A game about sport?

[Rudra]

Hello, this is an old idea the kind that "i'll do it one day"... then years pass😅

Anyway, it begun as a simple question: can i make a game centered on sport ?

Recently i've stumbled on Varsity, a powered by the apocalypse system that is focused on sport, that rekindled my old idea so here i am to ask some questions:

1)Has anyone tried out Varsity?

2)Has anyone tried a game focused on sport? fighting cant be the primary focus of said sport (gladiator combat, wrestling, death race, ecc. dont count)

3) Suppose you can make a game about a sport played in teams, what sport would you pick?

Initially my thought was to pick a sport i'm most familiar with(football) but i realized the majority of the players would be familiar with other sports, there are many people from usa where(i believe) the popular sports are american football, baseball, basketball and hockey(i only have a vague idea of american football, not enough to describe it properly, the others are even worse, i dont even think baseball would play well since it would be...forgive me baseball fans....turn based? basically if a player character is acting the others are on the bench or have to stay still).

So i looked for a neutral ground, with fictional sports, two stood out as i had the opportunity to play them: bloodball (which is like a parody of american football; theres a lot of fighting but the sheer silliness make it worth considering) and Blitzball(a final fantasy x sport, a mix of football and water polo) being videogames the rules are simpler so even someone who know nothing about them can quickly get an idea of how it work and since they are fictional sports, people will have more room to be creative.

This is mainly for the descriptions, the fluff, the mechanics are done by the system and are the same for whatever sport you play.

Given the system, the game itself wont be realistic but closer to something seen in an anime (i think a realistic sport rpg game would be boring)

4) ideas? suggestions? i'm in the brainstorming phase and would like to hear your thoughts

[cailano]

I ran a zany game back in the day where the primary conflict was rollerball matches. It was part WWF, part The Running Man. But I don't think that is quite what you're looking for.

I don't see why a game based on a sport like Football couldn't work. There would be plenty of opportunities for RP, especially if the PCs were famous players.

I'd probably use a narrative-based system if I were trying it. I might even try running the whole thing with the Mythic GME, using the random events to inspire twists in the game.

 

[yxanthymir]

1) No.

2) No, I didn't. But I agree, it has to be something focused in at least non-lethal combat.

3) Probably something like a warped real sport with wacky mechanics, like football with zombies, or a totally made up sport, like maze run.

 

[Neopopulas]

You could look up Bloodbowl, there might even be a system for that.

[Eric]

There is in fact a TT system for Blood Bowl.

[Basil_Bottletop]

X-Crawl was a wrestling style ttrpg if I recall correctly. Depending on how it functions, it might have an on-field mechanic and an off-field mechanic, which would represent the sport and the drama behind the scenes.

[Anthr4xus]

Fishing is not normally considered a sport in the same context as the ones you mentioned, but Rod, Reel & Fist looks like it might be a fun fishing focused game.

https://kumada1.itch.io/rod-reel-fist

[Arcticus]

On 8/19/2023 at 11:32 AM, Basil_Bottletop said:

X-Crawl was a wrestling style ttrpg if I recall correctly. Depending on how it functions, it might have an on-field mechanic and an off-field mechanic, which would represent the sport and the drama behind the scenes.

World Wide Wrestling is another one in the same vein. It's PbtA and I've heard good things about it.

[Anthr4xus]

Just heard about this one: https://biscuitfund.itch.io/tournament-arc It's the system the current one shot they are doing on Worlds Beyond Number uses, based on Belonging Outside Belonging. I had not heard of the engine or this expression of it before, but it sounds like it could be used for pretty much any kind of sport tournament you want to do.