"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." -- President Thomas Jefferson

"Congress must be able to do more than merely nod yes or no to presidential proposals-whether out of apelike obedience or uninformed obstinacy." -- Representative Donald Rumsfeld, 1965

"Why this huge contract has not been and is not now being adequately audited is beyond me. The potential for waste and profiteering under such a contract is substantial." -- Representative Donald Rumsfeld as he urged investigation into the relationship between the private consortium working in Vietnam and the Johnson administration, in particular the infamous "President's Club," to which Brown & Root, one of the principle Vietnam contractors, had given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. Brown & Root is now Kellog, Brown & Root, which is the engineering and construction group of Halliburton.

Golden Strider: It is to running what Breaking Away is to bike riding. See Tom’s szine off-the-shelf at http://www. olympus.net/personal/thowell/o-t-s/index.html for some games in progress.

Sopwith: Be a World War I Ace (or perhaps a pile of smoking rubble). It all depends on what kind of pilot you are. See Phil’s ishkibibble at www.diplom.org/DipPouch/ Postal/Zines/ishkibibble for a game in progress.

Frank -> George: You idiot! Why didn't you draft last turn? The Howells are getting away!

GM to Rick: Shouldn’t that be Skipper to Gilligan?

(BOOB to SPECTATORS): I don't intend to let Tom walk away with this! I got a good shot at taking two of the top three sprint points here, plus the overall victory. I wonder if Abigail tried to stay out ahead? I intend to win!!! We ARE the Front Men!!!

GM to Boob: Yes you do. Yes she did. I expect you do. The front MEN, but not the front runner. Looks interesting though

(BOOB to PELATON): The idea here is to GROUP up and draft! Will ya make a pack so we can get some points??? I've got Barone at 54 and Cutler at 59 looking for some company!

GM to Boob: Well, Cutler’s got lots of company, but it didn’t do anyone any good! Now if Barone had joined the group as you suggest to everyone and moved to 61 by playing his 10 we’d have had some real drafting and some high cards.

(BOOB to ROVE HATERS): Any way we can lose this guy out of the pack??

GM to Boob: Slow down a little more and maybe you won’t be able to see him anymore!

BARNO: In light of the recent news of a gene for bioluminescence being transferred between species, this comment (seen as a .sig-file PS to a posting) has new levels of meaning:"We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow worm."

MIKE to MR. GM DAVE SIR: Although I have for decades been a fan of using silly musical references in Dipzines, I have a twenty-first-century concern. As good Bayesian spam-filtering gets better and cruddy spam-filtering like AOL's gets more ubiquitous, we may run a greater risk of messages with this game's title in the subject line (or even in the content) getting blocked or discarded without a player realizing he missed something. Having a negotiation e-mail lost is an inconvenience, but losing an adjudication or correction could lead to a problem that gets someone mad enough to quit. I know all these players are good sports who would be _least_ likely to spazz out like that, especially over "silly games" like Breaking Away. The same seems to be true for the players in your RR games I'm playing. But I would have said the same about Mark Fassio or Phil Reynolds or other players who have had similar things happen in Dip games, had blowups over how to handle them, and quit the zines.

Sir Dave to Mr. Mike: Negotiations? You’re supposed to be pedaling too hard to talk here! Of course if you are truly concerned, simply use FBG in the title (not to be confused with the BFG (players who are parents may get this one)).

JUSTICE IN THE LAND OF HOMEGROWN EVIL: Roughly 12% of all drug users are black (National Household Survey on Drug Abuse). Slicing the data another way indicates that while 12.2% of all white people use drugs, only 10% of blacks use drugs. 35% of all people arrested on drug charges are black (US Department of Justice). Roughly 53% of all people tried for drug charges are black, and 70% of all time served for drug charges is served by blacks (US Department of Correctional Statistics).

Dave – Mike: While I will not make any attempt to deny that there is an issue here, I think that any generalization made with statistics is always dangerous. Statistics can be made to say anything one wants them to. For example, I’m would guess that the majority of black drug users come from poverty stricken areas of inner cities. I would further guess that a much higher percentage of white users are white collar. I wonder how the statistics would break down if you looked at what percentage of users were poor, and what percentage of those arrested were poor. I certainly expect that there is some racial profiling going on. I also expect that there is economic profiling going on as well, and I think you need to look at both to see what the driving factor is, although I’m sure being poor and black would not be good for your odds. Guess what I’m saying is that the solution might not be to look for racial bias in our courts (although I am sure it does exist); it might be to look for ways to improve people’s economic standing.

P.S. The actual break down of percentage of users is 8.5% for whites, 9.7% for blacks, 7.2% for Hispanics and 10.1% for Native Americans. The figures that you used appear to come from the specific breakdown of the 12 to 17 age bracket.

