Are you planning on inventing a specific 'future sport' for your game, or are you thinking more along the lines that the rules will adapt to encompass a game that the players and/or the GM invents? Is this going to be a strictly straight humans game, or were you thinking of adding fantasy races, aliens or robots into the mix?

It sounds interesting. I like the imagery of the 'game of two halves' and it adds a fair amount of structure to the game. You have your social / planning / story bit, then you have your battle royale so to speak. I think it portrays the kind of atmosphere of the movies you're referring to nicely. Would I play it? Possibly. It's intriguing enough to get me interested, although I'd probably wait to see some play reports or reviews before shelling out the readies.

What would I add... hmm... I think I'd make the 'experience mechanic' in the form of a League Table :D I'd add options for the coach and manager to get in on the action by nobbling the opposing team or shouting encouraging slogans from the sidelines and talking tactics and stuff. I'm sure there's lots more you could do with the idea, but I'm out of ideas for now.

Incidentally, have you seen Robot Jox? It's an awful movie, but it fits neatly into the genre you're talking about and adds giant stomping robots to the mix, so if you've not seen it you might like to dig it out of a bargain bin somewhere.

Ash

Oh. Fuck. Yes.

I love that genre. Harlem Heroes, Speedball etc etc.

The main question I'd be thinking about is this: Do you envision the players controlling a team each or individual players in the same team? I mean, there's a lot to be said for both, but bear in mind that a lot of people have difficulty relating to the individual characters in their bands when playing Umlaut.

Having said that... Since you're inventing a sport you can make it one where there's a clear star of the team, a central player if you like, who becomes each player's main character. There will be other people on the team, but this guy's the star and everyone else is supporting cast. That gives you a nice GMless option.

Then there's the game itself. This has to be bloody good to play. It'll need to be very well balanced. That'll take a lot of testing to make it work properly, and interesting. But so worth it I think.

Hmm, I need to think about this some more.

I too love futuristic sports. I'm shocked though that no one has mentioned The Blood of Heroes yet. Great movie that also fits your game concept quite well.

I think a two-part game sounds quite fitting for the genre. I would perhaps repeat that formula each session. Always starting with personal issues coming to the front, as tension builds up towards the next (big?) game. Of course the end of each session will be playing that game. Sounds like a winner to me.

TTFN,

Yoki

Holken - Where Yoki Talks Games

Ah Yoki I was going to mention Salute of the Jugger!

Sounds like a cool idea Neil.

Do you se the game section as being more wargamey, something like Blood Bowl?

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JoE
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Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....

Whilst I wouldn't say I'm not interested you would have to sell me on it. I'm seeing the spectre of Know Your Role.

Thanks for the comments and recommendations guys. Comments in reverse order

Ben - re: Know Your Role

I thought we had agreed that we were never going to mention that piece of garbage again? A game so bad I turned down a free copy of it and had my name stricken from the playtest credits!! (OK, that last bit was a fib - they rubbed our names off after we slated the game in every possible way). No Ben, this would never, ever, eeeeeevvver be anything like KYR. Promise. No 600lb half-mile leaping super heavyweights nor any hypnotic valets.

Joe E - re: wargamey, like Blood Bowl

Confession time - I have never played Blood Bowl. However I'd want the end game to be roleplaying but with a sort of competitive tactical edge maybe.

Yoki - re: Juggers

I'd forgotten that film existed but vaguely in the back of my mind I remember having seen it. And thats strange because I usually avoid anything with a 'Mad Max' reference in it like the plague!

Rich - re: Team vs Player and Quality of Game

I was thinking long and hard about the Team vs Player thing on the train coming into work today and I think for the stuff I get from the genre it would have to be Players as Individual Players. That wouldn't stop the game having a part where the players each create an opposition team that could be in the League or the Championship that the players are participating in.

And yes, the endgame for each session would have to be quite white knuckle. I noted that a lot of the genre is based around critical injury and death the nearer you get to the finals of the competition. Thats something to bear in mind too.

Ash - re:Setting vs Created

Having a fixed setting would be easier. I have a huge nostalgic love of 'Street Football' from Mean Arena and Aeroball from Harlem Heroes so cooking up something like that would take one level of complexity away from the game. However, I also like the fact that in the comics they tended to make the rules up as they went along - like the 'touch the goal, get a 3 minute penalty' from Aeroball, so that could be part of it too.

