed game that he tried to get together a while back, so we’ll do that one next. Loislane wanted to do a Back to the Future one, too, but that was planned well over a year ago so I don’t remember if she actually had roles in mind or whatnot.

Anyway. As you were, CdLers.

daneekasghost
DPWY, or maybe me
Grey
kg2005
mbnovak
MelissaD
Reverend, The