:

Black Bottomed Girls (Brendan Whyte) 5 points

Homegrown Evil (Mike Barno) 0 points

Thin Bottomed Girls (Tom Howell) 16 points

Manager: Edith

The Four Kingdoms of Daniel Chapter Seven (Eric Brosius) 5 points

The Front Men (Jim Burgess) 1 point

Manager: Ian Curtis

The Team About Nothing (Rick Desper) 22 points

Manager: Frank Costanza

Richard to Harold: Unfathomable. Unheard of. Never crossed my mind. How can you end a game as a loser when you had a reasonable chance to be a winner? Obviously you had some sort of motivation - like maybe ending the game or wanting to quit. I sure wish we'd been FTF and could have influenced you by table talk.

Richard to Eric: Congratulations.

Eric: Harold commented on my "strategy." I don't think of my win in this game as coming from a "strategy" per se, though I guess it might look like it. I have played a number of games face to face, and all of the pbem games I'm in (and I'm in at least three) are different from what I was expecting based on my ftf experience. However, all the pbem games are different from each other as well. This has made pbem Industrial Waste a very interesting and enjoyable experience. You can't just stick to a fixed strategy and hope to succeed.

In "Ozone", the thing that surprised me is that Raw Materials were selling for a lot more than I expected throughout most of the game. My response was to keep bidding fairly low, and to try to resist the temptation to pay through the nose for Raw Materials. I also tried to take card sets that included Raw Materials so I could profit from the lucrative sale prices.

Of course, this had its consequences. I didn't get a chance to produce many Orders, given my Raw Materials shortage. If I had known Raw Materials were going to be so expensive, I would have innovated early in the game on Raw Materials usage and not so much on Waste Reduction. One interesting feature of the game is how interconnected it is: as you see what Innovations other players select, it changes your optimal strategy. In another game in Zero Sum, the critical issue seems to be Waste and not Raw Materials, and that game feels totally different from this one.

Another odd effect of my "strategy" is that I took relatively few Growth cards. This meant I had no ability to end the game, even though I was in a position to win if I could have ended it. I was wondering what it would take for me to end the game (a lot of Growth cards, clearly, but would that give anyone a chance to catch up.) It was nice to see Harold end it on his own initiative, so we didn't get a chance to find out whether I could end it myself and still win.

I had a lot of fun with this game; thanks for running it!

David to Eric: You’re welcome, I enjoyed it. Congratulations.

Set 1: Waste Removal, Waste Disposal, Raw Materials

Set 2: Order, Innovation, Hiring/firing

Set 3: Order, Innovation, Hiring/Firing

Set 4: Waste Disposal, Order, Growth = Dave

Set 5: Waste Disposal, Growth, Advisor

Cards: (Set 1) Waste Removal, Waste Disposal, Raw Materials Plus held Growth

PRESS:

Hey, I've got all this Brighto in stock, and nobody wants it! Big sale on now, come

get it real cheap! (Help...)

Cards: (Set 2, or is it 3?) Order, Innovation, Hiring/firing

Cards: Set 4: Waste Disposal, Order, Growth, plus held Innovation

Cards: (Set 5): Waste Disposal, Growth, Advisor Plus held Order

Orders: Play Waste Removal (peddle the Brighto)(-1 to 12 and +1 all others),

Play Waste Disposal (sell more Brighto to the public) (-3 to 9) .

DUMBASS auctions the set of Five raw materials. Chris bids $10M. Tony the Tiger passes. Eric passes. The five raw materials are sold to Chris. Harold gains $10M (Money from $13 >> 23)

End of turn costs = $5M (Money now at $18M)

First, play Innovation (Costs $5M, reduces income to $13M) and reduce Rationalization to 2.
Second, play Hiring/Firing and reduce workers to 2.

Chris bids and buys Harold’s five raw materials for $10M (money from $13M >> $3M)
Third, Plays the Order (Money from $3M >> 19; waste from 9 >> 13; and raw materials from 7 >> 3)

End of turn costs = $2M (Money now at $17M)

7.2.a) Growth (moves factory from 16 >> 17)

7.2.b) Order (generates $17M so money goes from zero to $17M, generates 3 waste so from 8 >> 11; and raw materials go from 7 >> 3)

7.2.c) Waste Disposal (get rid of that 3 waste so back from 11 >> 8)

Hold the Innovation

End of turn costs = $4M (Money now at $13M)

First, play Growth (moves factory from 15 >> 16).

Next, play Waste Disposal with Advisor to reduce my Waste by 6 (From 8 >> 2).

Finally, play my order (Money from zero to $16, waster from 2 >> 6; and raw materials go from 12 >> 7).

End of turn costs = $5M (Money now at $11M)

Set 1: Growth, Order, Waste Disposal

Set 2: Growth, Order, Waste Removal

Set 3: Growth, Hiring/firing, Waste Removal

Set 4: Order, Innovation, Waste Disposal

Set 5: Growth, Raw Materials, Innovation

Order

Takes Set 1: Growth, Order, Waste Disposal. Is holding a Growth card.

Takes Set 2: Growth, Order, Waste Removal

Takes Set 5: Growth, Raw materials, innovation. Is also holding an innovation card.

