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lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 06:49 AM
Welcome to the FOFC Literature Draft!

In the time honored tradition of FOFC drafts created and primarily run by Maple Leafs, I will be running a Literature draft.

How to play

If you want to play, PM me. If there's a lot of interest, I'll randomly select ten players. By "randomly" I mean that after a day or so, I'll "randomly" pick whichever ten people I want.

The draft will be conducted via the forum, in a thread created specifically for the draft. When it's your turn to draft, you post, ideally with a brief note about the reason for your choice. If you won't be around, you PM someone else your picks in advance to keep things moving. You will agree to this, and then not do it. This will slow up the draft and annoy everyone. You won't care, you selfish prick.

The draft is a serpentine draft -- that the order reverses each round. Draft order will be determined before we start.

How to win
The fun here comes more from the draft itself than from actually winning, but just in case it matters: Once the draft is done, we'll hold a vote and let FOFC choose the winner. FOFC will pick someone shitty. They always do.

The rosters
You will draft a "team" of ten works of literature. The idea is to assemble the best possible roster, using your awesome knowledge of literature as well as your crafty drafting skills. Trades are allowed, as long as they don't slow down the action (the idea is to keep things moving as quickly as possible).

Your team will consist of ten works of literature, at the following positions:


Fiction
Single Short Story
Poem
Fantasy/Science Fiction
Series (A set of books continuing the same story and intended to be read sequentially)
Sport Related
Children's
Non-Fiction
Biography/Autobiography
Non-Fiction History


Obviously some works will fit into multiple categories. Finding the right spot for each pick is part of the strategy. Once you've drafted a work, you can't re-assign it later.


Additional rules thrown in to make it needlessly complicated


No author can be used more than once. This includes pen names, pseudonyms or any other mechanism attempting to reuse one physical being.
The work must have an attributable author. No "Anonymous" authors. Sorry!
Must be published in a book. This is an unfortunate rule that has been made to reduce shenanigans. Each work must be published in a book, not a periodical (or book anthologizing a specific periodical). Publication year will be based on the first time published in a book.
No publication can be used more than once. If a compilation or anthology is used it may only be used once.
An collection can only be used once. If one book from a series or collected set of works is used, the rest of the collection is off limits.


When in doubt, check with the commish (that's me, genius) before you pick.

A few notes
The draft is open to everyone -- observers are welcome. Discussion of picks is encouraged.

In general, it's considered very poor form to suggest picks during the draft -- the equivalent of being the guy who doesn't play poker but sits at the rail and shouts out to get attention. However, it will happen. If you're the sort of person who thinks you'd be really, really bothered by this, do yourself a favor and don't play.

In order for the draft to be fun, it has to move quickly. That means that if you will not be checking the forums frequently, you should send an advance list of picks to a partipant or observer to choose for you. If you are not willing to send a list for your picks to keep the draft moving, you should not sign up to play. Players who cause delays in the draft will be replaced.

If someone makes an invalid pick, the commish (me) will explain why the pick doesn't work and that team will pick again. However, if other teams have already made their picks, those picks will count (in order to avoid having to redo stretches of the draft). So if you try to get tricky with your picks and get burned, don't blame me.

A final note
If the idea of doing a just-for-fun draft strikes as you as stupid and/or pathetic, but you're the type of person who likes to post about text sims on an internet forum... well, you may want to give this a miss until your sense of irony develops a little more.

If you want to play, PM me now. If I have enough entries by tomorrow, the draft will start then. In your PM, you must include your top three picks so that if you forget to check back we don't all have to wait for you (although your picks won't be used unless there's a delay).

UPDATE: Added rule regarding attributable authors.

NoMyths
02-22-2008, 09:37 AM
I'm game.

Izulde
02-22-2008, 09:49 AM
I'm in.

MikeVic
02-22-2008, 09:55 AM
Video game character draft please.

lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 10:09 AM
I need to add a rule specification. There must be an attributable author. Unfortunately this discounts any "Anonymous" writings.. This makes it too easy to get around the author restriction.

st.cronin
02-22-2008, 10:40 AM
"attributale author" may require further clarification

I sent a pm to sign up, by the way. :)

MrDNA
02-22-2008, 11:03 AM
Great idea, wish I had the time to sign up for it but I don't want to be "that guy."

DaddyTorgo
02-22-2008, 11:09 AM
i'd be in except i'm worried my short story knowledge would torpedo that category for me

wade moore
02-22-2008, 12:59 PM
i'd be in except i'm worried my short story knowledge would torpedo that category for meIn these drafts I don't think a lack of knowledge in one category is a huge deal.

lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 01:03 PM
"attributale author" may require further clarification

I sent a pm to sign up, by the way. :)

Feel free to pm me an example that I can formulate into a better rule. I know specifically of one situation that is going to come up and I think it can be handled. I have actually had two specific questions related to this rule. Basically my answer is this: I want you to specify an author. If there is some disagreement as to who that author is, it's up to the "voters" to decide if it was against the rules. As long as you don't say that Stephen King wrote War in Peace, I don't really care. If it's a known argument, take your chances with specifying an author.

