Thank you, BCGamer, for sending me the code for the existing count and reset puppets.  I finally got to read them over and get a feel for this.  I also went onto the site where puppets are hosted and found the Emerald and Rosehaven puppets which give some strong clues on how to develop a tourney puppet.

My schedule for the next few days is crazy, so I won't get much gaming in.  But once I get back on BSW I need to push to accumulate points to get from level 5 to level 9 so I can lend a hand. 

Puppet development is currently in the hands of very few in BR. I am contributing a little bit to it and any help offered is greatly needed and appreciated.
I can email you a puppet file (one that is currently in use) and then we can go from there. Currently we have a reset puppet and a counting puppet (counting how many games are played each month in our gamerooms.

All puppets are kept on a ftp site (required for the autostart puppets). Development is locally on the puppeteer computers.

Under development are a puppet watching the resource prices (currently running but there is only one functionality and many more ideas) and a marathon/tournament puppet (very early stage of development).

Let's chat online next time we both are on (tonight?)

Yes, let's chat.  I'll be in for a while tonight.  My email is available through BSW if you want to send along that puppet file.  I have the most interest in anything related to a tournament project, but don't mind seeing if there's anything I can add to the others once I get up to speed.

The surprise for me is that there doesn't seem to be a way to easily capture a game result aside from watching for keywords in chat and using /tell.  Surely I'm missing something

I was chatting with JPFantasy yesterday about tournaments, and we wandered off onto the subject of puppets because of their possible role in administering tourneys.  It looks like I need to push myself to level 9 so I can play with command puppets. 

I've digested TheBoomer's tutorial as fully as I can without being able to use puppet commands yet, and am curious about a couple of things.

• First, is there a place where our BR puppets are kept so one might be able to read them for examples of working, in-use code?
• Second, are there puppet commands available that are not documented in Boomer's excellent tutorial?
• Third, what game results are we already getting via the existing puppets and settings?

Incidentally, my programming background is very modest but probably suited to this.  I taught myself to program in 1973 using Kemeny and Kurtz's original book on BASIC, then unlearned some bad habits a few years later while establishing that I didn't want to make a career of it.  These days I use those skills for LSL scripting in Second Life, complex spreadsheets, and the occasional Zillions of Games add-on.  So no, I'm no programmer -- but I should be able to contribute to puppetry.

Thanks for the information.  That's even better, because it means that neither party would be stuck if relationships chilled or one town went poof.

If this is an unwarranted gravedig, please forgive the newbie.

An exchange of embassies might be cool.  Any building or structure will work as long as it lends dignity to both the host city and ours -- after all, our name will be on our embassies forever.   

I would happily take part, schedules permitting.

. . . he started to drift off, thought he was playing Tichu in his groggy state, and tried and tried to lead his full house to the consternation of . . .