Setting Contest 2: Gridiron Gods
The mask game may still need to brew for a while. In the meantime, I may be adapting Agon (John Harper's game of tragic Greek heroes) to handle American football. I kinda want to call the game Pigskin Requiem but I think Gridiron Gods wins by a field goal.
Today, I've been reading some Wikipedia articles about fantasy football to see how the proles do it. Fascinating. I can't wait to get started.
Initial ideas:
- Each player represents an entire football team.
- You can run this GMless and take turns playing each other.
- You "buy" players to fill certain positions.
- Each position is a Skill, like Offensive Line 1d8.
- You have a limited budget with which to buy quality players.
- Positions get tired or impaired just like Skills.
- You can call a timeout or substitute players to Refresh positions.
- During timeouts and halftime, players give rousing speeches.
- A session is a football game, but includes flashbacks.
- Each player has some flags that they can throw to call penalties.
- You can spend Glory or Fate for more flags or other effects.
- Glory can get a play "reviewed" or a flag picked up.
- You can call on Fate, but it results in injuries and retirements.
- You win Glory more or less as normal, on individual plays.
- There's a 10-section Range Grid with a marker for the ball.
- You get 4 Downs to get a touchdown or fieldgoal.
- This simulates the key plays of the drive.
- You roll dice for each down based on the play you're running.
- Success determines which side rolls for Movement.
- Offensive success advances the ball marker down the field.
- Defensive success results in no advance or a sack.
- I'm unsure how to deal with turnovers right now, since you can get them at the spot of the play, far down the field, or in the backfield, and sometimes you get a Movement roll right after a turnover (so you can advance down the field or return it for a touchdown even).
Bonus: I want you to be able to throw a long pass down the field, get beat by the defense, and then toss one of your flags down on the table for "pass interference." That would be hot.
Today, I've been reading some Wikipedia articles about fantasy football to see how the proles do it. Fascinating. I can't wait to get started.
Initial ideas:
- Each player represents an entire football team.
- You can run this GMless and take turns playing each other.
- You "buy" players to fill certain positions.
- Each position is a Skill, like Offensive Line 1d8.
- You have a limited budget with which to buy quality players.
- Positions get tired or impaired just like Skills.
- You can call a timeout or substitute players to Refresh positions.
- During timeouts and halftime, players give rousing speeches.
- A session is a football game, but includes flashbacks.
- Each player has some flags that they can throw to call penalties.
- You can spend Glory or Fate for more flags or other effects.
- Glory can get a play "reviewed" or a flag picked up.
- You can call on Fate, but it results in injuries and retirements.
- You win Glory more or less as normal, on individual plays.
- There's a 10-section Range Grid with a marker for the ball.
- You get 4 Downs to get a touchdown or fieldgoal.
- This simulates the key plays of the drive.
- You roll dice for each down based on the play you're running.
- Success determines which side rolls for Movement.
- Offensive success advances the ball marker down the field.
- Defensive success results in no advance or a sack.
- I'm unsure how to deal with turnovers right now, since you can get them at the spot of the play, far down the field, or in the backfield, and sometimes you get a Movement roll right after a turnover (so you can advance down the field or return it for a touchdown even).
Bonus: I want you to be able to throw a long pass down the field, get beat by the defense, and then toss one of your flags down on the table for "pass interference." That would be hot.
posted by Jonathan Walton at 6:50 PM
2 Comments:
This is rocking my world.
Here's are some random thoughts:
- The opposition dice for passing increase as the throw gets longer. One range band: +1d6, two bands: +1d8, etc.
- You can have contests to gain Advantage Dice by trying to read the other team's play selection, flashbacks to watching film on the other team, and by inciting your home crowd to make lots of noise.
- Maybe scouting and recruiting can be handled by the current advancement rules.
- Downs can be multiple contests. One contest with the offensive and defensive lines battling for advantage. One contest for the play execution (handoff to the runner or set-up for the throw, and coverage against that). And a final contest for the result of the play (runner vs. backfield, yards gained after a catch, or missed pass, turnover, etc.). Maybe you do "damage" to each other during the down, in addition to (or related to) moving the ball or not.
John, yes. Also:
- As for multiple contests a Down, I was thinking that each Offensive or Defensive formation would have certain things you rolled in each step. For example, on a running play straight up the middle...
1. First roll for the linemen, see if they can open a hole in the defense. If so...
2a. Roll running back vs. secondary, to see how many yards are gained before you're tackled.
2b. If there's no hole, maybe you wanna try to roll for a lateral pass. Or claim that it was a fake handoff and now you're gonna throw. Or do one of several other things.
3b. If the Offense makes the roll to throw down the middle, maybe the Defense wants to roll for their linemen again, trying to tip the ball and earn an incomplete pass.
Etc.
- Each success by the defense makes future Offensive rolls in the same play harder. Like maybe there's an escalating Name die on each side that gets bigger with every success on a play, so if things start going your way you break the game wide open.
- I think there's a marker on the sidelines for where the ball starts in a play, but also a marker for where the ball is currently, so you can actually pass the marker way down the field and roll to see if it's caught or intercepted.
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