The Auction Rules

If you want your character to be, for example, a hotshot in mental powers, then bid heavily in Psyche, but don’t neglect Endurance. Combat is determined by Warfare, the last auction, but a good warrior should have some ranking in Strength and Endurance as well.

Here are the hard-and-fast rules of the Attribute Auction.

All players start with 25 points.
Every bid is permanent. Each player’s highest bid is paid and can not, ever, under any circumstances be reduced or refunded.
Extra points can be gained by making contributions. Contributions are some kind of regular, on-going chore, or enhancement to the game that the player promises to do for the campaign. Examples include keeping a diary for your character, taking notes for the whole group, or drawing art (trumps?) for the characters.
Players can only bid for themselves. It’s just not fair to the other players. If missing players want to participate, the GM will stand as proxy. But since the bid is going to be over discord, and asynchronous, it shouldn’t be hard for the bidding rounds to happen.
The winner of an Attribute Auction is unbeatable by everyone else on their ladder. Until enhancement points are distributed, and possible new rungs are established, whomever wins for an Attribute is that Attribute’s ultimate winner. First place is the only safe place. If you get first place in any Attribute Auction, you will know you are the best of your ladder. Anyone after the Auction, can buy up, even spending as many points as the first place winner, but they can never beat, or equal whomever gets first place, until a new rung is established. And the first place winner always has the right to buy up, first, if they are about to be surpassed.
Ranks are based on the Attribute Auction. Each group of player really sets up their own ladder and therefore their own levels for advancement. With your bids you are making the rank system for this section of this campaign. What you bid will determine how the campaign will be set up. The final results also determine how characters advance later on.

Here’s how it works. Assume the final results for Warfare turns out to be fifth place for 10 points, fourth place for 15 points third place for 19 points second place for 20 points and first place for 22 points. That means buying up Warfare later will have to match those point levels, just ad if they were rungs on a ladder. You couldn’t possible spend 18 points in Warfare. You have to “match” the bidders who bid in the Auction, so you can only spend 15 or 19, but nothing in between.

The initial ladder may have people tied for a place, so there might be 3 people at 19 points. This is just fine. Until people buy up. If you do go up the rung, you will be listed as 3.5 or 2.5 or the like so that the actual 3rd or 2nd rank person can still beat you, since they had that rung from the beginning, but … they might also have bought up at the time you are buying up.
There is some small adjustments by buying either Bad Stuff or Enemies (not currently available), or the like. While this is a possibility, it is not necessarily the best path. But that choice is always yours.

How an Auction Works

The attribute is described. To make sure everyone knows how important this attribute is.
Everyone privately writes the GM with their opening bids. These bids, like any others, can’t be taken back. The main point is to allows everyone an equal chance to get in a bid before things go crazy. “No bid at this time,” is a completely acceptable bid.
When everyone is done the first tentative ladder will be published.
Second (and subsequent) rounds of bids then will be solicited. One cannot lower one’s bid, only raise it. One can only bid at the ladder’s rungs, except for the top rung. That can keep going up.
Once no more changes are submitted, the bidding is closed, and the ladder is published. The people associated with each rung might or might not be known. (It is highly likely you will know your own rungs, for example, but you won’t know if they are shared, and, if so, with whom.)

Attributes