Great idea, wish I had the time to sign up for it but I don't want to be "that guy."

You are welcome to be an observer and participate in discussions!

i'd be in except i'm worried my short story knowledge would torpedo that category for me

You wouldn't be the first to use wikipedia/etc to round out their draft class. :)

Lathum
02-22-2008, 01:03 PM
how are you doing for signups?

lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 01:03 PM
dola: no one has sent me years. Is this going to be too hard to do (find publication years), or did peole just overlook it?

lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 01:05 PM
how are you doing for signups?

5 people interested so far.

Scoobz0202
02-22-2008, 01:07 PM
I can already see the controversy over one book :D

st.cronin
02-22-2008, 01:45 PM
Putting together a big board tonight.

DaddyTorgo
02-22-2008, 01:47 PM
i think the publication years rule thing is annoying

st.cronin
02-22-2008, 01:49 PM
i think the publication years rule thing is annoying

I agree, I think that should be scrapped.

lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 03:01 PM
I'm open to scrapping the year rule. :) I debated that one myself.

NoMyths
02-22-2008, 03:09 PM
The year rule is going to be more difficult than not, for a number of reasons. I'd suggest scrapping it as well, but voters should be encouraged to look favorably on any surrounding discussion of the relevance and significance of a particular year to a book's publication.

lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 04:21 PM
I have 7 entrants thus far. I wasn't planning on participating, but if I don't get enough people I will. Maybe Friday wasn't the best day to start. :)

I will plan to start things tomorrow morning, hopefully we will have enough participants by then.

cartman
02-22-2008, 04:33 PM
Sign me up. PM sent.

Warhammer
02-22-2008, 05:48 PM
I think the year requirement really needs to be dropped. That is going to be a bugger.

Buccaneer
02-22-2008, 06:09 PM
As much as I love to play these games, this one is a little out of my league since there are three categories (#2-4) that I would have no idea what to pick.

DaddyTorgo
02-22-2008, 06:11 PM
if you scrap the year-rule you can count me in

Lathum
02-22-2008, 06:52 PM
I'm in

Chief Rum
02-22-2008, 07:37 PM
I need to add a rule specification. There must be an attributable author. Unfortunately this discounts any "Anonymous" writings.. This makes it too easy to get around the author restriction.

Are those rules across the whole draft (meaning, one Mark Twain work drafted in the whole thing) or limited to individual players (one Mark Twain work per player, but everyone can grab a Twain work if it hasn't been drafted and they don't have one)?

wade moore
02-22-2008, 07:51 PM
Are those rules across the whole draft (meaning, one Mark Twain work drafted in the whole thing) or limited to individual players (one Mark Twain work per player, but everyone can grab a Twain work if it hasn't been drafted and they don't have one)?

I'll speak up since LS was talking about the rules with me - I'm 99% sure he means across the draft - it fits the spirit of all of the previous drafts.

Chief Rum
02-22-2008, 07:56 PM
Well, that makes it even tougher, but I'll give this a go.

Chief Rum
02-22-2008, 07:58 PM
Also, I would be for scrapping the year rule as well (particularly if it is across the whole draft, that would be insanely hard--or maybe make that particular rule limited to per player).

Lathum
02-22-2008, 08:05 PM
I agree that the year rule should be scraped.

Take the music draft for example. We didn;t need to know the year the song was written

wade moore
02-22-2008, 08:12 PM
I'm open to scrapping the year rule. :) I debated that one myself.

Based on this post, the outcry against the year rule, and knowing LS (and having partially talked him into the year rule) I would anticipate the elimination of the year rule.

lordscarlet
02-22-2008, 08:16 PM
if you scrap the year-rule you can count me in

I'm in

Well, that makes it even tougher, but I'll give this a go.

Year rule gone.

PM me you three so that I don't forget you guys. We are over the 10 number with everyone listed above, so I will have to figure out 10 people from the people that put their names in the hat.

Also, Wade is correct. Author is across the whole draft, I don't think that should make things too terribly hard. The year idea was pulled from the History draft, but I think it was too ambitious.

I will start the draft thread either in a few hours or early in the morning.

Lathum
02-22-2008, 08:25 PM
If you have over 10 then count me out

Izulde
02-22-2008, 09:08 PM
Across the draft?

Now that makes the strategizing -really- fun! :)

*goes to re-configure his board then*