The 2022 Superdraft Thread

[Bazza]

What about locusts?

[Pariah]

Well, they are technically kosher, but I don't have a lot of desire to eat them.

[Cancer]

Heck with it.  The concept gelled among the unspeakable Old Ones that churn my nightmares.  Call it a Big Toys draft: focus is upon items rather than characters.  To avoid chasing people away ab initio, no mud wrasslin' is built into the concept.  AFAIR we haven't tried anything like this before.

[csyphrett]

Come, old Crab, let us see what you have wrought this day.

CES

[Pariah]

I'm in. 

[Bazza]

1 hour ago, Cancer said:

Heck with it.  The concept gelled among the unspeakable Old Ones that churn my nightmares.  Call it a Big Toys draft: focus is upon items rather than characters.  To avoid chasing people away ab initio, no mud wrasslin' is built into the concept.  AFAIR we haven't tried anything like this before.

I was mentioning something similar to Pariah about a week (or so) ago… have you been reading my mind? 
 

(I might have to change my password).

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Cancer]

Provisional rules (still subject to changes):

Spoiler

"Big Toys" Superdraft

 

This draft focuses on *things* rather than characters.  There is a single human character, and a maybe-close-to-human robot or android, and then a free option pick.  The rest is stuff.

 

All picks are exclusive.  No restrictions on source material, other than currently living real people are not eligible to be drafted in any category, even the free option.  Currently existing hardware is, however, permitted.

 

The things to be picked:

• * one home base, which must be anchored to the ground or space-time or something.  While it might be in a fixed orbit, or be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere, such "motility" is highly restricted.  As an example: Deep Space 9 is a base, but Enterprise NCC-1701 is a starship.
• * one Spaceship or Aircraft
• * one Land Vehicle.  A horse or similar living mountbeast does not qualify here, but a robotic one could.
• * one Water Vehicle  Similar comment about living creatures being disqualified.
• * one ranged personal weapon
• * one melee personal weapon
• * one other item of personal equipment (armor, sensory apparatus, fly-belt, universally useful trinket, nonsentient computer, food/drink synthesizer, whatever)
• * one magic spell, incantation, mathematical theorem, or similar created tool/weapon/capcity with no material component
• * one nonliving robot, android, or other sentient artificial nonliving character, though it may not be easy to distinguish from a living being
• * one inventor/artificer/gadgeteer character.  This must be a living biological creature, though not necessarily human
• * one free option ... possible use is on a sidekick, or perhaps a hero who uses a bunch of this stuff, could be another spiffy piece of equipment that doesn't fit easily into any of the above slots, or perhaps you want a second battleship or something, or maybe your hero wants to ride a horse (and a living horse does not qualify as a Land Vehicle).  Creative uses of the option pick are encouraged.  The free option cannot be among the first five items picked.

Items which might fit in multiple slots must have their slot specified at the time of the pick.  Clearest example here is Yamato, which could be a water vehicle or could be a space vehicle (via Space Battleship Yamato), but which slot it goes in must be specified in the pick.

 

Special rules:

• * Other than the free option, there is no restrictions on the order of any picks (i.e., with one exception, you can start with anything).
• * The free option cannot be taken in the first five picks.
• * Title, fiction, theme music are encouraged but not required
• * Individual items can't be duplicated, but multiple distinct items of the same time are permitted to be picked by different people.  As an example: If I pick Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, that still leaves Yoda's lightsaber, and Darth Maul's double-ended lightsaber, etc., available.
• * As a specific prohibition, however, the various Lantern Corps power rings are single picks.  The different colors are different items for the purposes of this draft, but, e.g., all of the green power rings count as one item (so picking any of the rings of Hal Jordan, Guy Garnder, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, etc., locks out all the others).

 

 

Haven't made up my mind about start date yet, and I'm still wondering if there are other "supersets" like the lantern power rings that I have to restrict.

 

EDIT: I am quite willing to consider suggestions for changes, additions, etc., at this point, also.

[Cancer]

51 minutes ago, Bazza said:

I was mentioning something similar to Pariah about a week (or so) ago… have you been reading my mind? 
 

(I might have to change my password).

 

I don't read minds.  I run my greasy fingers over them, absorbing their contents in toto, and then restore edited versions of their original content back into the new host body (which often, but not always, is the same as the original host body).

