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5/12/01
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Dan
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» Game Design Dictionary |
Why write rules sets when the Internet is just covered with leagues
for us to copy? Just duplicating a set of rules (even mine) takes
something away from the league, your perspective. The assumption
from here on is that you are curious about the process of fantasy
football game design. You are thinking of creating a league or joining
a league and want to know more about the potential choices and how
they will impact the final product. I will speak directly to the
prospective commissioners throughout the series, but everyone can
get some added insight into game construction. There may be easier
ways to do some of the things I described and you may disagree with
some of the choices I make along the way. That is to be expected.
What you should get out of this journey is a better grasp of how
these elements work to create a game.
NFL Players are the blood that puts life in our game. Have you considered
how the rules we write opens gateways and roadblocks to this vital
flow? Think of this as a total system where we construct paths and
mechanisms to speed or retard access. Here we are specifically addressing
the draft, roster size, free agent access, and trading rights. As
we near laying down hard rules on paper, the time has come to decide
if this is a Redraft or a Retention League. Do you want a long-term
project? How well do you know the group you are forming? What are
the group's expectations? What is the fantasy experience of the
Assembly? All these things should impact the Big Picture decision.
Redraft or Retention Leagues
Does the group have some history together or is it a band of strangers.
If meeting at a fantasy football board may infer some level of expertise,
please remember that it is also no guarantee. If you are taking
the mantle of Commish, you also should take some responsibility
for the gathering of the Assembly. Look for people who do not have
extreme behaviors. I recommend that you slowly recruit your league.
Think like a Dungeon Master, you are assembling an adventure party.
Some will be loud and some will be reserved, but do not accept the
skunk or the snake. Once found, the quicker eliminated, the better
(see Dan Sez Rule Number One).
Retention leagues requires some stability if not experience. If
that can not be moderately assured, then the concept should be junked.
Go redraft and count on recruiting a portion of the league each
season. Some leagues are featured or sponsored, by web-sites so
their continuance is more assured than some home web-site outpost.
If you are recruiting 10% or more of your Assembly every off season,
you may have difficulties maintaining a dynasty league.
Auction draft leagues should only be populated by experienced fantasy
players. Bids are placed on the services of players. This issue
not only complicates the drafting of players but it also impacts
free agency and with salary caps, it impacts trades as well. Auction
based leagues add a lot of complexity in the General Manager-ship
area of team creation. We will address auctions as well as other
drafting systems under Exotics. For the purpose of this series,
lets assume a serpentine style draft with randomly determined slots.
Lotto systems are so much easier and makes up the majority of drafting
systems.
Quick review of Serpentine Draft Systems: A method of allowing teams
to pick NFL players to fill a roster where the initial position
(usually) is determined by a random event (cards, dice, random number
generator) and the positions flip and flop through the whole process.
The person with the first pick in the first round (and 3rd and 5th
and so on) will get the last pick in the second round (and the 4th
and the 5th and so on).
So focus on Redraft or Retention. Make the choice with consideration
of how it impacts the flow. The number of players retained and the
number of franchises will create a baseline drain of talent. If
a 12 team Keeper League retains 4 players each, that is (supposedly)
the top 48 prospects removed from the draft, year after year. Retention
leagues are very popular because it allows owners to trade for and
to keep favorite NFL players.
Dynasty leagues enters a whole new level in player retention. In
the Legion of Doom, we have a constant 26 minimum roster size (that
is the cut down number in the off season) and with 14 franchises,
that means 364 players are taken off of the boards before the first
pick is taken. Most fantasy football leagues never tie up that many
players at any point of the season. The standard LOD in-season roster
size is 30 players (X 14 franchise = 420).
On reflection, it is easy to see that this system places so much
importance on the initial draft, it will take some franchises (like
mine, unfortunately) years to recover from miscalculations made
so long ago. If a team is given 2 free agent moves per week, it
will take 12 weeks (across two years!) and an off season cutdown
to "potentially" churn once through my roster. In reality,
with the lack of talent in the free agent pool, it will take three
or more years to turn the roster around. Giving Reverse Standings
Draft Order for the first 3 rounds eases the problem. See how the
pieces interact creating a unique game? These are not complaints,
but a statement of commitment. I will be there. Can you say the
same thing?
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