OK, that's enough to justify building the work! If you haven't already signed up feel free to do so. I want to take a moment to discribe how I plan to create each players skill card:
First a few background facts:
- Each player has a column (or set of columns) for each of the 10 events with possible rolls ranging from 10 - 39.
- There is a 1 in 6 chance of rolling in the 10s, 2 in 6 of rolling in the 20s and 3 in 6 of rolling in the 30s
- The field events (minus pole vault and high jump) are divided into 3 columns, safe, average and aggressive - players annouce which column they will use prior to their attempt
- The cards are based on templates where injuries are preset, as are some "NG" (no good) attempts.
Now My Plans:
- I have created a 5 skill types that players will attach a point value to: Speed, Power, Endurance, Athletic Ability and Technique.
- Each player will have 375 points to assign to the 5 skills (not to exceed 100 points in any 1 skill)
- Each event is divided into the percent of the above skills needed to be successful.
- The players ratings in each skill will be combined with a table for each event to determine the players event score
- The event score will check against a table to determine if the player is an A, B or C level performer in the event.
- The player will then have his card populated with “weighted random” results based on their level. (I know that sounds cryptic - but I'll explain below)
Populating Player Cards:
In an effort to populate the player cards:
- I divide the existing players into A, B, and C level performers for each event (5 athletes in each group)
- I then put all 216 possible outcomes (3 dice) for all athletes into a column for each event - divided by level - call it the total outcome table.
- Then I'll generate a random number that will reference the total outcome table - for every possible non-template (minus injuries, auto fouls, NG) result in the player card.
Because we are using the existing cards divided up by ability in the event I've created a weighted probability that if you're skills say you are good in an event, your results should be good, but because the cards will be populated by random checks against the total outcome table we can have significantly different cards between players in the same level. If you are an A level performer, but your random check against the table only references the bad outcomes of the 5 decathletes used to create that table your card will not be any better or as good as a B level player, but the odds of that happening are lower because the table being used to generate the card has fewer bad outcomes - Hince the "weighted randomness".
I know all that sounds confusing so I'll try to explain it quickly and in plain English. To make sure I'm referencing results accurately - I'm using the existing player cards, but I want to make sure the results are weighted correctly so I'm referencing all possible dice rolls rather than just the 30 on the cards. I'm splitting the existing players into 3 levels to create different weighted results (a, b, & c), and I'm allowing the FOFCers to "Pick their Poison" by assigning points to the different skills, which will determine which level they fall into.
OK maybe that wasn't so short and quick. Maybe I should shut up now before I confuse people so much they start begging out.
If you have any questions or suggestions, or if you'd like me to confuse you more with excessively verbose explanations, just pipe up.