[Pariah]

2 hours ago, Cancer said:

Provisional rules (still subject to changes):

  Reveal hidden contents

"Big Toys" Superdraft

 

This draft focuses on *things* rather than characters.  There is a single human character, and a maybe-close-to-human robot or android, and then a free option pick.  The rest is stuff.

 

All picks are exclusive.  No restrictions on source material, other than currently living real people are not eligible to be drafted in any category, even the free option.  Currently existing hardware is, however, permitted.

 

The things to be picked:

• * one home base, which must be anchored to the ground or space-time or something.  While it might be in a fixed orbit, or be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere, such "motility" is highly restricted.  As an example: Deep Space 9 is a base, but Enterprise NCC-1701 is a starship.
• * one Spaceship or Aircraft
• * one Land Vehicle.  A horse or similar living mountbeast does not qualify here, but a robotic one could.
• * one Water Vehicle  Similar comment about living creatures being disqualified.
• * one ranged personal weapon
• * one melee personal weapon
• * one other item of personal equipment (armor, sensory apparatus, fly-belt, universally useful trinket, nonsentient computer, food/drink synthesizer, whatever)
• * one magic spell, incantation, mathematical theorem, or similar created tool/weapon/capcity with no material component
• * one nonliving robot, android, or other sentient artificial nonliving character, though it may not be easy to distinguish from a living being
• * one inventor/artificer/gadgeteer character.  This must be a living biological creature, though not necessarily human
• * one free option ... possible use is on a sidekick, or perhaps a hero who uses a bunch of this stuff, could be another spiffy piece of equipment that doesn't fit easily into any of the above slots, or perhaps you want a second battleship or something, or maybe your hero wants to ride a horse (and a living horse does not qualify as a Land Vehicle).  Creative uses of the option pick are encouraged.  The free option cannot be among the first five items picked.

Items which might fit in multiple slots must have their slot specified at the time of the pick.  Clearest example here is Yamato, which could be a water vehicle or could be a space vehicle (via Space Battleship Yamato), but which slot it goes in must be specified in the pick.

 

Special rules:

• * Other than the free option, there is no restrictions on the order of any picks (i.e., with one exception, you can start with anything).
• * The free option cannot be taken in the first five picks.
• * Title, fiction, theme music are encouraged but not required
• * Individual items can't be duplicated, but multiple distinct items of the same time are permitted to be picked by different people.  As an example: If I pick Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, that still leaves Yoda's lightsaber, and Darth Maul's double-ended lightsaber, etc., available.
• * As a specific prohibition, however, the various Lantern Corps power rings are single picks.  The different colors are different items for the purposes of this draft, but, e.g., all of the green power rings count as one item (so picking any of the rings of Hal Jordan, Guy Garnder, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, etc., locks out all the others).

 

 

Haven't made up my mind about start date yet, and I'm still wondering if there are other "supersets" like the lantern power rings that I have to restrict.

 

EDIT: I am quite willing to consider suggestions for changes, additions, etc., at this point, also.

 

I'm assuming an emphasis on technology rather than mysticism, Clarke's Third Law notwithstanding. Correct?

[Bazza]

2 hours ago, Cancer said:

 

I don't read minds.  I run my greasy fingers over them, absorbing their contents in toto, and then restore edited versions of their original content back into the new host body (which often, but not always, is the same as the original host body).

*chuckle*

[Bazza]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

 

I'm assuming an emphasis on technology rather than mysticism, Clarke's Third Law notwithstanding. Correct?

Having both would be better as some may prefer to go mystical/magical and others technological. Or mix and match techno-mage. 
 

 

3 hours ago, Cancer said:

Provisional rules (still subject to changes):

  Reveal hidden contents

"Big Toys" Superdraft

 

This draft focuses on *things* rather than characters.  There is a single human character, and a maybe-close-to-human robot or android, and then a free option pick.  The rest is stuff.

 

All picks are exclusive.  No restrictions on source material, other than currently living real people are not eligible to be drafted in any category, even the free option.  Currently existing hardware is, however, permitted.

