Auctions neccesary?

[Sosthenes]

The "alternate rules" thread got me thinking: Why is it assumed that the auction mechanism (and thus a definite hierarchy amongst the Amberites) is strictly neccesary? It's a nice idea, but hardly the only path worth following. What did I miss?

[Arref]

The presumption that there might be decades of personal history between the "cousins" that you are about to play. With the auction, you get immediate, perhaps emotional connection to other players decisions and manipulation of their desired skill sets.

You get 'family' dynamics instead of lip service to same.

If your PCs aren't really exposed to each other because of game setup, then the auction has less credibility.

[Otha]

The book recommends that the game can be played without the auction, without points, without any "rules" at all, and even infers that doing so might be better.

[finarvyn]

I'm not sure the ADRP "recommends" playing the game without points, etc, as much as suggests that it can be done.

My take on the whole thing is that Erick set up a rules system, then suggested that it would be possible to remove elements of that system. I always read that section of where the rules could go more as an option rather than a recommendation as to where the rules should go.

Just my two cents on the issue.

[Otha]

Eh.

Semantics.

The difference in meaning between what I'm saying and what you're saying is nominal.

[finarvyn]

Sorry if I'm being too technical. Your use of "recommends" led me to believe that you intended to say that players should go this way, and that this would be an expected evolution for every campaign.

In re-reading your post I see that you probably meant "mentions" or some such instead of "recommends", but that we are saying much the same thing.

[finarvyn]

The "alternate rules" thread got me thinking: Why is it assumed that the auction mechanism (and thus a definite hierarchy amongst the Amberites) is strictly neccesary? It's a nice idea, but hardly the only path worth following. What did I miss?

To return to the original post, I think that what the auction does is to inspire competition among the players from the onset. Since the Amber universe seems to stress scenarios where more than one player is competing for the same goals, getting the players to compete when they create characters is another means to get the game started with the right atmosphere.

Having said this, my campaigns are often more cooperative than competitive and so my character creation is usually done through a point-build system rather than the auction. Clearly, the auction is not the only way one can play ADRP.

You're not missing anything unless you want your players to be more competitive.

[Otha]

I agree that it's the intention, but I disagree that it's effective.

I find that competitive players will use it to compete, and cooperative players will negotiate first, bid later.

[RPGPundit]

I agree that it's the intention, but I disagree that it's effective.

I find that competitive players will use it to compete, and cooperative players will negotiate first, bid later.

Gee, what a fucking surprise... considering that your every post thus far on this forum has been to express your feeling that Amber sucks, I am totally flabbergasted to now see you suggest that Amber sucks.

You're extremely tiring Otha.  You offer nothing productive, just a constant expression of a desire that every fucking thing about Amber should be re-done, apparently as a Swine game. We get it: you hate Amber's success. Get over it.

RPGPundit

[Otha]

LOL!

[SunBoy]

I agree that it's the intention, but I disagree that it's effective.

I find that competitive players will use it to compete, and cooperative players will negotiate first, bid later.

I've never seen that happen. Never ever. And I GM'd two guys who had been friends for most of their lives, who cooperate with each other in every other game i've seen them togheter, and even they didn't. They even ended in different factions (Well, actually there were two factions and one of them two who was a happy-go-jolly good stuffed guy, but you know what I mean).
And what I don't really get, Otha, is this: What the hell is your problem with the auction? Some time back, you were saying that you didn't want competitive play. Fine. So now you say that the auction doesn't work to inspire competitive play, so won't that be what you want? Why is a system bad if it allows you to do things either way? Could you PLEASE present some alternative worth reading? You talk vaguely about some marvelous no-gm system, well, where is it? Like fin says, hey, maybe you have some good ideas (I've played GMless before myself and it was fun), but come on, present them or stop bragging about them.

By the way, nice signature. I'm hoping it's meant to be ironic and not playing the victim, though.

[Otha]

Oh, definitely meant to be ironic.  Badge of honor and all that.

As for the system I'm working on, send me a private message with your email address and I'll invite you to the google documents page where the manuscript is available.