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Joe Joyce wrote:

I find it fascinating that people feel they will play more games they like, and fewer they don't, in a standard-format chessvariants tournament.

One of the main differences between my proposed selection method and yours is that mine is actually designed to maximize the number of variants each participant will like, and yours is not. And it does this by giving all participants a say on all games played, whereas your method gives each participant a say on only one game. What I have done in the past and propose doing again follows a maximin strategy, which tries to maximize the minimum satisfaction felt for any game in the tournament. It is along the same lines as John Rawls' Theory of Justice. This selection strategy is designed to minimize the dissatisfaction the participants have with the selection of games, thereby allowing the selection of games to appeal to a larger number of participants. The selection method you and Carlos have proposed is designed to maximize satisfaction in only one selection, leaving it up to chance whether you will like any of the rest. You might be the sort of person who will like most any variant, in which case your selection method will work for you. But even if it works for you, I don't think it will have broad appeal.

My thinking on potlucks is that they will have more appeal when they are themed, as the potluck tournament I ran was. This allows those with an interest in the same kind of games to each pick one they like, and it gives a greater guarantee that other games will be similar in appeal to yours. Chieftain Chess might be suitable in a potluck whose theme is huge, complicated variants.