Hoops Ideas to Try out!
As we head into the basketball off-season (or--IS there a basketball off-season, with the NBA Summer League?), here are some ideas for HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS you may want to try out with your next hoops project, courtesy of PLAAY Gamers Michael Owens, Steve Tower and Michele Montagni...
Fourth Quarter Coaching Advantage
Michael Owens has been experimenting with the coach cards, giving a fourth-quarter advantage to the coach with the better COMPLACENT rating. By "better," Michael means fewer opportunities to get a COMPLACENT result on a coach roll. For example, a COMPLACENT range of "11" is better than "10," and "12" (or, in rare cases, "2") is best of all. The coach with the better rating gets TWO dice rolls on COACH results in the fourth quarter, and may choose the better result. This works well and makes sense too--better coaches make better decisions in the fourth quarter. As an additional twist, Michael's now also making the opposing coach roll twice and taking the worse result.
Adding Experience Factor
Michael's other idea is designed to get experience ratings into the express game (It will be integrated into the full-play game). On the UNUSUAL Results chart, he's replaced the results for dice rolls "2" and "12" results and instead rolls one die on this chart...
1 • Visitor ICON? YES +2 spaces, NO visitor move 1 space.
2 • Visitor PROSPECT? YES Home + 2 spaces NO visitor one space.
3 • Visitor ICON? YES Visitor 1 space NO no scoring.
4 • Home ICON? YES home 1 space NO no scoring.
5 • Home PROSPECT? YES. Visitor + 2 spaces. NO. Home + 1 space .
6 • HOME ICON? YES. Home + 2 spaces NO home + 1 space.
Change of Pace Coaching Option
Steve Tower is closing fast on his 200th game of HMH, playing out a complete season with the fictional Basketball League of America (BLAM) cards and his hometown New England Minutemen, as featured on Steve's After Further Review YouTube tabletop sports channel.
One idea Steve's been experimenting with is a "change of pace" option on a COACH result. If desired, the coach can "up the ante" of coaching time-out by attempting to change the game's pace, either adding or subtracting a card. If he gets an ENERGIZED (or SYNCHED) result, he gets both the score and the chosen card option. If not, though, the opposite happens! A COMPLACENT or CLASH result gives a score to the opponent, and either add or subtract a card, opposite of what the coach was going for. Same thing on NEUTRAL result, except the opponent doesn't score.
Impact Players Decide Final Minute
Steve's also adjusted the "final minute" sequence--in which he opts for the single-FAC resolution instead of the countdown clock--and chooses the final matchup based on impact points. In other words, each team puts the player with the most impact points on the floor for the final fast-action card. If you're tracking that stat (impact points = individual actions that triggered movement down the team's scoring track), this is a really cool way to objectively decide which players should decide the game.
Adding Injury Factor
Adding the possibility of player injury is something Steve's tinkering with, although admittedly this is in the very early stages. Here's a first draft of the idea...
When a player is removed from the game due to a coach card it will trigger an injury check AFTER the game. The injury check is based on the players starting circle. A single d6 is rolled...
•1 or 2: player is injured unless they have an underlined circle starter symbol
•3 or 4: player is injured unless they have underlined or filled in circle symbol.
•5 or 6: players with no symbol are injured, others are OK.
If player is injured, a die/dice roll will determine the number of games he misses. Full circle players (including underlined), roll one six-sided die. Players with an open circle symbol, roll two six-sided dice. Players with no circle symbol, roll three six-sided dice.
Single Free Throw + Momentum for Technical Fouls
Finally, we got a note from Michele Montagni reminding us that the NBA rules for technical fouls call for one free throw, not two as presented in the game's UNUSUAL Results chart. (The college rule frequently calls for two free throws, as in the case of unsportsmanlike conduct.) In pro hoops, you also get possession of the ball after shooting a technical foul free throw--that can be approximated in Highlight Maker Hoops by awarding the team momentum (lightning symbol) after the free throw has been resolved.