I’m starting a MUCH BETTER thread this time, since last week’s didn’t really take off, and it’s been pointed out that I ‘phoned’ the OP in. Let’s start with the Frequently Answered Questions:
So, what is this Haggle thing anyway?
Haggle is a parlour trading game that we’ve been playing occasionally on the SDMB for about 2 years now. (There have only been 3 occasions so far.) The basic idea is that each player starts with a slightly different portfolio of ‘trading counters’, and the objective is to make trades so as to end up with the most valuable collection by the end of the game.
The twist is that each player also starts with a few ‘rule slips’ that contain information about how different counters are valued - usually what the ‘base’ values of each counter by itself is, and then special bonuses or other cases where this might be changed. Other players have different rules that you don’t know at the start of the game, and you can trade in information by letting other people see the rules that you have slips for.
How many people do we need for an enjoyable game?
I’d say anywhere from five to a dozen.
What are the color and number rules for trade offers?
I try not to be a rule nazi, but to make my life easier running the game, please color your official trading statements like this:
Chrisk offer #2: I’ll give anybody a small floppy disk in exchange for a purple flash drive.
Accept Littlechap offer #4
Withdraw offer #3
Also number or otherwise identify all of your trades, (numbers are easiest on me, but if you want to use another scheme that seems clear, go ahead and give it a try.) Please don’t identify responses to offers that have been made to you as ‘counter-offers’ - it just gets confusing from there.
Don’t kid yourself - you’re the Rules Hitler. What else would piss you off?
It’s all common sense stuff. Don’t offer an item you don’t have for a trade, or a look at a rule that you don’t HOLD - and asking for the same out of another person isn’t really a good idea either.
All of this seems so confusing - can I see some examples?
Yes. Not long after this OP, I will be providing you with bunches of examples from real Haggle games from the SDMB.
How long will this take, and how is the game organized?
This is pretty simple really.
There’s the signup stage, where players decide that they’re interested, and I take down their names.
Possibly a brief delay after signups are closed during which I finalize the rules and the starting packages, and everybody confirms to an initial game PM. Might even have to scramble for a replacement or a smaller pool of players.
I’ll post a ‘kickoff’ describing each player’s trading counters and identifying their rule slips by number. Then the text of the rule slips are PM-ed to each player. Once that is done, I’ll post again in the thread to ‘ring the trading bell’ and get things going.
We’re probably going to take a few days getting organized, and trade for a little over a week, which will take us nearly to the end of April. At a pre-defined deadline, further trading is disallowed, and any player has a little time to decide if they want to ‘sink’ any of their score counters, (throw it away because it would hurt their overall score,) and then I run the final score and make a long drawn out process of announcing the results and getting to the final winner.
What if other people stop paying attention to the game, so I can’t trade?
This is something that’s been a bit of a problem. Please, don’t sign up if you don’t think that you’ll be participating for most of the week. In general, if there are a few Hagglers who don’t participate, they mostly hurt themselves, but they can also throw a few things out of whack because their counters aren’t really available for trading and the rule slips that they hold can be monopolized by the person who has the other copy.
Can you tell me anything cool about the rules this time around?
Not much, really. It may involve coins of some kind. And there will probably be rules that invalidate other rules, like “Rule #15: rule #5 is complete and utter hogwash.” If rule #15 is not invalidated in its turn, then rule #5 will not truly have any effect on the scoring.
And what about the previous games? Where can I see all of those?
Haggle 1: Spelling dope - Haggle - a game of trading and secrets - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board
Haggle 2: Holiday bargain madness - Anybody up for a holiday round of Haggle? - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board
Haggle 3: The dragon’s hoard - Haggle: The Dragon's hoard [closed] - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board