Inter-League Hockey with “The Golden Die”

If you own SOCCER BLAST, you are familiar with "The Golden Die!" It's an idea that we made for the soccer game, primarily as a way to play MLS teams against EPL teams. We didn't want to rate the MLS relative to the EPL (as we have done in rating the USFL and WFL relative to the NFL in SECOND SEASON), but we did want to be able to conduct games between teams of the two leagues. So we came up with the golden die idea. The way it works is, you decide the relative strength between two leagues, and then use the die to activate the qualities and symbols for the inferior league in a ratio that matches the relative strength. You roll the golden die right along with the black, white and green dice.

For example, let's say you feel the MLS is half the strength of the EPL. You play SOCCER BLAST normally, except that the MLS team's qualities and symbols are only in effect if you roll a "1," "2" or "3" on the golden die. The EPL team's qualities and symbols are always in effect. Thus, you get a good rendering of what inter-league play would look like. The better teams (from either league) play well, the poorer teams not so much, and the golden die regulates the competition, or perhaps "governs" is a better word.

It works the same for hockey, although until we did our Golden Die Game Helps YouTube stream, I had actually never TRIED it. About seven years ago, I got a letter from Charlie Sacheli, who's from Springfield, MA and a big fan of the local American Hockey League team from back in the day, the Springfield Indians. Charlie commissioned me to create cards for the '60-61 AHL, a season in which the Indians dominated. In fact, the '60-61 Springfield Indians are considered to have been perhaps the best minor league hockey team of all-time.

Then, a couple years ago, Michael Owens put together ratings for the 60-61 NHL (which we offered as a holiday PDF). Once the cards had been made, I thought about the relationship between the two leagues. What would inter-league games between AHL and NHL clubs have looked like?

Remember, in those days, there were only six teams in the NHL, that's only about 100-120 roster spots--so a lot of really good hockey players had to find somewhere ELSE to play. The difference between the NHL and the top so-called "minor leagues" was really not THAT large. (Certainly not as large as it is today.)

So I asked around the community, got some great feedback from a good number of folks. The consensus was that the AHL of that era was about 2/3 the strength of the NHL in '60-61. So, I set the golden die factor at "1" through "4" for our game helps game. I wanted to use the Springfield team as our guinea pig, and used the two-thirds figure to create a matchup that--in theory--would be even. Springfield's AHL winning percentage was about 66%, so at two-thirds strength they're .500. In the NHL, Detroit was closest to .500 at 25-29-16.

I played a test game before our broadcast to get a feel for how the golden die would work, so as to try to proactively discover any problematic surprises. In the test game, Springfield held a 1-0 lead into the third period, but the Red Wings tied it in the 7th minute on a power play goal from Howe, and then went ahead in the 15th minute on shot from Godfrey. Two minutes later, though, Sweeney got one past Sawchuk to make it 2-2, and that's how it ended. Pretty exciting, and--well, they played even, just like projected.

We then played the live stream game, which had a somewhat different outcome! (We won't spoil it in this blog post, you can watch the video and see for yourself.)

After the game, I mentioned on the stream that I'd formulate some thoughts on the golden die methodology, and post them in this article. So here goes...

• Lets start with a reminder that the golden die isn't applied on penalty, injury or unusual results.

• Aside from the above, it can seem a bit tricky deciding how/when to apply the golden die. On a two-part PLAY sequence, for example. Let's say Springfield gets a PLAY. They roll to determine the participants in the play, since there are no qualities involved, should they roll the golden die? I felt like "yes" was the correct response--but what if a "5" or "6" comes up? At first, I felt like it should take away the ASSIST and SHOT stars. But as I thought about it, if that's the case, then what does the golden die roll signify on the SECOND roll, the SHOT attempt, if it's a "5" or "6?" It made sense that THAT should be when the SHOT and ASSIST stars are lost. So I switched gears and decided that on a golden die roll of "5" or "6" when setting the PLAY, the PLAY just fizzles out, no shot attempt made (because if Detroit's superior play). That's the way I played it in the test game, and on the stream.

However, in retrospect, I think maybe that may have given Springfield too MUCH of a disadvantage. Essentially, looking at a two-digit six-sided die roll, there's a 20/36 chance that you'll roll a "5" or a "6" on one of those two rolls--that's 56%. So, an AHL team is only going to get a decent shot on about 44% of the plays they generate. And, they're already at a disadvantage generating plays in the first place.

