🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sun, Jan 16, 2011 09:44 PM UTC:
When you go to a potluck dinner, you don't have to eat everything other people bring. For example, if someone brings a meat dish to a potluck, vegetarians are free to skip it and eat something else. If this tournament is to be true to the description of potluck, it should offer the same kind of flexibility to people who enter. To that end, I propose that each entrant include one or more substitute games with the provision that one substitute should be an entry level game that differs from Chess only in some small way, not in some radical way (such as getting rid of Pawns) or in numerous ways. This is to accommodate entrants whose comfort level does not rise to the pet interests of other entrants. Or if your comfort level is more conservative, I recommend including one game at the far end of your comfort level, which would better accommodate those who enjoy more advanced or more unorthodox games. If there is enough disparity between these two games, I also recommend including a second substitute at an intermediate level. This would allow other entrants to find a comfort level and an interest level that comes closer to your own. For myself, I would go with Extra Move Chess as my entry level game, Storm the Ivory Tower as an esoteric game that interests me but may not appeal to everybody, and Gross Chess as an intermediate level game, since I know some of the others here like large variants, and this one pushes my own comfort levels regarding size. By requiring entrants to give options, instead of making it all take it or leave it, entrants don't have to choose between submitting an obscure game they really want to play or a more orthodox game that won't scare off as many people, and more people will feel comfortable signing up, knowing that they will be able to play games at their comfort level. Meanwhile, it will still afford people the opportunity to try a wide variety of different games.
When you go to a potluck dinner, you don't have to eat everything other people bring. For example, if someone brings a meat dish to a potluck, vegetarians are free to skip it and eat something else. If this tournament is to be true to the description of potluck, it should offer the same kind of flexibility to people who enter. To that end, I propose that each entrant include one or more substitute games with the provision that one substitute should be an entry level game that differs from Chess only in some small way, not in some radical way (such as getting rid of Pawns) or in numerous ways. This is to accommodate entrants whose comfort level does not rise to the pet interests of other entrants. Or if your comfort level is more conservative, I recommend including one game at the far end of your comfort level, which would better accommodate those who enjoy more advanced or more unorthodox games. If there is enough disparity between these two games, I also recommend including a second substitute at an intermediate level. This would allow other entrants to find a comfort level and an interest level that comes closer to your own. For myself, I would go with Extra Move Chess as my entry level game, Storm the Ivory Tower as an esoteric game that interests me but may not appeal to everybody, and Gross Chess as an intermediate level game, since I know some of the others here like large variants, and this one pushes my own comfort levels regarding size. By requiring entrants to give options, instead of making it all take it or leave it, entrants don't have to choose between submitting an obscure game they really want to play or a more orthodox game that won't scare off as many people, and more people will feel comfortable signing up, knowing that they will be able to play games at their comfort level. Meanwhile, it will still afford people the opportunity to try a wide variety of different games.