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Do you get money from the middle when you land on Free Parking in Monopolytm?
Do you swap a blank on the board with the corresponding letter in your Scrabbletm tray?
Do you ever view game rules as a foundation upon which to build a game that is perfect for your taste?
Does your creative energy sometimes lead you off the beaten path?
If so, you may be a candidate for one of these fun and challenging Acro variants!
"Infectious alternative?"
mrsmodel came up with a fabulous alternative acro game in which you must acro using only monosyllabic words. We've been calling it MONO and have been having a hoot at it.
Hard to come up with single syllable words to write a 7 letter acro, but we've enjoyed the challenge. This was all her idea and we've only been playing when we can put a room together of people that agree to play around like this. (We've also played a round or two using two syllable words for each acro, but it hasn't become as popular (yet, lol) ). I'm going to write to A. Shubert to ask for a special room, perhaps named "MONORAIL" or some such to use for this alternative acro style.
bearette 2/2/99
"Step to right with right...slide..."
I just read through your alternatives and it primed my brain. I propose calling this one ACRO Slide.
How to play:
Either:This is going to be a toughie to play! Even to get past the Acro checker, you'd have to do something like:
1. The winner chooses a number (between 1 and 5 for example) and the next ACRO to come up is transposed that many letters./me SLIDE::::::: 3 so, A C R O becomes D F U R.
That is, A+3=D, C+3=F, and so on.Or:
2. The game choose the slide value. In a 3 letter game, slide the letters by 3. In a 7 letter game slide the letters by 7.
Pan 1/24/99
"Who was that masked man?"
Every four to six weeks, Acrophobia's Jazz Room regulars host a Moonlight Masquerade ball. All players come disguised as some known public, historic, or fictional figure and write their acros in character. They also stay in character during chat. At the end of the evening everyone "unmasks" or reveals their identities. To distinguish masquerade attendees from party crashers or people who wander in by mistake, all those in disguise add an asterisk before and after their names. The morning following the ball, *Daphne* sends out a ballot via email including everyone's identity for the previous night to vote for Best Costume (i.e., who stays in character best) and Best Incognito(i.e., who is the hardest to guess the true identity of). The ballots must be returned within 24 hours. Also, during the gameplay, one of the players keeps a log of the chat box. *Daphne* writes an account of the night's events and publishes the voting results on the Jazz room website.
Last month's gathering featured a wide range of clever disguises including *DrRuth*, *DaBom*, *Mermaid*, *LizyBorden*, *BarbieDoll*, *BillieHday*, *TheNanny*, *The Genie*, and the night's winners, *BillGates* and *Frosty*.
For more information on this innovative and delightful alternative, visit the beautifully designed Jazz site. The Moonlight Masquerade is an alternative that could be easily enjoyed in any room.
codymaxx 8/16/98
"No...Not XXX!!!!"
Here's what happens:
In Censored Acro someone first has to win. Then, the winner chooses a category. Once that category has been chosen, he/she can censor certain words. For example, in the Politics category, they can censor the words Paula, Clinton, and Hillary. They can only censor 3 words, but they can also censor them after they see what the Acro is. I think this will make players think harder and overall increase the challenge of the game.
Enjoy!
**AZ**Denmo* 4/4/98
"¿Quiero Acrophobia Spielt Verrückt?"
Don't know if Non-English Acro qualifies as a true alternative or not, but...
...I was thinking, why not write acros in non-English languages if the opportunity presents itself? I got this acro recently:
It didn't fit the acro, but I thought about the "Quiero Taco Bell" ads that they were doing, and this phrase came to mind:
Just a thought, let me know what you think!
GSJ 3/9/98
codymaxx adds: Maybe if you have time and space to append the English translation at the end of the Acro (using ., -, or _ mirror style), you might even get votes from those of us limited to one [non-computer] language....English. 8)
Update - Preliminary Rules for Spanish
Acro:
L can be L or LL
Other Rules:
R can be R or RR
N can be N or Ñ
W, since it doesn't exist in Spanish, can be used as a "wildcard",
any letter you want. You'd have to enter such a word like
this: wLLORAR to make Acrobot accept it
- No "Spanglish" acros, like "My hamburgers are muy bueno". Do the whole thing in Spanish.
