Re: The Fearsome Encounter (GBS3G8) [Round 2: Oh Two Oh]
10-11-2012, 07:35 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-20-2013, 11:23 PM by Solaris.)
Originally posted on MSPA by Solaris.
From the very start it was obvious that neither Triumphian nor Wallace was planning on playing their game and adhering to the agreement of a "fair game". The Pachydrim would indeed give his guest the instructional materials to their game, but he would "accidentally" forget to include an all important advanced play booklet. At the same time, the Lagran had his own plans for the game, and though he had great confidence in his wits, was set on making his victory certain. The end result was that not only had the two plan to keep with their informational tug-of-war, they had also made it even more complicated. To the two, the game would be another medium with which to discover more about the other.
And Wallace chose the perfect game for the occasion. Casket, in theory was a simple two player card game that takes less than five minutes to set up and about twenty-to-thirty minutes to play. In practice, due to a few factors that added complexity in ways that the original creators never could have foreseen, the average game came to begin some days prior to the two players sitting down and shuffling the cards, with both sides doing intense research on each and every habit of the other player for the sole purpose of having the edge on the other. It was rather ridiculous. In fact, it had gotten to the point where the in last Casket Championship Tournament to take place before its banning seven years ago took a staggering thirty hours of play to finish. Wallace looked at his trophy with a smug satisfaction.
===
"No offense Captain, but are you mad?" Jessica Blaus was left dumbstruck at what had just happened. Triumphian had just challenged Wallace to his own game. While she admired his confidence, there was no way she could see him actually winning this. "No one's beaten Wallace at Casket, no one!"
Triumphian's reaction to Wallace's status was one of nonchalance, "I will forgive you for your impudence now, but in the future I would like you to have more confidence in your leader. I had already assumed that something like that was the case. Why would he offer his livelihood if his victory was not certain?"
Jessica meekly sunk into the couch in the room that they had been given to prepare for the game while Triumphian picked up the instruction booklet for Casket and fingered through it. "That man falsely believes that he can best me at his game, but he underestimates me and my power, a power given to me by my god." Upon finishing his look through, he turned to the silent form of the Encyclopedia, "Of course, it never hurts to have a little extra help on your side."
Vex had, for better or for worse, not made a lot of progress with his plans. He wasn't sure why either. The Scholar had commented on his ability, and he was getting a knack for getting information, but... no!
Come on Vex, the sooner you figure this out, the sooner you can get that giant lizard out of your hair and get on with the rest of this ordeal.
As the man returned to delve into the secrets of his new home, he was interrupted by a metaphorical knock by his companion.
"Book."
Vex rolled his eyes and returned to inspecting the Pope. "Yes, your holiness?" He snidely responded.
"I require your services once more. Hopefully this will be something you are actually capable of." Triumphian smirked.
===
The rotund leader of the Information Brokers idly sat, fingering his personal deck of Casket cards and wistfully thinking about his past victories. It was not often that he got to play this game as, by now, everyone knew better than to try. The appearance of this fool filled him with excitement, even if it would only last for a small amount of time.
Triumphian entered with his small posse behind him back into Wallace's room, where the cards were already waiting and the man himself was sitting patiently, rubbing his tusk. Triumphian handed his staff to Jessica, and sat on the table. Wallace took off his coat, leaving behind his grey vest and undershirt, and cut the deck.
The deck of cards was your common fifty Casket cards, each card had two aspects, a value and an ability. There were multiple copies of both throughout the deck, with some values appearing more commonly than others. Five of these cards are drawn and then the two players aim for one of the multiple win conditions that Casket has. The creators had intended the various win conditions to be a way to make the game faster, allow you to play with more of your friends or to make it a best two out of three or whatever suited you best. Instead, it became most of the game, as it didn't matter how good your hand was if it didn't do anything for the win condition you wanted. In the advanced play, the game was less about the cards and more about paying attention to the various actions your opponent was performing and reacting in a way that would stop them from achieving the victory you thought they were aiming for.
Wallace was well aware that despite all his skill, Triumphian, as someone who had never played the game, had the advantage of knowing what his favorite tricks were, while he had no such luxury. To him, this meant nothing, as even if the pope had planned ways to stop his victory, he saw no possible scenario in which the dinosaur could successfully go for a win condition without him seeing it, and stopping it first. All it would do is stop the game from being instantly over.
