Game: Not Tonight Josephine

Thread: Re: Not Tonight, Josephine.

waza — 2008-06-10T11:04:29+00:00

leece wrote:
has categories like "Weasels and Rodents" "Kings Charles" (not a typo!) and "Ancient History" "Trousers" "Last Words" "Word Origins"
Not sure if this game was changed at some point but the copy I just got has only half of these example category names. I have "Kings Charles" , "Ancient History" and "Famous Last Words" but no sign of "Weasels and Rodents", "Trousers" or "Word Origins". Though I do admit many of the categories are quirky. I tried looking at the picturwes on the geek and all seem to match the board I have.

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leece — 2007-04-10T13:58:52+00:00

In the finals now. Karen, Craig and Fru. John S looking in on the game. Swancon 2007

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leece — 2007-04-10T13:47:59+00:00

Shelly, John, and Reyhan (All on the 'blue' table)

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leece — 2007-04-10T13:27:10+00:00

David, and Tim. Leece moderating the tournament at Swancon 2007.

Thread: Re: NTJ at Swancon XXXII - Inconceivable! April, 2007.

leece — 2007-04-10T13:00:22+00:00

14/ These rules may be revised by the adjudicators, as deemed necessary to ensure fair and fun play

We needed this clause, because we gave more than one prize in the end! :-) It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we had two tables going!

Thread: NTJ at Swancon XXXII - Inconceivable! April, 2007.

rdmasters — 2007-04-10T09:41:30+00:00

This was the third and final Not Tonight Josephine Tournament that we have run. This time we did it at the 32nd Western Australian Science Fiction Convention - Swancon XXXII.

We used the same rules that we used at GenghisCon:
1/ Adjudicators' decisions are final.
2/ No external assistance is permitted.
3/ The first and only prize is one demonstration copy of "Not Tonight
Josephine", donated by Toss Ink Publishing.
4/ The tournament is played as two rounds.
5/ The first round is an elimination round, with up to 14 players and two
games running simultaneously. Players will be divided at random between
the two games, as evenly as possible.
6/ The second round is a finals round, with the top scoring 7 playing a single game.
7/ The winner is the player with the highest total number of coins at end of the final game.
8/ Coin totals are carried forward for tournament points between rounds.
9/ There is a time limit on each round of 90 minutes.
10/ If the time limit is reached, the current round of play will end, allowing all players to have an equal number of turns.
10/ The standard winning conditions will also conclude a round.
11/ In the event of any ties, tie breaker questions will be asked by the adjudicators from the standard set, alternating between the tied players until a mistake is made by one player, but not the other. Players may
select from the two genres on the cards that are drawn for the tie-breaker questions. - See below for how we really did this!
12/ Question Card Management: Question cards will be shuffled by the adjudicators before each game, or
their nominated proxies. Question cards may be drawn from either box, but must be drawn from one
end, constistently throughout the game. Question cards are replaced at the opposite end of the box.
13/ Players will be provided with three "Claim" tokens per game. When the question categories on a card are read, a player may discard a token to change the space they occupy to a matching category. This will permit the claiming of a coin on a correct answer, just as though the board space were printed with the category on the card. This must be done before the question is asked.
14/ These rules may be revised by the adjudicators, as deemed necessary to ensure fair and fun play.

This time around, we had our full complement of 14 players (with extras lining up in case someone did not show!)

Leece was the moderator for Table One - here is her report:
We had on Table One, the Orange Table (so called because they were using orange claim tokens):

Craig McB
Karen B
David C
Tim Mc
Coman
Caris C

The coins flowed thick and fast! It was a very impressive game! Karen won the first coin but then David got two coins in rapid succession. There was quite a lot of traffic and noise through the games room, and our players had to put up with a lot, thanks to them everything proceeded pretty well. Most spectators, because the tournament attracted a lot of attention, were manfully preventing themselves from supplying answers for the competitors, and we had no real incidents.

Karen was looking very strong there, something of a bullet performer and Craig rocketed up as well. Tim also made a strong showing. Coman didn't do so well but seemed to be enjoying himself anyway.

The tournament generated a lot of interest in the game, and several spectators and players were keen on finding out more and who knows, some may like it enough to purchase it for themselves.

