Recently three of us started a very small Call of Cthulhu league. We're all excited about the structure and looking forward to exploring two factions for the next several weeks. But we have a small problem that may become a big one if we don't find a way to address it: our experience levels and the sizes of our collections are wildly different.

On one end we have a person who has played the Call of Cthulhu Card games since the very first days of the CCG. He has hundreds of games of experience and at least three copies of every card that has ever been published. Although I'm not a best judge, I would call him an elite player.

On the other end we have a brand new player. he has one copy of the core set and two CCG demo decks. He's played half a dozen games and is still learning the basic rules.

Me? I'm in the middle. I've played every week for about a year. I own about 1/3 of the available cards and, although I'm still occasionally surprised by cards that I haven't seen before, I have a decent grasp of the basic rules and the cards that I own.

So far our results have been predictable. Experience and flexibility beat inexperience and limited card selection every time. This is barely an exaggeration. In fifty-some games against our elite player, I've won exactly three times. Our new player hasn't come close to beating either of us. I think this weekend was the first time he's ever taken a story card.

Despite my lack of success against my usual opponent, I really like this game. But with a rule set that's so packed with opportunities for denial, it's easy to feel helpless when you're up against a much better player. There are times when I get very frustrated and I can already see signs of frustration in our new player. I want this league to succeed, but it won't if we already know the result of every game.

So I'm looking for a way to handicap our league. My best guess is a slow-grow format, where each player is limited to the core set and maybe one expansion. Then we add more expansions every few games. This would make up for the differences between our collections with a minimum of awkward gimmicks. Does this sound like a workable idea? If you've done something similar, do you have suggestions for improving it? Or can you suggest a different system balancing a league so it's challenging and rewarding for everyone?

Sign Ahead said:

Yes, that sounds like it could work. Limiting the card pool will make it easier on the new guy while at least keeping the more experienced player in check.

We have a similar situation in our small League group as well. One of my friends, who started the Leauge has every cycle in the LCG and three core sets and he's experienced at deck building. I, at the time I met him, had only played the game for a month and only had one core set and some cards from the Yuggoth Contract Cycle and he had two friends who never played the game.

We seemed to alleviate most of the trouble by using decks my friend had constructed against each other. For my friend, this was good since it gave him a chance to test multiple decks at once and it was good for us since we didn't need to worry about our own limited card pool.

Of course now I have three core sets and nearly all the LCG AP (waiting for dreamlands to reprint in the new 60 card format) now and I've been getting a bit better at deck construction, so I no longer need to use my friends deck. The others still need to get their own, but there's no rush.

That could even things a bit if you or this elite player made multiple decks and were willing to let your friend use it, provided he give the deck back after the league.

I don't know if you've looked at the Cuthlhu LCG Support Page, but perhaps these League rules might make things more balanced for all three of you,

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/coc/support/adventure-league-rules.pdf

Something else you could do as a handicap might be to make the experienced player win extra successes to take a story. For instance, the beginner only need 5, but the "pro" needs 7. You'd have to try it out and tweak it but something like this might work.

Or maybe start the beginner player with one or two extra resources in their domains?

About the cards... are the guys who have all the cards willing to lend them out? Maybe they can let someone borrow cards from the factions they're not currently playing to help even out the card pool advantage.

Sign Ahead said:

Another suggestion: Start by playing Highlander (i.e. only a single copy of every card is allowed). In Highlander games you have a better chance to get lucky.

You could also play using a draft variant using the cards of one player.

jhaelen said:

It is:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/coc/support/adventure-league-rules.pdf

What happens at our place is the more experienced players use sub-optimal decks. they try to develop themes, or play cards that aren't very good, or play highlander decks... Basically handicap themselves through creative card choices to the make the play experience more fun for the group.

An experienced player may not want to butcher his favorite decks to play down to a beginner. Who wants to play highlander anyway as a standard format? I like the professor's idea that experienced players use the format as a testing grounds. Still, I don't like limiting someone in their deckbuilding, nor in their choice of deck, even if it's brutal. They may need to test it to perfection. They may have invented something brilliant. They may be squashin the new guy as tough love. Professor may remember, my only tourney, I got whooped some, but came out well. I'm a better cultist for it.

So, how to make a fair and balanced weekly game system. I like the handicapping that leaves a dude's cards alone, like dboeren suggests. Start the newb with more domains or more tokens. Remember beating pop in chess without his queen. Then the day comes when he says, "I'm playing the queen today." Horrors! Training wheels are now off. You just need to keep the gang happy, as disagreement ensues in uneven environments. Top dog needs to get beat. That could be a contentious day even if he is mr. magnanimous, The sentiment: "well, if I'd been..."