Suggested house rules for 3-person league? [Archive]

Front Office Midget

02-10-2008, 05:28 PM

Hi, my friends and I play as 3 teams in the NFC East in our multiplayer league, where the rest are controlled by the AI.

Naturally, we've dominated the league. Prior to this last season, we won 7 straight NFC Championships between 2 of us, we have 3 of the 4 best records of all time, and have been to 14 (and won 9) out of 20 Super Bowls.

We've been playing with zero house rules, but all agree that we should implement some now.

The main thing we're looking at is Pre-Draft FA. We've been playing with the suggested 60-90 cap increase to prevent the AI from struggling too much with the cap, but that also leaves us with a lot of cap room to sign FAs more efficiently than the AI does. On this year's Grey Sheet, we signed 9 out of the top 15 FAs.

Now, competing for FAs between the 3 of us is fun, so we don't want to completely eliminate Pre-Draft FA signing. I was wondering what anyone thought would be a good idea to make it fun and competitive between the 3 of us, but also so we don't clean up in FA and dominate the league.

We were considering restricting the amount of players signed in FA, OR, the total grade we can sign. For instance, setting a cap at 15 would allow me to sign one player graded a 6, and two players graded 4.5.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what would be the best idea for restricting to free agent signing, or any other house rule suggestions?

JetsIn06

02-10-2008, 05:38 PM

Here are the house rules I've been using for my latest SP career. It makes thinks interesting but also keeps it pretty realistic.

Here is a post straight from my dynasty page:

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=60303 (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=60303)

Quote:
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td class="alt2" style="border: 1px inset ;"> Set-Up

I'm gonna start off by running a preference draft for the first season. I changed only a few sliders, hoping to get the worst possible team I can without having to cut the whole team or anything. I slid my QB slider all the way to the left, and then slid the K slider all the way to the right. I also moved the Pot/Exp slider to the right a little, just so I don't get any young guys that look promising.

Then I'll just quick sim the 2006 season with the AI handling everything, then I will take over at the end of the season.

House Rules

I haven't ever really played with house rules. This time, I'm going to be as strict as I possibly can and make myself follow them. It's gonna take a little while to get used to, but I got sick of having a winning season twenty straight times. Hopefully this will be a little more challenging. I've taken a few of these rules from others, so thank you if you were the one who came up with it!

Injuries: 200

Cap Increase: Thanks to yabanci and SkyDog, it seems that a 60-90 cap range will allow the AI teams to keep more players and not let an abundance of talent into the F/A pool. So, 60 to 90 it is.

Coaches/Scouts: I can only hire new coaches/scouts if the previous coach or scout's contract has ended (or retired).

Summer League: I can only send a player picked in the 4th round or later to summer camp.

Franchise Tag: I can only use the tag one time on any specific player.

Re-Negotiation: The player has to be in his last year, or a franchise player, in order to re-negotiate, and there can only be two re-negotiations per year. A little twist is that if I have a losing season the previous year, I can't re-negotiate with any player with a want winner rating over 70.

Free Agency: Hopefully the cap increase will help here as well, but I'm adopting the "want winner" rating rule here too. If I have a losing season, I can't offer a deal to any player with a want winner rating over 70, 80 if the player was on my team the previous year. Only two offers per week to players on a different team the previous year, as well as two offers each week to players that were on my team the previous year. I can also only make one offer to a player. If I get outbid, then I can't adjust my offer. Lastly, I can only make one offer to a RFA each stage.

I think that's about it. If I think of any others, I will update here. </td> </tr> </tbody></table>

The "want winner" rule is really cool. You have to make sure you pay attention though. I forget who created that one, I think it was on the FOF2004 strategy board. It helps to make it challenging when your not on top, and then lets you stay somewhat more "on top" when you win.

Also, the two offers per week of players not previously on your team really helps because you have to really think strategically about who you think is most important to your team. Hope this helps. It keeps things realistic but still adds a pretty decent challenge.
This is a post I made a while ago that, I think, would still work with 3 people. Obviously some things (the preference start) won't make sense. Some ideas, at least.