Both players acted with confidence, setting down their cards and keeping their motives secret from the other. The game started as most do, with a few turns of small, neutral plays, without any indication of what win condition was intended. Then, Triumphian took the lead, making a few good plays that countered Walllace's, but revealed his desired win. The boss of the Brokers was not worried, easily halting Triumphian's attempts to advance until Triumphian eventually made a mistake. The error was a small one, likely unnoticed to the beginner, but Wallace knew that it was the perfect opening into his quickest and fastest victory.
Which... was exactly what Triumphian had intended! Just as Wallace was about to make his final, winning move, Triumphian won. The entire room was silent, questioning the events that had occurred. With the exception of Triumphian (and Vex), everyone seemed to be completely dumbstruck by the results. Wallace replayed the events, trying to figure out what had gone wrong... "Your mistake!"
Triumphian rose, grabbing back his staff and extremely content with himself. "If nothing, that will teach you not to underestimate others."
Wallace was sweating, trying to figure out just how this had happened. "But... but..."
"There are times when ones skill in a profession, game, or other action is not a boon, but a disadvantage. A simple mistake, one that of course a newcomer would make, is of course seen as an opening for you, instead of what it truly was. One must keep an eye open to various options, not only the one that fits with your perspective. Now, there is the matter of our deal. You were a worthy opponent Wallace, but it will take more than that to best me."
Wallace sighed, but accepted it. "You are right, my resources are now yours."
"Excellent, no-"
Suddenly, the door slammed open, with one of the Information Broker's clerks panting, "We have... a situation... downstairs."
Wallace walked to the employee and shook him steady, "What is wrong, calm down man!"
"A group of people led by this human wearing black and gold wanted some information and when I told them to wait they reacted... er, badly."
Triumphian's ears pricked at the description, "Black and gold you say? Was he accompanied by a large metallic snake perchance?"
The clerk looked confused, but still answered, "Uhmm, no, but there were a lot of other people with him."
Triumphian rubbed his chin, wondering what could have happened to the false god, "Curious... at any rate, I will deal these peons, come."
From the very start it was obvious that neither Triumphian nor Wallace was planning on playing their game and adhering to the agreement of a "fair game". The Pachydrim would indeed give his guest the instructional materials to their game, but he would "accidentally" forget to include an all important advanced play booklet. At the same time, the Lagran had his own plans for the game, and though he had great confidence in his wits, was set on making his victory certain. The end result was that not only had the two plan to keep with their informational tug-of-war, they had also made it even more complicated. To the two, the game would be another medium with which to discover more about the other.
And Wallace chose the perfect game for the occasion. Casket, in theory was a simple two player card game that takes less than five minutes to set up and about twenty-to-thirty minutes to play. In practice, due to a few factors that added complexity in ways that the original creators never could have foreseen, the average game came to begin some days prior to the two players sitting down and shuffling the cards, with both sides doing intense research on each and every habit of the other player for the sole purpose of having the edge on the other. It was rather ridiculous. In fact, it had gotten to the point where the in last Casket Championship Tournament to take place before its banning seven years ago took a staggering thirty hours of play to finish. Wallace looked at his trophy with a smug satisfaction.
===
"No offense Captain, but are you mad?" Jessica Blaus was left dumbstruck at what had just happened. Triumphian had just challenged Wallace to his own game. While she admired his confidence, there was no way she could see him actually winning this. "No one's beaten Wallace at Casket, no one!"
Triumphian's reaction to Wallace's status was one of nonchalance, "I will forgive you for your impudence now, but in the future I would like you to have more confidence in your leader. I had already assumed that something like that was the case. Why would he offer his livelihood if his victory was not certain?"
Jessica meekly sunk into the couch in the room that they had been given to prepare for the game while Triumphian picked up the instruction booklet for Casket and fingered through it. "That man falsely believes that he can best me at his game, but he underestimates me and my power, a power given to me by my god." Upon finishing his look through, he turned to the silent form of the Encyclopedia, "Of course, it never hurts to have a little extra help on your side."
