Multiplayer Madness

You and several of your friends sit down to play a big game of "chaos" multiplayer Magic fresh and full of enthusiasm. Three hours later, nobody is willing to do anything offensive, except for the guy who attacked early on - and he was ganged-up on and killed two-and-half hours ago. Now it's down to whoever played the least card-drawing and is decked last. Or maybe you got mana-screwed with only one land. For the first seven turns, your opponents took pity on you. Eventually, when you still had no land, they decided to put you out of your misery. Now, you've got to sit around for two hours - relegated to watching reruns of NBC's Saturday night "Thrillogy" - while your friends have fun.

Sound like your multiplayer games? If you've ever tried playing a large game with five or more players, you've probably run into these problems, and quite a few other ones as well. Fortunately, there are ways you can improve your multiplayer experience. Here are some of the common problems players encounter and a few solutions:



On The Lookout For Land
One of the biggest problems often confronted is a bad land draw. While mulligan rules help, you can still get nailed if you have only two or three lands for a long time, making you a prime target for other players. A good way to solve this problem is adding the mechanic of two seperate decks. One deck contains only basic lands and can be no less than 20 cards. The second deck contains everything else and can be no less than 40 cards. Whenever a players draws a card - opening hand included - he can draw from either deck.
To prevent abuse, whenever a spell or effect causes a player to do something to his library, use the following rules: If the player who creates the effect is targeting his own library, a random opponent chooses which library is affected. If you are targeting another player with such an effect, you may choose which library it affects. The exceptions are spells and effects which allow you to search your library for a card. In such cases, the caster chooses which library to search.
Another option to try is this: Each player starts with as many basic lands as he wants, and these lands are in play. However, each player also gets one less card in the opening hand for each land with which he begins play. For example, if you choose to start with five lands, your starting hand contains only two cards (think Manabond.) While this variant may allow for certain decks to have too much of a speed boost, the large number of players should keep degenerate decks in check.
Getting too much mana, of course, can be a problem as well. To prevent getting screwed by land clumps, use this optional rule: During his main phase, a player can choose and discard two lands from his hand to draw a card.

Time's A-wasted
A typical multiplayer game takes a long time to play. Not only is a player hesitant to attack, one can take a ridiculous amount of time during one's turn. It's understandable that players want to be especially careful, but if you want to finish the game in a reasonable amount of time, it's not practical to let turns drag out this way.
One way to solve this problem is a stopwatch; give each player a set amount of time - two minutes should be good - to finish the turn. If he can't finish in time, it's as if someone played Time Stop - his turn immediately ends. Furthermore, they lose one life for delay of game. Players may stop the watch during their attack phase when blockers and fast effects are being determined. If a player is unable to finish his turn in time because another player is taking too long to decide how to react to a spell or effect, the player responsible for the delay loses the life.

Mass Destruction
Nobody likes fighting a difficult, grinding battle only to lose because the player who has the most life casts a 15-point Hurricane, and the blue mage happens to be tapped out. Similarly, spells like Armageddon and Jokulhaups can seriously disrupt the flow of the game. If you don't like having these kinds of effects always hampering your multiplayer games, try the following rule: Whenever a spell is played which affects two or more players (or their cards,) anyone at the table can call a "parliament." Play stops with the spell on the stack, and players have one minute to decide if they are willing to pay life to counter the spell. To counter it, the players must lose a combined life total equal to twice the number of players in the game.
For example, in a five-player game, a spell like Jokulhaups can be countered if the remaining four players can agree to spend a total of 10 life between them. (It's unlikely the fella casting the 'haups will be interesting in paying life to counter it.) The life loss can be divided in any way upon which the players agree; one player can even take it on the chin and lose the whole 10. If the players cannot come to an agreement within one minute, the spell resolves, and the player who called parliament - you guessed it - loses one life for delaying the game.
Alternately, it could be ruled that the Unglued card Checks and Balances is in effect at all time, is owned by no one, and cannot be target or removed in any way. Think planes from Planechase. Same general idea but more self-evident.

Attacking
Although diplomacy can be fun, too much of it can make a big Magic game drag. Sometimes players are afraid to attack, for fear of retribution. Other times, several players will gang up on one player. Whatever the reason, the game is still usually no fun for the player being overwhelmed. To give the game some structure, try controlled attacks.
At the beginning of the game, everyone writes his name on a basic land (or whatever) and puts it in a hat. Also include a land with the word "pacifist" on it. Each player draws a card at the beginning of his turn. The name he draws is the only player he may attack, whether it be with creatures or hostile spells/effects. If you draw your own name, you may freely attack as you choose. Finally, the "pacifist" card means you may not attack anyone.
Each player holds his card until all of the cards have been drawn. On the turn after the last card is drawn, all players return their cards to the hat and the cycle starts over, with a new person drawing first. There is one exception to the rule regarding hostile spells or abilities: Unless you are the "pacifist," you may always target creatures attacking you.
Beginning with the fourth turn, if a player doesn't attack his chosen opponent, he loses two life. If you draw your own name or the "pacifist" you do not take damage for not attacking. Also, you do not lose life if you do not have any creatures in play capable of attacking - regardless of what's in your hand.

Minions & Masters
This multiplayer variant lets players who are about to die keep on playing... at a price. Whenever a player is about to take lethal damage, he can choose to declare himself a "Minion" of the player damaging him ("The Master.") The lethal damage is immediately prevented, and the Minion and Master are not allowed to attack each other. A Minion can have only one Master, but a Master can have any number of Minions.
A player remains a Minion until someone at the table dies and is out of the game; each Minion can then either declare himself free of the Master's foul yoke or decide to remain a Minion. If he does betray his Master, he can't go back to him later in the game. If, at some point, one player is a Master and all the other players are Minions, the Master wins.

By mixing and matching these optional rules, you can keep your multiplayer games fresh and, hopefully, be able to finish games quickly enough that you can (and will want to) play again. Of course, you still may want to have the ultimate solution for an early death ready just in case - a Sega Dreamcast with Jet Set Radio. With this ridiculously addictive game nearby, players may be fighting to be the first one knocked out.