Rock Paper Scissors Shephard Freeman
Anton McClure, 2023-11-30

I did not invent this game, but I was inspired enough by Sam Kass's Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard and my interest in Valve's game Half-Life to make a variant to Kass's and Bryla's game. Kass "invented [RPSSL] (with Karen Bryla) because it seems like when you know someone well enough, 75-80% of any Rock-Paper-Scissors games you play with that person end up in a tie." His was a slight variation that reduced that probability with the addition of Spock and the Lizard, and this one uses Dr. Gordon Freeman and Corporal Adrian Shephard instead.

How to play: Scissors cuts Paper covers Rock squashes Freeman crowbars Shephard snaps Scissors stabs Freeman tears Paper confuses Shephard grenades Rock crushes Scissors.

The below table shows all of the various combinations.
  Rock: Paper: Scissors: Shephard: Freeman:
Rock: Tie Loss: cover Win: crush Loss: grenade Win: squash
Paper: Win: cover Tie Loss: cut Win: confuse Loss: tear
Scissors: Loss: crush Win: cut Tie Loss: snap Win: stab
Shephard: Win: grenade Loss: confuse Win: snap Tie Loss: crowbar
Freeman: Loss: squash Win: tear Loss: stab Win: crowbar Tie

As suggested by Kass, if you like to swing your fist back and forth while saying "Rock, Paper, Scissors, GO!", you can replace that with "One, Two, Three, GO!".

(I know that Shephard was from the Gearbox games, and not Valve's Half-Life, but he deserves some kind of recognition still. Besides, it sounded better than "Rock Paper Scissors Headcrab Freeman (RPSHF)" or "Rock Paper Scissors Ichthyosaur Freeman (RPSIF).

RPSSF: Copyright © 2023, Anton McClure.
Based on Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla.
RPSSL: Copyright © 1995-2021 Sam Kass.
Both RPSSL and RPSSF are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Also see On Pittsburgh Climate, Disproof of Time Travel, Booga Explained, and The Fortwinth.
Anton McClure / anton@nonpaged.com