Play Cards

From the previous post, it should be noted that there are really only four play types in W2W:  Run, Short Pass, Medium Pass, and Long Pass.  Because the indoor game is so pass-heavy, and the field rather narrow (with only three down linemen), four plays is about all you need to represent the sport.

Outdoor football, with a much wider field, and where defenders are allowed to blitz (something outlawed in the indoor game), you need more play types.  Couple reasons for this, the most obvious of which is that there are lots more options outdoors than indoors.  The other comes down to the immersion factor for you, the game player.

If you love indoor football, you know that there's very little variation in the plays that are run.  There's almost always a receiver in motion toward the line of scrimmage on every play; the only "options" are where he lines up and whether he circles around the back of the formation or straight up the slot.

However, if you love outdoor football, you know that there are sweeps, and draws, and off-tackle runs, plunges, dives, etc.  There are screen passes, dump-offs, bubble screens, slants, quick-hitters, posts, go routes, etc.  And if you're playing a game on the tabletop, you want to have, at the very least, a set of plays that allow you more flexibility to run your offense.

In this new game, the plan is to have, at a minimum, the following plays: inside run, outside run, screen pass, short pass, medium pass, long pass, gadget plays, kneeldowns, and spike plays.  We'll also allow you to put your QB under center or in the shotgun as you choose.

Defensively, we'll be looking at: base 3-4/4-3, run key, pass key, nickel, dime, prevent, and goal line/short yardage.  On special teams, teams will have punt block and placekick block options, as well.

The key here is ... where do I get the data for all of this?  I have some sources, not all of which I am willing to share.  One source is the NFL GameBooks ... every game's play-by-play logged and noted for you.  Not easy data to put together, but if you had the time, you could copy and paste and code every single play from every season there are GameBooks for.

Other sources cost me to access, which, for many of you, partially explains the cost of a simple PDF being "more" that it appears on the surface.  Yes, a PDF is virtually cost-free to create and send.  But, the data that the PDF represents generally cost me something to obtain, and thus you, the customer, help me recoup that cost.

So, now that we know what plays there are going to be, we can start devising the play cards for the outdoor version of the game ...

And that's coming soon ...