By the end of the first game everyone had spent their magic tokens to give themselves a chance at winning a coin, and the result was very tight, except for David C, who made a truly magnificent effort in this first round, not only ending with 6 coins but also making it back to the finish point as well!

David C – 6
Craig Mc - 5
Karen B - 4
Tim Mc - 4
Coman - 1
Caris C – 3

Rob was the observer for the 2nd Table, The Blue Table, and here's his report on their first round.

Things were very slow to start, with the players finding the initial questions to be (as they always are) oddly quirky. On this table we had:

Mark S
Frü
Jenny
Reyhan
John M-D
Shelly Mc
Shirley

First blood went to Mark, quickly followed by Frü, and then Jenny. A little while later, Reyhan grabbed the next coin, and then Frü grabbed his second. As with the first table, we had a steady stream of spectators come and watch. A couple of them are particularly keen to play outside of the tournament, now that they have seen the game in action.

The game on the second table went right to the wire, with Shelley scoring her only coin in the final round, after time had expired!

Final scores for round one were:
Mark – 4
Reyhan – 4
Frü – 3
Jenny – 2
John M-D – 2
Shelley – 1
Shirley – 0.

Then we had to resolve the tiebreaker between Frü and Caris which we did by asking them questions until one of them got something wrong. This resolved itself to make Frü the winner for the last slot in the grand final.

Then it was time to go to Elizabeth Moon's GOH speech, and off we went. You can read about that at Lympago.com. We also paused to eat and watch some trailers for upcoming movies.

8:30 rolled around. All of the finalists turned up, much to Caris's dissapointment, she was hoping that someone would default, no one had, they were all very keen on winning a copy of the boardgame for themselves.

The game started very slowly. Everyone hoarded their tokens and were cautious in play. The most hated category became Quotations. Karen took the lead eventually, and was soon matched by Tim and Mark.

David left his run very late, and actually had a token left at the end of the game!

The game ran out of time and the players completed the round of play so everyone had an equal amount of turns. At the end, David, Karen and Tim had all scored a total cumulative 8 points each so we went into Einstein Factor Mode.

Rob and I asked them all the same question. They wrote down the answers, and wrong answers were disqualified.

Karen was bowled by a Baron Munchausen question and came third.

David and Tim then were neck and neck. Tim was the winner after 5 tiebreaker questions! A very tough game indeed! Congratulations to all of the competitors and thank you very much for playing!

Grand Final Results

David – 2
Craig – 2
Karen – 4
Tim – 4
Mark – 3
Reyhan – 1
Frü – 1

Totals

David – 8 Second!
Craig – 7
Karen – 8 Third!
Tim – 8 Winner!!!!!
Mark – 7
Reyhan – 5
Frü – 4

We presented Karen and David with consolatory Pocky and Tim with his very own copy of Not Tonight Josephine. Special mention must be made of Mark Sander, who has faithfully participated in every tournament in the hopes of winning his own box, but alas, has been pipped every time. Aww.

Very special thanks goes to Toss, Ink Pty Ltd and the lovely Tess, who donated the grand prizes of three copies of the game for the last three tournaments. Thank you very much. Visit the website, buy the good, fine game!

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jamesdavis — 2007-04-09T20:15:18+00:00