- English Proper Nouns, like names and places, are always OK. You can say "Burger King" instead of "Rey de hamburguesas" when writing about the fast-food place. Similarly you can say "New York" instead of "Nueva York", etc.
I give examples for Spanish because it is the language I am most familiar with, after English. There's no reason that Acrophobia couldn't be played in any language that uses the English alphabet (or something similar): French, Italian, German, etc. Special rules could be made for each language, like those I suggest above for Spanish. This is all very preliminary, and I welcome your input and other comments at: garysj@flinet.com.
GSJ 3/14/98
"So, you wanna know about Dome Rules eh?"
Ok, you asked for it... Since the players in the Dome Rules clan get sick of me typing these rules, I'm only gonna type it once for you all...
(I'm telling you, I think they all have: DomeRulesExplanatiaPhobia!!) A/W, Dome Rules is played like this:
Well, there you have it. If you like the sound of these rules, stop by the Dome someday and try 'em out! Don't be scared either, another Dome Rule is "No biting", so you don't have to worry about that...The winner of each round makes up their own category, other than the ones given to choose from on the screen. Then, after you have thought up a category, you type in the chat box using PURPLE CAPITAL LETTERs.
"How do you type in purple?" is the next question we usually get. Well, to type in purple, you press /me and then the message. If, for example, momcop*DR* won the round and wanted to choose the category "things a cop yells" she would type this:
/me -----THINGS A COP YELLS and it would be displayed in the chat area as:
**momcop*DR* -----THINGS A COP YELLS Another question we usually get is this: "Isn't that couch rules?" To answer all of you, yes it is... most of us are players who came from the Couch and wanted to try something new. We changed the name because we always play in the Acrodome.
Well, H A P P Y A C R O I N G!!! GMG© 3/9/98
p.s. Don't forget to visit the **DR** (Dome Rules) Clan Page.
"Who are the best players?"
3/16/98 Update
Hi, I'm moonspell. Simply put, I'm trying to organize a series of All-Star Acro Games of the best players, just as a fun sort of thing.
The criteria I decided on for the first all-star game, scheduled for 2/26/98 at 9 p.m. EST, was as follows... I posted a message on the AAN/AAAA Acro Board and also made a tour of the rooms to ask for individuals. My MAIN criteria for this first match was "contactibility" and availability. For example, dsquared is one of the best acroers to play the game, most people agree. Unfortunately, he is in Holland... 6 hours ahead of us, and by the time we started here, it would be 3 AM in Holland.
So, a lot of these first acro-ers come from a select number of rooms. It is ESSENTIAL to note that this is the first acro all-star match, and future ones (coordinated by me) would be reliant on people's votes for best acroers. So my question to everyone is who do you suggest? I've got a bunch of names, but I can't frequent all the rooms so I need your help.
I have compiled the list of the players for the first match on the 26th. I picked 17 names, and then randomly chose 14 starters and 3 alternates. These players are not ranked in any particular order.
Batman25, Batsis25(tm), Chadzilla, chipps, Colton, EJetson, hintzde, jklafemme, LeafT, moonspell, mrsmodel, Nick Elendim, Portal, Sirilyan.
Alternates:
klutz, Krishna, yermama2
And, based on voters reactions, definite all-star candidates for next time:
tydy, Hoju Pressba, Dr. No
Now, as you might notice, there is definitely a room "favoritism" here. Let me break it down:
Catwalk (5): Colton, mrsmodel, Nick Elendim, LeafT, Portal
Rainbow Room (5): moonspell, chipps, klutz, Krishna, hintzde
Hallway (4): Batsis25(tm), Batman25, Chadzilla, yermama2
Slow Lane (1): EJetson
Asylum (1): Sirilyan
Room wanderers (1): jklafemme
Now, I know this seems like a ridiculous amount of disproportionality. But consider that I very rarely play in the adult rooms, and am not entirely aware of who the good players are there. And I got VERY little feedback from anyone who plays in the adult language rooms, so I couldn't do much. Part of the improvement of these matches is my ability to communicate with people better. So, plese send me your nominations!