Taking that thought further, in doing some basic calculations, it looks like the average Hockey Blast minute will require 1.3 dice rolls. For example, on a dice roll of "8," an ICE BLAST result: there's the Ice Blast roll, and then--if a PLAY is generated, which should happen about half the time--there will be a second dice roll for the PLAY. Here's the rub: a "5" or "6" on either roll would negate the AHL qualities. This suggests that when we use "5" and "6" as the golden die result, the AHL teams are actually operating at LESS than two-thirds strength--it's something more like HALF strength. (Some people might suggest that's more accurate, but I digress...)

So, this is making me re-think the above guidelines. I now think that on ANY roll where qualities or symbols are not in play (we are considering the FO rating as a "quality"), the golden die should not apply. (This is the rule as written for SOCCER BLAST--I shouldn't have messed with it!) So, in a PLAY sequence, when you roll to set the assist-shot sequence, don't roll the golden die--save it for the actual SHOT. (Or, roll it, but ignore the result.) Remember, AHL teams already have to pass the golden die check just to get the to the PLAY in the first place! AND they have to pass another golden die check for the SHOT.

Here are some other areas where you may wonder what to do when using the golden die...

• The golden die SHOULD be rolled on the face-off, because one-third of the time you'll ignore the AHL team's FO rating, giving the NHL team the advantage. On results that indicate the HOME or VISITING team winning the face-off (no rating brought into play), the golden die has no effect. If the face-off results in an automatic PLAY, again, the golden die would not have an effect (unless it was the HIGH FO player winning the face-off and creating the immediate play--then a golden die fail could negate the AHL player's FO rating, and give the face-off and PLAY to the NHL team.)

• If an AHL team has momentum and a "9" is rolled along with a golden die "5" or "6," do they still win the momentum check? I'd say "no," since momentum is an intangible quality and qualities, by rule, are negated if the golden die check isn't passed. Which means, essentially, that the NHL team will gain possession of the puck AND momentum on the subsequent HIT check, assuming they have at least one player on the ice with the HIT quality.

• What about if an AHL team gets a "12" result (automatic shot on goal, goalie must make spectacular save) along with a golden die "5" or "6?" Again, I go with the spirit of the rule. There's no symbol or quality involved here, so that shot should happen.

Again, to clarify--because I feel I may have muddied the waters on the stream--go with the original, simple rule: golden die negates qualities and symbols of the inferior league when the golden die reading is outside the inferior league's strength range. Everything else stays the same.

(Now would probably be a good time to point out that if you think the AHL is being given too much credit at two-thirds strength, and half strength is more accurate, your should still use the recommendation in the above paragraph--just re-set the golden die to 50/50 instead of two-thirds. In other words, "1" "2" "3" is an AHL pass/check, "4" "5" or "6" is an AHL fail.)

• The golden die could be used for our '72-73 World Hockey Association set and inter-league play with NHL sets from the era (1970-71 or '74-75). Again, we'd suggest two-thirds strength for the WHA, but you are free to make your own qualitative assessment.

• A follow-up question arose after the stream: will the golden die idea work for other PLAAY quality-driven sports games, like baseball? Not for all of them, no. Baseball and golf use a range of qualities that are both positive and negative, so the golden die option won't work for those games. If negative qualities were ignored, it would have the effect of making the inferior teams better. But it would work for wrestling (I'm thinking of that Italian pro set we made as a freebie a few years ago, matched up against home-brewed pro sets or our own Wrestling America Federation), or you could establish rival fictional federations and make one weaker than the other--that could be fun, and story-lines could be generated where the federations change in relative strength based on promotional value, TV ratings etc. The golden die will also work for the the upcoming basketball game, which uses positive qualities only.

Interestingly, it will also work for football! Even though, technically, those games (Cold Snap and Second Season) don't use qualities, the number values can be interpreted as such. "2" is "superior," "1" is average and "0" is "deficient." Currently, all our alternate leagues (XFL, WFL, USFL) are rated relative to the NFL, so the golden die is not needed here--you can play them as-is and get realistic interleague play. But the golden die could be particularly useful with college football. Or, playing college teams against pro teams. Let's say you feel that a particular college team from our College Football Colossus series is (just throwing a number out there) one-third strength of the NFL. You could play them against NFL teams with a golden die range of "1" or "2." Against a poor NFL team, they might have a chance. You'd still have to figure out what to do about the numerical ratings for "Y," "Q," "R" and so on when out of the strength range. But I think it could work.

Questions? Comments? Let us know!