Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
If you're a fan of various fantasy sports, you probably know that one of the biggest revolutions is the change from "drafting" players (often with a snake draft) to the more challenging and interesting "auction" technique. Basically, every participant is allotted some amount of fake* currency ($100) with which to buy players for their team. That way, you can choose how much to spend on certain desirable players- you can have a team with a few superstars, but isn't very "deep," or a very deep team without any superstars, or any variation.
*Or real, depending on your level of seriousness.
Anyway, I've toyed with using this method for starting a D&D campaign. Here's the basic idea behind it ... a lot of tables have moved from randomized (3d6, 4d6k1, etc.) abilities to using point buy, or standard array. Which is great, but often ends up with a certain samey-ness (at least to me). So why not turn the "chargen mini-game" into ... well, a real game? Why not incorporate a real auction process?
As I see it, there would be two ways to go about doing this- the weak and strong auction techniques.
Weak- a set of ability scores that players can bid on.
Strong- a set of EVERYTHING (ability scores, classes, backgrounds, races/lineages, starting gold, a few magic items, etc.) that players bid on.
The weak version, to me, isn't very interesting. It's not that different than some methods people are used to already where there is a collection of ability scores that people pick from. But the strong method? That would be ... fun.
Here's my initial take-
Every player starts with $100 (fake currency).
Players draw lots to determine bid order (who goes first, second, third, etc.).
Player 1 chooses the first item to bid, and the amount ("I'll start with the Paladin and $1.)
Bidding goes around in order- if you don't increase the bid, you pass (and cannot bid again). Highest bid wins.
Now, the items are selected as follows, with the assumption of a 5-player table.
There are 30 numbers for ability scores (PlayersX6): Example- 20, 19, 18, 16, 3x15, 3x14 3x13, 3x12, 2x11, 3x10, 2x9, 3x8, 7, 6, 5, 4
There are 5 classes
There are 5 backgrounds.
There are 5 races/lineages.
There are 20 items (ranging from cruddy regular gear, to really good magic items).
There are 5 default gold piece starting (from 0 to wealthy).
...Players do not otherwise start with default equipment or items.
The advantage of this system is it could be fun, and produce some unexpected choices. Obviously, people will be bidding most of the money on the high ability scores (and that may need to be tuned down). This also might work better for higher-level one-shots.
Thoughts?
*Or real, depending on your level of seriousness.
Anyway, I've toyed with using this method for starting a D&D campaign. Here's the basic idea behind it ... a lot of tables have moved from randomized (3d6, 4d6k1, etc.) abilities to using point buy, or standard array. Which is great, but often ends up with a certain samey-ness (at least to me). So why not turn the "chargen mini-game" into ... well, a real game? Why not incorporate a real auction process?
As I see it, there would be two ways to go about doing this- the weak and strong auction techniques.
Weak- a set of ability scores that players can bid on.
Strong- a set of EVERYTHING (ability scores, classes, backgrounds, races/lineages, starting gold, a few magic items, etc.) that players bid on.
The weak version, to me, isn't very interesting. It's not that different than some methods people are used to already where there is a collection of ability scores that people pick from. But the strong method? That would be ... fun.
Here's my initial take-
Every player starts with $100 (fake currency).
Players draw lots to determine bid order (who goes first, second, third, etc.).
Player 1 chooses the first item to bid, and the amount ("I'll start with the Paladin and $1.)
Bidding goes around in order- if you don't increase the bid, you pass (and cannot bid again). Highest bid wins.
Now, the items are selected as follows, with the assumption of a 5-player table.
There are 30 numbers for ability scores (PlayersX6): Example- 20, 19, 18, 16, 3x15, 3x14 3x13, 3x12, 2x11, 3x10, 2x9, 3x8, 7, 6, 5, 4
There are 5 classes
There are 5 backgrounds.
There are 5 races/lineages.
There are 20 items (ranging from cruddy regular gear, to really good magic items).
There are 5 default gold piece starting (from 0 to wealthy).
...Players do not otherwise start with default equipment or items.
The advantage of this system is it could be fun, and produce some unexpected choices. Obviously, people will be bidding most of the money on the high ability scores (and that may need to be tuned down). This also might work better for higher-level one-shots.
Thoughts?
