The Brookston Family Blog
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I came across the following variations on rock-paper-scissors while stumbling around last night. I had no idea how complicated the game had become.

The regular game, of course, is simple. There’s just rock, paper and scissors to contend with. Wikipedia has an excellent overview of it. Then I ran across a variation that adds two more possible weapons, Spock and a Lizard called, not surprisingly, Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard.

But then I hit the Motherlode with Umop, which feature a bunch of cool originals and game variations. Most impressive is the five, count ‘em five, escalating variations on Rochambeau beginning with RPS7 (pictured above) that features four new variables, Fire, Water, Air and Sponge (don’t ask me what happened to earth).

Then there’s the crazy ass RPS15, which includes a whopping twelve new variables. Then there’s the list of who does what, which is haliarious in itself. Some highlights: Sponge soaks Paper, Wolf Chews up Sponge, and Lightning melts Gun. But the RPS15 — believe it or not — is not the most complicated of the variations, that’s reserved for the RPS25, which includes a separate poster with a bewlidering list of 300 possible outcomes, including Cockroach survives Nuke.

Believe it not, there’s a World Rock Paper Scissors Society that puts on an annual competition. In fact, the website lists tournaments throughout the year and all around the world. There’s also a US Rock Paper Scissors League, too.

If you want to play on line Weebls has a great flash version you can play against a computer. Or there’s a simple web-based game or one you can play against famous avatars. Oh, and if you want to improve your game, there’s an online strategy guide.