Vex had, for better or for worse, not made a lot of progress with his plans. He wasn't sure why either. The Scholar had commented on his ability, and he was getting a knack for getting information, but... no!
Come on Vex, the sooner you figure this out, the sooner you can get that giant lizard out of your hair and get on with the rest of this ordeal.
As the man returned to delve into the secrets of his new home, he was interrupted by a metaphorical knock by his companion.
"Book."
Vex rolled his eyes and returned to inspecting the Pope. "Yes, your holiness?" He snidely responded.
"I require your services once more. Hopefully this will be something you are actually capable of." Triumphian smirked.
===
The rotund leader of the Information Brokers idly sat, fingering his personal deck of Casket cards and wistfully thinking about his past victories. It was not often that he got to play this game as, by now, everyone knew better than to try. The appearance of this fool filled him with excitement, even if it would only last for a small amount of time.
Triumphian entered with his small posse behind him back into Wallace's room, where the cards were already waiting and the man himself was sitting patiently, rubbing his tusk. Triumphian handed his staff to Jessica, and sat on the table. Wallace took off his coat, leaving behind his grey vest and undershirt, and cut the deck.
The deck of cards was your common fifty Casket cards, each card had two aspects, a value and an ability. There were multiple copies of both throughout the deck, with some values appearing more commonly than others. Five of these cards are drawn and then the two players aim for one of the multiple win conditions that Casket has. The creators had intended the various win conditions to be a way to make the game faster, allow you to play with more of your friends or to make it a best two out of three or whatever suited you best. Instead, it became most of the game, as it didn't matter how good your hand was if it didn't do anything for the win condition you wanted. In the advanced play, the game was less about the cards and more about paying attention to the various actions your opponent was performing and reacting in a way that would stop them from achieving the victory you thought they were aiming for.
Wallace was well aware that despite all his skill, Triumphian, as someone who had never played the game, had the advantage of knowing what his favorite tricks were, while he had no such luxury. To him, this meant nothing, as even if the pope had planned ways to stop his victory, he saw no possible scenario in which the dinosaur could successfully go for a win condition without him seeing it, and stopping it first. All it would do is stop the game from being instantly over.
Both players acted with confidence, setting down their cards and keeping their motives secret from the other. The game started as most do, with a few turns of small, neutral plays, without any indication of what win condition was intended. Then, Triumphian took the lead, making a few good plays that countered Walllace's, but revealed his desired win. The boss of the Brokers was not worried, easily halting Triumphian's attempts to advance until Triumphian eventually made a mistake. The error was a small one, likely unnoticed to the beginner, but Wallace knew that it was the perfect opening into his quickest and fastest victory.
Which... was exactly what Triumphian had intended! Just as Wallace was about to make his final, winning move, Triumphian won. The entire room was silent, questioning the events that had occurred. With the exception of Triumphian (and Vex), everyone seemed to be completely dumbstruck by the results. Wallace replayed the events, trying to figure out what had gone wrong... "Your mistake!"
Triumphian rose, grabbing back his staff and extremely content with himself. "If nothing, that will teach you not to underestimate others."
Wallace was sweating, trying to figure out just how this had happened. "But... but..."
"There are times when ones skill in a profession, game, or other action is not a boon, but a disadvantage. A simple mistake, one that of course a newcomer would make, is of course seen as an opening for you, instead of what it truly was. One must keep an eye open to various options, not only the one that fits with your perspective. Now, there is the matter of our deal. You were a worthy opponent Wallace, but it will take more than that to best me."
Wallace sighed, but accepted it. "You are right, my resources are now yours."
"Excellent, no-"
Suddenly, the door slammed open, with one of the Information Broker's clerks panting, "We have... a situation... downstairs."
Wallace walked to the employee and shook him steady, "What is wrong, calm down man!"
"A group of people led by this human wearing black and gold wanted some information and when I told them to wait they reacted... er, badly."
Triumphian's ears pricked at the description, "Black and gold you say? Was he accompanied by a large metallic snake perchance?"
The clerk looked confused, but still answered, "Uhmm, no, but there were a lot of other people with him."
Triumphian rubbed his chin, wondering what could have happened to the false god, "Curious... at any rate, I will deal these peons, come."