What) Readers of this website know that I have developed a rather unusual bidding system named Blastorscape. Pam and I have been playing it regularly for 3.5 years and I am confident that it works well and has very few bugs remaining. Despite my success in designing that system I don't consider myself a “systems guy”. During my bridge travels I have talked with a handful of men who get the majority of their bridge enjoyment out of constantly designing, modifying and changing their bridge system. I am not a part of that group. In a sense I was forced to create Blastorscape because it is the only system I have seen that gives me the freedom to make the bids I know work at the bridge table.

    Where) In the Jeep on the 8 hour drive to Calgary as well as sporadically at 1406 7th Avenue North afterwards.

    Why) Considering the What) above, I was a bit surprised when I found myself designing a completely new bidding system on the drive to Calgary. My design priorities are: 1) The system must be General Convention Chart compatible. 2) The users of the system should be able to determine who declares the hand in as many auctions as possible. 3) The system should be logically designed and easy to remember.

If you like what you see then you can click here to download the Blastorscape notes. I just wanted an excuse to post our pictures again.

Here is the first try that I came up with in the Jeep. As I didn't have my copy of the ACBL General Convention Chart or the ACBL Alert Procedures with me, I knew that there would be problems with some of this structure.

So, when I got home I consulted those documents and eventually ended up with this structure for the opening bids. Although I haven't considered any of the secondary bids, I seem to have a feeling that a playable system could be created from this base and I might just have enough interest in the whole thing to make the attempt. I wonder if Pam would be interested in making that journey with me.