h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Of course, when you win, you get to do the victory gesture...

Rock beats Scissors -> the 'rcok' is brought up and then down on top of the scissors - as if to bash them and break them.

Scissors beats Paper -> the 'scissors' are brought round to and perform a cutting motion over the paper - as if to cut it.

Paper beats Rock -> the 'paper' is wrapped around the rock, as if to smother it...

Of course, the only one with any violence attached to it it rock vs scissors, so if you want to win and are playing young boys, go for paper as a preference. This is pretty much irrelevant, though, as little boys will cheat heavilly, and you'll lose anyway...

But there is great stragety involved. One way is to use whatever the other player just used. they tend to switch to another device quickly.

My sister always cheated by introducing "water", which rusted scissors and made stones sink and paper soggy.

Oh, and I always called it "Scissors, Paper, Stone"... Not that that matters...

Another version introduces the "well", which can only be defeated by paper.

The water was made by wriggling your hand like a worm to demonstrate waves... Although I always claimed you could make a paper boat float on water or skim a stone across the sea... As for scissors - well, a cutter is a ship, ain't it?

It's an interesting game in that winning depends entirely on being able to predict what your opponent is going to do... and, of course, they're trying to predict what you're going to do at the same time.

Whether it's possible to get good at this, or whether most of the games are in fact random, is something I'd be fairly interested in finding out.

All it takes, after all, is for one of the players to be entirely random... ie unpredictable... and the outcome has to be random...

*shrug*

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I always thought it was know as rock, paper, scissors. either that or Ro-Sham-Bo, the origins of that name i don't entirely know.

Startegy-wise, you will will only when you out-guess your opponent by one. for instance: you play rock and your opponent plays rock. what do you play next? you could assume that your opponent is about to play paper, thinking that you are going to play the same thing again. however, you are thinking the same thing, so what you shuld do is move on to the one that beats his paper, or scissors. of course, if the person is an avid reader of H2G2...

Needless to say, the 'best' strategy is to either not have one, or to find your opponent's pattern and force him to change it. (that means win)

There is always the violent options:

1. Throw rock at head of your opponent, thus rendering them unconscious.
2. Stab opponent with scissors, ending in death.
3. Wrap paper over mouth and nose, again ending in death.

Top result! You always win when playing against somebody smaller than you!

My family and friends play this game often. We have used it to make decisions on subjects ranging from seating arrangements in the car(because the rules of 'Shotgun' are not nearly so well defined) to where Grandma gets buried(Yes. I mean that.).

And as such we have come up with a fourth type: The Powder Keg.
It's rather simple:

1) When a tie is reached one or both players have the option of putting their hands into a fist(the keg) and sticking the thumb vertically up out of it(the fuse).
2) If the other player does not notice this and either fails to 'snuff' the fuse(by grabbing the thumb) or simply raises their arm to begin the match again the keg blows up and destroys him. The 'Powder Keg' wins.
3) If BOTH players try a Keg then it's a race to put their hands back into the shape from the PREVIOUS ROUND(i.e. If you both picked a scissors...then both picked rock and then BOTH went 'powder keg', you would need to form the scissors...NOT the rock.)...the slowest one is the loser.

Not very complicated, but always VERY hard in the heat of the moment.

About Ro-Sham-Bo:

I'm not certain if this is the origin or not, but I know that it's been featured on several "South Park" episodes (a rather odd animated cartoon meant for adults), so I'm gonna give them the credit for it.

It bears little resemblance to Paper, Rock, Scissors. It involves two people (both have to be male) who take turns kicking each other in... um... vulnerable areas. The one who is unable to continue loses. However, because of the nature of the... um... vulnerable areas... that are kicked, the person who goes first almost always wins. The trick is in making sure that you go first.

[bows respectfully]

--Caledonian

You have to like South Park

Well, you don't, I suppose, but I happen to quite like it

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