How could we pull off a ...

[dogwood30]

I know Reggie can televise games. Perhaps we could all send in our champions and pick another mamber to play the games with Reggie with a set of solitaire rules we all agree on. If he is willing we could then watch our teams play.

[Reginald Rutledge]

These are some great concepts that are being bantered around. Everyone on this thread offer some great insight.

For example, Dimitri lives in France. He brings in the concept of "Mail Ordered Games". Dogwood brings in the concept of games on TV. This is something we could all be a part of. If this can be taught to all and somehow shown by each of us? Iron Eagle brings in the round robin idea and something small, maybe 6-8 guys? Roo brings in the idea of some type of combined ruleset and some Iron Man type of solitaire. An idea of a compromised weight standard would be interesting. Rookie has talked about wanting to play some role in making things work in the past. I know Doug pretty well and trust me, if anyone could police something like this, he could. Plus, we've got a venue planned and some of you may want to consider being a part of this.

Let's look at the good of the game and us as ambassadors to the game. This may be worth our time.

Reg

[the french guy]

I like a lot that idea. I had a lot of fun participating to the french nascar proxy championship.

IN that concept, each coach should mail his own playbook too. If you broadcast the game, you can even imagine a direct live confrontation, where the coach can say (on the chat service of ustream, or veetle, or any website like that) what he decide to do.

Imagine this, for example :

Reginald put a I offense formation. I see it on the video. Then, on the chat form (or microphone, I don't know if it's possible) I decide what defense I want to play. Let's say "defense number 3", wich is a 4-3 defense. Reginald watch my playbook (including a precise scheme with numbers and all the stuff), and put my defense on the formation I choosed. Then, he controls the game, like in a normal solitaire game.

A sort of hybrid between solitaire (the coach is alone to operate the game and teams) and "classic" 1 on 1 game.


If we want to keep that thing on a real solitaire play, just keep the personal playbooks, and roll dice to decide the formations.


Everyone have a PC and at least a webcam. We can imagine tutorials to put all that online and operate this type of game.



edit : we can also use that direct live gaming concept in another way : the home coach could operate teams of other coaches only, and play as a sort of referee. Like on a 100% dice ruled solitaire gaming (I know a lot of solitaire players like to play that way and watch the games as a spectator).

So the playbooks could stay secret if we manage a clever schedule. Imagine Reginald vs dimitri, in Dogwood stadium. Dogwood has our playbooks, so on the schedule we should never play against him. But we can receive his team and confront it to iron Eagle's one. Etc, etc... Rough ideas I throw here until I forget them

If we separate the mailing league in 2 conferences, we could play a season perfectly fair with that system.


I believe that system has also a lot of potential to surpass the frontiers and distances, even not in solitaire based gameplay.

[dogwood30]

Wow ! There are an almost limitless amount of ides here. I think if we keep putting our ideas on these posts we can always refer back to them to come up with a great thing. It will be like anything else that's experimental. It won't be perfect the first time, maybe even the first few times but each time we play the more we will learn and adapt. As a solitaire leagur player you already have to be objective and neutral that's the nature of the solitaire game. Unlike the head to head players and I'm not knocking them in any way because head to head games are very competitive I think we are looking to play and showcase our own teams to the other members to see what we've got. I am excited about this and will continue to put out ideas. Perhaps we could start a thread for each facet of the game and then discuss how we all play that part of the game in our leagues. For example we could do a thread just on kickoffs, or passing rules, or penalties. Once we have each others ideas then we can start constructing some kind of rulebook. As Reggie stated we could all be ambassadors of the game and see what we create. Solitaire Leagues are an important way of creating more interest in the hobby. It will also benefit the MFCA as well as all the members who are painters or sell figures, bases and field covers an so on. I know guys who have been playing Strat-o-matic baseball leagues for years. They even wrote a book about their legendary players and members. Maybe we could do the same.

Mike Veliky

[Hook'em Horns]

I don't play much solitaire but I thought of this idea by reading the post...

You can start a solitaire league. League rules does not matter, however all would have to play under the same weight limit.

You would have a 32 team league. Each coach would have only one team. If you don't have 32 coaches then an available coach who is willing can play more than one squad.

An NFL like schedule would be made up. 8 home games and 8 away games.

Here is how it could work...

You would have a lottery or draft and all of the teams will go into the lottery and then teams are drawn. You may not coach your own team the entire season. Your team will be mailed to whomever drafted them.

There would have to be some sort of honor system with this so I would say carefully select the league members.

However, all home games the visiting team would have to mail their teams to you. Iron man works best. Injuries will not be included for the solitaire league becuase of the variations of rule-sets being used.

Stats would be taken and hopefully people would be honest with the wins and losses because they wont be coaching their own teams.

At the end of the season a playoff would take place. The same regular season rules would apply. The visiting team would be "air mailed" to the home team and the home team would record the game.

The Super Bowl would be held at one of the major tournaments either at Miggle, CBSMF or MFCA. The two teams participating in the Super Bowl will then be mailed to one of the solitaire league members who will be attending one of the events. The two owners of the teams participating in the Super Bowl are not allowed to coach the solitaire Super Bowl game. The coach that the teams will be mailed to will play the soliatire Super Bowl under the format or league rules of his choice.

A champion will be crowned at the end of the season.

now you can play a solitaire league, with playoffs, with all 32 teams and a 16 game schedule for each team and not have to play all 512 football games yourself. You only have to play 16 plus playoffs!!!

