House Rules and OldFatGuy's "Card" System for Baseball Mogul

One of the problems with Baseball Mogul is that the AI for each team acts the same. (In OOTP, each team has a priority that determines the goal of the team, giving each team different priorities.)

Since each BM team acts the same, all other things being equal, cash dominates and big-market teams build unbreakable dynasties. However, players have several advantages over the AI. First, players tend to be smarter, and most players can take the worst of teams and manage them to 1936-39 Yankees status within one or two game years. Second, players get first pick when it comes to signing free agents, and the players do not artificially tender several offers at once. They only sign you. (The second advantage might be the cause of the first.)

In one of the Baseball Mogul threads -- "A New Era is Born" -- rockiesfan4ever relates some "house rules" to make your Baseball Dynasty more interesting, particularly as it comes to the signing of free agents.

Here's what I do. I find I have to give rules for myself to keep it challenging too. My first rule is total number of FA I can sign. I base this on last seasons finish and it equals the number of places behind first I finish in the standings. So, if I finish 1st, I can sign 0, 2nd means I can sign 1, third means 2, etc. My second rule is I can only sign 2 (assuming I can sign at least 2 from rule 1) per day. Seems reasonable, most of the top ones are gone the first day. My third rule limits who I can negotiate with. It is a little complicated, but here goes.

I look at the player I wish to sign. I use a deck of cards which has 4 suits (and two jokers), and shuffle them and draw a card and that card tells me whether this player will negotiate with me or not. If I draw a joker it always means the player will not negotiate, so I fail to sign him. If I draw a spade it always means the player will negotiate. The other 3 suits are determined like this:
If I draw a HEART: This player will negotiate with me only if his ambition is less than or equal to 0 (meaning he's not concerned about team success) OR if his ambiition is positive than I must have finished no worse than second in my division. Otherwise, his ambition prevents him from negotiating with my team.
If I draw a DIAMOND: This player will only negotiate with me if his greed is positive.
If I draw a CLUB: This player will only negotiate with me if his personality "fit" with my team is above C. I.E., C+ or better.

Finally, when I get to negotiate with a player, I draw another card. If I draw a joker here, it means he changed his mind and won't negotiate. The suits determine how offers I can submit. If its black (Club or Spade), then I can only make 2 offers. If he doesn't accept my second offer, I lost him. If the card is a DIAMOND, I can only make 1 offer. And if that card is a HEART, then I can make 3 offers.

Sorry for the length. But you asked for ideas. That's how I do it that adds some randomness and some sort of realism (basing it personality and such), and adds a challenge to the human player. That last card I draw determining number of offers just it makes it more challenging financially. If you can only make one offer, you better make one you're sure he's gonna like.

I think it's a great set of house rules -- one of the great things about a great set of house rules is that you wish you had thought of it yourself. Furthermore, it makes great use of the "personality" statistics of Baseball Mogul under the personality tab of a player profile. These stats don't figure into the game, but under the house rules, they have a use.

All in all, a great set of rules. If you have your own house rules, share them in the comments. I'll add my "Even the Braves" house rules -- which are very short -- in a future post.