Onwards And Downwards – baron m.

baron m. from thus spake a.k.

Greetings Sir R-----! Might I suggest that you take one of these spiced beef pies and a mug of mulled cider to stave off this winter chill? And perhaps a wager to fire the blood?

Good man! Good man!

I propose a game that ever puts me in mind of my ill-fated expedition to recover for the glory of the Empress of Russia the priceless Amulet of Yendor from the very depths of Hell.

Godot: Dragging and dropping physics objects video

Andy Balaam from Andy Balaam's Blog

Series: 2D Shapes, drag and drop

Continuing to explore the Godot 3 game engine. I want to make a game where you drag blocks around and balance them on each other, but I couldn’t find much documentation on how to drag-and-drop objects (except menu UI elements), and especially I found quite a few wrinkles when doing this with objects that are normally controlled by the physics engine.

This time we actually write some code in Godot’s programming language, GDScript.

On The Rich Get Richer – student

student from thus spake a.k.

The Baron's latest wager set Sir R----- the task of surpassing his score before he reached eight points as they each cast an eight sided die, each adding one point to their score should the roll of their die be less than or equal to it. The cost to play for Sir R------ was one coin and he should have had a prize of five coins had he succeeded.

A key observation when figuring the fairness of this wager is that if both Sir R----- and the Baron cast greater than their present score then the state of play remains unchanged. We may therefore ignore such outcomes, provided that we adjust the probabilities of those that we have not to reflect the fact that we have done so.

The Rich Get Richer – baron m.

baron m. from thus spake a.k.

Sir R-----! I must say that it is a relief to have the company of a fellow nobleman in these distressing times. That I have had to sell not one, but two of my several hundred antiquities to settle the burden of tax that this oppressive democracy has put upon me, simply to enrich slugabeds I might add, is quite intolerable!

Come, let us drown our sorrows whilst we still have the means to do so and engage in a little sport to raise our spirits.

I have a fancy for a game that I used to play when I was the Russian ambassador to the Rose Tree Valley commune. Founded by the philosopher queen Zway Remington as a haven for downtrodden wealthy industrialists, it was the purest of pure meritocracies; no handouts to the idle labouring classes there!

On Blockade – student

student from thus spake a.k.

Recall that the Baron's game is comprised of taking turns to place dominoes on a six by six grid of squares with each domino covering a pair of squares. At no turn was a player allowed to place a domino such that it created an oddly-numbered region of empty squares and Sir R----- was to be victorious if, at the end of play, the lines running between the ranks and files of the board were each and every one straddled by at least one domino.

Blockade – baron m.

baron m. from thus spake a.k.

Good heavens Sir R----- you look quite pallid! Come take a seat and let me fetch you a measure of rum to restore your humors.
To further improve your sanguinity might I suggest a small wager?

Splendid fellow!

I have in mind a game invented to commemorate my successfully quashing the Caribbean zombie uprising some few several years ago. Now, as I'm sure you well know, zombies have ever been a persistent, if sporadic, scourge of those islands. On that occasion, however, there arose a formidable leader from amongst their number; the zombie Lord J------ the Insensate.

On Quaker’s Dozen – student

student from thus spake a.k.

The Baron's latest wager set Sir R----- the task of rolling a higher score with two dice than the Baron should with one twelve sided die, giving him a prize of the difference between them should he have done so. Sir R-----'s first roll of the dice would cost him two coins and twelve cents and he could elect to roll them again as many times as he desired for a further cost of one coin and twelve cents each time, after which the Baron would roll his.
The simplest way to reckon the fairness of this wager is to re-frame its terms; to wit, that Sir R----- should pay the Baron one coin to play and thereafter one coin and twelve cents for each roll of his dice, including the first. The consequence of this is that before each roll of the dice Sir R----- could have expected to receive the same bounty, provided that he wrote off any losses that he had made beforehand.