Wolf no longer beats Nuke? WTF!

October 27, 2006 1:40 PM

He added to Rock, Paper, Scissors and came up with RPS-15 (with 15 signs) and then RPS-25 (yep, 25 signs). Then he added on to those games and made something "so complex, I highly doubt anyone will actually even want to attempt to play it." Dear lord, it's RPS-101. (Previously)
posted by 23skidoo (25 comments total)

In some ways this is less awesome than RPS-25. Two hand symboles? Animated gestures? RIDICULOUS
posted by aubilenon at 2:06 PM on October 27, 2006

Yeah, but the two-handed sign for "toilet" is priceless...
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:15 PM on October 27, 2006

Yeah, this is an extension of what had been worked on before.

Has anyone done anything with N-player RPS?

For example, 3-player RPS would require having a clear winner (and story) for any arbitary triad (rather than every combo). In RPS-5 for example there are 9 triads but as designed now (e.g. Spock-Scissors-Lizard) its a 3-way tie. Same with the original RPS-3.
posted by vacapinta at 2:21 PM on October 27, 2006

ANY tampering with the Holy Trinity of Rock, Paper, and Scissors falls well outside the canon and should be considered blasphemous.

Spock ears, dynamite, these multi-throw monstrosities mentioned here...they are all man's futile effort to avoid the TRVTH inherent in the power of the Three Sacred Throws.
posted by First Post at 2:21 PM on October 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

Can I just be the first to say:

SWEET MONKEY JESUS ON A POGO STICK!

This may be the single geekiest thing I have seen in MY ENTIRE LIFE.

And I say that as a measure of highest praise.
posted by InnocentBystander at 2:23 PM on October 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

*performs full double-Rimmer salute and passes out*
posted by loquacious at 2:25 PM on October 27, 2006

Oh yeah, this was so needed because RPS wasn't working anymore. Next up? Tic-Tac-Toe in six dimensions with 8 different kinds of beans and a self destruct mechanism.

Or was it HopskotchCubed with poison puddles, deathchalk and hip checking?
posted by fenriq at 2:32 PM on October 27, 2006

Or was it HopskotchCubed with poison puddles, deathchalk and hip checking?

... wait, since when is hip checking not part of Hopscotch?
posted by kafziel at 2:40 PM on October 27, 2006

My friends and I came up with a great RPS variant, "Hunter, Hooker, Bear." You figure it out.
posted by tumbleweedjack at 2:47 PM on October 27, 2006

Hooker eats Hunter, Hunter shoots (on) Hooker, Bear watches?
posted by InfidelZombie at 2:53 PM on October 27, 2006

RPS-101 is topical, too, as it has Snake(s) on a Plane as a possible outcome.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:23 PM on October 27, 2006

My mom and her sisters used to play "Dog, Bone, Gun" when they were kids.

Wierd, morbid kids.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:52 PM on October 27, 2006

I love how if you go all the way back to RPS 7 you can watch the madness evolve.

"...and in case this isn't weird enough, try RPS-9 next..."

".....Check out RPS-11 next..."

"...skip on ahead to the mental ward now, for RPS-15 still awaits..."

"...AND FINALLY, THE REAL MADNESS"

which takes you to RPS 25, wherein he says:
"And just for the record, armed with accurate math for a change, I calculated over 4 SEPTQUARDRAGINTILLION possible layouts for a 5,050 outcome RPS-101 game! That's a 4 with 144 zeros, and it should be noted that a googol only has 100. Still think I wanna figure that game out, knowing it's 9.58e+125 (quardragintillion) more complex than a Rubik's cube? Or maybe you'd just like to know where I'm finding the actual names of all these big numbers? :o)

UPDATE 10/6/2006: I rose to the challenge, broke my promise of being done variating Rock-Paper-Scissors, and decided to totally GO FOR BROKE... "
posted by PercussivePaul at 5:27 PM on October 27, 2006

I greatly miss the rock-paper-scissors programming contest. Here's a highlight of the report from 2001 when it was last held:

Naturally, many of the entries in the second contest were modeled on Iocaine Powder. Somewhat surprisingly, Dan Egnor's original program still finished third overall, despite the fact that everyone had access to documented source code, plus a nice description of the underlying ideas.

Sigh... I wonder how'd good ol' Iocaine Powder fare today.
posted by Anything at 6:10 PM on October 27, 2006

My kids totally do this on their own. Pac-man. Machinge gun. The best is Black Hole -- but since it beats everything, that pretty much ends the game.
posted by Toecutter at 6:11 PM on October 27, 2006

Toecutter, I hope they won't discover the game of tree-fluid. Now there's a time-waster.
posted by Anything at 6:47 PM on October 27, 2006

What can I do-diddily-doodily-diddly-hobbily-hibbily-gobbily-gobbily-gobble-gabba-gabba-hey
posted by lalochezia at 7:27 PM on October 27, 2006

Some kind of variant with reasonably different strengths between the various gestures would indeed be intriguing. The tendency to overlook the underdog could then be used against itself.

"Surely my nemesis thinks I won't choose Pocket Lint..."
posted by Anything at 7:35 PM on October 27, 2006

You've got Devil and Satan. Duck and Bird. *throws the sign for redundancy he just made up and beats the entire RPS-101 system*

Seriously, if you're going to roll something this nerdy out to the nerdiverse, you'd better check it for errors in continuity and cheap padding. The same nerds who are your audience are furious nitpickers.
posted by Eideteker at 9:36 PM on October 27, 2006

I'm unimpressed.

I just invented RPS-1024, and it requires 10 fingers to play.

have fun!
posted by b1tr0t at 12:13 AM on October 28, 2006

[per person]
posted by b1tr0t at 12:13 AM on October 28, 2006

Eideteker, although Satan can be referred to as the Devil, devil can also mean a subordinate demon, so Satan and devil can indeed be different things. As for duck and bird, when I hear "bird", I tend to think of ornithoids other than waterfowl, so let's give the kid a break!
posted by stuporJIX at 4:55 AM on October 28, 2006

I must agree with First Post. Please take a look at the real deal.
posted by josher71 at 8:42 AM on October 28, 2006

Am i missing something or could he have saved a lot of time making this chart blindfolded. I tend to think he just felt the need to pretend to vanquish septiquillion or whatever.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 9:56 AM on October 28, 2006

RPS has a huge student following. Bath University RPS Society had 120 members one year...honestly.
posted by RufusW at 11:46 PM on October 29, 2006