replaying UFC 1 (dice game for early years of NHB)

bradutterstrom

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Guys, I’m working on a dice game to replicate/simulate the early years of the sport, back when it was known as NHB. I’d say this game is in beta, so I need some beta testers to check it out and see what you think.

Once you get the hang of it it’s a very quick playing game, a minute or less per fight. Rules and fighter ratings are available for download and I did a YouTube video to walk you through a demo of the game, replaying UFC 1. If you give it a try let me know what you think!

https://www.bradutterstrom.com/bradus-simple-nhb-dice-tabletop-game.html
 
Is it like MMA Risk? Seems like a cool idea. And you're a gifted artist so I'm sure you will do it justice.

Got the jist of it. Too many numbers for it to be the next Monopoly. Speaking of which if you truly want to mimic an MMA dice game there needs to be a "Go to Jail" card.
 
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Can't open rules file on my phone. Will try to remember to watch video after work

Think I fixed it so that you can read the rules straight on the website without needing to download anything. I'd like people to be able to see it on their phones so thanks for pointing that out.
 
Guys, I’m working on a dice game to replicate/simulate the early years of the sport, back when it was known as NHB. I’d say this game is in beta, so I need some beta testers to check it out and see what you think.

Once you get the hang of it it’s a very quick playing game, a minute or less per fight. Rules and fighter ratings are available for download and I did a YouTube video to walk you through a demo of the game, replaying UFC 1. If you give it a try let me know what you think!

https://www.bradutterstrom.com/bradus-simple-nhb-dice-tabletop-game.html

I just read the description but didn't watch the video.

IMO a 'D&D + MMA' fan could learn to love this game. But knowing fans in both, methinks that's a pretty small market :)

Have you considered starting with players with pre-defined starting values that advanced players could then change (e.g. role a 10-sided, 5 is neutral and if you roll a 1 Chuck Liddell was drunk last night and he starts with x -4, but if you roll a 9 Chuck is feeling especially good today and he starts x+3). Or, a less advanced version would be to just use default values (EDIT: Title of this thread is UFC 1 so obviously Chuck Liddell is n/a, but in the game rules he is mentioned - I mention this only to preempt sherdoggers who like nothing better than to nitpick others).

The actual game play looks pretty fun.

All in all, a cool hobby. Do you make (or want to make) games for a living?
 
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There is a card game version of MMA (I haven't tried it) by the same company that made a pro wrestling game in the early 80's called appropriately "Super Star Pro Wrestling Game." There was a version with wrestlers from various territories on it in the original version. I had the second version where the names were removed and later update player cards and gimmick matches that could be purchased through PW magazines.


Here is what the popular wrestling version looks like:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=901548270

It might be good to investigate the PW and MMA card games (if you haven't already) to tweak your game that you're developing.

I used to be into other simulation board/card games like Statis Pro Baseball (used cards with numbers on it instead of dice) and Pursue the Pennant (which I found to be the best one). Keith Hernandez of NY Mets and Seinfeld fame has mentioned Strat-o-matic during Mets broadcasts and some player card values that he pulls out of his ass on air. It's hilarious. You have to be a super geek to get the reference. But Strat-o-matic is hot garbage
 
There is a card game version of MMA (I haven't tried it) by the same company that made a pro wrestling game in the early 80's called appropriately "Super Star Pro Wrestling Game." There was a version with wrestlers from various territories on it in the original version. I had the second version where the names were removed and later update player cards and gimmick matches that could be purchased through PW magazines.


Here is what the popular wrestling version looks like:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=901548270

It might be good to investigate the PW and MMA card games (if you haven't already) to tweak your game that you're developing.

I used to be into other simulation board/card games like Statis Pro Baseball (used cards with numbers on it instead of dice) and Pursue the Pennant (which I found to be the best one). Keith Hernandez of NY Mets and Seinfeld fame has mentioned Strat-o-matic during Mets broadcasts and some player card values that he pulls out of his ass on air. It's hilarious. You have to be a super geek to get the reference. But Strat-o-matic is hot garbage
I remember a fighter jet card game from the 70's or 80's that - like Madden NFL (I think) - each player would secretly devise an offense and a defense. So if I were attacking from behind the opponent, I might expect them to nose dive, and therefore my play is to dive and shoot. If I were in front defending, I might nose dive, or I might expect the opponent to expect me to nose dive, and instead go up. It was pretty fun, and if I understand this MMA dice game correctly, it has the same game theory (though I must admit I didn't read it carefully past setup).
 