Set 4 (Order, Innovation, Waste Disposal)

Plays Waste Disposal, [[Waste to dispose from 9 >> 6]]

Plays Growth [[14 >> 15]]

And plays Growth. [[15 >> 16]]

Holds the order card.

Play Waste Removal [[Waste to Dispose from 13 >> 12 and add one to everyone else]]

Plays Growth.  [[16 >> 17]]

[Buys 3 Raw materials from Dave for $4M. Money from 17 >> 13. Raw Materials from 3 >> 6]

Holds the Order.

a) Innovation, reduce raw materials [[Costs 5M, Money from 13 >> 8, Raw Materials from 4 >> 3; VP from 3 >> 6]]

b) Growth [[17 >> 18]]

c) Auction off the 3 raw materials acquired. [Eric bids 3; Harold passes; Chris bids $4M. Dave passes and takes the money. Money from 8 >> 12. Raw materials stay at 3]

Save the final innovation.

First, Innovate to reduce the amount of waste I produce to 3. [Costs 5M, Money 11 >> 6, Waste Reduction from 4 >> 3 and VP from 3 >> 6]]

Second, play my Order, using up 3 RM and generating 3 waste. [[Money from 6 >> 22; RM from 9 >> 6; Waste to Dispose from 7 >> 10]]

Third, play my Waste Disposal, undoing the damage from the Order [[Waste to Dispose of goes from 10 >> 7]]

Set 2: Order, Hire/Fire, Growth

Set 3: Innovation, Order, Raw Materials

Set 4: Innovation, Adviser, Raw Materials

Set 5: Hire/Fire, Waste disposal, Order

[[15 cards left in the pile to deal next turn guarantees a disaster]]

Growth, Growth, Order, Raw Materials.

Innovation X2, Growth X4, Order X2, Raw Materials, Waste Disposal X2, Waste Removal

Takes Set 3: Innovation, Order, Raw Materials. Holds an innovation.

Takes Set 4: Innovation, Adviser, Raw Materials

1) Plays Waste Disposal (Brighto! We got a big order for Brighto!)[Reduces Waste to Dispose from 7 >> 4]]

2) Plays Order [[Consumes 5 raw materials leaving him with none (0); makes $16M so money goes from 13 >> 29; Waste to dispose rises from 4 >> 6]],

3) Auctions off the set of five Raw Materials. Chris bids $3M, Dave jumps the bidding up to $7M, Eric passes. (Money goes from $29M >> $36M)

4) Holds the Waste Removal for next turn.

-$5M for labor

1) Plays Waste Disposal [[Reduces waste to be disposed of from 12 >> 9, but not far enough]]; 

Chris purchases Eric’s set of three Raw Materials for $3M. Chris’s money goes from $13 >> 10; his raw materials from 7 >> 10).

2) Next discards an Order;

3) Discards the Hiring/Firing. 

4) Holds the same Order card

-$2M for labor

Disaster strikes, Growth from 17 >> 16, Money from $8M >> $3M

1) First piece of business has to be to innovate my waste reduction.(Money goes from $8 >>$3M; Waste reduction from 3 >> 2 and VP for that from 6 >> 10)

2) Sell Order (generate $18M so money goes from $3M >> $21M; raw materials go from 3 >> 0; Waste to dispose of goes from 9 >> 11)

Dave buys Harold’s set of five Raw Materials for $7M (Money goes from $21M >> $14M; Raw Materials go from 3 >> 8).

3) Sell Raw Materials. Eric bids $3M, Harold passes; Chris passes. Dave bids $4M and purchases his own set of three Raw Materials (Money from $14M >> $10M; Raw Materials in storage from 8 >> 11)

4) Holds innovation

-$4M for labor

Disaster strikes! Growth from 18 >> 17 and Money from $6M >> $1M

1) Puts the three Raw Materials up for auction. Dumbass doesn’t even bid; Chemicals R Us bids $3; Dave passes, and Eric passes. Eric’s money goes from $17M >> $20M.

2) Plays Innovation to reduce Waste Production (Money from $9 >> $4M, Waste Production goes from 3 barrels of brighto per order sold to 2 and VP for Waste Production goes from 6 >> 10).

3) Keeps Advisor.

-$5M for labor

Set 1: Order, Raw Materials, Hiring/Firing

Set 2: Raw Materials, Waste Disposal, Bribery

Set 3: Advisor, Bribery, Waste Disposal

Set 4: Advisor, Innovation, Growth

Set 5: Advisor, Innovation, Waste Disposal

None after the reshuffle.

Takes Set 3: Advisor, Bribery, Waste Disposal. Also holds a Waste Removal card

Takes set 5: Advisor, Innovation, Waste Disposal. Also holds an Order card.

Takes Set 1: Order, Raw Materials, Hiring/Firing. Also holds an innovation.

Takes Set 4: Advisor, Innovation, Growth. Also holds an Advisor.