Owner Brief

If your looking for the general game overview, click here.  The secret goals of Owners in Draft Night 30XX will be posted on the private #Owner-chat channel on the Discord.

Owner's Authority

Your authorities as a League Owner can be grouped into two categories: Financial and Policy Making.

You have control over the finances of your franchise and all transactions which involve franchise funds require your approval. You’ll also submit a final budget at the end of Draft Night which will dictate how you will invest in your franchise for the upcoming season.

The League is governed like a corporate board (commonly referred to as the Owners’ Cabal) where each franchise is given a single vote. The league will debate various policies throughout Draft Night and agree to enact new League-wide policies and initiatives with a majority vote in favor. It is through the Owners’ Cabal that official league policy will be decided.

Finances & Transactions

Financial transactions of all kinds can be declared to be paid directly (immediately) or via the franchise budget. Payments made directly are transferred immediately (i.e. duringt the megagame event) and are therefore available for immediate usage.  The Franchise budget can be used to pay other teams after the season is said and done (i.e. after the megagame event has concluded) – such arrangements can be useful diplomatic tools.

Sending money to other Franchise Owners is as easy as typing!  Use the !send command followed by the amount of money being sent (in integers) and the team it’s being sent to.  So to recap: !send [amount] [team].  Here are some examples of acceptable commands:

  • !send 3 Jakarta Tobacco Monopoly
  • !SEND 3 JTM
  • !Send $3 JTM

Franchises have to submit a budget which will outline your funding priorities for season at-hand. You may need to lean on your VP, Saber, or other teammates to formulate a Budget if you are busy with other things! The soft deadline for Franchise Budgets is 12am midnight the day of the Draft Night event, but many Franchises finish their budgets during or shortly after the ethe conclusion of the Draft.

The Budget

The franchise budget is a thorough document detailing you financial priorities for the upcoming season.  You’ll have to discuss the team as a whole as to where your money best resides.

Each line item in the Budget has an explanation of the effect of funding that line item – which generally relate to either financial profits post-season or improving the performance of the team during the season.  The individual effects of each line-item are not elaborated on here.

This budget is also where freeform investments and initiatives that fall outside the scope of actions that can be taken within the realm of a single day can be declared.  These initiatives (if substantial) will narratively effect the next season but no freeform funding initiative will effect the performance of athletes or your team for the current season.

A template of the Budget will be made available in the game links page.

Owners' Cabal

Owners will push to pass and craft League policies which reflect their philosophies, deliver justice for past slights, or serve more self-interested motives. Of course, the other Owners also of thoughts on the matters at hand – strong ones too! 

The Owners’ Cabal functions as a corporate board but with each franchise having one identical vote.  The Cabal will meet twice during the course of Draft Night to discuss and vote at the matters at hand.  However, these meetings are mostly formalities.  Expect to do the majority of negotiations before the meeting starts.

Shaping the Future of the League

Should the League embrace the extreme aspects of the sport or moderate for the sake of safety or to appear gentlemanly? Should the League use aggressive tactics against its enemies or propose peaceful reductions in tension? These are important debates with philosophical roots! Various initiatives and policies that are enacted by the Owners may shape the League’s future.

Owners have governing philosophies (listed here) which may dictate which policies each Franchise Owner is likely to support. There are five pairs of opposing philosophies (10 total), and each Owner is ascribed two philosophies (noted in team briefing).  Policies addressed by the Cabal will be tagged as relating to those 10 philosophies. Policies can not be tagged with  diametrically opposed philosophies.

After the end of Draft Night, all the philosophies will be scored in terms of how much the League has oriented its policies towards each philosophy. League Owners can then look quantifiably on how much they’ve influenced the league.  Scoring works as such:

  • For each policy proposed which tags that philsophy, that philosophy scores +2 point
  • For each policy proposed which tags a philsophy’s diametrically opposed counterpart, the philosophy subtracts 1 point (-1) from its score.
  • Special exception: For the League Disruptors and League Stalwarts specifically, each proposal which passed that contains a counterpart philosophy only subtracts 0.5 points for the philosophy’s score.  The tag of “Disruptors” or “Stalwarts” may be more liberally applied as they are broad terms which can relate to anything reformist or anything conservative, respectively.

