| Volume 1, Number 2 | May 7, 1990 |
An Introduction by Dr Cool
Hello, Icers. Well, here's Hypothermia 2. The first newsletter seemed to go pretty well; we've gotten some good reviews and even (yay!) letters. Thanks. Send more.
A couple format thingies have changed. We changed the size, of the newsletter to accommodate the Post Office. You'll notice that this issue is the same size as your Icehouse books. Future issues should follow suit. That way you can stick em in your box if you want. Stupid of me not to think of that before, but I had plenty of other stuff to hash out.
One thing I haven't been able to hash out has been a Hypothermia logo. It needs one bad. If anyone thinks of one, sketch it up and send it over, okay? We could even make this a contest. Yeah, in the next issue I'll show' you my favorites, and we can all vote for the coolest hypo-logo.
There will be another change in future issues that I (unfortunately) must inform you of, without ending my sentence in a preposition. That is the price of these rags, which up to now has been no currency and mild interest in the game. It's gotta change, folks. Until I'm rich, that is. I know we only made it to the second issue, but this costs a lot more than I thought it would! Now, subscriptions are hard to keep track of, and I don't like nagging people for money. So we're going to try a shareware type deal. If your coffers are empty, don't bother sending anything (except maybe a postcard every now and then telling us to keep up the great work). However, if you could spare a copper (or several 25 cent stamps) and you think Hypothermia is worth it, we would be grateful. Contrariwise, if you don't want to receive Hypothermia anymore, you can still save us lottsa mullah by dropping a line and saying so.
Enough about monetary contributions. Let's talk about literary contributions. We are of course still starving for letters, articles, and stories from ye average reader, If you don't have any money to send, the next best thing (maybe even the best thing) would be to send written material as payment. Perhaps the assorted letters and comments in this issue will convince our readers that, yes, you can send almost anything to me and I'll be happy as a "perfect 30" to try and print it. Apologies to people whose letters we did not print, especially Kit (everybody loved your letter, but it is extreeeeemly long) and Childless in Chillum (sorry; nice stationary, though). Finally, in this issue, we have a variation designed by someone other than me! Granted, it was created by top people in Icehouse Games, but I think we're getting somewhere, folks. I hear also that someone out there (whose name I won't mention but whose initials are Rob Dean) has a variation just begging to be playtested, written up, and sent in.
-- Dr Cool
Dear Dr Cool,
I have been playing Advanced Icehouse (as described in the first issue of Hypothermia) and I like it very much. It adds some good new twists to the basic game. However, I have a question. If you put someone in the Icehouse during Stage II, what happens to their active attack pieces? As I see it, there are 3 possibilities: 1.) The person in the Icehouse still gets to manipulate his active attack pieces, 2.) The person who called Icehouse gets control of all of the victim's active attack pieces, but they initially remain where they are, or 3.) The person who called Icehouse captures all of the victim's active attack pieces as prisoners, and immediately places them onto his stash pad. When we ran into this situation during a recent game, we decided to use the third possibility, since it most closely follows the spirit of the basic game's rules regarding the disposition of unplayed pieces belonging to a player in the Icehouse. But what should the rule be?
Frozen in College Park
Dear Frozen:
Lets go with one that's sorta like number 3, okay?
Technically, since the rules state that normal Icehouse rules are followed (with the exception of the Advanced additions), the player who is put in the Icehouse is only required to get a score of zero and give the pieces in his stash away. In Stage 11 of the game, this would probably be a few prisoners, at most. In discussing this with other Advanced players, I have found that the penalty during Stage 11 is considered by most players to be meager.
Therefore, pass along this addendum to the Advanced rules: If a player is put in the Icehouse, not only does he have to give his stash away, but he has to give all of his active attack pieces to the player who called Icehouse as well. 'Me player who receives these pieces puts them in her stash. When all of the pyramids have been transferred, play continues. Future active attack pieces are still controlled by the player who owns that color. That is, if later in the game the player who was put in the Icehouse finds any of his attack pieces have become active, he (and not the player who won the pieces) may replace them as he wishes.
An apology is sent with this answer. Unfortunately, while play testing this version, no one was ever actually put in the Icehouse during Stage II, and consequently the nasty "Stage II Icehouse call" problem was not thought of.
-- Dr Cool
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TOURNAMENT T-SHIRTS! 
This year, we will be selling the Tournament Tee separately so that you can buy extras to give as gifts to friends, save as collector's items, have around as spares in case your first one wears out, or whatever. The cost will be $10.00 and they will be available in the Tournament Room all weekend. They will be tan in color and will mostly be XL. Advance orders are welcome - strongly recommended if you want any size other than XL! |
Dear Dr Cool,
Reading your article last issue (v1.1) about signatures, it struck me that the Welsh signature had several advantages over the Keyboard (oops, I mean Traditional). The Liam of course is tactically identical to the Keyboard (I'm sorry, I really meant the Traditional). Anyway, the advantages are:
Do you know of any other signatures which demonstrate the same level of attention to practical Icehouse reality and player convenience as that evidenced by this Welsh fellow, or is everyone at Icehouse Games equally enthusiastic about such aesthetic fripperies as rotating each piece in a Keyboard setup 45 degrees and giving it a special name?
