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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Games / Nerd Rochambeau A-Go-Go

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 5:22 PM

Some friends and I play rock-paper-scissors (a.k.a. rochambeau) a whole lot, and the other day I mentioned that I'd read in a magazine a quote from a TV show that referred to an expanded RPS game. The TV show was "The Big Bang Theory," but that show didn't create the expanded RPS game. It's been around for years, and it's Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard. Here's an illustration:

"Paper disproves Spock" is brilliant. But, when I was doing research, I discovered that someone else has created a rochambeau game that includes 7, 9, 11, 15, and even 25 symbols. Here's a part of the 25-symbol rock-paper-scissors, which they sell as a poster:

But 25 wasn't enough, so they created a 101-gesture RPS game:

You can buy that in poster form here. There's no real reason for me to share this information with you at this particular time, I just think it's super-cool.

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Comments (18) RSS

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"Some friends and I play rock-paper-scissors (a.k.a. rochambeau) a whole lot"

Seriously?

Posted by seattle bike guy on January 7, 2009 at 5:35 PM

I'm physically incapable of "Spock." As a lifelong Trekie, I have lived with this shame a long time. Now I am excluded from a game because of it. This isn't a choice, I was born this way.

Fuck you, newfangled rochambeau.

Posted by dwight moody on January 7, 2009 at 5:38 PM

My favorite variation on this game is called Cat Tinfoil Microwave. I don't think I need to elaborate on the relationships.

Posted by lusk on January 7, 2009 at 5:51 PM

please explain "paper disproves Spock"!

Posted by Jude Fawley on January 7, 2009 at 5:53 PM

dwight, there may still be hope! I couldn't do it, and then I walked around for a day with rubber bands on my fingers, and then I could do it. So yeah. Good luck.

Posted by yay spock! on January 7, 2009 at 6:05 PM

It should be paper gives Spock papercut.

@2,

If I have my Trek trivia right, Shatner can't do it either. They had to tie his fingers together for the end of Wrath of Khan.

Posted by keshmeshi on January 7, 2009 at 6:06 PM

This would be a good WASL question! What properties must a directed graph have in order to define a fair rochambeau game? For which values of the number of nodes are fair games possible?

Posted by David Wright on January 7, 2009 at 6:19 PM

I really love to get stoned and watch the big bang theory. its a really funny show.

Posted by thecatnextdoor on January 7, 2009 at 6:35 PM

As is obvious from the first chart that results in a pentagram, this variation is the work of SATAN. More proof that Sloggers are headed to some ring of hell. A hell where you must play rochambeau with Dan Savage for eternity while he tells you over and over about how he totally caught those Christians doing ______, which naturally proves they don't know what they're talking about at all.

Posted by Amused on January 7, 2009 at 7:20 PM

In my variation, there's only one gesture, rock, and the game is always a draw. We play for hours.

Posted by Fnarf on January 7, 2009 at 7:31 PM

Methinks Paul's been dipping into the good drugs. (BTW, I can "do it.")

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on January 7, 2009 at 7:50 PM

I can see the d-bags now. "I didn't do a fire. It was an axe, I swear!"

Posted by Mike in Renton on January 7, 2009 at 8:14 PM

I can do spock, but only by oncentrating on it, it seems like people's failure or difficulty doing spock could create a serious problem with the game.
I'm also currently living in China where there are a variety of rock paper scissors like gmaes often played as drinking games, which is really the only way they can be fun. There's one called hero, beautiful girl and pervert, it should be obvious who beats who.

Posted by Waiguoren on January 8, 2009 at 2:51 AM

I thought Rochambeau was two guys taking turns kicking each other in the nuts until one gives up (and thus loses). Did I get that from South Park? Or Jackass?

Posted by blue barberpole on January 8, 2009 at 3:14 AM

It seems odd to me that someone would go to the trouble of making up 101 otherwise-meaningless hand gestures for a game like this, when an entire gestural language -- American Sign Language -- already exists.

Posted by the sign for snake looks like its fangs, not the whole head on January 8, 2009 at 7:21 AM

RPS-25 is pretty. But my god, the nerdery.

Posted by EmilyP on January 8, 2009 at 8:57 AM

Some friends and I play rock-paper-scissors (a.k.a. rochambeau) a whole lot.

This from a guy who mocks people who have nothing better to do than root for professional sports teams???

Posted by rjh on January 8, 2009 at 9:11 AM

Doing the "Spock" is easy. Try doing a "reverse Spock" instead (keep your middle and ring fingers together but spread the pinky and index fingers). It's fun!

Posted by laterite on January 8, 2009 at 9:22 AM