Letter Auction

MM9: Letter Auction

We've had number auction, yes, but what about letter auction?

Gameplay

In each of five rounds (24 hours each), a distinct set of letters will be auctioned. The letters auctioned will be revealed one round in advance.

At the start of each round, players are given 30 Bidding Tokens (which are not kept between rounds). They can distribute as many of the Bidding Tokens over the auctioned letters as they wish. The player with the highest bid for a letter wins three copies of that letter, and the player with the second highest bid wins two copies, and the player with the third highest bid just wins one copy. The player with the lowest bid wins nothing.

If players tie, they get copies equal to the least placement they have tied for.

Winning players pay their bid and add the letter to their private inventory at the start of the next round. Only the winning players pay the bid. After the final round, players have one last chance to create words (24 hours to do so), and then the game finishes.

Every two unused Bidding Tokens are worth one point at the end of each round. They are then discarded.

Once received, letters last for two rounds before expiring.

During a round, players can make any number of words with any letters in their inventory (though letters cannot be used twice). Players cannot make the same word more than once in the same round.

Players will score points equal to the square of the number of letters in each word. If multiple players make the same word in the same round, none of them score any points for that.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/games/scrabble/word-finder is used to determine word validity.

Variations

Round 1: Theme

Round 2: Adjacency Discount

Players who bid on a letter will automatically add half their bid, rounded down, to adjacent letters without spending any Bidding Tokens. The added bid does not spread to adjacent letters.

Round 3: Range and Power

Players choose an contiguous set of letters on the 5x5 grid provided in #mm9-announcements. For each letter, the player with the smallest set of letters that selected that letter will claim one copy of that letter. (If there is a tie for lowest, nobody claims that letter).

Round 4: Letter Shift

Players can choose one letter during bidding to shift -- this will affect all players. If any player wins a shifted letter, that player would gain copies of the letter n places after the original letter instead of the original letter, where n is the number of Bidding Tokens they spent on it. (The alphabet loops around, so A is after Z.)

Round 5: 3D Printer

Players can spend 4 Bidding Tokens to create any letter they wish and add it to their inventory.

Clarification: Automated programs are explicitly banned for the duration of this MM.