Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.fandom, rec.games.abstract
Followup-To: rec.games.abstract
From: hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: 1996/02/29
Subject: John Brunner's game "Fencing"

I seem to be having some trouble getting this message propagated;
apologies if you see it more than once.

The rules of John Brunner's board game "Fencing" (not to be confused
with the swordplay sport of the same name) are published in his novel
_Shockwave Rider_.  In this game, players claim coordinates from a
rectangular array (under a complicated protocol) and form triangles
with the coordinates they have claimed.  After mentioning that
triangles formed by one player may not include coordinates claimed by

the opponent, Brunner writes:

  A coordinate claimed by the opponent which lies on a horizontal or
  vertical line between apices of a proposed triangle shall be
  deemed included and renders the triangle invalid.  A coordinate
  claimed by the opponent which lies on a true diagonal (45 degrees)
  between apices of a proposed triangle shall be deemed excluded.

There is a major omission here, in that he does not mention points
that are on an oblique line not at a 45-degree angle, such as:

  A . . . . . B
  . . . . X . .
  . . C . . . .

Is coordinate X included or excluded from triangle ABC?  (Note that
the definition of inclusion affects the scoring of the triangles, as
well as their validity.)

Initially, I suspected that Brunner might have meant to require all
triangles to have edges parallel to the eight compass points.  But
on page 122 he mentions a game in which "a single slender triangle
running almost the full width of the field" was formed.  If all angles
were a multiple of 45 degrees, then there would be only one shape of
triangle: an isosceles right triangle.  That shape is not particularly
slender, and it would be meaningless to describe such triangles by
their slenderness or fatness anyway--the only distinction between
triangles would be size and orientation.

So my question to the SF readers and fans is: did anyone ever play
Fencing with John Brunner, or talk or correspond with him about it in
enough detail to resolve this problem?

Followups to this article are directed to rec.games.abstract,
which covers this sort of game; if you want to share your other
reminiscences about Brunner, please edit the newsgroup line.  Thanks.

Dan Hoey
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil