SFR, Inc.

[cliffwiggs]

I'm curious to get some ideas on how you do drafts in your areas.

We have a sealed draft at Gencon and I have to write up the exact drafting rules prior to that.

I can see a few issues/questions that would have to be answered.

Do you force dice types to be choose at a certain time (i.e. all dragons, then all terrains)?

Do you force them to stay in a starter format? (i.e. all monsters, then all rares, then all uncommons)

Do you choose a health value of dice at a time? ie 3 or 4 health

Do you make it a free for all, one die at a time until you have a complete army? Thus some people would get their terrain first, some would pick monsters (and be done before the pile was empy), some would pick commons and end up with the entire pile that is left at the end.

In a twelve player tournament do you draft all twelve at once or do you have smaller groups draft individually?

I can and will make the decisions as the convention tournament director, but I'm curious what other people have done, both in dragon dice and other games with multiple components.
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[DialFforFunky]

I've had experience with TCG drafts, so I'd picture it going something like this:

- Registration:
Everyone individually opens one set of all the products that would be given to a single player, and takes out the dragons and terrains. The registrating player writes down his name and all the remaining dice, after which the dice and recording sheet are put into a single package.
This step could also be done by the TO beforehand. Either way, its a lot of work. The second option seems better suited for smaller groups.

- Checking:
All packages are randomly re-distributed. Everyone checks their lists for content errors, and writes down their names on the recording sheet as well.

- Draft!:
Everyone picks four health points worth of dice for their collection, then passes along the package to the person on their left or right. The ratio of available health/participating players should be such that you'll see your own package at least two times. After every pass of the package, everyone checks if the right amount of dice are still in the package.

- Compose:
Everyone builds their army with the selection they drafted. Ideally, every player should have more health than they can actually use in their army, to allow for more streamlined armies and switches in draft-strategy. Then again, the products don't really allow this too well, unless the tournament is either quite expensive, or not at 36 health points. 24 points might be ideal.
Dragons and major terrains and major terrains (only basic ones?) should probably be provided by the TO, as they are a bit too significant for dictating what an army can do. The draft shouldn't be decided by the first pick terrain. Minor terrains and dragonkin should probably be left out, to reduce the costs of participation.

And then - battle!


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717

[cliffwiggs]

The only things that concern me with that is the term 'their pack' because of rarity we don't want anyone to feel ownership to a box that had a rare monster in it.

Also, I agree that ideally dragons and terrains should be offered by the TO like MtG terrains are, but we don't have that many.

I kinda like the 4 health at a time for speed, but I wonder if it restricts you too much.
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[DialFforFunky]

Can you explain the 'their pack' criticism? Registering a pack with an rare monster is a pain, but probably unavoidable in larger groups.

Dice rarity is an issue, but it is slightly counterbalanced by the fact that most of the really rare dice are actually not that good. This means that you are forced to choose between picking good dice, or picking rare ones. If you take a less-than-36-health-format, the power-differences between 3 healths on the one hand and 2 and 1 healths on the other hand becomes bigger as well (in favour of the latter group), making the choice even more stringent.
Also, avoiding races that do not have extreme spikes in rarity (avoid scalders, froswings and perhaps treefolk) might be advisable.

The terrain issue is difficult. One thing you could do is pool up all the terrains from the opened packs. Everyone should be able to pick from the pool if their pick is available. If it is not, a print-out die should be available, and the player gets to pick a different die to keep for him or herself.

The 4-health per pick is not so much for speeding up the process (in fact, it makes it go a bit too quick for my tastes), but rather to make sure that every player ends up with the same amount of health. This probably needs a pick-up restriction as well, as otherwise a pack could run out of commons to go along with the rares For example: "you are not allowed to pick commons if it would leave the pack with less commons than rares". A similar rule might me needed in regard to the ratio of commons to uncommons.


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717

[Cat]

Yes, that draft format of everyone picking from one box at a time and then passing works quite well for the card-playing crowd and would work well for dice. If folks want the rare dice in a box, they're welcome to take that as their first pick.

For Magic drafts, the store just has a box full of terrains that players can pick from as they like. Not so easy to do that with the dice. If the draft is using more Starter sets than would provide the minimum needed terrains and dragons, that would help increase available variety. I'ld lean towards pooling terrains and dragons and then do rounds of picking from the combined pool however players want to prioritise their picks.

[cliffwiggs]