I am extremely serious about making this a "big deal" and getting people charged up for it. This is going to take quite a bit of effort to truly represent the BEST acroers in the land, but I do believe it will be worth it.
Any questions? Write to me or contact me via ICQ#7676857. Thanks for your interest!
moonspell 2/16/98
3/16/98 Update - We had some people bail out at the last minute and a couple show up late, but things still ended up very successfully for the first match on 2/26/98. The results can be found at:
moonspell 2/16/98
Talkcity #ABC meets Bezerk's Acrophobia
Hello all you acro nuts! I'm hawkins!! And I am thrilled to be getting to know all of you! Currently, I am an acroer on the Couch Taters from Acrophobia and an acroer from the Acroing Aliens in Talkcity!
I have recently created a new web page called Team Acro! The purpose of my page is to bring Talkcity and Acrophobia teams together by hosting round robin tournaments and by providing a place for everyone to come see what teams we have out in acro land!
It gives people the opportunity to potentially join your teams or challenge you to an acro match and in the near future to compare your win stats to those of other acro teams... We are in our very first week of operation... The prime focus for the first 2 weeks is too get talkcity folks into the tournament and team mode... It is new for us in talkcity, in fact on the 21st we will have our first tourney ever.. then on the 28th we will have our second tourney...
It is at this point I want to cross the barrier and begin doing the tournaments on both platforms and I encourage you to challenge the talkcity teams to matches as well... If I can do anything to make the site better for you.. and make it as fun as it can possible be please e-mail me!! My site url is:
Have a good time there and feel free to join in on all tourneys in both talkcity and Acrophobia!
hawkins 2/14/98
"Pondering the Pending Pandering"
Friday night is date night and the SLR's party it up! On this night of nights, and only this night, we do our own variation of Acrophobia. The only acros permitted and/or voted for are name pandering of the Slow Lane Regulars. This is a downright side-splitting, hilariously good time and we love it!!! At the end of the evening you'll find us all ROFLOAO - all except zamboni that is, who will be ROI.
g--anon 1/28/98
"Topic +"
A variant of the Couch Rules for those who are too aware for general acro, yet having way too much fun to come up with topics....Ravenfair's Rules.....Topic +
For example, choices for topic GA, History, Music, Celebrities become
History + Lunatics......= Historical Lunatics
Music + Flintstones.....
Celebrities + Hairpieces.....
I'm not sure if it will work or not..... suggestions anyone?
from Cin 1/20/98: This is a great idea, like a little push in the right direction.
It is sometimes hard to come up with a topic, especially if you win four times in a row,
and are fresh out! LOL It is still adding more variety and excitement to the standard
Acrophobia Topics.
Ravenfair aka Raven *CR* 1/16/98
"An Offline Alternative"
New acro variant, to be played offline: "License Plate Acro!" Good for any drive, and loads more fun than the old stupid alphabet game ;-) Good practice for that 3-letter GA round, too!
Wolfger 12/28/97
"Acrolic Logic?"
Two new acro types:
The "Acro Equation". Simple, really. Arrange words like an algebraic equation instead of in a sentence. Example:
RTB
Riker+ Troi= Baby
The "Acro Flow-Chart". Similar concept to the acro equation. A series of logically linked words, with arrows (-->) linking them. Example:
APM
Apes--> Primates--> Men
Wolfger 12/28/97
"Are You Playing Too Much Acro?"
In the Asylum, the other night TwoBees started what isn't exactly an Acro Alternative but just a way to take up the extra seconds while waiting for everyone to complete their answers. We will call it "SYMPTOMS". In the chat box the question You can tell your an Acro Addict when?..................Then everyone who wants to participate fills in the blank.
The results are quite hilarious and entertaining! Here are some of the better answers:
You can tell your an Acro addict when:
These are just a few examples of the responses that were recieved when we asked the Question. It's a great deal of fun, others may want to try it! Thanks for a great game, Berkeley!
TwoBees 12/27/97
p.s. from codymaxx - Don't forget to make notes of those terrific "Symptoms" and send them to Acro All Night's "You know you've been playing too much when..." page.