Decorum & Process

Getting your proposal into the agenda can be as difficult as getting it passed.  With only two official meetings, Owners will have to box each other out to get their proposals on to the agenda. Each Cabal meeting will have 6-12 proposed policies on the agenda, which will be controlled by the Commissioner (moderator). There are no absolute rules on how the Commissioner chooses the agenda but they are told to consider several factors, including the variety of proposals in the agenda, how many co-sponsors the proposal has, how many proposals the author has already submitted, and what the broader narrative universe of the game would consider pressing matters.

Assuming there are 10 items on the agenda and the meeting runs about 50 minutes, that’s 5-min. per proposed policy, not including time spent counting votes, waiting for people to unmute themselves, etc. On top of everything, all 16 teams are represented. The Commissioner (moderator) has absolute authority over these meetings and will moderate the tempo, speaking formats, order of debate for proposals, cool heads if things get too heated, etc.  The Commissioner will open proposals up for debate or comment at their discretion and if there is time.  

Once the Commissioner calls for a vote, the debate ends and the vote occurs.  Simple majority passes votes and the Comissioner votes to break ties when they occur.

Note.  We may use software to adjudicate voting.  It is 1,000% against the rules to hack any software related to the game and will result in an instant ban from the Discord server and game.

In terms of decorum, players are expect to conduct themselves within a reasonable degree of courtesy and business-like politeness.  Role-play is a critical part of megagames and getting angry during a negotiation is often justified or an opportunistically good tactic for securing your negotiating position.  However, the time constraints on the Owners’ Cabal meetings are tight.  Additionally, tone and intentions are difficult to read when the debates are taking place over voice with no visual cues – this can and has led to one or more parties “taking it too far”. Last, there are many first-time megagame players in this game and I’ll be damned if their first experience is being yelled at for two 45-min. blocks of time.

As a gameplay tip, be sure to secure the votes you need BEFORE the beginning of the meeting.

League Policies

League policies will all generally relate to three important aspects of the League: (1) the rules of the sport, (2) profit-redistribution, and (3) non-profit related League policies (‘cultural’). Described and delineated below, the actual classification of policies is not important for gameplay mechanics.

While there are several pre-written proposed policies looking to be enacted, but any owner may write their own policy to be voted on. Policies may not unduly target individual athletes, players, or franchises (against the League’s sacred Articles of Incorporation and Freedom). Consider running custom policies by the League Supercomputer before attempting to get them passed.

Funding must be considered when proposing new League policies. In general, either the League can pay for it out of the League’s limited funds or individual team franchises can be mandated to pay for the policy themselves. Creative funding options (government collaboration, corporate sponsorships, etc.) can also be pursued but they must be realistic in scope and possibility.

Proposed policies may also be tagged with governing philosophies (described above, listed below) at the discretion of the League Supercomputer, the League Commissioner (both moderators), or the authors of the proposal at any time before the Owners’ Cabal for which the proposal is discussed.  During the Owners Cabal meeting, the Commissioner may tweak tags as they see fit, generally to better reflect the intention of the bill as it was proposed. The discussion and how the proposal is debated may also influence its tags. 

For example, if a proposal states that the League will mandate an increase to the pay of part-time event workers’ salary and benefits, that will likely get tagged as “ETHICAL”.  If during discussions in the Owners’ Cabal, it becomes apparent that the additional benefits will be in the form of parties and edible arrangements, that will be tagged as “LAVISH” as well as “ETHICAL”.  Changes to the tags for proposals by moderators during the Cabal meetings are made to reflect the intention of the proposal by the author and are not made to solicit last-minute horse-trading.  Besides, those last minutes are far too expensive for horses! 

