<<If there is one thing to "improve upon," I guess the questions could be a little less Eurocentric or DWHIM-based (DWHIM = Dead WHIte Men). In my packet, I purposely went overboard with the multiculturalism (one player commented that I snuck in two minority groups in one "ruthless Chinese women" bonus). I also tried to expand the canon (Spanish composers, Barbara Kingsolver novels) while avoiding QB cliches (Popes/Crusades, name-that-dynasty, or battles [I swear I'll scream if I ever hear another question on military history!]). Anyway, I maintain that these packets at Technophobia were lots of fun! They are miles above the ACF Fall tournament packets.>> Hmm... I'd beg to differ. I personally thought the ACF packets were overall about the same as the first 9 rounds of Technophobia. As for expanding the canon, I think that should be moderated as opposed to going overboard with it. For example, the Chinese women bonus really was from hell. Our team got 10 points for Empress Wu and ran. The Spanish composers we didn't get at all. I think what would be better is making one part of the bonus obscure. That way a reasonably knowledgeable team will get 20, but a really good team will get 30. <<A major complaint I had with the ACF Fall tournament last week was that those packets were dreadfully boring to play on. In addition to all those "list knowledge" questions that I bagged on in the previous post, there were lots of "what are you talking about??" questions received with blank stares or rolling eyes (even by the geniuses of Berkeley A and Berkeley B!). There were also tons of 10-10-10 bonuses where the first two parts were gettable but the third part was from hell. This problem prompted one Caltech player to comment, "Is it ACF policy that a team is not allowed to thirty a bonus??">> Again, I'm of a different opinion. I didn't think the questions were boring at all, nor did they overemphasise list memorization. I didn't have much of a problem with the type of 10-10-10 bonus that you're talking about; like I said before, it makes sense to me that a decent team should pick up 20 but a really good team should get 30. However, considering the makeup of Berkeley A, if something comes up such that they're all shaking their heads and saying they've never heard of it, I would say that's a bad question. The top team in the tournament should at least have heard of the answer, even if they didn't get it. That said, I don't remember if such questions came up; it's entirely possible that they did, I just don't know. Jerry
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