Playing Card Football

"Last night's half-hour experiment while my wife was watching SVU was going through Goren's Hoyle Encyclopedia of Games looking for sports games.

There actually were three different baseball games: two using dice and one using cards. The dice games were underwhelming: Five dice thrown and the combined score is referenced. A lot of the numbers come up "ball" or "strike" which immediately threw me off. I hated that when I played APBA and I still hate it now. It drags out the game when some could just labeled "base on balls", while others were "strikeout." One game liked yacht/yahtzee a bit too much, giving bonuses for straights and five of a kinds, while the other gave completely arbitrary results

examples:
30 - home run, four runs score, even with no man on base
6 - triple play, three outs even with no man on base
5 - triple play, and any runs previously made in that inning are called off becuase the umpire reverses a decision.

What? Is the umpire drug testing players mid-innings and voiding AN ENTIRE INNING of play? Seriously. None of them have the simplicity of "Fireside" Dice Baseball, and although the "wtf?" results are rare, I believe it detracts from what should be a nice simple game for a rainy afternoon.

For the sake of completeness, I'll try the card version later on. It looks promising, despite the strike/ball fault included in its rules as well.

I actually enjoyed the Playing Card Football listed in the book. It uses one 52-card deck to play, and despite a number of situational "what ifs," it flowed like a traditional football game. Cards
have yardage values, from Ace =1 to King =13. Red is positive yardage, and black is a loss.

The offense is given four types of plays, with expanding "What if" scenarios using more cards:
Example: Draw play: draw one card. If run, ball is moved that number of yards. If black, draw another card. If that card is red, no gain. If black, team loses that number of yards, but no more than five.

The other three plays (Sweep, Short and Long Passes) allow for "exploding" plays: If the criteria is met, the player continues to draw cards from the deck, and so long as they are red, those numbers are added to the yardage gained. There are special rules for interceptions, fumbles, and sacks, and I won't get into special teams, but they involve more "what ifs" and a LOT more cards.

While Benson and Stabler were trying to figure out why women were having sex with John Stamos, I went through the deck of cards about five times and played a little solitaire version of the game. It was a 0-0 defensive slugfest with only one field goal attempt. Special teams ate up the decks (one punt normaly used about nine cards), and I only completed one long pass (25+ yards). Given the copyrights for the book are 1950 and 1961, it perfectly fits the era that it came from: Three yards and a cloud of dust, with a spectacular pass or special teams play for flavor. I might just try it again, and if I can find out the perameters of the copyright, I might post it up on the main page, next to Dice Baseball.