Post by billmcdee on Mar 18, 2015 7:41:05 GMT -5
Hello friends,
I've run into a bit of writer's block with questions for future episodes of "Three on a Match".
I have enough question material for the current game that I am hosting, but am not able to come up with more similar type questions for future episodes.
This idea I have institutes another facet of the original "Three on a Match", that of secret bidding by the players. But instead of bidding on numbers of questions, they instead would be bidding on how few letters they would need to solve a mystery word.
What I am considering doing is utilizing my giant base of unused Scrabble clues instead.
What I am envisioning is I will show blanks representing a word (7, 8, 9 or 10 letters long), along with a Scrabble type clue.
Then, I would request all 3 players to message me with a bid, indicating how few letters they believe they would need to solve the word correctly.
The player with the lowest bid would get to solve the word first. I would use random.org to fill in the letters.
Should the player with the lowest bid not solve it, the player with the next lowest bid would then get a turn, and letters would be added, based upon that player's bid.
Should the second player also fail, the third player would get a chance, with any added letters.
For example:
10 letter word, followed by a clue.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Some people prefer the old one to the new one.
Player 1 bids 7 letters
Player 2 bids 5 letters
Player 3 bids 4 letters
Player 3 would get first chance to solve the word, with 4 letters being revealed, at random.
If Player 3 was wrong, Player 2 would get a chance, having 1 more letter added, since his bid was 5 letters.
If Player 2 is wrong, then Player 1 would get 2 more letters exposed, again all at random.
Bids can be anywhere from 0 letters up to one less the total number of letters in the word. So for the above example, a player could bid anywhere from 0 letters up to 9 letters.
On the original show, if 2 players tied on a bid, the third player got to play the question board. Similarly, if 2 players were to bid 3 letters and 1 player bid 5 letters, the player who bid 5 would get first crack at the word.
If the player who bid 5 letters didn't get the word, the remaining players would re-bid how many additional letters, if any, they required. If their re-bids resulted in another tie, the other contestant would get to select which player gets to solve the word.
If all 3 players submit the same bid, they will be asked to re-bid again. If the re-bid results in another three-way tie, I would incorporate another idea from another Bill Cullen game show, "Blankety Blanks".
Rather than have a circular carousel of 100 cards, I will have another display of 9 boxes on my screen. Hidden behind 3 will be one player's name, hidden behind 3 more another player's name, and hidden behind the other 3 would be the third player's name. I will use playing cards to represent the layout, and even I will not know which player is hidden where. I will then use random.org to determine which of the 9 boxes gets selected, and which player gets to have first chance at solving the word.
The player who solves the word will get to select 2 money cards (same as the current format), and will earn the right to go to the big colorful matching board as well.
Sorry for this being so wordy, but I wanted to put this out here to you all. Read it over at your leisure, and I'd appreciate any feedback or questions.
I rather like this idea as it incorporates a bit more strategy into the question portion of the game.
Thank you very much. This post may be edited or re-edited by yours truly as need be.
Bill