Just a suggesstion! I'm not a solitaire player so you guys might think this is a rediculous idea! lol

[the french guy]

Not a bad idea, but from my "proxy" (=play by mail) slot car racing championship last year, I can say that to keep interest, you have to make the games quick and simple.

Since each coach will not play his team, you cannot speak about real home and away situations. In a way, it's a journey season


In my opinion, 10 teams (for example) = 10 regular season games. Each team plays once against every other team.

victory = 2 points
draw = 1 points
defeat = 0 point

goal average bonuses for final draw situations.

4 best teams of the league = 2 semi finals
2 last winning teams = championship final/bowl game.


game ruleset : each people can use his own, but has to explain it to other coaches before the game.


Simple, fast and effective system. It could be look too simple, but believe me, between the daily obligations everyone has, mailing delays, job, family and all, that simple system with only 10 teams, it could last during months and months.


Last thing, about my direct live broadcast gaming system. I'm very enthusiast about it. I don't want to interfer with the project on that topic, if you feel that it's quite out of topic (since as I said, it's not really solitaire play).

I will create a topic in another section of the forum, I believe. And I will certainly search for other coaches to test that idea...If you think that idea can be used for the play by mail solitaire league, too, these test games could be considered at preseason games, to test the do-ability of it, test for mail packages, etc...

[Reginald Rutledge]

put a short 2-3 minute session on film and once this is done, create a video showing, i.e., a kick-off, a run play from scrimmage, a pass play from scrimmage, and a punt play from scrimmage. Those are the basic plays. Once all parties who will participate have made the video, let's burn it on a DVD player and create a compilation of methods of play.

Then, once that is done, we can be able to package that to others who may be interested up the road. The other option is to create a Youtube video showing the different methods and then, create a video category for solitaire showing the various methods.

For the sake of posterity, it would be good to have an actual DVD of the methods of play. When one coach is sent teams, he would have the DVD right there to be able to play the game.

Or better yet, add a scouting report of your team with the DVD in a word file for every person participating in this. That way, you know the strengths and weaknesses of that team. As teams are passed around the country, other information regarding that team can be added based on said coach's assessment.

Reg

[RavennaAl]

What I'm seeing here is very similar to the postal league that Lynn had talked about doing last year. Here's my proposal bases on the assumption that we will have 6 coaches participating:

First of all. we all have teams at the same weight limit. We have discussed this many times before on the chat board. At last count, we had about 75% wanting 4.0 as the official weight limit for MF, so let's go with that. All 6 coaches make their teams at a 4.0 limit, players glued to the base so that the figures and bases can't get mixed up. No face masks or chin straps as you don't want to lose any of them in transit. Any type base and figure allowed, so long as the combination is at 4.0 or less. Coaches provide rosters as to who is offense and defense and who is starter and who is second string.

As for the length of games, we can either leave it up to each person, or we can compromise. Let's say that 1 person likes to play with 10 plays per quarter, 2 guys like 12 plays, 1 likes 15, one likes 20 and the last likes 25. Adding up the plays = 94 plays. Divided by 6 coaches averages out to 15.6 plays per quarter, or 16 plays rounded off. So, we all play 16 plays per quarter so that the stats will be consistent for each game.

Now, since there are 6 teams, one for each coach, we will have a 10 game 'season'. Each team gets to play 10 games, 2 games against each other team. Each coach will get to play 5 games of this season. At least one game will be with their own team, possibly 2 games.

Example for week 1: Coach 1, Coach 2 and Coach 3 get to play the first games. Coach 1 has teams A & B, Coach 2 teams C & D, Coach 3 teams E & F. Each coach plays the game according to their solitaire rules. We can allow 10 days to play your game, then you must send the teams to the next coach. Allowing 4 days for shipping, each 'week' will actually take 2 weeks. So, therefore, the season will actually take 20 weeks to play out.

When the game is over, they mail the teams to whichever coaches are playing next. In this case Coach 1 mails team A to Coach 4 and team B to Coach 5. Coach 2 mails team C to Coach 4 and team D to Coach 6. Coach 3 mails team E to Coach 5 and team F to Coach 6

Week 2 starts with Coach 4 playing teams A & C, Coach 5 playing teams B & E and Coach 6 playing teams D & F. We repeat this cycle until all 6 teams have played their 10 game schedule. When the season is over, the team with the best record is crowned the champion. Or, we can have the coach whose team had the worst record play a championship game with the 2 teams that had the best records, or something like that.

Using the USPS flat rate box as an example, you can send a team, packed in tissue to prevent damage, for $5 anywhere in the US. Figuring mailing 2 teams every other week 5 times will be about $50. So, if you can afford $50 and want to play, then you're set.

It's not a perfect plan, but it will allow anyone to play the games using their own rules with teams that should be compatable to each other. Plus, you will get 2 packages in the mail every 4 weeks. It's like getting presents even though it's not your birthday!

[Reginald Rutledge]

making so much head way in the solitaire arena {no pun intended). Let's not forget about Dimitri over in France or Phillyfanatic over in Afghanistan who all may want to play in this league.

Y'all come up with a rules committee, or go with your house rules for each destination, and make this happen. Winter is coming and guys will be stuck inside their homes. What a great time to get cooking.

Reg

[Pirate Rick]

this sounds fun and very interesting... playing games and using other teams your not used to.

the only concern i would have is putting your team "on the road" and comming home broken, bases missing or ruined from all the packing un packing.

other then that, sounds like a ton of fun to do.