Tabletop Mechanics -- Auctions

• Open Auction - Players shout out bids as they will, with no turn order.

  • The auction ends when no one wishes to raise the current bid.
  • Open Auction allows a seller to accept any bid at any time and close the Auction.
  • Though the usual outcome is that the high bidder is the winner, no rule requires this outcome.
  • Open Actions are messy.
  • Iterative bidding provides a lot of information as players reveal their preferences and for the goods up for auction.
  • The auction integrates a means for allocating resources with a way for players to trade opinions about how valuable they are.
  • The dominant strategy for any bidder is to stay in the auction until their value for the auctioned goods is reached.

• English Auction - An auctioneer asks for bids of a certain amount and players indicate their willingness to bid at that amount

  • Players are permitted to adjust the increment of the bid, usually by shouting out their actual bid, though this is done infrequently, and usually either to indicate a smaller increment than the auctioneer requests or a much larger one
  • When a certain amount of time elapses with no increases, or it is clear that no one wishes to raise the current bid, the auctioneer declares that the high bidder is the winner
  • The price of the auction moves against the preferences of the bidders—that is, it goes up.
  • They reveal a lot of information to the bidders about one another
  • They have a weakly dominant strategy of simply staying in the bidding until your value is reached.
  • English Auctions are dynamic and exciting (particularly if auctioning is the focus)

• Turn Order Until Pass Auction - Starting with one player and going in turn order, players may raise the current bid or pass. When all players but one have passed, the player remaining in the auction is the winner.

  • Normally, players that pass may not re-enter the auction. However, allowing re-entry is a variation that is not uncommon.
  • Simple and aligns with player expectations.
  • The dominant strategy for bidders is to stay until their value for the item for bid is reached.
  • Provides structure to auctions but is less dynamic and may be subject to turn order advantage.
  • Might drag on because of no auctioneer.
  • For allocation of resources, drafting has taken over.
  • The main advantage of allowing re-entry is preventing accidental windfalls by allowing a previously passed player to raise the bid on a lot that should sell for more but whose value is languishing for whatever reason

• Sealed Bid Auction - Players secretly make a bid. All bids are revealed simultaneously, and the high bidder wins.

  • Fast, and compresses all the excitement of an auction into one tense bidding decision, followed by a big reveal.
  • Sacrifices some of the informational value of other iterative bid systems. Players who assess correctly that they will not be the winners of an auction will often bid nothing, or perhaps a token amount, to deny other players knowledge of their true valuation.
  • Typically requires some tiebreaker
  • Often used for combat resolution
  • May require losers to pay their bids.
  • Sealed bids are also used when players can bid any amount they want.
  • Sealed bid auctions can feel more like bluffing games than auction games.

• Sealed Bid with Cancellation -similar to a sealed bid, but tied bids cancel each other out and are treated as the lowest bids.

  • Cancellation acts as the auctioneer — one that refuses to acknowledge tied bids.
  • Works best when coupled with constrained bids that increase the chances of ties.
  • The bidding game begins to resemble a bluffing or betting game more than a regular auction, as players know that bidding big can’t guarantee their victory.
  • This is a mechanism that can feel “gamey,” or anti-thematic. Bidders can find it quite punishing while also feeling random.
  • Works best in lighter games with more chaos.

• Constrained Bidding - Players may not bid any number that they wish. They may only bid based on increments and/or combinations of certain resources.

  • Remedies two drawbacks to auctions: they can be lengthy, and it is difficult for players to make small distinctions in the value of the lots up for bid.
  • Reduces the uncertainty of auction outcomes.
  • Some games will have bidding tokens be hidden information to retain some of the tension in the auction.
  • The need to raise a bid by a specific amount or to bid only the amounts on the bidding tokens you hold does not typically have any thematic justification.
  • Introduces a challenge in redistributing the used bidding tokens. There is no such thing as change.
  • The tokens can, in fact, be (multi-use) cards which can be used in a bid.

• Once-Around Auction - The players each have one opportunity to bid, either passing or raising the prior bidder. The order of bids is determined by one of the Turn Order structures. After the last player has the opportunity to bid, the high bidder wins.

  • Speeds up the auction at the cost of introducing turn order advantage. The first player is disadvantaged and easy to outbid. The last player has perfect information.
  • Turn order can itself be priced in such a manner that the advantage provided by going last in the auction is accounted for.
  • Alternatively, use constrained bids that require bidders to raise the current winning bid by a substantial increment.
  • They should be used when tight coupling to turn order is desirable and turn order is central to the design.

