More Baseball Experiments

Deadball was enjoyable, but it's not exactly what I want. The problem with DB is the same as with other baseball game simulators - time.

Time issues with game simulators
Baseball game simulators, like Deadball, typically take 30 minutes or so to play. 

For a one-off game, this is not a problem. 

However, consider what happens when you play a season, even a greatly shortened one. Let's assume an 8-team league with 28 games per team. The time spent to complete the season is 

8 x 28 / 2 = 112 games x 30 minutes = 56 hours

Wow, that's a time commitment!

How about a season simulator?

There are games that allow you to simulate seasons quickly. I tried one out.

Ultra Quick Baseball from Downey Games lets you resolve a complete game with the roll of a couple of dice. Essentially, you look up offensive and defensive ratings per team, roll some dice (2D6 to be precise), then look up the runs each team scores in the game. There will be more rolling in case of a tie, but it is not onerous.

The problem with games like these is that there is no baseball "feel." The scores could very well be another sport, such as soccer or hockey. This approach may be OK to fill in gaps in a season if I don't want to play all games, but it does not really work by itself.

Or a quick play game simulator?

I found a couple of game simulators that allow complete games in 5-15 minutes. I decided to try one out. It is called Quick Play Baseball.

QPBB streamlines the game by starting each inning with a random situation. For example, it may start with bases loaded and two outs. Essentially you are skipping over some at bats and fast forwarding to a crucial point of the game. Another interesting facet of QPBB is that it used standard playing cards rather than dice as the randomizer. I much prefer dice over cards so I converted it.

I played a quick game to test it out.

On the positive side, it was quick (but more than 5 minutes) and I figured out a way to keep individual stats.

On the negative side, it did not really let you play out a rally. Essentially, you have one at bat to score. But if you get a hit that doesn't score runs, the inning ends. That just feels anti-climatic, so I ended up playing out the entire inning. Unfortunately, this kind of counters the quick play aspect of the game.

Strat-o-matic?

As I previously mentioned, I played a lot of Strat-o-matic back in the day. It is an excellent baseball simulator. I notice that they have a Hall of Fame edition, This is tempting. I have visions of a league made up of Hall of Fame players.

And a crazy thought

One thing I've been noticing in my replays is that in most games, teams have rallies in 3 or 4 innings. The other innings tend to be over in 3-4 at bats. My crazy thought is just to play those innings. Essentially, I'll just play out a few innings and assume 0 runs scored in the remaining innings.

Living Deadball

Introduction

As mentioned previously, I am on a baseball kick. I decided to try out Deadball: Baseball with Dice.

Deadball (hereafter DB) is available from Drivethrurpg. It is pay as you want with a suggested price of $10.

Overview

DB is similar to other baseball simulations that use dice. For each at bat, you roll some dice and consult some charts to determine what happens. Just like a real baseball game, you progress through 9 innings of at bats. Highest scoring team wins!

Let me elaborate.

• First, roll D100 - D? where D? varies depending on the pitcher's ability.
• If the roll is
• <= batter's ability (usually around 25-30) then roll for a hit
• <= 5 above the batter's ability then the hitter gets a walk
• > 5 above the batter's ability, then it is an out
• You then 
• roll a D20 and consult a chart to determine the type of hit, or 
• Take the singles digit from your D100 roll and consult a chart to determine the type of out. This is important because it could result in a double play

That's essentially it. At its core, it's pretty basic. Of course, there are complications, such as bunts, errors, and all the frills of a baseball game. Also, there are player traits that can modify dice rolls and affect results.

What is particularly unique about Deadball is that it provides multiple ways to create your own ratings. You can convert real baseball stats, roll them up randomly, or use the pre-rolled fictional teams provided in the rules. This provides a great deal of flexibility.

By the way, here is another review of Deadball that provides a bit more detail than I did.

The Game

My plan is to play out a sample of the 1922 American League season. Back then, the AL had eight teams. I plan to play 28 games per team, which may be a bit ambitious. I created my own schedule and opening day features the Sox battle - the Boston Red Sox visit the Chicago White Sox.

The starting pitchers are:

• BOS - Jack Quinn (8-7 3.78 ERA in 1921)
• CHI - Red Faber (25-15 2.48 ERA in 1921)

Boston struck in the 2nd inning. With 2 outs and men on 2nd and 3rd, Muddy Ruel lined a drive down the line for triple. When the throw went errant, Muddy managed to skip home for a 3-0 lead.

Chicago chipped away in the bottom of the inning with two doubles. Score 3-1.

Both pitchers settled down with 3 innings of scoreless play. But Boston extended its lead after Joe Harris doubled then scored on a double play. Boston added another run off reliever Shovel Hodge in the 8th. They would need that run.

