Saturday, January 12, 2008

Kadavergehorsamkeit

Thanks to Mr. A. for affording me this opportunity to share this with you. What i have for you is a game that i have developed. It arose from a strange compulsion i have to rearrange the letters of words to form other words.
The idea of the game is to score as many points as one can (as it is in many games) by rearranging the letters of the keyword or phrase to form a new word or words. All words must be in English and because i am a nice unit, places and names are allowed. In rearranging the keyword, while you need not use every letter in composing the new line of what i think of as nonsense poetry, no letter may be used more often than it appears in the original. The game is started by writing the keyword out vertically down a piece of paper. This is done because each letter will be the first letter used for that particular line. Once each line has been completed, one's score can be calculated.
Each word is scored both by length and originality. The formula for determining the value of each word by length is a simple mathematical progression: a 1 letter word has a value of 1; a 2 letter word has a value of 3, that is 1+2=3; a 3 letter word has a value of 6; 4 of 10 and so on. Originality comes into play in that each time a word is reused, its value is diminished by half. (As an example, a 7 letter word worth 28 points the first time it is used would be worth 14 points the second time and only 7 the third). Lastly, for each letter of the keyword missing from a line, subtract 10 points from your score.
Well, now you are ready to play. The keyword for this challenge is KADAVERGEHORSAMKEIT.
i would like to see what solutions you are able to come up with as well as thoughts you might have about the game in general (which is still without a name). i will post the solution i came up with next weekend.
Vox

7 comments:

mister anchovy said...

so can each line have multiple words, or is the total number of words the same as the total number of letters in the keyword?

Anonymous said...

Each line can have multiple words. The total number of them for both each line and the puzzle in its entirety is entirely up to the solver.
Vox

Candy Minx said...

Oh this sounds like a lot of fun...I will have to come back and re-read the rules as I am too tired right now...but it sounds wonderful!

Candy Minx said...

Oh and by the way...I like the Pynchon reference...I wonder if I can guess who Vox is...


:)

mister anchovy said...

I started in on the puzzle this afternoon. It's very interesting, and with a long keyword like kadavergehorsamkeit, it gets challenging looking for words that haven't already been used. I like the structure of making a line for every letter of the keyword - it's a nice idea that contains the puzzle very well.

It seems to me that the scoring system is a little unwieldy, but it does the trick, and puts a good premium on longer words. As well, if you use a one letter word, such as "a" multiple times, you end up dealing with fractions, when perhaps the issue is really more about avoiding the penalty for not using letters in a line. Perhaps, though, good puzzlers would never be left with that situation. I'll post my answer when I'm done.

Do you have any sense yet what makes an excellent score, an average score, or a novice score?

Anonymous said...

Candy, i am most impressed that you got the Pynchon reference straight off. Though not really a component of the scoring system, you should give yourself extra points for that.
And you make a good point Mr. A about the scoring system being a mite unweildy. However, to discourage the use of recycling words, there seemed little alternative other than banning their use completely. And that seemed a bit harsh to me. So by allowing them, it does make it easier to complete each line and it is certainly better to repeat the word "a" rather than lose points for an incomplete line. But it would be best not to have to repeat words within the puzzle....
i do not yet have a sense of what would make for a really good score. i can tell you that my first attempt (which was really more of an experiment in generating lines of poetry out of a keyword) when played with to accomodate the scoring system, resulted in a score of just over 1,000; 1003.75 as i recall. i look forward to seeing what solution you produce.
Vox

FOUR DINNERS said...

My brain hurts.

Also I haven't got a calculator.

Also I've drunk too much Grolsch.

Also it's Monty Python not Pynchon therefore I'm completely lost....