Prime Time Hoops Ideas: “Jule’s Rules!”
This blog post was composed by PLAAY Gamer Jule Sigall, who has been instrumental in the last-minute details for the Highlight Maker Hoops "Prime Time" full-play module. Jule is well-versed in the original highlights-based game and is intimately familiar with the design process of the full-play game module as well, which makes him uniquely qualified to present the following house rules and ideas. Jule is the author of several wonderful home-brew HMH card sets, including the "March Madness" cards posted this past spring and the recently released "All-Time Franchise Great Teams" cards.
Speaking of the ATFG Hoops cards, a couple of minor errors slipped through, corrected here. Scott Wedman is given the SPARK quality (to match his triangle) and Patty Mills is given the YES, ARC and BIG shooting qualities. Apologies for these goofs!
And now, without further ado, heeeeeere's JULE!...
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Keith was kind enough to give me a copy of Highlight Maker Hoops: Prime Time at the Dice Tower West convention in Las Vegas, and I’ve been playing and testing it ever since! I've developed some aids and mods that have been working well.
Assists
When Keith and I discussed assists in Vegas, I loved the way he framed it: in real life, assists are a judgement call, so make a judgement about who deserves the assist while playing HMH. So starting with that principle, I’ve been using the following rules for assigning assists:
• Assist Rule ONE: If a made basket involves checking qualities on any card other than the scorer, give an assist to the player checked, including the offense player opposite a defense player check. Here are a few examples…
Example A: FAC says "PG with SKILL? Basket by CE", give the assist to the PG
Example B: If the FAC says "Defense SG POWER?" and it results in a basket by CE, give the offensive SG an assist.
Example C: CE gets a defensive rebound or a steal with an underlined quality and another player gets the transition basket, give an assist to the CE.
• Assist Rule TWO: If a made basket has no "other player” involved, then check the serial number of the current FAC. If it is 25 or lower, give an assist to the GREEN or BLUE player. (If it is a three-point basket, the give the assist if the FAC number is 35 or lower). If the scorer has both GREEN and BLUE chips, no assist. (This is needed to get assists up to league averages). The most common example here is the HORSE results where you are checking just the SHOT qualities of one player on each team.
• Assist Rule THREE: if a team scores on a TV timeout give an assist to GREEN or BLUE (picture a well designed play that includes a nice pass).
• Assist Rule FOUR: No assists on put-back baskets.
• General Rule for Assists: if something feels like an assist, award one, and err on the side of giving them out. My play-testing has shown that you won’t have too many with this approach.
Timeout FAC Cards
I wanted to keep all the FACs in one pile so I made the Timeout FAC cards linked here to insert for each TV Timeout, and they have all the relevant information from the TV Timeout charts for the relevant point in the quarter. (Editor’s Note: We gave Jule permission to create these cards for community use. If there’s demand, we may format them in the official game style at some point down the road.) They’ve been working well and it reduces the footprint of the game. There is also an extra card for the FT Rebound and Lightning Status chart, and an optional FT rebound chart that give a bit more variety.
Enhanced Momentum
The LIGHTNING status that’s currently in the game is great but I’ve added another one at to reflect momentum that is easy to implement and works well. You place a pawn on top of each team’s orange energy level chip. If they score on two straight possessions, you move the pawn up one energy level. If they score on the next possession, move it up another level, and so on for the next possession. If they ever fail to score on a possession, or when a timeout occurs, move it back to the original energy level. When the FAC cards call for an ENERGY CHECK or ENERGIZED, use the pawn’s location. Any score (even one free throw) keeps the momentum going. In my testing this affects only about one or two results per game but it is memorable and helps you note a string of scores by one team and feel the benefit of that. It makes LIGHTNING status a but more exciting, as that’s a quick way to move the pawn up, and helps teams with bad coaches overcome some of their bad rolls, and gives you another reason to use the optional “called” timeout each half, to readjust your chips AND kill an elevated energy level for the other team.
Enhanced Usage Limits
I’m using all the standard rules and they are working well, but I’ve added another to prevent good players with blanks or open circles from being too prominent. If the TV timeout calls for a player with a BLANK usage rating to rest, they must sit for two segments (I put their card face down in the resting area, then turn it over at the next TV timeout but keep it in the resting area). If they have an open circle they must roll the decider die (DOT= normal rest, BLANK=two resting periods). This rule only applies if the rest is forced by the TV Timeout roll, if you don’t have to rest a player but do so anyway they get normal rest.
Jump Balls
This is trivial but I couldn’t help myself. When a jump ball occurs I roll the black and white die to determine which players are involved (black is HOME and white is AWAY, 6 means the opposing player and double 6s are both CE positions). Then I roll the dice again and check the BLACK die for a rebound quality (e.g. 1=LEAP, etc.) to see who wins the jump. If tied, I check the WHITE die quality. If still tied, whichever die is higher (BLACK=HOME) wins it, and if tied, HOME wins it. Again, this isn’t critical but it allows for the situation where a small guard goes up against a big guy and can actually win the tip in rare spots.
All of these are optional so if you don’t use them you will still have a great time with Prime Time, but they’ve enhanced my enjoyment of the game so I thought I’d share them. Many thanks to Keith for giving me a chance to play the game early and for developing such an engaging hoops game!
(You're welcome, Jule! Thank YOU for all your input, ideas and encouragement!)