 

The things to be picked:

• * one home base, which must be anchored to the ground or space-time or something.  While it might be in a fixed orbit, or be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere, such "motility" is highly restricted.  As an example: Deep Space 9 is a base, but Enterprise NCC-1701 is a starship.
• * one Spaceship or Aircraft
• * one Land Vehicle.  A horse or similar living mountbeast does not qualify here, but a robotic one could.
• * one Water Vehicle  Similar comment about living creatures being disqualified.
• * one ranged personal weapon
• * one melee personal weapon
• * one other item of personal equipment (armor, sensory apparatus, fly-belt, universally useful trinket, nonsentient computer, food/drink synthesizer, whatever)
• * one magic spell, incantation, mathematical theorem, or similar created tool/weapon/capcity with no material component
• * one nonliving robot, android, or other sentient artificial nonliving character, though it may not be easy to distinguish from a living being
• * one inventor/artificer/gadgeteer character.  This must be a living biological creature, though not necessarily human
• * one free option ... possible use is on a sidekick, or perhaps a hero who uses a bunch of this stuff, could be another spiffy piece of equipment that doesn't fit easily into any of the above slots, or perhaps you want a second battleship or something, or maybe your hero wants to ride a horse (and a living horse does not qualify as a Land Vehicle).  Creative uses of the option pick are encouraged.  The free option cannot be among the first five items picked.

Items which might fit in multiple slots must have their slot specified at the time of the pick.  Clearest example here is Yamato, which could be a water vehicle or could be a space vehicle (via Space Battleship Yamato), but which slot it goes in must be specified in the pick.

 

Special rules:

• * Other than the free option, there is no restrictions on the order of any picks (i.e., with one exception, you can start with anything).
• * The free option cannot be taken in the first five picks.
• * Title, fiction, theme music are encouraged but not required
• * Individual items can't be duplicated, but multiple distinct items of the same time are permitted to be picked by different people.  As an example: If I pick Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, that still leaves Yoda's lightsaber, and Darth Maul's double-ended lightsaber, etc., available.
• * As a specific prohibition, however, the various Lantern Corps power rings are single picks.  The different colors are different items for the purposes of this draft, but, e.g., all of the green power rings count as one item (so picking any of the rings of Hal Jordan, Guy Garnder, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, etc., locks out all the others).

 

 

Haven't made up my mind about start date yet, and I'm still wondering if there are other "supersets" like the lantern power rings that I have to restrict.

 

EDIT: I am quite willing to consider suggestions for changes, additions, etc., at this point, also.

Book addition? 

[Cancer]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

 

I'm assuming an emphasis on technology rather than mysticism, Clarke's Third Law notwithstanding. Correct?

 

Well, that was where I started thinking, but it doesn't have to be that way.  You want Glamdring?  You can have it.  You want Noah's Ark?  You can have that too.  You want the Sampo?  You could have that.

 

11 minutes ago, Bazza said:

Having both would be better as some may prefer to go mystical/magical and others technological. Or mix and match techno-mage. 
 

[...]

Book addition? 

 

Yes, I'm largely OK with the first one, as I think I indicated.

 

I need some explanation of what you mean by "Book addition"; that goes over my head entirely.

[Bazza]

There is a slot in the draft specifically to draft a book/text/scroll/codex etc. for those inclined to wizardry it would likely be a spell book. For the more technological, it may be Da Vinci’s codex. 
 

Like, I’m sure The Doctor (Who) has a copy of the HHGG. 

[Cancer]

Interesting idea.  Let me think about that.

[Bazza]

We can extend it to include maps (cf pirates) and tablets / techno-databases / ‘holocubes’. 

[Cancer]

Yeah, that's part of my considerations.  I'm toying with the idea of making theme music an actual pick, also.

[Bazza]

17 minutes ago, Cancer said:

Yeah, that's part of my considerations.  I'm toying with the idea of making theme music an actual pick, also.

do it. 

[Cancer]

Declaration: we won't be starting tomorrow.  Too much going on for me today.  Hope to start Thursday, March 3, 9AM PST, noon EST, 1700 UT. 

 

The draft will probably still be going on when the US makes the change to Daylight Time in the wee hours of March 13.  I will declare what we're doing about that as it approaches.

[Cancer]

OK, the Big Toys draft is over, the poll ongoing, and there was lots of sniping and some nice shiny toy sets assembled. 

 

What happens next, since April starts tomorrow?

[Bazza]

April starts today. 
 

(This never gets old.  )

[Old Man]

7 hours ago, Bazza said:

April starts today. 
 

(This never gets old.  )

 

Is that an April Fools joke?

[Bazza]

No. It is a timezone fact. 

[assault]

The problem is that you can't travel back in time more than one day.

😪

[Bazza]

Sure you can, you are not thinking laterally. Take a morning flight from NZ to LA.