This document describes how to play WordORama using the IRC bot. The document also contains the current list of categories the IRC bot uses. Please suggest additional categories.
WordORama is a wordplay and trivia game. For each game, a board is randomly chosen containing five categories ("authors", "things you might find in a doctor's office", "video games") and five letters of the alphabet. This gives each player a 5x5 blank grid. The player's task is to fill as many slots as possible with words which begin with the appropriate letter and fit in the appropriate category.
Once the timer runs out, the answers are read for each category. If a player submitted a unique answer, he gets 10 points. An answer which was submitted by only two players receives 5 points, and an answer which was submitted by three or more players, or which the players determine did not fit the category, receives no points.
To begin the game, it is first necessary for someone to run the bot, and for everyone to congregate in the appropriate channel, which is #word.
Once the bot has been started, the game is roughly divided into three sections:
At the end of the game, the bot will announce the final scores.
Anyone with a keyfitz account can run the bot by running:
ircgame.pl WordORama
from the command line. The bot should indicate that it is logging
into the correct irc server, and joining the channel #word.
If anything goes wrong, tell Chaos, or go do something else if Chaos
is not available.
Once the bot is running, all commands should be directed by
private message to the bot, whose screenname is gm.
The bot will not pay attention to anything which is said in
the main channel.
Someone will need to start the game, by using the start
command. The command needs to be called with the nicknames of all
the players involved in the game, i.e.:
/msg gm start chaos tom fred
if chaos, tom, and fred are playing.
Once the game has started, the bot will generate the categories and announce them in the main channel. At this point, each player should read the categories and set any preferences he wants to set.
Currently, the only preference available involves timer messages. By default, the bot will send a message to each player notifying him when 2 minutes, 1 minute, and 30 seconds remain on the clock. Some players find these messages distracting. Use the command
botmsg no
to tell the bot that you do not want to receive private timer
messages. (Note that the messages are sent to the main channel
regardless of this preference. Also note that this setting only
deals with messages sent while the timer is running --- it has no
effect on the nagging messages the bot will send you when it expects
you to do things during other phases of the game.)
Once you have set your preferences and are sitting at your keyboard anxiously waiting to see the letters and start typing, use the command:
ready
to tell the bot you are ready to proceed.
At the beginning of this phase, the bot will randomly generate the set of letters, and announce them in the main channel. Then it will send a private message to each player containing his blank grid. Once the letters are announced, the players should immediately start answering.
There are two relevant commands in this phase --- answer
and status. Since time is of the essence, these
commands can and should be referenced by their one-letter shortcuts
a and s.
The answer or a command is used to
submit an answer. The five categories will be numbered on your
grid, and you should use a two-character number/letter pair (in
either order) to indicate which entry you are submitting. For
instance, you might type:
a 3k kiwi fruit
if the third category is "fruits and vegetables". Note that, if
your answer is successfully submitted, the bot will not tell you
anything. You will only get a bot response if an error occurred.
You will get a status message telling you that you have changed
your answer if you submit an answer for a square which already had
an entry.
The status or s command can be used
at any time to display your grid so far. Using status with a
numerical argument, like s 3, will display only the
category you request, getting you your response faster. In
playtesting, we have noticed that people sometimes submit answers
in the wrong places. The best way to correct for this is probably
to look at your grid occasionally.
During the reading phase, the bot will read each category, and, within each category, will read all the answers for a given letter at once, after which the players can manually adjust scores for that category.
The bot will select one player for each category to be the "round master". The job of the round master is to inform the bot of any scoring-relevant changes as it reads each letter in the category. (The round master rotates once per category so that no single player has to do extra work for the entire game.)
First, the bot will read any answers which were submitted for
the current letter in the current category. If there were no answers
submitted, the bot will immediately go on to the next letter. If
there were any answers, the bot will report which answers it believes
are identical (this is done by case-insensitive exact word match,
so it will necessarily miss some things). The round master now has
three commands available to him: same, invalid,
and done.
The same command is used to indicate that two players
had the same answer. For instance, suppose that chaos submitted
"indifferent" and fred submitted "indifference". Then the round
master will tell the bot:
same chaos fred
(Note: this command is run with nicknames rather than answers just
because they are shorter and easier to parse quickly. If tom also
submitted "indifference", then tom's answer will automatically be
affected by the above. However, if tom submitted "indifferency",
then the round master will also need to run same chaos
tom.)
The invalid command is used to indicate that a
player's answer is invalid. It will affect all players who submitted
that answer. For instance, if chaos submitted "plane", which is
not a valid answer, then:
invalid chaos
will cause the answer "plane" to be worth no points for anyone who
submitted it.
The done command is used to indicate that there are
no further changes to scoring for this round. The round master
must submit this command for any round in which there were answers.
After this, the bot will announce points scored during the round,
and move on to the next letter or category.
At any time during the reading phase, you can run the command
status round (or s r) to obtain the
validity status of answers in the current category. This can be
useful if you need to make a number of changes and lose track of
what remains to be changed.
Note: all commands run by the round master are immediately reported to the channel. The round master position does not allow that player to cheat (at least not without being caught) --- it exists simply to make the game run faster by having only one player at a time responsible for communicating with the bot.
Actors* Actresses* Bodies of Water American Capitals American Cities Animals Artists and Sculptors* Authors* Automobiles Beverages Bible Characters Birds Book Titles Cartoon Characters Characters in Mythology Cigarette and Cigar Brands Colleges and Universities Colors Confections and Candies Corporations Dances', Diseases and Illnesses Drugs European Cities Explorers* Fabrics Athletes* Comedians* Clothing Brands', Fairy Tale Titles Poets* Resorts Famous Structures Famous Vehicles (Individual) Famous Warriors* Famous Women in History Fictional Characters (Written Word) Fishes Flowers Foods and Condiments Foreign Countries Fruits and Vegetables Games (Board, Card, Parlour) Video Games Gems Islands Magazines Money Movie Titles Musical Composers Musical Instruments Musicians* Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tale Characters Occupations Operas Orchestra Leaders* Perfumes and Colognes Plays (Musical and Dramatic) Politicians* World Leaders* Scientists and Inventors* Singers* (Male or Female) Song Titles Sports Things Commonly Found in Bathroom Things Commonly Found in Bedroom Things Commonly Found in Kitchen Things Commonly Found in Living Room Things Commonly Found in Office Titles of T.V. Programs Transportation (Air, Land or Sea) Trees Apparel (Male or Female) Things Commonly Found in a Car Languages Holidays and Observances Measurement and Units "Things Commonly Found in Doctor's Office", Toys Things Commonly Found in Garden Things Commonly Found in Amusement Park Awards Fictional Characters (Film/TV) Sports Team Famous Animals* Things Commonly Found in Airport Soaps and Detergents Famous Streets Comic Strips Famous Criminals* Famous Judges* Insects Directors (Film/TV) Sports Equipment Bands (Rock/Pop/Folk/ Rap/HipHop) Things Commonly Found in Casino Weather Words "Carpenter's Tools", Store Chains World Cities (non USA/Europe) Hobbies Academic Disciplines Restaurant Chains Things made of Wood Mountains / Mtn. Ranges Ice Cream Flavors Things Commonly Found in a Garage Things Commonly Found in a Classroom Works of Visual Art Oscar Winners Things that can fly Emotions Fictional Places