Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Spaceopoly General Tournament 2013 Discussion

After the X-Men Tournament is concluded, I would like to move on to a tournament with characters from both DC and Marvel. I would be open to third company characters as well, but I would need the help of other members in order to compile a list that would include a good number of them.

Since this is a Legion forum, I was thinking about holding a Mid-Silver Age Tournament. It would include characters from 1961-1971, what many call the Marvel Age. The cut-off year is when Jack Kirby left Marvel for DC. It reflects what I perceive to be significant changes in the tone and content in comic books at both companies.

However, if people would prefer a different age I would be open to that is well. We could also run a Tournament similar to those on other forums where each member picks their own team of heroes. In those tournaments the player gives a strategic justification as to why their team would win, and then everyone votes.

I have given this topic considerable thought and I have decided to create a Silver Age Tournament. I have been developing a statistical system for various characters that I am eager to try. However, these Tournaments take hours to prepare for so I want at three players before I go into detail about rules. Please post in this thread if you want to participate.

I am interested, but I'd need to understand the rules more before I can play. Also, I don't have a lot of free time now so I'm worried that I may end up stalling the game.

I really enjoyed the Legion tournament but I also am busier now than I was then so am not sure I could be trusted not to stall things.

I also have to be honest that I'm probably only interested in tournaments that involve characters I know/care about. And I am (or was, until I could stand the abusive relationship no longer) a DC-only guy.

Don't let that stop you from running the games you want to play though, Emily.

If we run a traditional tournament, you can choose which characters compete on your respective team. If we do the voting method, then I will make it DC-only to make it easier for myself.

So there are two methods being considered? How do they differ?

The traditional method begins with a draft. Players get a set number of points and are able to draft characters to their team. This is followed by a phase in which players choose their free street-level character (they are worth the lowest amount of points) and can trade team members with other players. Then a random number generator is used to decide who participates in which matches.

Each player writes a short description on how and why their player would win the match. Then other people (this includes non-players) votes on who won which matches. This process is repeated until there is only one remaining team, and that team is the winner.

It sounds like a lot of work, but I would be doing the majority of it. As I said, I have already begun creating a statistical system. The voting method is what we have been using in prior Tournaments.

That does sound interesting. What do the stats affect?

The stats are an indicator on how powerful the character is, with the the most powerful characters costing the most points to draft. I have decided to build this system around the number four, so the scale of playable characters is 8-36. The median of this scale is 22, which is the same as a Rookie Green Lantern or a Rookie Magician. Very few human characters with no alien/divine ties are ranked above 22. I have designated forty as our Sky-Father level, which means you could not draft Odin or Zeus.

This an example using the Teen Titans:

Robin (Grayson)- 8 points, Basic Street-Leveler

Kid Flash (Wally)- 12 points, Basic Super-Powered

Aqualad (Garth)- 12 points, Basic Super-Powered (Atlantean)
Races such as the Atlanteans are physically stronger than humans, so their civilians start with a base of 8 points.

Wonder Girl (Donna) - 22 points, Basic Mystic-Powered

Golden Eagle- 9 points, Basic Street-Leveler
I have to give Golden Eagle an extra point because he has flight. However, according to my observations flight is not a tremendous benefit in combat. This is evidenced by Batman's defeat of Hawkman in Superman/Batman.

Cyborg- 16 points, Basic Mechanized
Cybernetics usually gives characters multiple offensive and defensive capabilities. Therefore, I believe they are more powerful than some characters with only one power.

Starfire- 16 points, Mid-Tier Superpowered (Alien)
Before she gained super-powers, Starfire was trained by warriors. She also can survive without oxygen, which indicates that her species has stronger physiology than humans.

Raven- 24 points, Mid-Tier Mystic-Powered
Raven had considerable training before joining the New Teen Titans. I am debating whether or not to let players recruit Trigon-infused Raven. Yes, she would be worth more points.

You can also recruit different versions of the same character as long as they were published in a comic that existed before Crisis on Infinite Earths. You can draft Nightwing for 10 points if Robin is already taken (he gains one point through experience and one point for leadership). You cannot recruit Flash (Wally) because he adopted that identity during the Bronze Age. We have to save something for the Bronze Age Tournament!

It will be acceptable to draft characters from Earth-2 if they appeared in the Silver Age. Bear in mind that characters who debuted in the Golden Age may be weaker because they are no longer in their prime. You can also draft Fawcett and Charlton characters because they were published in the Silver Age despite not being present on Earth-1.

I understand now! But will statistics have an effect on the voting or on determining who wins? From your description it seems that I could sway the outcome despite the low power levels of my team, as long as I can justify their winning.

(And yes, that means Kole would be eligible since her tenure with the Titans was just before the Crisis!)

I think your assigned statistics make sense, although Kid Flash's super-speed might make him deserve a higher level?

The statistics reflect a character's strength, which is determined by their powers and the results of fights (known as feats). This could cause people to vote more towards teams with higher-level characters. On the other hand, if a person is able to write a beautiful description of a battle the statistics could be ignored. You can defeat four Champion-Tier characters (36 points) with twelve Street-Levelers if the voters agree with you.

The minimum amount of characters one can draft is four, the maximum is twelve. If one has extra points after the initial draft, they can use them to trade for higher-level characters or save them for the final match.

Wonderful! There's a lot of room for creativity and ingenuity here, which sounds quite wonderful.

Thank you for your kind words. Since I am going to be busy the next two weekends, I am going to let people join and formulate rules until August 14th. I count three people so far including myself, but the more people the better.

I am toying with allowing people a free support character instead of a free street-leveler. For example, Jimmy Oleson would give all 32-points a 1-point increase. If he made it to the next round, he would be able to adopt the Elastic-Lad identity. If he survived two matches he would gain the ability to change the setting of the match to Apokolips. What do you think?

Now, it is tradition to not allow characters who are high-level teleporters, high-level reality warpers, or time-travelers to compete in Standard Tournaments. I believe the former rule is so that the matches are actual fights, while the later two powers are ill-defined. Please note this list for future reference as I fully expect it to grow.

Preliminary List of Forbidden Characters
Bat-Mite - High-Level reality warper
Mister Mxyzptlk - High-Level reality warper
Per Degaton - Time-Traveler
Mordru - Sky-Father Level, 40-points
The Spectre - Worth at least5 40-points
The Phantom Stranger - Worth at least 40-points
Warp - High-level teleportation