From: deloura@noaapmel.gov (Robert DeLoura)
Subject: Power Selection Methods
Organization: NOAA/PMEL, Sand Point Way, Seattle, WA
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 20:39:56 GMT

Well, now that I've come across as a complete loser with my opinions on 
Fungus vs Terrorist (yes, the bombs will go off in future games, and the
Terrorist player will be told what the net.opinion was.), here's a subject
that's a little more tame.

What methods of power selection do you usually use when you play CE?
Depends quite a bit on how many you like to play with, I suppose.
Here are some of the ones we've used.  (Some of these are off the net.)
(Any numbers used below could be modified, of course.)

One randomly-drawn power.
Deal 4, pick one.
Deal 4, pass one left, pass one right, discard one.  Now you have 3, pick one.
Deal 4, player on your left picks one of his four.  You play that one.

Some combination of the above methods
    (Deal 6, pick one, discard three, pass one left, pass one right, pick one
     of the two you get passed.)

Verbal Auction:
    Hand out 15 extra lucre to each player.  Turn up flares one at a time,
    and the players bid lucre on them.  Let different players start the
    bidding each time.  Keep any lucre you have left after getting the proper
    number of powers.  If nobody bids on one power, flip another.  When only
    one player remains, flip the next flare.  He gets that power unless he
    pays 4 lucre, which lets him flip the next one.  If he can't afford to
    pay the 4 lucre, he's stuck with whatever turns up.
    (You could do this with CE tokens instead of lucre, just as a counting
    scheme.  If you were nasty, you could make players pay the tokens
    to the warp if they win the bidding on a power.  Or you could just give
    players a number of "points" to bid with, or something along similar
    lines.)

Silent Auction:
    Deal out (#Players times #Powers) flares, face up.  Deal out another
    couple, just to have extras.  Give everybody lucre/tokens/points to
    bid with (as per the Verbal Auction rules).  Everyone gets one minute
    to write down bids (their bids must total the amount they have
    available to them) on the powers they want.  Then, reveal the bids.
    High bidder on any power pays their bidded amount, and gets the power.
    If people don't have the right number of powers yet, let the short-powered
    ones have another silent auction on the remaining powers, with their
    remaining lucre/tokens/points.  If only one player is short of powers,
    let him pick from the remaining ones, or assign them randomly.  If
    someone runs out of lucre/tokens/points to bid with, and is still short
    on powers, give them a random power (or the worst power remaining in
    the auction, by group vote  ;-) ).

Nuke 'em:  (good if you want people to play rarely-used powers)
    Deal each player flares, face up, equal to (#Powers * (#Players + 1)).
    Each player then "nukes" (discards) "#Powers" powers from each other
    player.  After this is finished, the players choose from their remaining
    powers.  (which is effectively "deal 2*#Powers, pick #Powers")

Mind games (a variant on "Nuke 'em"):
    Deal each player (2*#Powers) + (#Players-1), all face-down.  Go around the
    table, having one player reveal a flare, then the next player, and so on.
    Each time a player reveals a flare, the other players call out (going
    clockwise from that player) either "nuke" or "pass".  If everyone says
    "pass", that power is safe, and the player will be able to choose it
    at the end of the nuke/pass phase.  If someone says "nuke" (the first
    person who does), that power is discarded, and the "Nuker" may not nuke
    any future powers from that player.  (You only get to nuke one power from
    each other player, in other words.)  Once all other players have nuked
    a power from you, your remaining powers are safe.  If you reach a point
    where your remaining number of face-down flares is equal to the number of
    other players who haven't nuked a power from you, then all the remaining
    face-down powers are considered nuked.  Now you all have (2*#Powers)
    remaining, so choose your powers.

Any other ideas?
(We enjoy making a sub-game out of power selection, obviously.)

-----
Robert DeLoura
deloura@noaapmel.gov
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce