Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - All-Time MLS Year 1 (1998)

Wolfpack · 08-08-2010, 10:07 PM

The gameplaying environment will be a tabletop sports game called "The Beautiful Game", which is a semi-quick-play game created by Lambourne Games (www.owzatgames.com) in the UK. In TBG, each team is given a number of cards in a game deck (typically a standard 52-card deck) to represent potential scoring chances. The number of cards a team gets in a deck depends on their scoring average plus the opposing team's scoring average (which can be more accurately detailed for home and away if those stats are available). Therefore, the better teams will have a higher percentage of cards in the deck.

The total cards in the deck is shuffled and using up the deck represents a half of play. As a half plays out, a die is rolled and game action occurs based on the roll. Many actions don't result in scoring chances, but some do. These chances are further sub-divided in to "full" and "half" chances, which as their name implies are higher- and lower-percentage chances of scoring based on a roll of 2d6. The chances themselves are small text descriptions written on up to 144 cards that give a description of game action and then a small chart to roll the 2d6 against to see if a goal is scored. Sometimes a red card or a penalty or a rebound chance will result with either new cards added to the man-advantaged-team's allotment of deck cards (if a red card) or a new scoring chance coming off special penalty or rebound charts. If a goal is scored, then a basic percentile roll is made against a team's list of goal scorers to find out who scored. Each team has goalies and penalty-takers listed, though they have no true bearing on gameplay other than as specific identifiers for game action (that is, they don't modify dice rolls that are made to determine if a goal is scored).

An interesting facet of this game engine is while you know the general structure of the deck (one team has seven cards, while the other has five, for example), the deck is played out face-down to you so you don't know what card is coming up off the deck when a game action occurs. What's more, if there is no game action or the game action doesn't result in a specific scoring chance, then you discard the card on top of the deck without actually knowing what the card is. In this way, you don't know who lost a chance at scoring when the more mundane parts of the game play out. The better teams do have more chances to score, but because they have more cards in the deck, they are reeled in a little because they'll also have greater odds of losing a card to a non-chance game action. The better teams do win and do score, but they will still suffer the occasional bout of bad luck that will result in upsets.

As noted, many game actions result in no scoring chance, but some of them may result in injuries or yellow cards. The team in trouble is not determined by the card deck, but a roll against a chart, so injuries and cards will tend to be evenly distributed over a match. The impact isn't felt by a team in match being played, but does affect them in future matches through reduced scoring averages (injuries) or outright loss cards to contribute to the match deck (discipline). In addition, a team receives a match card bonus for "good form" if they've won their previous match,but only if the other team lost or tied their previous match--two winners cancel each other out and no bonus is given if that happens. Each injury is checked before the next match to see if the unidentified player has recovered, while a match card is lost for each five discipline points handed out (reds are five points, yellows are one point). The five points then are subtracted from the team's total so they don't factor into match card losses in future matches.

Now that I've set the background up, it's time to lay out how this first season will play out.

08-08-2010, 10:07 PM	#2
Wolfpack Pro Rookie Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Raleigh, NC	The gameplaying environment will be a tabletop sports game called "The Beautiful Game", which is a semi-quick-play game created by Lambourne Games (www.owzatgames.com) in the UK. In TBG, each team is given a number of cards in a game deck (typically a standard 52-card deck) to represent potential scoring chances. The number of cards a team gets in a deck depends on their scoring average plus the opposing team's scoring average (which can be more accurately detailed for home and away if those stats are available). Therefore, the better teams will have a higher percentage of cards in the deck. The total cards in the deck is shuffled and using up the deck represents a half of play. As a half plays out, a die is rolled and game action occurs based on the roll. Many actions don't result in scoring chances, but some do. These chances are further sub-divided in to "full" and "half" chances, which as their name implies are higher- and lower-percentage chances of scoring based on a roll of 2d6. The chances themselves are small text descriptions written on up to 144 cards that give a description of game action and then a small chart to roll the 2d6 against to see if a goal is scored. Sometimes a red card or a penalty or a rebound chance will result with either new cards added to the man-advantaged-team's allotment of deck cards (if a red card) or a new scoring chance coming off special penalty or rebound charts. If a goal is scored, then a basic percentile roll is made against a team's list of goal scorers to find out who scored. Each team has goalies and penalty-takers listed, though they have no true bearing on gameplay other than as specific identifiers for game action (that is, they don't modify dice rolls that are made to determine if a goal is scored). An interesting facet of this game engine is while you know the general structure of the deck (one team has seven cards, while the other has five, for example), the deck is played out face-down to you so you don't know what card is coming up off the deck when a game action occurs. What's more, if there is no game action or the game action doesn't result in a specific scoring chance, then you discard the card on top of the deck without actually knowing what the card is. In this way, you don't know who lost a chance at scoring when the more mundane parts of the game play out. The better teams do have more chances to score, but because they have more cards in the deck, they are reeled in a little because they'll also have greater odds of losing a card to a non-chance game action. The better teams do win and do score, but they will still suffer the occasional bout of bad luck that will result in upsets. As noted, many game actions result in no scoring chance, but some of them may result in injuries or yellow cards. The team in trouble is not determined by the card deck, but a roll against a chart, so injuries and cards will tend to be evenly distributed over a match. The impact isn't felt by a team in match being played, but does affect them in future matches through reduced scoring averages (injuries) or outright loss cards to contribute to the match deck (discipline). In addition, a team receives a match card bonus for "good form" if they've won their previous match,but only if the other team lost or tied their previous match--two winners cancel each other out and no bonus is given if that happens. Each injury is checked before the next match to see if the unidentified player has recovered, while a match card is lost for each five discipline points handed out (reds are five points, yellows are one point). The five points then are subtracted from the team's total so they don't factor into match card losses in future matches. Now that I've set the background up, it's time to lay out how this first season will play out. Last edited by Wolfpack : 08-08-2010 at 10:44 PM.