Developing a Tabletop Football Tactics Game

[Krebstar]

Okay, nerds—I've had this idea for a long time and I'm going to start playing around with the actual game mechanics and I figured I'd check to see if anyone here would be moderately interested in something like this. Whether that would be eventually 'testing' the gameplay itself, or even helping create mechanics, rules etc.

For years I've imagined a tabletop football game that's on a d20 system (and perhaps other dice) where players take turns in different phases of a match moving players in either attack or defensive phases. Formations matter, focus on attacking vs defensive matters, and also how you attack and defend. Do you press, do you hit it long, etc.

Players individual skill would also matter, which makes it tricky as each human player would have 11 different players on the board, but who knows, maybe it's grand strategy or something.

I'm imagining the board being something such as this:





There would be rules regarding how many of your players you could have in each 'zone' at once, as well as how far/fast players can move (each 'square' on the current board as of now essentially represents 10 meters).

So, anyone remotely interested in giving thoughts and feedback on something like this as I make incredibly slow progress?

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Developing a Tabletop Football Tactics Game

Interesting but hard to pull off vs strat-o-matic since a game of baseball is essentially a list of individual events.

[Krebstar]

Re: Developing a Tabletop Football Tactics Game

Interesting but hard to pull off vs strat-o-matic since a game of baseball is essentially a list of individual events.

Yeah, I think it will be incredibly tricky to have it remotely balanced, or be a quick enough play that anyone other than me would want to. My current plan is there would be a certain amount of 'phases' and in each of those a team in possession could take up a a certain amount of actions. Pass to the wing, send in a cross, etc. But dice rolls would determine the success of those things, as well as if the defending side tried to contest that pass, or even had a defender in a zone to do so.

But 'random' events could also occur based on a 'chaos roll' of sorts (like a wild pitch in Strat baseball) that would mean possession is turned over in midfield, a counter occurs, etc.

My first plan to even remotely see if it can work is to just figure out the rules and order of two equal teams, same formation—no special player abilities, etc. So, two sides playing 4-4-2 but the variables come into play in terms of where players push up, drop back, etc.

Which then creates more complexity as when does that occur? Start of each new phase? When can someone say I want to push my fullbacks forward?!

Lots to figure out, and if I ever do figure it out, it'll likely be rather complex and convoluted. If someone asked me right now how long would a game take, my gut says to play a single game it could be an hour, for example, as the idea is lots of strategic moves, a constant push and pull, etc. Would be different than roll dice, there's a shot, it's a goal or it's not, repeat.

[Cod]

Re: Developing a Tabletop Football Tactics Game

Is your goal (hah, see what I did there?) to make a more in-depth version of Dice United? I've played DU a handful of times and enjoyed it each time; however, it is definitely more high-level than what you're describing. But you can definitely use the game as inspiration to build upon.

[Brahvocado]

Re: Developing a Tabletop Football Tactics Game

I would not be able to offer any helpful input but I’m here to be part of the emotional support crew.

[Krebstar]

Re: Developing a Tabletop Football Tactics Game

I'm still working on this, by the way! Starting to figure out rules for passing, player movement, etc.

I already have entire teams built with players of varying abilities, tactical setups for different teams, etc. The idea is players would select a team and play to the strength of that team.