The Rules of the Sport

League policies can also affect how the sport is played, which can in turn effect which player stats are indicative of performance. Certain stats can be “nerfed” (made less effective) or “buffed” (made more effective) or changed in any why that can be input into a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, the rules of the sport have grown gigantic and confusing. Not many people truly understand the actual game anymore (the owners especially). All debate concerning the changing of the rules of the sport may only be done in the form of sports jargon. The moderator can penalize owners who use non-sports jargon in these debates in both small and large ways. Importantly, the sports jargon need not make sense, at all.

To craft a proposed change to a sports ruling, the policy must describe in sports jargon what is changing and also (in straightforward language) describe how athletes’ performance will be affected.

For example, a policy which “Computerize the referees” or “Lengthens the Triple-Scoring Zone” could “increase the importance of Tibia Diameter in the sport” or “increase the randomness of the sports outcome (i.e. who wins).

(Un)Intended consequences. Sports rules changes may also accidentally or purposefully effect the relationship between athlete stats in ways that are not explicitly mentioned in the written proposal. Your franchise’s Saber will know more about this.

Profit-Sharing Arrangements

Profit-sharing arrangements have been credited with keeping the league stable through lean years by providing teams with less access to the larger media markets needed credit to not go bankrupt. With the rise of the popularity of Space Cricket, the league once again faces lean years ahead. The League Owners can agree to redistribute profits however they like as long as it can be feasibly done with spreadsheet technology within a reasonable timespan. However, it is suggested that the league split profits based on total profit, and media market-access. Consult with the moderator to see if you are feeling ambitious about financial redistribution schemes.

The Front Line of the Culture War

Did you know people like sports?  Like REALLY like them?

Cultural issues may not have any mechanical effects but impact the broader narrative universe nonetheless.  From a cultural force as large as the league, a simple declaration of solidarity (or condemnation) of Hawaiian-pizza-lovers can send pineapple futures through the roof (or floor).

Policies that are not related to game mechanics may be more-easily passed, but nothing is guaranteed!

In Summary

  • Owners are responsible for financial transactions involving their franchise, formulating the budget for the upcoming season, and negotiating League Policies with the rest of the Owners’ Cabal.
  • A proposed League policy should have the following:
    • The policy’s name
    • A sponsor
    • Details of what the policy will do in narratively
    • Precise description of the policy’s effect on overall game mechanics (likely detailing either how they affect athlete performance or financial redistribution)
    • Funding source for policy and amount (if applicable)
  • Policies are passed via simple majority vote of the Owners’ Cabal. The Commissioner (or League Supercomputer) breaks ties if they occur. The League Supercomputer will also verify cost estimates and potentially modify proposals as it sees fit.

Philosophies, Listed

Extreme vs. Old School – The future is here, and the future is fast, loud, and full of adrenaline! Or maybe, now more than ever, this sport is can be a source of calm for its fanbase in the face of turbulent times.

Détente vs. Aggressive (in relation to League Foreign Policy) – The League has many enemies, among which are the all-encompassing World Government, and the rival sports league of Global Space Cricket. Should the League attempt to make peace with these rivals for the sake of stability or should the League pursue aggressive tactics to deter and counteract these forces?

Ethical vs. Realist – Should the League spend its hard-earned money to improve the lives of its employees? Or is spending any more than bare minimum irresponsible and against long-term business sustainability?

Frugal vs. Lavish – Does grandiose and well-funded spectacle increase our fanbase or are such gratuitous things a dramatic waste of money?

League Disruptor vs. League Stalwart – Should the League adapt to changing market tastes or reform internal power structures to create a better League? Or perhaps these reformists are full of nonsense and the League is doing great already!  As noted earlier, the “DISRUPTOR” and “STALWART” tags may be used liberally as a general stand in for generally reformist or conservative policies respectively. They also score differently from others.

Pre-game Checklist

  • Draft Night 30XX Introduction & Overview
  • Draft Night 30XX Owner Brief (This document)
  • Owner Goals (Distributed privately via the Owners’ chat in the  Discord channel)
  • Team Briefs (Distributed privately via team-specific chats)
  • Bookmark this webpage which has useful game links!