An event is read aloud and two teams secretly try to pin down the year it happened by framing the year in a plastic window on a big wheel o' time. Teams start with seven windows of different sizes, giving you greater leeway when you've blocked out the exact year, say, The Bee Gees reached number one with Stayin' Alive, or the first human heart transplant was performed If the actual year lies within your window, you get to discard the window. The first team to ditch all their windows is the winner.
Times to Remember wasn't as dry a game as I expected, but it didn't excite me. And that's only partly because I stunk (unless I could remember what year of school I was in at the time, I was out of luck). It plays quickly, and since you play in teams it's hard to look like a complete buffoon. If you've got a good memory for dates, it's a bargain bin steal. If not, don't waste your time.
Here's the way it works. FRC is run through an email server. Any mail sent to the server is automatically echoed to all FRC players. FRC has a set of under a dozen Regular Ordinances (ROs) which describe the base mechanics of the game. Whatever else happens, all rules must be consistent with these ROs.
Under the current ROs players start each game with seven days of eligibility. As long as a player is eligible, he may submit a rule by mailing it to the server. If the rule is valid, the player's eligibility extends to seven days from the date of the rule. If the rule is invalid, the player loses one day of eligibility. If a player ever becomes ineligible, he is out of the game. The last eligible player is the winner and becomes the next round's judge.
The judge performs three main functions. Most importantly, she determines whether or not a rule is valid. A rule is valid if it is consistent with the ROs and all previous valid rules. This may seem straightforward, but some rules may be open to interpretation— and it's the judge's interpretation that counts. Players are often intentionally ambiguous or crafty, building hidden traps into their rules in the hopes of luring other players into them.
The judge also decides on the game's theme The theme shapes the flavor and tone of the game, providing a loose framework around which to build rules. Past themes have included the creation of a new language, Scrabble, the Olympics from Hell, and the Hurgleburgle Family.
The judge's final duty is the award of style points. Every rule, whether valid or invalid, receives from -3 to 3 style points. The judge may use whatever criteria she wishes in deciding how many points to award. Depending on the judge, a valid rule may earn more than an invalid rule, clever rules more than obvious ones, amusing rules more than boring ones. Whoever has the most style points at the end of the game is dubbed The Wizard, and must be known and addressed as such during the next game.
The game requires a certain amount oi cooperation from the players in order to succeed. For example, "All future rules must be posted by me." would be a legal, game-winning move that is absolutely no fun at all. Here's a much-simplified fragment of what you might seen in a game of the FRC:
Actual rules are rarely this brief, often including elaborate background or atmospheric information to help fit with the round's theme and earn more style points. That's where much of the game's fun comes from— working within the boundaries of the theme to craft amusing, clever rules, and laying innocuous-seeming traps for other players to stumble into.
To get an idea of what FRC is all about, check out the FRC archives at http://www.nta.no/brukere/stein/frc/. Summaries of most past FRC games are stored there, and some of them are quite brilliant.
To join the fun yourself, send mail to majordomo@nvg.unit.no with
Q-Zar arenas are opening across the United States and abroad. Players don a lightweight plastic contraption not unlike shoulder pads with attached chest- and back plates. A shoulder-slung two-handed uzi-like infrared gun connects to this gizmo, and infrared sensors line the two body plates and the sides and barrel of the gun.
For seven bucks, players compete in an indoor labyrinth on teams of up to twenty people each. Shooting an opponent on one of his sensors scores points for the shooter and his team, whie the victim's team loses points. The victim's gun is also deactivated for six seconds. For the first three seconds, the victim's sensors are also turned off, rendering him immune from further hits. But after three seconds, a speaker in his gun announces to all within earshot that the player is now a sitting duck. After another three seconds the player's gun turns back on— assuming the player has lives left. Everyone starts with four, and each hit costs one. When they run out, players have to vist one of two energizers on their team's side of the arena to get more. Players get only 150 shots per 10 minute game, but that's usually plenty.
Each team also has a headquarters they're trying to protect. Whenever an opposing player manages to shoot the headquarters twice in succession, that player and team earns mega points.
The coolest thing about Q-Zar is that, unlike Photon or Lazer Tag, the guns don't just fire invisible infrared beams. They also shoot visible red or green laser beams, allowing players to see not only their own shots, but where enemy shots are coming from.
At the end of the game, players receive a personalized score card detailing all sorts of statistics about the game. In addition to an itemized account of how many times he hit and was hit by each player, the card lists his hit ratio, number of shots fired, score, and rank relative to other players in the game.
Games cost $7.00 each— expensive when compared to a movie, but once you experience the adrenaline rush for yourself I'm sure you'll agree that it's worth it.
TEN (Total Entertainment Network) is the latest service to jump on the bandwagon. Like AT&T's ImagiNation Network, TEN's focus will be on multi-player gaming and user -customization. Users will be represented by editable on-screen personas and will be able to switch among half a dozen interfaces.
TEN's flagship game will be a multi-player version of SimCity. Of more interest to TGR readers, though, is another of their initial offerings: online Wiz-War.
Reportedly very faithful to the board game thanks to input from creator Tom Jolly, Wiz-War will support up to four players per game. All the action will be represented graphically (see photo), with animations for spell effects. Seventy-five spells from the original game will be available initially. TEN also has the rights to the first expansion set, so more spells may be added.
TEN is scheduled to debut in November for PC and Mac, but is still accepting beta testers (call 1-800-867-8446). Use is free during the beta, but upon initial release, testers and early users will be charged $5.95 for 5 hours per month, plus $1.80 for each additional hour. Later users will pay about twice as much.