I just read the description but didn't watch the video.

IMO a 'D&D + MMA' fan could learn to love this game. But knowing fans in both, methinks that's a pretty small market :)

Have you considered starting with players with pre-defined starting values that advanced players could then change (e.g. role a 10-sided, 5 is neutral and if you roll a 1 Chuck Liddell was drunk last night and he starts with x -4, but if you roll a 9 Chuck is feeling especially good today and he starts x+3). Or, a less advanced version would be to just use default values (EDIT: Title of this thread is UFC 1 so obviously Chuck Liddell is n/a, but in the game rules he is mentioned - I mention this only to preempt sherdoggers who like nothing better than to nitpick others).

The actual game play looks pretty fun.

All in all, a cool hobby. Do you make (or want to make) games for a living?

Yes, VERY small market for a game like this, no doubt. D&D nerds, alpha male UFC fans, plus, let's whittle the fan base down even more to the hardcore guys who've been around since the beginning (or at least have interest in the history of UFC/MMA). We're down to almost nobody. But, I happen to be one of those, so I'm going for it. This is not a game that will make money. That's not my goal here.

Do I want to make games for a living? Man, how cool would that be? I am always coming up with little games like this. I've done a number of them, mostly for my own personal use, and mostly a very small market just like this one. Among them: Baseball, hockey, and basketball games designed to be played using baseball cards from packs. Have a few packs of 1989 donruss baseball cards? You and a buddy each grab a couple packs, make a lineup, roll some dice and see who wins, using only the stats available on the card. I'm also working on a hockey fighting program, this is a computer game, not a dice game, though it could easily be done as a dice game first it would just take a long time to actually get through a single hockey fight using dice. It's a lot more in depth. Also many years ago I worked on a computer game (in Qbasic) that's not unlike this one. I think we came out with it in the early 2000's, I worked with a programmer who did the coding. I could probably even dig that one up, I think I still have it.

As far as your suggestions, keep em coming! Nitpicking is welcome as long people aren't dicks about it. We're not going to all agree on every rating but so far it's just me coming up with all the ratings and that doesn't mean they're perfect by any stretch. Nitpicking is actually how I'm able to find things to improve. I do like the idea of variability in terms of whether a fighter is on his A game, but I also want to keep things simple. I think if we were going to modify ratings, one cool way to do it might be to have fighters change over time based on the outcome of their fights. But I think I'd save that for an 'advanced' version (along with injuries, which I did mention in my rules but haven't really playtested cause it's one more thing to track.) But I could see something like, whenever a fighter earns an upset win, they get a point to add to one of their ratings. Whenever a fighter loses a fight to an underdog, they lose a point on one of their ratings. That's a very simple example, but you could see fighters change over time with a system like that.
 
There is a card game version of MMA (I haven't tried it) by the same company that made a pro wrestling game in the early 80's called appropriately "Super Star Pro Wrestling Game." There was a version with wrestlers from various territories on it in the original version. I had the second version where the names were removed and later update player cards and gimmick matches that could be purchased through PW magazines.


Here is what the popular wrestling version looks like:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=901548270

It might be good to investigate the PW and MMA card games (if you haven't already) to tweak your game that you're developing.

I used to be into other simulation board/card games like Statis Pro Baseball (used cards with numbers on it instead of dice) and Pursue the Pennant (which I found to be the best one). Keith Hernandez of NY Mets and Seinfeld fame has mentioned Strat-o-matic during Mets broadcasts and some player card values that he pulls out of his ass on air. It's hilarious. You have to be a super geek to get the reference. But Strat-o-matic is hot garbage

I forgot, I'm also working on a wrestling dice game quite similar to the NHB one in ways. haha. And yes, I've checked out a handful of different wrestling board games like the one you mentioned, though I'm not too interested in a move by move wresting one. That's why I created my own, something that moves a bit quicker and just generates the result of the match with a few details. I'm not sure if I've seen the particular game you mentioned, but I have looked into a handful, like you said to get ideas for ways to improve my own games. It's funny though, clicking on your link, one thing jumped out at me right away. Carlzilla. Wait, I know that guy! haha. He created a wrestling computer game that I was using a few years ago, though he abandoned it at some point and I don't think he's planning to continue it. I based a lot of things in my own wrestling dice game off of things that his game was missing that I wished were in there. That game was called AWE. I'll dig around real quick and see if there's been any action on that game's forum in the last year.
 