Cryogenically,
cjw
Dear cjw:
You are indeed correct about the strategic arrangement of the Welsh. It does have one drawback: the other players can see how much of what you've got in your stash about as quickly as you can. But how effective are "tactical signatures"? My hypothesis is that once a player is good enough, the arrangement of his pieces will not help much in strengthening his game (except, perhaps, psychologically). This of course hasn't been proven; the Welsh may well deserve credit as the most advantageous signature yet.
In response to your comments on the Liam: yes, it does seem to be evolved from the Traditional, and may have no other tactical purpose than to make your opponents smile and say, "how nice!'' before they ice you to smithereens. However, we should not let logistics overwhelm esthetics. I personally think the Liam is a pleasantly attractive twist to a popular, playable signature (the Traditional), which has so far withstood the test of time.
-- Dr. Cool
Dr Cool,
I've been reading some books about conspiracies lately, including A History Secret Societies by Anton Daural, and Illuminatus! by Shea and Wilson. Much of both of these books concentrates on the Bavarian Illuminati, a secret society formed in 1776 by an ex-Jesuit named Adam Weishaupt, who declared that his sect had actually been around "since the Dawn of Man". This society is thought by some historians to still exist, and is believed to be directly responsible for the French Terror, both World Wars, Communism, cigarettes, etc.
While most of what is written on the Illuminati is probably a mixture of built-up paranoia and rumor, I find curious "coincidences" surrounding this group and your game. For instance, The symbol for the Illuminati is generally known to be an eye within a pyramid (as on the one dollar bill). Interesting that Icehouse is played with transparent pyramids, isn't it? Other "coincidences": You hold your annual tournament in May, the month that the Illuminati was founded. The tournament is held at the same time and place that a science fiction convention is going on, where many strange people and groups meet. (Some believe Disclave is actually a meeting place for another weird conspiracy bunch, called Discordians). How many of your readers, while playing Icehouse, have seen people standing by who, no matter what they were told, still didn't believe it was a game? This has happened several times to me. To an observer who has never seen the game before, it looks confusing, even alien. I have heard rumors of Icehouse being called "the 100,000 year old game from Mars". Just how true is that statement? That about goes back to the "Dawn of Man", doesn't it?
I have many questions, Dr Cool. Despite your attempts to remain semi-anonymous, I have learned disturbing points about your real character. You (and many of the Icehouse partners) come from German ancestry. Coincidence? Why are you so fascinated with motorcycles built by Bavarian Motor Works? Then there's your book Mystique. On page 2, the word "braunsweiger" leaps out of nowhere. And on the last page, you've written, "... Icehouse ... was very much alive before the rules were born." What compels you to write this drivel? Do you feel controlled by a greater power than even your landlord (who is also German)? Or perhaps it is you who are doing the controlling. Why does it have to be an Ice "house"? Is "house" your subtle term for "pyramid"? When some unfortunate player is put in the Icehouse, is he really in the Eye's House?
The Illuminati are believed to be taking over the world through subliminal deceptions, false diplomacy, infiltrations, kidnappings, and assassinations. Are these not the exact strategies which win Icehouse games? Is Icehouse more than it seems? Is it perhaps a model for world domination?
-- Xavier Zwack
Dear Xavier,
No.
-- Dr Cool
Plans for the Second International Icehouse Tournament are under way! Joyce Choat will attempt to hold on to her Icehouse scepter, won at last year's tournament. Many veterans from the first tourney (as well as some brave new challengers) are expected back this year. In addition to providing an arena for gut-wrenching play by the worlds best Icers, this year's tourney will also allow a more social environment for expert and novice players alike. The tournament will be held during the memorial day weekend at the Sheraton Hotel at 8500 Annapolis Road in New Carrollton, MD (call 301-459-6700 for directions). The games will not take place by the pool this year. Look for posted bulletins in the hotel announcing the room number for the Tournament Room. (or ask at the front desk for Charles Dickson's room.)
Since we've hopefully learned from last year's tournament about how to run one, we are confident that this year's will go even better. In particular, the scheduling of games will be much less formal (and more social), and players will not have to remain in the playing area at all times. The revised tournament rules allow for a higher number of players, so registration will not be limited to twenty, or even forty.
IMPORTANT TOURNAMENT RULES CHANGES
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Practice and Early Registration: Players are not required to arrive and/or register on Friday. Those who want low numbers may wish to register early. Those who want to practice or learn the game do not have to register.
Registration and Eliminations: Players may arrive at the Tournament Room at any time during the open hours. will last all day and will cost four dollars ($4). Registered players have up to eleven hours to win an announced number of games. (This number will initially be 2, but a new number may be announced by the referees and posted by 4:00 PM.) There will be plenty of time for players to find other players, eat meals, practice, enjoy a sci-fi convention, etc. Those players who do not win the requisite total number of games will be eliminated from Sunday's competition.
