Dreadball League 3

[Ray]

I have a painted Orx team spare already

[Tom]

Sorted then. Plenty of room in my case if you're happy for me to physically borrow them rather than me relying on you bringing them in each time I need them? Up to you.

[Ray]

I'll let you hang on to them for the duration. Gives me less stuff to carry about, and lets you play on the odd week I can't make it.

[Tom]

When you had issues with MVPs last time, were you doing the whole auction thing or just buying them at minimum price?

[Ray]

Buying at minimum price. The whole auction thing is a good idea, but would never work when some people can't make it every week. There is also the added problem of the MVPs that only play for certain teams meaning some people will always be able to get them at minimum price.

[Tom]

It did seem a massively over complicated system. But then the minimum prices were clearly set with an auction in mind.

[Ray]

The reason I've set the rules as they are is to allow their occasional use, but without allowing them to impact on league points too much. Last league, there was a problem where people were using their underdog bonus to remove their teams weaknesses in league matches (teams with no strikers being able to just take one as an MVP, or fast teams taking buzzcut for the 2+ strength), which was a massive bonus. I want to keep some of the randomness out of league games, so people feel that their skill and in game decisions are the main deciding factors in who wins the league. Of course, team progression will be affected by friendlies, but these are entirely optional, and this is where added randomness can come in. The one use only for each MVP rule is there because last time round the same ones got used all the time.

The first league we played had no MVPs at all. I'm trying to compromise between that and the second league where they were in use constantly and unbalanced things.

[Tom]

From my reading so far (up to season 3) I think the designer had imagined a strictly limited pool of MVPs, hand picked and organised by the league runner and then ruthlessly auctioned off. Which is a lovely idea but seriously, who's got time for that?

[Darkson (Simon)]

Yeah, the MVPs is an interesting idea, but from the sounds of it doesn't work for most groups.

But then Gav had some strange ideas - the first sorting point in a league table is Team Rating before league points, so a team that loses a lot of games, but team ranking consistently goes up can win the league (I only noticed this by accident at the end of the last season where technically I won, a stupid rule that we'd never use).

[Ray]

We will do that the same way we always have. Team Rating determines who picks the next matchups, League Points determines the actual winner.