FED PHRASE GAME
Thursday January 9
by Emie
As the newest member of Fed's event hosting team, I was looking forward to hosting my first game of Wacky Words on Thursday evening. However, on Monday night Fancy sent out the call for a emergency substitution, and I answered that call.
Five players turned out to see if I'd make any embarrassing novice mistakes. After briefly explaining the rules, the wheel decided turn order: Mokona would start, followed by Otter, Ariadne, Madchemist, and Captainfuzzy.
In the first puzzle, Mokona found a few letters before losing control of the board, which passed to Otter. He began by spinning a 1,000 and finding 5 N's to give him 5,000 points right away! Over the next nine spins he picked up two free spins and solved the puzzle "Phalanx of tap-dancing penguins" with 6,300 points.
Ariadne was also in the wheel's favor tonight. She began the second puzzle, finding in her first few spins three R's for 2,250 points and 5 S's for 3,750 points. She retained control and solved the puzzle "A sign advertises free sleigh rides" for 6,650 points.
The third puzzle was very sneaky. Madchemist and Captainfuzzy had the first two spins but neither could find any letters in the short puzzle. Mokona was able to find two letters before requesting to buy an E and discovering there were none! Otter was stumped, and control passed to Ariadne, who found one letter and requested to buy an O – only to find there were no O's either! Madchemist took another attempt but couldn't find another letter. Captainfuzzy got another opportunity and guessed the five remaining consonants and solving the difficult puzzle "lucky dip tub" with 2,450 points.
Mokona started the fourth puzzle but couldn't find any S's. Otter found two letters and bought a vowel before incorrectly looking for an H and passing control to Ariadne. She hit a lucky streak and looked like she might solve the whole puzzle, but got stuck on the first two words of the puzzle: "_ER_, _ER_". Unfortunately, as her running total stood at 5,050 points, she forgot about Otter's earlier attempt and looked for an H. Control passed to Madchemist, who spun the wheel twice and solved the puzzle "Very, very long coil of metal" to advance to the final puzzle with 2,900 points.
The final puzzle was started by Captainfuzzy, but he couldn't find a letter. It was Mokona's turn next, but it seems he'd fallen asleep. After making sure he was content to sleep, turn passed to Otter who found one S, followed by Ariadne who found 3 N's and 2 D's. Her attempt to buy an A was unsuccessful, so Madchemist got another spin. He couldn't find the T he was looking for, and the puzzle came full circle back to Captainfuzzy. Once again, he guessed the remaining five consonants and solved the puzzle "minced pies and mulled wine" for 2,300 points, giving him a game total of 5,750 points.
The night's winner was Ariadne thanks to her solo performance on the second puzzle which gave her 6,650 points. Otter came in second, Captainfuzzy earned third place, Madchemist placed fourth, and Mokona seemed to be having a peaceful dream! Thanks and congratulations to all our players.
|