Ice-offs: Each player will have up to seven hours to play a total of five games. Of these five games, the three best games will be picked, provided that the three games are played against a total of six or more other players. A rating based on these games (total of scores times (#wins + 1)) will be given to each player. The four players with the highest ratings will continue to a final five game match.
Final Match: Four finalists will square off in a grueling five game match. The player with the highest total score wins the tournament, along with several fabulous prizes.
No need to respond, but it might give us an idea of how many players might show up. (We're hoping for forty or so.) If you get a chance, please drop us a line, or give a call; let us know if you're interested, or if something about all this bugs you.
Prisoners are extremely valuable, but some of the best strategies for their use may not be clear to everyone. The points that will be made in this section may seem like old news to some; however, even though they are explained or at least hinted at in the books, a couple of things you can do with prisoners have not been explicitly pointed out until now.
When you have a prisoner, you can use it to over ice your own piece and then remove whichever attacker you wish. Given this, you can perform over icing strategies entirely on your own, without having to recruit the aid or win the trust of another player. Consider the example in the "Rules" book of cracking a fortress via over icing. You can do that maneuver by getting a third player to over ice you so that you can remove the wall, but that requires negotiation, which takes time, during which the player can be building new fortresses. However, if you've got a prisoner, you can do the maneuver entirely on your own, quickly and ruthlessly.
Also, if you've got a prisoner, you can often use it to save one of your pieces by changing the arrangement of attacking pieces, via over icing.
Take a look at the figure below. You are playing white, and let us assume that you have a black piece as a prisoner. The first thing to do is to play the black prisoner so that it is over icing your own piece. Place the attack piece back a bit from the target, but be sure it's getting through any walls and is within range.
Now you can remove the other attack piece. Capture it - but don't waste time putting it back on the pad. Replay IL immediately as shown in the fourth step, positioning it between the new attacker and your piece.
Now, note that black is left attacking black. The attacking black is squandered and the defending black is ripe for attack. You can finish the whole thing elegantly by attacking the piece you just put into position. However, if the attack piece you blocked had been a different color, this final step might not be advisable. The situation could end at step four with the newly placed defending already iced, so be careful not to inadvertently over ice it.
There! You have restructured the attack to save your own piece, and squandered an opponent's piece in the process - all thanks to one prisoner.
Don't forget that as soon as the last piece is played, the game ends, even if the final play created an over ice situation. If you're not careful, you can find yourself starting a big maneuver and then not getting to finish it because the game has ended.
RESTRUCTURING AN ATTACK
Created by A. Looney and K. Wunderlich
This variation was created specifically to improve the quality of two player games of Icehouse. It is also nifty because, in a two player game, some of the leftover pieces from the four player set are put to use. Of course, it can be played with more than two players, but to do so, you will need expansion sets.
In Mercenary Icehouse, each player gets 3 extra pieces of a different, unused color. These extra pieces are called Mercenaries because they are not yours but they will work for you and you have control over them. Each player gets a small, a medium, and a large. Thus, in a two player game of blue versus red, the blue would also get 3 green pieces on his pad, and the red would start out with 3 yellows.
The game is played as normal, except that you may not play any of your mercenaries until you have gone under your stash limit. Your mercenaries DO count towards your stash limit.
Mercenaries are like prisoners only better, because you have complete control over them. If one of your mercenaries gets over iced, you get to capture the redundant attacker of your choice.
In scoring, count only your true pieces as usual. You can get or lose points due to the actions of mercenaries, but they get zero points. A player's maximum possible score is still 30.
This variation neatly solves the usual problems in a two player game of stagnation and prisoner shortages due to the lack of diplomacy. Just when the game starts to stagnate, you suddenly get this shipment of arms from your allies, like the cavalry riding over the hill. Once you get your mercenaries, you can use them to over ice your own pieces, to either break your opponent's fortress, or to save your piece by restructuring the attack. You can also use them to build fortress walls, and if you can't think of anything better to do with them, you can even use them as cannon fodder and just execute them. Ibis variation also loosens up stagnation before the mercenaries arrive, simply because if you are only a piece or two away from your stash limit, you will often say, "what the hell," and play them, so that you can get access to your mercenaries.
Simple Icehouse was designed to be a teaching aid for instructing beginners in the game of Icehouse. Some people, when first learning the game, have particular difficulty in understanding walls and some of the other more technical points of the game. This variation therefore involves eliminating some of the rules of the basic game. When playing Simple Icehouse, ignore all Meltdowns, walls, and pseudo-walls. Also, don't worry about the rule for distance of attack. After new players have played a few games of Simple Icehouse, they will be better prepared to learn the rest of the basic rules.
Warning: Play this version only if you don't mind broken tips.
Setup: Each player gets a pair of chopsticks and two rubber bands. Wind one rubber band around one end of each of
the chopsticks, so the rubber on the chopsticks can help to pick up the pieces.
Play: Play any version of Icehouse, using the chopsticks instead of your hands to move the pieces. The chopsticks
can be used in any way you wish, but you cannot touch the pieces with your hands. Using your hand to move a piece
constitutes a crash and is penalized accordingly.
Good luck!
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