• Dutch Auction - A simultaneous single-bid system in which the lot starts at a very high price and then is gradually decreased by the auctioneer or other controlling mechanism until someone agrees to claim the item at its current price, ending the auction.

  • The first bidder to accept the current price is the winner, such that there are no ties.
  • Maximizes the price at which a good is sold and incentivizes buyers to act quickly since once a bid is made, there is no opportunity to counter the bid
  • All bidders must receive information of the offer price dropping simultaneously and must be able to respond immediately
  • Can be implemented as a Market Row where the auction is spread over multiple turns and represented with a river of cards. Each position in the row is tied to a price, and players may purchase a card from any position.
    • This introduces a strategy of buying cheaper cards to drive down the price of a card.

• Second Bid Auction - The amount paid by the Highest Bidder is equal to the second highest bid.

  • Aims to make auctions fast and fair for buyers and seller. Price auction is not an offer to pay an amount but to pay anything up to that amount.
  • The dominant strategy in a Second-Price auction is to bid your true value for the lot.
  • The efficiency of second bid auctions make them less interesting for gameplay.
  • It is also difficult to understand the game theoretical aspect.
  • Really good for situations where a large lot of identical goods needs to be allocated.

• Selection Order Bid - Players are not directly bidding on the lots themselves but the order in which they’ll draft the lots

  • As the bid increases, players may pass and accept a later place in the order
  • The last player to remain in the auction receives the most valuable card but must also pay their full bid.
  • Selection Order Bid is a type of constrained bidding system or even a sort of ante
  • In certain games, this type of auction also forces players to estimate the value of lots to other players.

• Multiple Lot Auction - An auction in which players simultaneously bid on Multiple Lots in parallel, instead of bidding for one lot at a time, serially.

  • They compress the time it takes to allocate lots among the players.
  • Players manage two different axes of decision-making at the same time: which lots to bid on and how to divide the money between those lots.
  • Can be viewed as an Area Majority game since the highest bidder is not necessarily the only one who gets the lot.

• Closed Economy Auction - all the money spent in the auction is paid out to the auction participants themselves. The total amount of money in the system never changes.

  • True Closed Economies create a zero-sum game where each player’s loss is one or more players’ gain

• Reverse Auction - Players bid to avoid taking the lot up for bid because it has some negative effects.

  • All players, except the claimant of the lot, pay their bids. Sometimes, the lot claimant will receive those payments.
  • Reverse Auction is usually implemented within some more complex auction environment.

• Dexterity Auction - requires the performance of some act of dexterity to submit a valid bid.

  • Because it requires dexterity, the game can be polarizing especially when players expect strategy.

• Fixed Placement Auction - modifies a multiple-lot auction by creating rules about which lots players may bid on and representing bids visually on a board or cards.

  • Often combined with constrained-value bids.
  • Ends when every player passes and/or no player has the right too bid further.
  • Forces players to evaluate several lots at once.
  • Depending on bid timing rules, there may also be strategic elements to sequencing your bids or forcing an auction to close early.
  • It offers an opportunity to integrate bidding with other game actions.

• Dutch Priority Auction - a multiple-lot auction in which prices for the lots are determined based on the number of bids placed on the lots up for bid.

  • The winning bidder is the first player, in bid priority, who chooses to pay the current price for a lot, equal to the number of bidding tokens there.
  • Players may typically pass on the purchase when they are the priority bidder by removing their bidding token.
  • The effect of this style of auction is to require players to declare the lots they’re interested in, somewhat separately from the price.

• Bids as Wagers - Players bid that they can achieve some outcome in the ensuing gameplay phase. Scoring is based on whether and how well players achieve their bids.

  • Games may vary in how they treat over-tricking or collecting more tricks than declared.
    • In some games, over-tricking is rewarded with bonus points.
    • In others, it is penalized, either immediately or after some threshold number of over-tricks are taken.
  • One reason to use bidding like this is to give players agency to respond to the random cards dealt with their hands

• Auction Compensation- Losing bidders in an auction receive a lesser award in place of the lot they bid on.

  • Accounts for imbalanced outcomes

Links §

• Tabletop Mechanics
• Auction Theory - more on the theory behind auctions