Sorry I'm too alpha to play it..

All joking aside, yeah, I think that's why there's very little market for a game like this. MMA fans in general don't seem to be the nerdy board game type. haha. But they do exist. Back when we had the Qbasic video game I even ran a fantasy league using it, so we had a dozen or so guys who were really into it. So those are the types I'm looking for here. Oh yeah I was going to try to dig up that game, too...
 
I watched the video. Pretty cool it played out like the real event minus the one upset with Frazier advancing. Pretty creative idea and something that could be fun. There was a simulation board game I remember playing as a kid that my dad owned. It was based around the NCAA basketball tournament. Your video brought back fond memories of that game for me. Thank you!

I'll have to download the rules sometime and give your game a try.
 
I watched the video. Pretty cool it played out like the real event minus the one upset with Frazier advancing. Pretty creative idea and something that could be fun. There was a simulation board game I remember playing as a kid that my dad owned. It was based around the NCAA basketball tournament. Your video brought back fond memories of that game for me. Thank you!

I'll have to download the rules sometime and give your game a try.

Thanks for checking it out! I'll probably run another video or two to follow up with the other early UFC and see how my replay plays out, and also to show that it doesn't have to take 40 minutes to run a card if I'm not explaining every step of the way. haha. I'm struggling a little bit with just how much detail to add in. I want it to be interesting and have a bit of flavor, but I also want to keep it running quickly and smoothly, and every extra roll slows things down. But it might be fun to add more details on the standup finishes, like was it from punches, kicks, body attack? Something fancy like head kicks, flying knees, spinning backfist? I don't want to have too many wild and unrealistic results but I do want to have unique and interesting details.

There are actually a ton of sports board games on the market for virtually every sport. I had strat-o-matic baseball, basketball and hockey as a kid, but I know there were other games like statis pro and numerous others. Title bout for boxing. Tons of wrestling ones.
 
I'm struggling a little bit with just how much detail to add in. I want it to be interesting and have a bit of flavor, but I also want to keep it running quickly and smoothly, and every extra roll slows things down. But it might be fun to add more details on the standup finishes, like was it from punches, kicks, body attack? Something fancy like head kicks, flying knees, spinning backfist? I don't want to have too many wild and unrealistic results but I do want to have unique and interesting details.

I like the extra details and agree that if you're not actually explaining the game as you go, it would speed up significantly. Like any game, once the rules are grasped and you can just play without thinking about the rules, it's smooth sailing and lots of fun. I like that you actually added in the seconds for the fight finish time, even if you say you don't care for it. I like to dig into old stats and fighter records and every detail counts when going back in history.

Keep it up! I'll give it a shot sometime and will keep my eye on your progress.
 
Yup. As far as the seconds thing, I always roll it if it's under a minute...if it's over a minute I usually just leave it, it's one less roll, that's one way to speed things up ever so slightly. But I also think I need to come up with a special way to handle the ones under a minute, because if you just do it randomly using a d6 and d10 as I normally do, you can end up with 01 easily, and even if you decide that 01-05 is all 5 seconds, well even then a 5 second fight is 5x more likely than any other time on the clock. So I feel like there must be some special way to make sure that the under 10 second fight is extremely rare, and then 10-60 seconds is totally random, if that makes sense.
 
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It’s very clever and creative. Especially in the system of determining the outcome.

I was in the process of making a dice game for pro wrestling many years ago when I was in early high school. It was moving along pretty well, but to be honest, I had more fun creating the characters than making the actual game and eventually dropped that stuff by sophomore year. It’s not easy coming up with ways to make it interesting and creative for the player. Which leads me to the friendly nitpicking.

I only watched about 15 minutes of your video, but I think you need to add some sort of creative element to generate more interest for the person playing. For example, in my old game, I remember I had high risk moves that created more damage, but the risk of that move being reversed was also greater. Having choices for your players to be creative during combat makes the outcome more interesting. The way it is by itself, it seems the only thing player can do is tally up scores. Tallying up scores would work really well if you were creating an actual automated game, or if the game itself was a subplot for another game (let’s say a drinking game where the drinkers were handed a single fighter card and the loser has to drink a shot). You just need something to pull people in.

I do like how you formulated your actual system though. Very nice.
 
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