Random event insurance?

[zposse]

The definition of insurance is the payment of a small premium to guard against rare but potentially devastating losses.  And what could be more devastating than, say, the loss of a plot?

What if the town had an insurance store where, for a fee, you could be protected against a negative random event before your following turn?  This could possibly be expanded to include protection against post-production events such as pirates, pests, or mules going crazy (maybe have pre-development protection be "basic insurance" and pre-development/post-production protection be "comprehensive insurance"). 

There are plenty of other ways the game hurts the lead players (lose out on auctions, plot grabs, etc.).  Furthermore, there is a chance that the player will pay out more in insurance premiums than he will ever receive in benefits over the course of the game, which is fine because you are essentially buying peace of mind.

[vaylen]

My preferred insurance policy is to "draft" behind other players until the late turns.

[Intergalactic Mole]

It's not a bad idea, but the price for protection would have to be quite hefty, or everyone would purchase it, making the existence of events pointless in and of itself. )

[CXZman]

Make it as expensive as in real life and pay it every turn. So it would not be a privilege to those who are already leading the game, but a bet on how worse this could get.

Of course, leading players would choose that, because the game is already trying to stab them with bad events. But let's say it cost you 200-300$ each turn or so... would you take the risk to pay it ? would you take the risk NOT to pay it ?

That said, I wonder if an "insurance store" would be the best. That auction system makes MULE really stands out of other strategy games. I'd recommend that there was a global event at early rounds that declares one insurance available. When that event occurs, every players start an auction to fix the fee to pay each round. The auction winner has to pay it but is the only one to be protected against bad events.

Important though : we need a way to stop that insurance or sell it. What if there be a insurance auction each turn where the player who pays his auction could try and sell it (or just goes into BUY position to skip that phase) ? Base price would be round fee + 1$ and it would be impossible to sell to the colony.

Would it make sense that way ?

[Karawane]

A general insurance would add a new dimension to the gameplay. I wouldn't like it too abstract, though. Remember that those four guys on Irata are pioneers. They need to get along predominantly with themselves. So, an insurance should be based only on capital raised on Irata. This could again fire up interaction between players - actually the most fun part of M.U.L.E. However, I still find it challenging to think of a fair and balanced mechanism to implement this.