Extreme Ways
In this Main Match, earn information on your movement options through auctions in order to move the farthest from the origin.
| Designer(s): elara | Match Type: MM (for 12 players) |
| Featured in: The Choice is Yours, Squeaky Genius: Legends Untold | |
Main Match 2: Extreme Ways
In Extreme Ways, players bid on an information auction with the goal of having the extremest of ways.
The Board
The game takes place on a 2-D plane. Every player starts at the location (0, 0). Every round, there are four moves (known as the possible options); each player chooses a move, and will move in the plane according to that move. So for instance, if a player is located at (0, 0) and moves in the direction (+3, -4), they will move to the location (3, -4), as shown in the below diagram:
However, players do not know the exact movement that each move will make. Instead, they are given four possibilities for each of the moves, one of which is correct.
As an example, this is a possible set of options:
Option 1: (1, 1), (-1, 1), (-1, -1), (1, -1)
Option 2: (2, 2), (-2, 2), (-2, -2), (2, -2)
Option 3: (3, 3), (-3, 3), (-3, -3), (3, -3)
Option 4: (4, 4), (-4, 4), (-4, -4), (4, -4)
If you were to select Option 1, you would move in one of those four directions. One of these directions is predetermined to be correct, denoted the true movement, while the others are called wrong moves.
The Information Auction
To assist players with their movements, there are several information auctions, in which players bid chips to receive information. This info is split into four Info Packets, which will contain information regarding specific Options.
Info Packet 1 contains the true movement for Option 1.
Info Packet 2 tells you two of the wrong moves in Options 2 and 3.
Info Packet 3 tells you one of the wrong moves in Option 2 and two of the wrong moves in Option 4.
Info Packet 4 tells you one of the wrong moves in Options 3 and 4.
Combined, all four Info Packets will tell you true movements for all Options.
When players bid, the players who bid the highest amount receive Info Packet 1, the players who bid the second highest amount receive Info Packet 2, et cetera. If multiple people bid the same amount, they each receive the same packet, and the player(s) who bid the next highest amount receive the packet directly after.
Any player that receives an Info Packet pays the number of chips they spent; no other player pays chips. You can only make one bid per round (that must be a positive integer), or choose to not bid at all. Players start with 50 chips, and may not trade chips with each other.
In the above example, here is a possible set of Info Packets:
Packet 1:
Option 1:
(1, 1),(-1, 1), (-1, -1),(1, -1)
Packet 2:
Option 2: (2, 2), (-2, 2),
(-2, -2),(2, -2)
Option 3:
(3, 3), (-3, 3),(-3, -3), (3, -3)
Packet 3:
Option 2:
(2, 2), (-2, 2), (-2, -2), (2, -2)
Option 4: (4, 4), (-4, 4),
(-4, -4),(4, -4)
Packet 4:
Option 3: (3, 3),
(-3, 3), (-3, -3), (3, -3)
Option 4:
(4, 4), (-4, 4), (-4, -4), (4, -4)
There will be 7 rounds of bidding, each taking a day. After these 7 rounds, the game moves on to the Moving Phase.
Moving
The Moving Phase is a single submission, in which you submit one option for each of the 7 rounds. You will not be told in between rounds what your movements were.
You must submit an Option for each round; failure to do so will randomize your selection.
After this is done, all final locations are calculated.
Endgame
At the end of the game, the players with the most extreme ways each win and receive a Token of Life. This means the player with the highest x-coordinate, lowest x-coordinate, highest y-coordinate, and lowest y-coordinate. If there are multiple players tied for first, they are all skipped and the ToL goes to the next (unique) value. If one player wins in two different dimensions, they earn two Tokens of Life.
The loser is the player that has the lowest Manhattan distance from the origin; this is equal to the sum of the absolute values of the coordinates. If there is a tie here, the winners can choose an Elimination Candidate.
All players receive one garnet for every 15 chips they have remaining at the end of the game, rounded down. In addition, all winners receive 2 garnets.
Twists
Group Decision: If this is passed, then during the Moving Phase every player will be given a Rebound Token. This Rebound Token may be used once in lieu of a normal movement during one of the movement rounds. The player that uses it should also choose a different player during that round, and will move to the location opposite of their starting location for that round, with respect to the starting location of the chosen player.
For instance, if a player at (0, 0) uses a Rebound Token and chooses a player with location (5, 5), then the player will move to (10, 10). Rebound Tokens cannot be traded.
MM Winner Decision: The MM Winner can decide on the amount of information revealed regarding the results of the information auction. There are three possibilities: Either no info is ever revealed, the people who win are revealed, or the people who win and the amounts they spent are revealed. By default, the second option is chosen.
DM Winner Decision: In this game, garnets may be used to buy chips. The DM Winner may decide the ratio of garnets to chip. This number can be an integer from 1 to 10; by default, one garnet buys 5 chips.
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Clarification: Only final locations and chip counts are revealed at the end of the game. Players are not told their intermediary coordinates in the Moving Phase.