"Bonding with Acro Buddies"
2/28/98 Update
7/27/98 Update
If you regularly play in the same room or have made some good friends through Acrophobia why not form a clan? It's a fun way to hang out with your friends and rumble with other clans. The concept of "Acro Clans" was originally conceived by **AZ**Denmo*. His Acro Faction page is located at:
To find out more about how Cin formed the Couch Rules Clan (which is not accepting new members at this time) visit her site:
Couch Rules clan members wear the clan designation *CR* on their handles, and the AcroFaction members have decided to add [AF] to theirs. This is to make it easier to be identified during a match and to make it easier to track stats. It is recommended that all clans do this. Couch Rules Clan wears their letters the rest of the time to drum up interest in clans and encourage others to start them, and just to show their Couch Rules! affiliation. Below is one method of clan play suggested by Cin:
Mini-Bout: Two clans meet, the best 2 or three face-offs wins the Bout. I would recommend 6 players and one backup from each team. This way the room is full and non-clan-members won't wander in and be confused about what is going on. Also there is a backup in case one member gets bumped. Only the clan members who are playing may vote, the extra people observe and cheer. If two members from the SAME clan make it to the face-off that is a win for THAT clan. The first Mini Bout ever was played 12/21/97 between AcroFaction and Couch Rules! and it was a blast! [Note 1/20/98 update from Cin: We are now playing seven vs. seven in a bout. If someone gets bumped the Clan Leader or Team Captain will sit out the remaining rounds until the bumpee is able to return.]
**AZ**Denmo* suggests the following basics of clan play:
1. Clan's need Identifying marks.
2. 6 player per clan limit.
3. Scores will be logged.
4. Face-off decides winner; if two players from same clan win, victory automatically goes to that clan.
Other methods have been proposed by Cin, **AZ**Denmo* and others on the The Acro Board.
Cin & **AZ**Denmo* 12/22/97
Scoring Update
I like Dream Team's way of scoring the best so far. The way they do it is to add the entire team's scores together at faceoff time. If one team is 10 or more points ahead of the other, they have won that round. This is great because if a player gets booted their points are added back in to that teams total when they return. If one team is not ahead by more than 10 points the winner of the face-off determines who wins the round. The bout is still won by best two of three rounds. The winning team scores a bonus 5 pts. (I'm not sure what the reason for that is, just a reward I guess.) I think this is the fairest and most accurate way to score a game.
Cin*CR* 2/28/98
Another Scoring Update
This is LISA S, captain of RRDT. I noticed the comments on clan match scoring, and wanted to add an update. I am very strongly in favor of cumulative scoring, but have encountered many clans that prefer FO scoring. I've prepared a list of pros and cons for each.
Cumulative Scoring pros:
- Every member of the team's score counts, so the match is truly based on TEAM play.
- If a player is booted, his/her points at time of boot are added, therefore minimizing the effect of the booting.
- If a player is booted or has lag during Face-Off, there are only 5 points at stake to lose, again minimizing the effect of getting booted.
- The scores and acros from every round count, not just the scores and acros from the Face-Off.
- Since everyone's score is considered, it takes more than just one really amazing player to win the game.
Cumulative Scoring cons...
- You must have a scorekeeper to tally scores at the end of the match.
- Scorekeeping adds an extra task, and some consider it complicated.
- Each player must remember his or her score throughout the match in case of getting booted.
Face-Off Scoring pros...
- Score-keeping is not required, thus making it simpler to determine the winner.
- Players do not need to pay attention to their scores throughout the entire match.
Face-Off Scoring cons...
- It only requires one really good player who consistently wins Face-Offs to win the match for the team.
- If a player gets booted or experiences lag during Face-off, the match results are affected.
- If a player who is nearing Face-Off gets booted, that player is unlikely to make Face-off, thus potentially changing match results.
A brief summary... While FO scoring is clearly more simple for determining clan matches, cumulative scoring is clearly more fair. Cumulative scoring considers the points of all players, truly making it a TEAM match. Cumulative scoring also compensates better for all of those crazy mishaps that may happen during the match.
