Reading The Universal Baseball Association

[Shon Maxx]

I'm currently reading a book called the Universal Baseball Association, a fiction novel by Robert Coover. It's about a guy who creates a stat and dice baseball game and plays it in his free time, and also in his not-so-free time. The book reads like a giant AAR, with the character rolling his results and then playing them out in his head, though it also includes his day-to-day life while imagining the game and players in explicit detail. In fact, he even holds a funeral for a player that gets killed by a random event.

I'm still about halfway through the book but it got me thinking about trying something similar with a sports game, going into detail with each athlete just for fun and so forth. Now I'm not a huge baseball fan so I'm thinking about either using the THW boxing rules or my old quickplay hockey rules that I posted here a few years ago, though I'm leaning towards the hockey rules . Looking them over, I see a few areas I'd like to tweak so this would work. 

I really like the idea of random events, but I prefer to include Skills and turn them into challenges. No way I want a repeat of, "Batter fatally struck by beanball." I think I'd go with stuff like Physical Challenges (dodging a puck to the head, or getting up after a brutal hit), Mental Challenge (outwitting an opponent and pulling a dive), and People Challenges (arguing with a referee or trying to calm down an enraged teammate). 

I'm still brainstorming but if anyone has any thoughts I'd ideas, I'd be open to them. 

Thanks.

[atomicfloozy]

Well if you are going to do a baseball game - you have 17 days 18 hours & 45 mins. before pitchers & catchers report to Spring Training, unless there's a lockout. lol

[atomicfloozy]

it's about 4:30AM in Dallas & you just made me hungry for a ballpark hot dog & nachos!

[Shon Maxx]

Glad I could help. And time of day has no influence on food, except for acquiring it. I've had a pizza at 4 am before.

I thought about a baseball game but the truth is I'm a fan of baseball for only about 4-5 innings, then I get bored. If I did a game, I'd probably go with hockey or boxing.

[emanon]

I can recommend boxing as I've tried something similar. I used a tournament of 10 boxers, best of three rounds, until I had a champion. But, I continued with the story of some of the boxers when they were eliminated from the tournament. I had one go PI to try and prove that they were cheated out of a victory, another turned to a life of crime afterwards, etc. I've had great fun with the idea

[paulcollins]

I did a lot of league building using an Avalon Hill Baseball Strategy baseball game and inspired by this book when I was young. I came up with many corny nicknames for players and backgrounds and whatnot. Many, many hours of fun. I wish you luck and great results.

[Shon Maxx]

The Story system is one idea for characters. I'm currently looking at my old quickplay hockey rules and seeing what I can tweak that may work. i'm debating removing bonus dice in favor of player skills. The only problem is I liked using bonus dice to simulate line changes. When you ran out of BD, you'dd roll to get them back, and that'd simulate the line change.

I've also thought of two random events tables. The first would be simple; penalty, fight, play stoppage, icing/offsides, lull. The other would cover many more events but would be determined by challenges. For example, A fan throws an octopus onto the ice. The player performs a challenge to dodge it or fall and get injured. Another would be the puck gets stuck in the goalie's mask (rare but has happened before). More aggressive skaters would hit it anyway and risk a penalty or fight.

[soypunk]

Jan 30, 2022 13:34:36 GMT Shon Maxx said:

The Story system is one idea for characters. I'm currently looking at my old quickplay hockey rules and seeing what I can tweak that may work. i'm debating removing bonus dice in favor of player skills. The only problem is I liked using bonus dice to simulate line changes. When you ran out of BD, you'dd roll to get them back, and that'd simulate the line change.

I've also thought of two random events tables. The first would be simple; penalty, fight, play stoppage, icing/offsides, lull. The other would cover many more events but would be determined by challenges. For example, A fan throws an octopus onto the ice. The player performs a challenge to dodge it or fall and get injured. Another would be the puck gets stuck in the goalie's mask (rare but has happened before). More aggressive skaters would hit it anyway and risk a penalty or fight.

Are your rules shareable or posted anywhere? I have a variant of pair-a-dice hockey I use but always up for more dice-based hockey action!

[Shon Maxx]

Here you go. I made them years ago but tweaked them here and there. I'm still working on a few other tweaks with them but these are the basics.

Attachments:

QUICKPLAY HOCKEY - Take 2.pdf (445.91 KB)

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Excellent stuff.

[Shon Maxx]

Thanks. I'm trying to tweak the rules a bit more. I want to make the game quick and easy so I can then focus a lot on the random event tables. I want things like Interact with Fans, Octopus on the ice, Skater hit with puck, and Coaches get into brawl.

As for the original topic, I just got to one point in the book, but I'll be brief so I don't spoil anything for those who want to read it. Basically, the main character gets so fed up with the events happening in his game, he hurls his dice across the kitchen.

Now my question is, has anyone else ever done this? I don't mean throwing a videogame controller; that I know happens. I mean, in frustration, throwing dice, miniatures, shoving papers, etc. Hopefully it didn't happen in a competitive game, but has anyone reacted that way when the dice went in rather unfortunate directions?

I don't think I've done this with a THW game, though I'll confess to laughing or cursing at unexpected results. However, I do remember once playing a wrestling game. I had set up a match with two major wrestlers, but after 10 minutes (real time), they did nothing but shove or slap each other). I got so fed up, I tossed my dice off the table and went out for a walk. When I came back, I declared the match a draw and moved on, but I'm glad I was playing the game solo.

[cthulhukid]

I've certainly done that, but more for comedic effect than anything else.  Usually after the roll I've stared the other players in the eyes with a deadpan look on my face and then calmly threw the dice over my shoulder.  

Actually, now that I think about it, we had a trend for a while where dice were commonly thrown from the dining room where we played into our living room.  There was one particular unlucky night where at least 7 dice were laying on our carpet next to a startled cat.

But again, we were a table of 6 actual semi-professional comedians, so it wasn't genuine frustration that caused the dice throwing, just good ol' fashioned comedic timing.

[Shon Maxx]

I found a hockey dice game called Pocket sports Hockey that I like better than my own rules. However, I'm still using skills and challenges for when my players perform certain actions, such as arguing with the ref or outmaneuvering a vicious check by an opponent.

[soypunk]

Feb 20, 2022 18:57:31 GMT Shon Maxx said:

I found a hockey dice game called Pocket sports Hockey that I like better than my own rules.

Oooh, thanks for the recommendation on this one. Picked up a copy and like the way rules read!

[Shon Maxx]

Np. I made some random event tables for Faceoff and Fights. I’m thinking of giving skaters Reps so they can perform Challenges.