Avengers: Endgame Fantasy Draft is a fan-made game designed to make this momentous MCU event even more fun by giving you a personal team of heroes to root for throughout the film.
Scoring is simple. You won’t need to tabulate how many evil minions are smited by Captain Marvel’s cat. Instead, scoring categories are limited to the major fan questions going into the film, so you’ll walk out the theater having a pretty good idea who won without needing to take notes. If anything, you may need to stop for a drink after the movie to hash it out using the scorecard.
How to play
Assemble a group of friends (I’d suggest at least 4, but wouldn’t do more than 10) and decide the order in which you’ll draft. You could roll virtual dice or just go by whoever’s birthday is next. Don’t worry if you wind up drafting at the end of the first round. Sometimes that’s the best slot.
Determine a time to hold your draft. In person is more fun, but Skype, IM, or email should work fine. You should also determine your S.H.I.E.L.D. director, the person in charge of the league. Being the director doesn’t disqualify you from playing, though you should pick the person who can make impartial decisions when needed.
When draft time comes, use a snake-style format, meaning you draft in reverse order every other round. If you have the first pick in a four-person league, you’ll have the last pick in the second round, then the first pick again in the third round, etc. Use the draft board to fill out which player picks which character.
The draft consists of five rounds. When it’s your turn, draft a character based on your predictions of how they will perform in the movie. The scoring is set up so that you’re rooting for the success and survival of everybody on your team. So if you think Steve Rogers is gonna meet Peggy Carter on that big dance floor in the sky, you should consider drafting Tony Stark instead.
The first four rounds are reserved for drafting characters that have already appeared in the MCU. However, the fifth round is for characters we have not yet seen in the MCU. This means that the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Deadpool, and other characters that have had recent movies not in the MCU are eligible. Your league can customize the rules of this round (or leave it out altogether) as you like.
For instance, I consider Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones as eligible for this round as they have appeared only in the Netflix shows, but you may decide to leave them out (let’s face it, it’s highly unlikely that they’re gonna pop up anyway).
Be as specific as possible when drafting characters in case anybody switches personas. Instead of drafting “Captain America,” a player should draft “Captain America – Steve Rogers” to avoid confusion if Sam Wilson or Bucky Barnes assumes the Captain America persona halfway through the movie (more on this in the Scoring section).
At the end of the draft, each player should have five characters on their roster—four who have already appeared in the MCU and one who has not. This is your Avengers: Endgame fantasy draft team. Players may trade characters with each other as long as—at the end of the trade—every team involved still has four characters.
Scoring
Once your draft board is filled out, you’re ready for the movie. After you see Avengers: Endgame, use the scorecard to add points based on what happens.
Keep in mind that you’re drafting the person, not the superhero persona. If Bucky Barnes or Sam Wilson becomes the new Captain America halfway through the movie, the player who has drafted those characters will continue to score points with them despite the change in superhero persona.
However, the player who drafted “Captain America – Steve Rogers” will not gain points scored by the “new” Captain America moving forward (though points previously scored by Steve Rogers remain valid).
The team with the most cumulative points wins.
Tips and notes
· Look over the scoring categories and keep in mind that characters get negative points if they lose/surrender their superhero persona or die.
· Don’t be afraid to draft villains. Killing another major character is worth two points per character killed. If Thanos decides to resurrect the 50% of the universe on his own and kills Tony Stark and Thor, you’ll get huge points from him.
· A partial view of a new character counts as an on-screen appearance. If during the end credits, we see a hand with three adamantium claws but no other part of the actor’s body, that counts as an appearance of Wolverine. Your S.H.I.E.L.D. director should settle any discrepancies in this category (including possibly putting the question to a league vote).
· Any points scored by sentient or AI entities that are solely tied to a single major character are awarded to the player who drafted that character. If Doctor Strange is on your team, you also receive any points scored by his cape. Examples would also include Tony Stark’s unmanned Iron Man suits and Captain Marvel’s cat, Goose.
· Finally, this game is designed on the honor system. There are spoilers everywhere and, while I doubt many of them are valid, you should decide as a league whether players are allowed to read online predictions about the movie.
Have fun, enjoy the movie, and let me know how game works for you and your friends.