Components

Thread: Unofficial Tournament Rules

leece — 2007-01-24T11:41:54+00:00

1/ Adjudicators' decisions are final.
2/ No external assistance is permitted.
3/ The first and only prize is one demonstration copy of "Not Tonight
Josephine", donated by Toss Ink Publishing.
4/ The tournament is played as two rounds.
5/ The first round is an elimination round, with up to 14 players and two
games running simultaneously. Players will be divided at random between
the two games, as evenly as possible.
6/ The second round is a finals round, with the top scoring 7 playing a single game.
7/ The winner is the player with the highest total number of coins at end of the final game.
8/ Coin totals are carried forward for tournament points between rounds.
9/ There is a time limit on each round of 90 minutes.
10/ If the time limit is reached, the current round of play will end, allowing all players to have an equal number of turns.
10/ The standard winning conditions will also conclude a round.
11/ In the event of any ties, tie breaker questions will be asked by the adjudicators from the standard set, alternating between the tied players until a mistake is made by one player, but not the other. Players may
select from the two genres on the cards that are drawn for the tie-breaker questions.
12/ Question Card Management: Question cards will be shuffled by the adjudicators before each game, or
their nominated proxies. Question cards may be drawn from either box, but must be drawn from one
end, constistently throughout the game. Question cards are replaced at the opposite end of the box.
13/ Players will be provided with three "Claim" tokens per game. When the question categories on a card are read, a player may discard a token to change the space they occupy to a matching category. This will permit the claiming of a coin on a correct answer, just as though the board space were printed with the category on the card. This must be done before the question is asked.
14/ These rules may be revised by the adjudicators, as deemed necessary to ensure fair and fun play.

Thread: Not Tonight, Josephine at Genghiscon 2007

leece — 2007-01-24T11:39:35+00:00

Due to the generosity of of Toss Ink P/L we were able to run a game of Not Tonight, Josephine at Genghiscon this year. Toss Ink donated a copy of the game as the prize, and the Genghiscon committee also gave us a second prize to award, a wonderful Flesh Eating Bacteria plush toy, I don't know who donated it but as soon as I do, I'll let you know, because it was very much appreciated by its eventual winner.

As time is very precious at Genghiscon, and all of the players agreed, we kept it to one round.

Chris, the Looney Labs Lab Rabbit took the white piece which suited his ears and coat.
Dr Elaine clearly wanted to go faster so the red piece was hers.
Lee took the bright opalescent black - a dark horse there!
Matt took shiny bright blue.
Evil Mark, determined to win went green.
Dr Mark with golden topaz hoped to get the jackpot.

The game played very quickly, it was actually over in about 75 minutes. Giving the players an option to spend a coin certainly speeded things up, and watching the poor players agonising over whether to use a token or not was certainly something of an entertainment in itself. As was the swearing when a seemingly impossible question was answered correctly, and they hadn't spent a coin!

The room we were given was ideal for a one table tournament, it meant I could stand at the door and warn observers not to inadvertantly answer questions for contestants, something that was a problem at Fandomedia.

The contestants started cautiously, but as the game and time progressed, one by one the coins were dealt out.Chris, Matt and Lee were all left trailing and Mark made a valiant effort, but a titanic struggle was under way.

Dr Elaine had just scored her 5th coin! But she was far away from the centre! Dr Mark then also scored his 5th and he was closer to the centre! Could Elaine make it back to the centre in time? She rolled, but alas, could not get back there in time.

Dr Mark was the winner by a snatch! A well fought battle and a close match! Dr Mark was awarded his prize, a brand new copy of Not Tonight Josephine which he describles as "edgy", as well as mentioning he's been banned from playing Trivial Pursuit in 157 countries.

Dr Elaine was awarded her Flesh Eating Bacteria, and judging from the delight with which she received it, wasn't too dissappointed with her, er, catch.

Thank you very much to Toss, Ink P/L the players without which this wouldn't have been possible, and Genghiscon 2007.

We had a LOT of fun!

We will be doing it again at Swancon.

Here are the rules we used, learning from our experience at the tournament we ran at Fandomedia they have been altered slightly.

1/ Adjudicators' decisions are final.
2/ No external assistance is permitted.
3/ The first and only prize is one demonstration copy of "Not Tonight
Josephine", donated by Toss Ink Publishing.
4/ The tournament is played as two rounds.
5/ The first round is an elimination round, with up to 14 players and two
games running simultaneously. Players will be divided at random between
the two games, as evenly as possible.
6/ The second round is a finals round, with the top scoring 7 playing a single game.
7/ The winner is the player with the highest total number of coins at end of the final game.
8/ Coin totals are carried forward for tournament points between rounds.
9/ There is a time limit on each round of 90 minutes.
10/ If the time limit is reached, the current round of play will end, allowing all players to have an equal number of turns.
10/ The standard winning conditions will also conclude a round.
11/ In the event of any ties, tie breaker questions will be asked by the adjudicators from the standard set, alternating between the tied players until a mistake is made by one player, but not the other. Players may
select from the two genres on the cards that are drawn for the tie-breaker questions.
12/ Question Card Management: Question cards will be shuffled by the adjudicators before each game, or
their nominated proxies. Question cards may be drawn from either box, but must be drawn from one
end, constistently throughout the game. Question cards are replaced at the opposite end of the box.
13/ Players will be provided with three "Claim" tokens per game. When the question categories on a card are read, a player may discard a token to change the space they occupy to a matching category. This will permit the claiming of a coin on a correct answer, just as though the board space were printed with the category on the card. This must be done before the question is asked.
14/ These rules may be revised by the adjudicators, as deemed necessary to ensure fair and fun play.

