Countdown 'What If' trial game played 03/05/09

[Ben Wilson]

This is a variant I've been toying with for a while now, a 'Countdownification' of an existing Scrabble variant called 'If Only', where you are allowed to change one tile per rack in order to boost your score higher. In Countdown, you're allowed to alter one of the letters of each selection, and in numbers, allowed to swap out any number for a small one (i.e. a 1-10). You don't have to tell your opponent which letter/number you're swapping, you just declare your word as normal with the swapped letter in place. Kai and Innis were around on msn to try out a game and the results were... intriguing.

Countdown recap for Sunday 3rd May 2009.

C1: Kai Laddiman
C2: Innis Carson.
DC: Me and me
CV: Still me
OT: Other words or solutions.

R01: R H O J U E N C N
R02: P A P I S E T I L
R03: D O I L R X S A A
R04: 50, 100, 25, 75, 9, 7. Target: 562
R05: G R A I T C E A F
R06: E R T U L O T D A
R07: E T S O A M I V S
R08: 50, 25, 4, 7, 3, 10. Target: 338
R09: S N U G S H E R (conundrum)


And now a brief interlude before our main feature:

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Enjoy the show.

Round 1: R H O J U E N C N

C1: CONJURED (8)
C2: LUNCHEON (8)
OT: TRUNCHEON (9)
Score: 8–8 (max 18)

Round 2: P A P I S E T I L

C1: FLAPPIEST (9).
C2: SILICATE (8)
DC: TAILPIPES (9)
Score: 26–8 (max 36)

Round 3: D O I L R X S A A

C1: RAILROAD (8) (d'oh!)
C2: ARIDISOL (8)
DC: RAILROADS! (9)
Score: 34–16 (max 54)

Round 4: 50, 100, 25, 75, 9, 7. Target: 562

C1: 562. (10)
C2: 562. (10)
Score: 44–26 (max 64)

Round 5: G R A I T C E A F

C1: AGRESTIC (8)
C2: CREATING (8)
DC: CAFETERIA (d'oh!), CARTILAGE, FABRICATE (9)
Score: 52–34 (max 82)

Round 6: E R T U L O T D A

C1: TOLERATED (9)
C2: OUTSTARED (9)
Score: 70–52 (max 100)

Round 7: E T S O A M I V S

C1: MOTIVATES (9)
C2: SOAPIEST (8)
Score: 88–52 (max 118)

Round 8: 50, 25, 4, 7, 3, 10. Target: 338

C1: 338. (10)
C2: 338. (10)
Score: 98-62 (max 128)

Round 9: S N U G S H E R

C1 buzzes on 6 seconds to say ROUGHNESS which is correct.
Score: 108-62 (max 138)

So, a metametamax game on the first try suggests the variant needs a little work. Gevin scoring was pretty much instantly agreed upon by everyone, and in numbers, it was decided that 1 or 2 large would be so rampagingly easy that selections are limited to 0/6 or 4/2 only.

Why am I bringing this to everyone's attention? Well, it'll be played at CoNot as an exhbition game, for starters.

Any comments/suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Kai Laddiman]

I shall comment and say that C2 sucked.

This game rocks.

[Innis Carson]

I think being from Dunbartonshire allowed me to use the Hamish effect in Round 3.

This was a lot of fun to play, I think it could be pretty popular if it was put on apterous. Max-calculating would probably be awkward, but that doesn't matter much.

[Craig Beevers]

Would think max-calculation would be easier and more straight-forward than the goat variants. If you choose the wrong letter to change etc. it's tough luck, you've still missed the maximum. Don't really need metamaxes.

[Charlie Reams]

It wouldn't be difficult to compute the metamax either, although potentially quite computationally expensive.

[Kai Laddiman]

A possible limiter: consonants can only be swapped for consonants and vowels for vowels.