Clarification: Players do know their own chip count and whether they received any Info Packets. (Hopefully this is obvious; thought it'd be better to say it anyways.)
Clarification: The EC cannot be a player who has a ToL. (They would be skipped, and we'd consider the next player.)
Clarification: If a player wins in more than two directions, they earn that many ToLs (however many directions they won in).
Are you happy now, e?
Clarification: Players bid overall. You don't bid on an individual packet.
For instance, if one player bids 4 chips, one bids 3, one 2, and one 1, then those players receive Info Packets 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively.
Every day, Huginn and Muninn, Odin’s trusty ravens, fly all over Midgard with the task of collecting and returning information to Odin. In an effort to convince Odin to aid in your quest to obtain the Mead of Poetry, the group offers their services to him for the day. Odin accepts, instantly transforming you into an unkindness of ravens. He promises a reward for those who go above and beyond in the search of knowledge, and a sinister task for those who fall behind. As Huginn and Muninn get comfortable on his shoulders, thankful for their day of rest, he shoos the rest of you away, a signal to begin your journeys to the edges of the world.
Overview
The goal of the game is to fly as far away from Odin as possible. The game will be played on an infinitely large 2D grid. Every player will start at Odin’s location, (0, 0).
Every round, each player will select a move, and move on the grid according to the move they chose. For example, if a player is located at (1, 1) and moves in the direction (+4, -3), they will move to the location (5, -2), as shown below.
Moving
Unfortunately, Loki, the trickster god, has caught wind of your plans, and wants to have some fun. He has made it so that every move (denoted the true move) comes with three false moves. This means that for every option, there will be a total of four possible moves, exactly one of which is correct.
For example, here is a possible set of options:
If a player selected Option A, they would move in the direction of the one true move for that option. (shown in green for the example graphic, note that in the game you will not receive any visual cues or hints outside of the auction) The true move for every option is predetermined, and is the same for all players. The order of the moves in each option is randomized.
Loki’s Auction
In order to turn a profit from the situation, Loki will hold several information auctions, where players will bid gold pieces in order to receive information.
The information for each auction will be split into four Info Packets, which will each contain the following information:
Info Packet 1 contains the true move for Option A.
Info Packet 2 contains two of the false moves for each of Options B and C.
Info Packet 3 contains one of the false moves for Option B, and two of the false moves for Option D.
Info Packet 4 contains one of the false moves for each of Options C and D.
No Info Packet will give any information given in another Info Packet, so all four Info Packets combined will give the true moves for all four Options.
When players bid, the player(s) who bid the most gold pieces will receive Info Packet 1, the player(s) who bid the second most gold pieces will receive Info Packet 2, so on and so forth. Players who bid the same number of gold pieces will each receive the same packet, and the player(s) who bid the next highest number of gold pieces will receive the packet directly after.
If you receive an Info Packet, you will pay the gold pieces you bid, otherwise your bid will be refunded. Players may bid once per round, and the bid must be a positive integer. Players may choose to not bid during a round. Players start with 50 gold pieces each, and may not trade gold pieces with each other.
Moving Phase
The Moving Phase is a single submission, containing one Option for each of the 7 rounds. You will not be told how you moved each round. You must submit an Option for every round, if you fail to submit an Option for a round, you will automatically randomly select one.
Results
After the Moving Phase, all players’ final coordinates and gold counts will be announced. The players who have traveled the furthest in each of the four cardinal directions will each win a Token of Life. This means the player with the highest x-coordinate, lowest x-coordinate, highest y-coordinate, and lowest y-coordinate. If multiple players are tied for first for any of these conditions, they are all skipped, and the Token of Life will be awarded to the next unique value. If a player wins in more than one condition, they will receive a Token of Life for each condition in which they won. The player without a Token of Life with the lowest Manhattan distance from the origin will be the Elimination Candidate. Manhattan distance is calculated by summing the absolute values of a player’s x and y coordinates. If there is a tie, the players with Tokens of Life will be able to vote on who will be the Elimination Candidate from the tied players. If the vote is a tie, the tied player with the least garnets will be the Elimination Candidate. If it is still tied, the Elimination Candidate will be randomized from the players that are still tied.
Garnets
Players may buy gold pieces at a rate of 5 gold pieces for 1 garnet.
At the end of the game, players will receive 1 garnet for every 15 gold pieces they have remaining, rounded down. All players who won in at least one condition will receive 2 bonus garnets.
Addendum: The winners of each info packet will be publicly announced, but not what the winning bids were.
Clarification: You cannot bid zero, and you cannot receive an Info Packet if you do not bid.
Addendum: If there are not enough unique bids to distribute all 4 Info Packets in a round, all leftover Info Packets will be publicly revealed.
Tags
Auction (The game involves an auction in which players participate.)
Bidding (The game involves auction-style bidding.)
Grid-based (The game involves play on a grid.)
Intel game (The game involves collecting and exchanging initial clues to further deduce information.)
Piece movement (The game involves pieces moving on a board.)