Very early on in the game:

From left to right, Matt, Mark, Dr Mark, Chris, Dr Elaine, Lee.

Thread: Some further news

leece — 2006-09-11T03:06:33+00:00

Further musings. Well, from game to game your mileage may vary extremely. It has been with us. It really does depend on the questions and the people answering them. I've been having significant success with the strategy of if I don't know the answer and choosing between people, picking the one I've never heard of!

It's been working 8 out of 10 times for me. At least it seems that way.

Mark, Rob and I (with Steveg kibbitzing) played a full game the other night and enjoyed it hugely.

I've been in contact with Tess at Toss Ink, the game designers, and there's some news about the game.

Tess says: " An expansion pack is currently being written made up of a further 2,800 questions. The pack is simply another 100 cards (colour coded into 4 groups) each card with 7 non-multiple choice questions (& 7 answers on opposite side). The categories on these cards directly conform to the categories on the board (so if you roll onto, say, American Civil War, you can elect to answer a question on the American Civil War.) This should right the deficiency in the game at present relating to specificity, as you so rightly noted in your comments. The pack should be in production in the New Year. I regret that it was not possible to put it out with the first product. The new pack should speed up the game and also give it more challenge and bite."

This will really speed the game up, and I expect will improve its rating to around a 9.5 for me. I look forward to trying it with the expansion.

We'll be taking the game to [c][/c]Fandomedia, Genghiscon, and Swancon along with flyers that the publisher has kindly sent to me in case people are interested further. At least you can try before you buy!

Thread: Not Tonight, Josephine.

leece — 2006-08-12T01:56:30+00:00

We visited Games World at Innaloo where we succumbed to a very Geeky trivia game called "Not Tonight, Josephine." by Toss Ink.

It's Australian, and has categories like "Weasels and Rodents" "Kings Charles" (not a typo!) and "Ancient History" "Trousers" "Last Words" "Word Origins", so we felt for $70.00 it should be encouraged.

It's amusing, and I'm sure Poss and the GCon crowd will enjoy it. It's also got a whole bunch of interesting military hardward trivia in it, so Steveg and Gary may not walk over burning coals to avoid playing it.

(Though I'm not going to hold my breath). I got question about a Stuka (Plane's got legs!) right, so nyaaah. Oh yes, and you can choose from two categories most turns, so there's a chance you avoid the dreaded (and refreshingly under-represented Sports questions).

The questions are kind of quirky. The board artwork is very funny and worth browsing while listening to the question and answer.

Ros, Rob and I had a play of it and enjoyed it, but we feel that the 45-60 minute game play estimate is a little over optimistic, Rob had 4 coins (you need 5 to win, as well as make it back to the centre of the wheel shaped track) when we stopped after little over an hour.

Play: Roll dice, move on the track. Another player chooses a card, and if the 2 categories on the card don't match the category on the space, then you choose from either of them.

Answer correctly, roll again and repeat. If the category matches, it's mandatory to answer that category. If you answer correctly you get a coin and your turn ends.

If however, you land on a Double Trouble square, you must answer both questions on the card. You may choose which category to answer first. Often there is a clue or red herring about the answer in each of the questions on the card. If you answer both correctly, you get a coin and your turn ends.

This game could be speeded up by allowing a coin for every one, two, or three correct answers - however much time you have.

8/10 Enjoyable, and Einstein Factor Trivial Pursuit without the sport on the Sid and Nancy Scale and even the sports questions are quirky...

What I do in the real world: http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith