When people ask why I play the dice game of Value Add Basketball and card game of Statis-Pro Baseball here are my reasons (my 1st basketball national championship scorecard appears at the bottom of this post):
1. While video games were cool when I was a kid as a break to get away from using a manual type writer and calling people on a landline, now I need to break from a computer or phone screen. Resting is often not just sitting around - it is changing activities, and for me dice and a pad with playing cards that replicate each players skills at every aspect of each sport with a variable for chance is great for me.
2. I keep timesheets at work. I put in a lot of 16 hour days. Most of that time is either seeing if I can get through 100 or 150 calls in a day or do a ton of data work on a spreadsheet. For me, shifting to dice and a pad is the change of pace I need.
3. The games each take between 25 and 35 minutes. I like to recreate a game in a small fraction of what it takes to watch a game. It lets me really understand each players skills and weaknesses and discover players (e.g. I didn't know the all time leading scorer at UVa had a son playing for ODU).
4. People who don't understand basketball beyond seeing that someone is a great shooter, quickly learn the phases of the game (Four Factors). Can the defender prevent the opponent from getting off a shot or will he foul in the process of trying? How good is each player at getting the ball and getting a shot off or drawing a foul? If he misses, what are the chances of each of the 10 players on the court getting the rebound and which are better at offensive or defensive rebounding? After playing a 35-minute game, people have a feel for the entire flow of a game and can enjoy the next game they watch.
5. If you'd rather test how fast you are with a remote for a sports or adventure game, I understand. But I do find a lot of people who would rather use strategy while learning the ins and outs of the game and what is good or bad about particular teams then a dice game.
To play your own game, click on the first 2 links for instructions and scoresheets, then pick two teams from any of the links below for player cards. You need only two 6-sided dice, a 20-sided die and an 8-sided die. The new improved scoresheets pictured resulted in games being played out in 30 to 35 minutes.
The Value Add Basketball Game simulates each players' ability to get the ball and get shots off, rebound, hit from the line and inside and outside the arc, dish out great assists, guard the ball, as well as steal and block shots adjusted for the level of competition they faced.
While we also calculated cards for every player who played at least 8 minutes a game for all 353 teams, we decided to start with a tournament pitting all 32 All-Conference teams during March Madness.
Click here for links to the season.
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