CHOICE + (rules and gamestart)

        It's Choice, but with the rules slightly tweaked (just because I can
and because I think it'll improve the game). Please pay particular care to
things marked with *s, as these are the tweaks I have made.

1. Every turn five fair six-sided dice are rolled. Each player splits the five
   dice into two pairs of dice and the fifth die is the reject die.
2. The point totals are added together in the dice pairs to provide two
   numbers between 2 and 12. The reject die will be between 1 and 6.
3. Each player builds up a tally of how many times they have made each
   number as a pair, and how many times each number has appeared as reject.
4. A player cannot nominate more than 3 different numbers between 1 and 6 as
   reject numbers. If you have used 1, 2 and 3 as reject dice in the past
   you must use one of those as your reject die every turn. If no dice rolled
   on a turn are one of your three numbers used as reject dice, on that turn
   you pick two pairs as normal and do not reject a die at all.
5. Should you pick a number to be rejected and it is that number's eighth
   appearance as reject die, your choices that turn register as usual, but
   your game ends. Players' games' may end at different times.
6. Once your game ends, you will be scored upon how many times you made
   each number using a pair of dice. Each number made exactly zero or five
   times scores zero. Each number made at least once but no more than four
   times scores -200. Each number made six or more times scores thus:
   MADE SIX TIMES       1x base value           NUMBER(S)       BASE VALUE
   MADE SEVEN TIMES     2x base value           7               30
   MADE EIGHT TIMES     3x base value           6 and 8         40
   MADE NINE TIMES      4x base value           5 and 9         50
   MADE TEN TIMES       5x base value           4 and 10        60
   MADE MORE THAN TEN TIMES                     3 and 11        *  80 *
                        5x base value           2 and 12        * 120 *
7. Every issue, two sets of five dice will be rolled. In return, you should
   split both sets of five into a set of two pairs and a reject die. You
   could split 1,2,3,4,5 and 2,3,4,5,6 into 1+2=3, 3+4=7 and reject 5 and
   2+5=7, 3+6=9 and reject 4. Send your orders to me before each deadline.
8. * Should you not issue orders for sets of dice in the turn they are *
   * printed, you can do so later. However because you have had the benefit *
   * of seeing what later dice will be, you are fined 50 points per issue *
   * late you send your orders in. You may voluntarily wait, say, five *
   * issues before sending any sets of orders in so you can base your orders *
   * on having seen ten sets of dice and not two, but you would be fined *
   * 200 points in that instance. Any player may play up to three times in *
   * this game with different sets of allocations; for instance, you might *
   * play two from the start, one concentrating on making low pairs and the *
   * other high pairs, and the third starting in the 9th issue of the game *
   * being fined 400 points but with information about what numbers come up. *

To sign up for this game, send me your allocations for these sets of numbers.
TURN ONE: 1,5,5,5,6. TURN TWO: 1,2,4,4,6. You don't need to specify your
reject dice in advance; the two (which could be the same one twice) you use
this time will be two and the third will be the third one you use later.

                          T H E   D E A D   P O O L
        
        Players each submit names of three people pretty much in the public
eye in Britain alive today. The first one of the people named to die after
the game begins wins the game for the player who nominated them. The people
have to be humans (though nominating famous aging racehorses was a stylish
move) and have to be at least enough in the public eye that their death will
be well publicised.
        
        I've never played this game before. I've never seen it played myself.
I've never even seen the movie from which it's supposed to have come. However
someone told me about it once, and I thought it sounded like a laugh, albeit
in bad taste. Just the ideal thing to run in my subzine, really. This game
needs a prize fund. If you want to take part, send me a list of three names
strictly before the next deadline and one pound. (Mark Stretch will deduct
this from your account and send it to me to save you the hassle if you ask
him clearly to do so.) The winner scoops the pool. The game will not start
until 1997; anyone dying before 23:59:59 on Friday 31st December 1996 is
disqualified for jumping the gun, but orders must be in well before that;
strictly by the next deadline (you can't wait and see who gets sick).