Auctions: Special Things To Bid For?

[RPGPundit]

What are unusual things you've included in the attribute Auction?

One I haven't done yet, but occasionally thought of doing for certain games, is to do a bid for the "line of succession"; the rankings resulting from the bid indicating where the person was on that line.

RPGPundit

[jibbajibba]

What are unusual things you've included in the attribute Auction?

One I haven't done yet, but occasionally thought of doing for certain games, is to do a bid for the "line of succession"; the rankings resulting from the bid indicating where the person was on that line.

RPGPundit

As you can see from the Spoken Truths thread I always do Sucession and Political Influence although on the balance of that game I am thinking I should have split PI into Amber/Chaos, but we will see what develops.
Its odd because even I view these stats as less important but one of the most sucessful PCs I have ever GMed for bid half his 200 points on PI. Just had that a bunch of skills and basic pattern and he was so very very effective.
I do try to make sure that no points are wasted (one of the reasons why I don't use traditional ranks) so 20 points in sucession ought to be as useful in game terms , although in a totally different way, to 20 points in Warfare.

I have thought about extending the auction dramatically and have auctions for each power as well as each attribute. So you woudl bid in Pattern Logrus etc. What you could do would be defined by my partial Powers trees but when characters met head to head using a power, say Logrus to gather something from shadow, or Pattern to Shadow walk the skill in the power would effect outcome and speed. I do this anyway but without the auction paradigm.

In addition to all of that I have also thought about auctioning items. The Jewel of Judgement, Grayswandir etc but have never followed this through.

Interestingly (well to me ) in the Amber CCG I knocked up players who picked the same elder to run would have to resolve the conflict by bidding to start with a lower resource pool. The one willing to cut their resources by the most getting to choose the Elder of their choice.
I seem to incorporate auctions into a lot of my own games now I think about it and it stems not from Amber DRPG but from Shogun (the MB boardgame) where bidding for initiaitive at the right time was key. Weird only just realised that

[JongWK]

Sealed envelopes with secrets.

If you think your players might be reluctant to make blind bids, tell them whose secret this is about. Hell, write the name of the NPC (or better, a PC!) on the envelope in big, tempting letters so that everyone can see it.

GM: "Next, we have this beautiful envelope with a secret about Tom's character."
Tom: "Uh... do I know my secret?"
GM: *grin* "Nope. Do I hear 3 points?"


EDIT: You can also use sealed envelopes to auction unique perks that are best kept secret.

[jibbajibba]

Sealed envelopes with secrets.

If you think your players might be reluctant to make blind bids, tell them whose secret this is about. Hell, write the name of the NPC (or better, a PC!) on the envelope in big, tempting letters so that everyone can see it.

GM: "Next, we have this beautiful envelope with a secret about Tom's character."
Tom: "Uh... do I know my secret?"
GM: *grin* "Nope. Do I hear 3 points?"


EDIT: You can also use sealed envelopes to auction unique perks that are best kept secret.

OOh I like that...

[Seanchai]

OOh I like that...

Yeah, that is neat.

Seanchai

[RPGPundit]

Very nice idea, Jong. I can't wait to use it against you in the next campaign.

RPGPundit

[gabriel_ss4u]

Ditto, kudos JongWK, i like it alot.
This would be something that would be a great new idea in a revised amber book....
... sigh

[Xenon]

secrets are good, but secrets of PCs less so. i can see a few ways that could backfire and go horribly wrong. besides, i really dont like the idea of 'surprise! after blowing all those points on 2nd place in that attribute, heres something you wernt expecting!'

secrets like the guns of avalon, or a spikard, ect, that i can see having an auction for. i cant see any way to have 'secrets' about PCs that they dont know themselves, unless your doing pregens- and then why bother with an auction?

[jibbajibba]

secrets are good, but secrets of PCs less so. i can see a few ways that could backfire and go horribly wrong. besides, i really dont like the idea of 'surprise! after blowing all those points on 2nd place in that attribute, heres something you wernt expecting!'

secrets like the guns of avalon, or a spikard, ect, that i can see having an auction for. i cant see any way to have 'secrets' about PCs that they dont know themselves, unless your doing pregens- and then why bother with an auction?

Really? The fact that Helel is really the son of Dworkin and not Oberon as everyone supposes or that Constantine is not really constantine at all but a shadow copy of Constantine tha the real Constantine only 'put in play' after serveral attempts on his life?
But who says they have to be secrets the PC doesn't know they could just be PC secrets and the PC would have to decide if they wanted to bid to keep them secret.... its all good...

[Locathus]

Or, to use the books -

The fact that Merlin exists could be considered a secret about Corwin.  He doesn't necessarily need to be aware of it, and the character need not be pre-genned.  But spending those couple of points sure helped Brand...

[JongWK]

secrets are good, but secrets of PCs less so. i can see a few ways that could backfire and go horribly wrong. besides, i really dont like the idea of 'surprise! after blowing all those points on 2nd place in that attribute, heres something you wernt expecting!'

First, I think that most of us can safely agree that there are better secrets than just ignoring attribute ranks.

Second, "surprise" and "something you weren't expecting" are the norm in Amber.

i cant see any way to have 'secrets' about PCs that they dont know themselves

Locathus nails it in his post. I can easily see a PC befriending the unknown child of another PC, so that when the latter finds out about his offspring ("I thought that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!"), the kid would side with the loving uncle rather than the ignorant, uncaring parent.

[Xenon]

to quote Dale Carnegie 'You can't win an argument'. in context, this means if you prove the other guy is wrong, all you 'win' is his hatred.

i have more to say, but it would end in flames so ill just stop here.

[JongWK]

to quote Dale Carnegie 'You can't win an argument'. in context, this means if you prove the other guy is wrong, all you 'win' is his hatred.

I'm not sure if I understand you here.

i have more to say, but it would end in flames so ill just stop here.

Flames? For brainstorming in a thread?  :huhsign:

[SunBoy]

:hibachi:


What? He asked.

[Klaus]

I've read about some special things to bid for:

Favorite of "X": X is Dworkin, Benedict, Random or anyone with enough influence to be valuable.

What's in the box? Players bid to win an unknown, but guaranteed useful, reward. Only the winner knows what it is.

Positions of Power: Fleet Admirals, General of the armies, etc.

Adventures: You had some harrowing experience, possibly alongside an Elder.

Patternplades

Secret knowledge about the setting or background.

Secrets of other players might be interesting, but it would only work of all the players had secrets, as otherwise you're punishing players who put secrets in their background by making an auction that can hurt them, but can't hurt players who went with a minimalist background.