Another angle that I pondered the inclusion of was social commentary that runs right through these stories - its all about politics and satire. Thats quite cool too.

Neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/

Some other ideas:

Consider using an existing game (like, I dunno, chess or crib or poker or something) as the core of the "Game". Might work?

Do you think that having the players play individual people on the same team will work? Should they play against the GM? Will that not surely lead to a lopsided play when it comes to the Game part of things (assuming, say, 3 players vs 1 GM)?

Have you thought of doing something kind of like mass battles rules? Where individual actions change the chances of your team as a whole winning? Perhaps with dilemmas over whether to go for personal glory or settling grudges over the good of the team as a whole?

So, you’d abstract the ebb and flow of the game, but have spotlight actions for players, with a big funky game mechanic resolve who’s team wins thing at the end.

Examples:
Razors McGruder is p!ssed that you slept with his ex-wife and swoops down on your jock with another bruiser while the focus of the games is elsewhere (-X Glory is they duff you up, +X Team Win is you can keep two players occupied while the rest of your guys go on for the score)

Fest Eddie is free on the right, you can pass to him and probably get an ease score (+X to Team Win mechanic, other player gets bonus to their Goal resolution) or you can go for the crazy blitz through the middle (+X personal Glory, risk injury on a fail, Team Win get –X if you fail).

Joe Panache taunts you about your kid’s sporting accident meaning he’ll never play Death Ball (feint an attack on Joe then sneak past for a goal and Team Win, or kick him in the nuts for personal Glory and two mins in the sin bin –X Team Win)

I think the off pitch antics could add to the game, along with the larger than life personalities of the Death Ball stars. Individual egos out of control mean the captain has to struggle hard to keep the team on track. While the team does well the stars can claim whatever boons they wish, but as their game suffers from their excesses, a new team becomes ascendant and the cycle continues as all the hard training makes way for more ho’s and gin.

Or something.

Heck, you could use "Blood Bowl" as the second half :P

Seriously though I don't think a board or war game would actually be the answer, because if I get your right the success on the field should all be about what happened in the first half. Did two players overcome their hatred enough to make the crucial play together? Did the blocker sell out to the other team after he was seduced? Can the star player get past his self doubt and make the catch? etc.

If that is what you are after a mechanical wargamey approach to the second half won't work.

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/

Yeah, thats exactly what I am aiming for David.

The mechanic that Gaz describes isn't that far away from the Skirmish Rules for D&H, where the success or failure of the men contributes or harms the chances of the overall action succeeding.

Thoughts are crystalising

neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/

Neil, it'll be worth you while to check out Gregor's footy game.

http://www.collective-endeavour.com/node/208

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JoE
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Prince of Darkness Games
Rock N' Role-Play....

Thanks for all the hints on this thread - its been really helpful. I've just taken delivery of the last two issues of 2000AD Extreme which is reprinting the entire run of Mean Arena (woot!) and it has coalesced in my mind what I want to do.

The game will start with the Franchise Phase where the players develop their future sport franchise. They define the game, the players, the team, the city it is based in etc. A nice bit of cooperative world building built around the characters.

The game itself is split into two phases - The Hype Phase and the Game Phase.

In the Hype Phase each player can have X scenes to develop their interpersonal or storyline issues which will carry into the game, driving the action there. Between scenes the Referee (never has a system had a more obvious title for the guy at the head of the table) will narrate cut scenes about the upcoming match with vignettes of the opposition star players and the reprecussions of the match and spotlights on some of the players at the table.

The Game Phase is split into a number of Highlights, with each highlight being a targetted scene for one or more players. I'm not 100% sure about the mechanic to be used but essentially the dramas that were developed in the Hype Phase have to be brought into play in the Game Phase somehow. The outcome of a Highlight will determine the end score of the match.

Other things? During each game the players are allowed to author in two new rules for the sport (this happens all of the time in the comic versions!) which then become canon for the setting. League Play will be a campaign of win or lose. Relegation Play will be a short series of three games with the team battling relegation (and the consequences of relegation being so horrendous that they would rather die that be demoted) and Cup Play will be a campaign structure where the team plays a knockout cup through to the final. They cannot lose before the final but if they are technically losing they will have to pay off the win (ie. their opponents mysteriously all dying in a plane crash) with massive personal and story issues, leading to a climactic final.

Thats my initial thoughts.

neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/