Ben Karr came in for Quinn in the 9th. He gave up a single and a walk before striking out Ernie Johnson. After another walk, he was replaced by Bill Piercy. Chicago then had Hervey McClellan pinch hit for the pitcher. With bases loaded, He roped a double that scored all men on base. Score 5-4.

Now Chicago felt confident. The potential tieing runner was on 2nd and the top of the order was up. But Piercy managed to get Eddie Collins to ground out and Earl Sheely to fly to right field. Game over.

It was an exciting victory for the Red Sox!

Evaluation

Pros

As you can see from my recap, DB creates a very realistic simulation of a baseball game. 

Like baseball, fortunes can turn quickly. When I got to the bottom of the 9th, I figured Boston would cruise to a victory. However, their starter was tiring so I put in a reliever to close out the game. Chicago then managed to make it interesting with 3 runs and a chance to tie the game!

I only played a single game, but it seems that DB creates realistic results, and this is no small feat. I've tried to design dice baseball games and they've either been offensive slugfests like a softball game at the company picnic or there is about as much scoring as a soccer game.

While DB features plenty of dice rolling and random events, there are decision points. Akin to a real baseball game, events are out of the managers control most of the time. He must rely on his players to get the job done. However, he has crucial decisions to make - the initial batting order, who to pitch, and when to substitute. These decisions are present in DB.

The ability to create your own ratings is a welcome feature. I spent a little time creating a converter in Excel. Now I can easily download stats from online, plug them into my spreadsheet, and get DB ratings.

Overall, DB is an excellent baseball simulator.

Cons

Most of these cons are in comparison to Strat-o-matic Baseball (SOM), a game that I played extensively.

DB uses a "groping for dice" system, meaning that it employs a variety of dice - D100 for swing results, D20 for hits, D12 for defense, and anywhere from a D4 to a D20 for pitchers. This results in the player groping around to find the right dice for a given situation. As a recall, SOM uses D6s for most situations, with an occasional D20. Personally, I find that fewer types of dice streamline the game and make it move quicker.

DB's system involves rolling and possibly modifying results, then referring to chart. This seemed a bit slower than SOM's card based system. Modifiers are essentially built into SOM's cards. You just roll and reference the result. Of course, this could be part of DB's learning curve. I assume I will get quicker given time. I'm guessing that Board Game Geek's high estimate of 30 minutes per game is realistic. To be fair, this is actually quicker than SOM's estimate of 45 minutes.

Overall

I would say that this is a worthwhile buy. I will certainly play it again, and I like having the ability to create my own ratings.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Back in the day, I was quite the baseball fan, as evidenced by this post. As I mentioned even then, my interest has waned. Recently, however, it has sparked back to life.

The event that rekindled the flame was reading a book. For some reason, this was recommended on my Kindle.

I've been enjoying this walk through baseball history, which in turn has inspired me to try a little baseball gaming.

Back in the 80s I played quite a bit of Strat-o-matic, a baseball simulation dice game.

The current edition

I briefly toyed with picking up the new edition, putting together a small league, and playing a season. This did not get very far because of the price and the necessity to buy player cards for each season. Nowadays, I would prefer a game where I can make my own player stats.

You see, I spent a little time trying to decide what season to play. I really don't have any interest in modern baseball so the current edition of Strat-o-matic would be wasted on me. How about a season from my youth? But I could not decide on one. Then I came upon a solution - a replay of major league baseball from 100 years ago. Unfortunately, Strat-o-matic does not have cards for the 1922 season. This led me on a quest for a game that will allow me to recreate the 1922 season.

Right now, I'm investigating Deadball, a baseball simulator I purchased from Drivethrurpg.

Expect a quick review once I give it a go. And apologies to any non-Yanks out there. You'll likely be hearing a lot more about baseball in the coming days.

It's Been Quiet Around Here

I haven't been playing any games so no updates on that front.

My spare time has been dominated by LARP doings. Here's a photo showing one of my completed LARP projects - a lamellar cuirass.

I've been working on the armor in fits and starts since May of last year. I finally managed to finish it and got to try it out last weekend. I purchased the plates from Plastic Lamellar.com and then laced them all together

I went with plastic lamellar because I wanted something lighter. It weighs in at 6 pounds, which is actually not that much better than the 7.5 pound leather brigandine I currently have.

Me in my leather brig

I also fixed up a polearm a couple of weekends ago. It actually began as an axe, but I was not happy with the cover. I cut down the axe head and then slipped a sock cover over it. Done.

Last weekend, I sparred with a friend and I. We ran a scenario where we fought a chimera. I posted the story on my Paladin's Path blog.

This weekend, we are holding a cookout, hopefully we can use it to recruit a few new players.

Happy Easter!

Today we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 NIV)