I think the idea might be hilarious, but I don't really see the logistics working out. What if some people don't want to add to this fund? If a really good one is found, who gets it? And a really really bad one? And what if it's one-time use, or is otherwise not passable?
Most of it's 'hilarity for hilarity's sake', I think
The logistics are that it doesn't really need to be a 'fair' or 'zero-sum' system. After all, all we're really trying to do is allow players that want to incentivize the use of the Nyras artifacts, but who don't want to risk their characters, to do so by giving new characters a giant pile of Nyras artifacts
The reward isn't really the artifacts, its in getting more information about what the symbols mean and what sorts of things are in those boxes. And in seeing what sort of nonsense that PW comes up for them, because those are some of the most ridiculous and awesome parts of this game
Part of the 'balance' is that you have to guess how the victim dies to win artifacts. Not an easy feat, given how ridiculous these artifacts can get. A more balanced idea might be that tokens added to the pool contribute to a bank. When the user dies, and artifacts that are still usable are offered up for auction, and you can use some amount of the tokens you've thrown into the pool to bid on artifacts.
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An entirely more functional system might be a sort of investment program, which could work from either a 'pool' or an individual. From the individual perspective, I (a vet) would say that I am willing to fund 'research' on, say, Large Blue hexagons. Or maybe just Large Blues. Whatever. Any player can then come along and take me up on the offer, and we will work out some sort of funding agreement; say, I pay 6, they pay 2. We go buy the artifact, then they take it and are compelled to use it for at least one mission. After the mission is complete, one of us can decide to buy the other out of their share and be the sole owner of the artifact. If the 'researcher' dies and the artifact recovered, it will get delivered back to the 'investor'.
For a pool, it would work in essentially the same way, except the funds would come from a group of investors, and the artifacts would go back into the pool if the 'researcher' died or gave up their share.
I like this because it's kind of flexible, terms wise. If the artifact is consumable or one-use, it's honestly negotiable either way. Since they are compelled to use it, they're likely at quite high risk, depending on the power level of the artifact. However, they will also get all the benefit, materially. As I keep saying, I'm more interested in this for !!SCIENCE!! than profit, and there is much !!SCIENCE!! and entertainment value to be had by giving these things to *other* people
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette: OOC and NEW PLAYER INFO (Read 2541931 times)