In which 4 or more players, flying fleets substantially smaller than the normal 100 point game, and conceivably as a Furball variant, each secretly have a different win-condition than their opponents.

There are two methods of distribution which I see, based on the following games: Assassins, and Bang.

The Assassins variant has each player's name on a card, and then the cards randomly assigned around the table.

If you pulled your own name, you can call a misdeal.

The moment the player on your card's fleet is eliminated from play, irrespective of who did the elimination, you win

This also means that if anyone but the person on your card is eliminated, you lose. As such, it is in your best interest to insure that your target and only your target is in danger of being eliminated, which crafts some interesting table dynamics. After all, someone else wants you dead as well...

In the "Bang" variant, there are a number of roles doled out.

Role 1: Sheriff. The Sheriff and Deputies win if the Renegade and Outlaws are eliminated, and the Sheriff is still in the game.

The Sheriff is revealed to the entire table, and has Initiative.

Role 2: Deputy. The same win-condition as the Sheriff, but remains hidden.

Role 3: Outlaw. The Outlaws win if the Sheriff is eliminated, but only if at least one of them is still in-game at the time.

Role 4: Renegade. The Renegade wins if the Outlaws are eliminated, and THEN the Sheriff is eliminated.

Since the Sheriff is the only one whose allegiance should be known by the rest of the table, this produces a lot of deceptive attacks, backbiting, and eventually backstabbing.

For four players, there should be one of each role.

For five, a second Outlaw is added

For six, a second Deputy is added

For seven, a third Outlaw

For eight, a second Renegade

We actually play an almost exact version of the bounty game you mention for our furball events at our local game store. In fact, the next one is being streamed on twitch.

What sort of point limits would work per-player? 50ish?

Also, restricting to named pilots only? Bang! is kinda character-driven like that.

We run 33 points and restrict it to small base ships only. The bounties change intermittently from the roll of an attack die. On a hit result, all the bounties are shuffled and redistributed. This causes some to break off attacks from others or ignore better shots to go after their bounty, sometimes. If you destroy someone who is not your bounty, you get a point and choose where that ship will redeploy. Winner is the pilot who destroys his bounty or whoever reaches the point cap first. Works great for 4-12 players (we mostly run with about 8 players at a time).

We run 33 points and restrict it to small base ships only. The bounties change intermittently from the roll of an attack die. On a hit result, all the bounties are shuffled and redistributed. This causes some to break off attacks from others or ignore better shots to go after their bounty, sometimes. If you destroy someone who is not your bounty, you get a point and choose where that ship will redeploy. Winner is the pilot who destroys his bounty or whoever reaches the point cap first. Works great for 4-12 players (we mostly run with about 8 players at a time).

This sounds great! I knew that people play 33 point furballs, but this is the first time I've heard of adding a bounty rule. I've been hesitant to try furballs with my group because of player elimination, but it looks like this solves that problem. What point cap do you usually play to, and what size board do you play on with so many players?

For 8 person games (our most frequent number of players) we play til either a bounty is shot down by the bounty hunter or four points are scored as a result of normal dogfighting. As each bounty is only known by the bounty hunter, you begin to see very interesting maneuvering done to avoid arcs while still attempting to catch your bounty. We normally use a 3x3 surface but in larger games we have talked about using a 6x3. The length of the game varies as many times it takes a while to track and kill a bounty especially since the random changing of bounties occurs. Our furball/bounty event usually occurs the week before our final week in our league and allows a chance for pilots who are behind in league points to catch up. It is the most popular event we run at our store as part of our league and usually those playing will have spectators who cheer them on. It is an exciting alternative to break up 100 pt death matches.

I'm the only person in my group who collects X-Wing, and we usually have too many people at game nights to get the game out, so this is a good excuse to play more and introduce more people to the game. How do you decide initiative in furballs? Just roll for tie breaks each round? And do you reset upgrades when players respawn? For example, do missiles and torpedoes respawn with the ship?

EDIT: Oh, and is it reasonable to let players fly two Z-95s or two TIE Fighters if they choose those ships since they're so low in points? I figure you would have to kill both ships to count it as a kill (similar to Ice Climbers in Smash Bros)

We restrict it to one small based ship per player. Upgrades which were discarded are replenished during the respawn, to include missiles, torpedoes, stealth devices, etc. Critical effects do not carry over from the previously destroyed ship and the damage cards dealt are returned to the discarded damage pile. Initiative is decided 1st: by pilot skill, 2nd: in the event of a tie in pilot skill there is a dice roll off (3 red dice, most focus eyes wins/chooses).

I think we should compile a google doc of custom formats and make it public for the community to utilize!

I really like this idea. In MtG Commander/EDH we would have the same exact formatting where you draw names and try to slay that player, but you can also throw off other players by denying their bounties or confusing them by helping another player only to stab that player in the back (because they were your bounty).

Incorporating this idea into X-Wing would be one helluva mind game. I also think multiplayer formats need to be played more so that we can get more players on the table at once. Being that the Bang variant can have as many as 8 players would be great for an epic map-sized game.