Thanks! LISA S (RRDT Captain) 7/27/98
Another Mirroring Alternative
While playing till about 5AM the other night, my eyes obviously started getting heavy and focusing on the letters became increasingly difficult. It was then that another variant struck me..."Double Vision"
It is similar to mirrors in that the word count gets doubled. I.E. 3 letter acros become six, but rather than mirroring them in ABC = ABC_C.B.A fashion, the game is:
So an acro of MTW becomes:
It is a lot easier than mirrors as it allows you to focus on letter sets rather than having to expand the acro and its mirror in your head. Which is why it is a perfect variant to try when you really DO start seeing double from staring at the monitor for hours on end.
An Anonymous Acro Deviant 12/15/97
"Backwards Acro"
One of the variations i've been experimenting is true mirroring. I call it "ORCA" or backwards Acro. Basically here is how it works:
your ORCA would be yadnuS si yadoT
for Today is Sunday spelled backwards.
It is extremely challenging to get even a three letter acro in within 60 seconds. It adds a challenge to all the "thesaurusticians" out there who simply look up words beginning with certain letters. With ORCA you need to be able to use your true vocabulary recall to think of letters that END in the given letters.
First thing anyone thinks of is, Oh no what about V,Q,X?? well my friends that is where the game gets fun!!! But as a hint i can say: viva-leT, qarI, xahtnA, are good places to start.
Rules are the sentence and the words have to read backwards.
Enjoy trying this on occasion with a three letter acro, i can't see a full game being able to be played like this unless you are dyslexic, but it does spice things up a bit.
Nick Elendim (or midnelE kciN) 12/13/97
"Winner Chooses"
I usually play on the Couch with a group of regulars. Over the past few days we’ve added our own "twist" to Acro that is really very fun. Actually, I think CIN came up with this idea. What we do is, We Always choose General Acrophobia but the "twist" comes in when the Winner of the last round makes up their own category. That person then announces "the category" in the Chat window (Hopefully in Purple). We call it "Winner Chooses" or "Couch Rules". It makes for a very challenging and fast paced game. The only time we actually use true General Acrophobia is during the first round of each new game. It gets confusing to some newcomers but they usually catch on quickly.
We never have to worry about "Click Here" or "Marmalade" or any other lame categories. Unless of course the Winner makes up a lame category.... I’ve even tried to do it, sometimes successfully, in Face-Off. A theme based Face-Off, wow talk about pressure!
Just thought I’d pass that along cuz if you come on the Couch, chances are we’re playing "Couch Rules"
Couch Rules are also played in the rooms Spa, Trader Nicks, and Acrodome.
From the Desk of:
Dr No 12/9/97
"ABC_C.B.A"
In a "Mirrors Game" 3, 4, and 5-letter Acro answers are mirrored. The general form is ABC_C.B.A. For example, if the original letters are ACRO, the "mirrored" answer might be:
Underscores, periods, commas and other punctuation are needed to connect the "mirrored" part because the Acrobot won't let you enter an answer that doesn't match the original letters.
Some people are able to mirror 6 and 7-letter Acros but this is very difficult, not only because of time but also because of space unless you use very short words. One helpful hint offered by grandma is to elminate unnecessary vowels from the words, such as using "pls" for "please". There is no voting penalty for not mirroring on 6 and 7-letter acros in Mirrors games.
It's a good idea to use the consistent form with the underscore connecting the mirrored part and dots connecting words where you don't have commas, colons, or semicolons; that way, people won't be able to identify your answer by your particular punctuation style.
Berkeley Systems kindly named two rooms in honor of Mirrors: Mirror and Looking Glass. Mirrors can be done anytime but are specifically scheduled usually about once or twice a week in these rooms. See the Mirrors page for more details.
codymaxx 12/9/97
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Original graphic designs created by Neblig using CorelXARA! Headlines created by codymaxx using Xara3D.
"Letters of the alphabet" graphics used in headlines from Acrophobia game screens, property of BSI.
© Copyright 1997. Acrophobia and its respective logo are service marks of Berkeley Systems, Inc.
The content on this site was created by an individual independent of Berkeley Systems, Inc.
The views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of Berkeley Systems, Inc.