[Polyhedron] d20 Sports Game(s)

[Katowice]

Now that we've had Hijinx mini-game based on rock-n-roll and the racing d20 mini-game, I'd like to see a d20 mini-game based on sports. You've probably seen movies like Bull Durham, Hoosiers, Major League, Tin Cup, Any Given Sunday, Victory and Bend it Like Beckham. If you're from England, you've seen Dream Team (a soccer drama). The focus of the this d20 game, similar to Hijinx, would be the drama on and off the field (including playing of actual games!)

The "combat" rules would involve playing out the game. Ability scores would affect throwing & kicking distances. Basically, most sports involve attacking and defending. The classes could based on team positions. For soccer I could think of forward (high attack), midfielder (balanced attack/defense), defender (high defensive capability) and goalkeeper (really high defense). You could also have classes for the manager, trainer, sports report, girlfriend, etc.

I'm not much of a game designer, but I'd love to hear your take on this concept, particularly for different sports (football, baseball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, rugby). Most of the non-American "football" games (plus lacrosse) are pretty similar, so the rules could be portable enough. If Erik and the crew could find somebody to write this (maybe the guy who wrote Hijinx), I think this could be great.

 

[johnnype]

Brilliant. Simply brilliant. Why hasn't someone thought of this before?

I'm all for it. I'm not much of a designer either otherwise I'd do it myself.

 

[Ranger REG]

They did. It's called Blood Bowl.

Of course, it would be nice to take out the archaic electric football game (it vibrates the field that makes the figure moves) from the attic and put it to d20 use.

 

[bwgwl]

two things that would frickin' rock:

1) d20 Blood Bowl.

2) d20 Professional Wrestling.

 

[Katowice]

Sorry, Blood Bowl ain't a real sport [throws down the gauntlet].

A sports mini-game like this would really tick off the "No Polyhedron in My Dungeon Magazine" crowd. I guess the editors should put in some useful stuff like the Iron Lords of Jupiter piece and the d20 Modern update for Pulp Heroes. Hijinx was a fun read, but I can't really imagine myself playing it.

Pro wrestling would probably play out a lot like regular combat, but with some "extras", just like Thunderball Rally was vehicle combat with "extras."

My preferences (in order) for a sports game: Soccer, Football, Hockey.

 

[RodneyThompson]

Just.....just go play the sport. I doubt there's a single one of us on this board, me included, that couldn't use the exercise.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Just.....just go play the sport. I doubt there's a single one of us on this board, me included, that couldn't use the exercise.

But..but...that takes...ef...eff...ef..err...work!

 

[bwgwl]

Just.....just go play the sport. I doubt there's a single one of us on this board, me included, that couldn't use the exercise.

have you ever seen a bunch of skinny, four-eyed, pasty, no-coordination gamer geeks playing football? it's not a pretty sight.

 

[Katowice]

Just.....just go play the sport. I doubt there's a single one of us on this board, me included, that couldn't use the exercise.

I'm no star athlete myself, but I've played soccer my whole life. It's all part of my insidious plan to introduce pasty gamer geeks to exercise

 

[Moulin Rogue]

In the fantasy vein, how about some kind of Dodge Ball? I can't think of many real-life sports where a half-orc and a halfling could really expect to compete equally, but in dodge ball the half-orcs could throw fast (Str, offense), but the halflings would be harder to hit (Dex, defense). You could divide the court into five foot squares and the thrower would designate a square to throw into, and so on.