Splitting the Difference
We have
started showing off our charts again. We spend a lot of time around here
kicking around different ideas of how to keep the game exciting but still keep
it the same game. We have something we call “design space”. That means there is
a certain amount of cards we can make that are actually unique. There are even
fewer cards we can make that actually feel unique. Thankfully a large portion
of what makes Showdown fun isn’t all the unique cards. It is the representation
of a players accomplishments on a card and the memories we had of those
players. Still we do like to have new an exciting things as far as the game
itself is concerned while still keeping it compatible with older sets. Another
thing we do is our annual #ShotsFriday contest where the winner gets to have
custom cards made. @TomWyliehart won last year and since he has some experience
making Showdown cards from back in 2000/2001 I asked him if he wanted to do something
out of the ordinary with his 5 custom cards.
We talked for a while about various ideas and settled on something many of us have kicked around before. The idea of a split card. A guy who has one chart under one circumstance and another under another circumstance. I was super excited because as a card designer this opens up a ton of design space. It also opens up a ton of game play. Since I am super skeptical of too much change I did put some constraints on @TomWyliehart on who he could pick.
1: Only batters for the first year
2: No one in the top 25 in OBP. Since those are our 11s and
10s and they are so important to the set we don’t want to mess with them.
3: You need to be able to play all 5 on the same team at the
same time under AL rules.
4: Two had to be better vs LHP, 2 had to be better vs RHP
and 1 had to be at least arguably equal from both sides just different.
First
off I must be a pain in the rear to work with now that I look at it. Second the
way they work is when the pitcher rolls the pitch you actually check if he is
LHP or RHP. When you add the roll to his control you pick the corresponding chart.
This meant a batter would have 2 different OB numbers. @RokTikiTiki went
through many iterations of cards to find the layout that said both “hey I am
special, pay special attention to me” and also look close enough to the normal
layout that they don’t stand out. The guy is a wizard and has a real eye for
that stuff. After the chart is picked the batter rolls and finds his result on
the corresponding chart as usual and life goes on.
I think we ended up with a
wonderful assortment of players. I will spend another article where I talk
about each individual card and why it was made the way it was but for now I
will just explain the rationale. Also you may notice we made regular versions
of all 5 players so that you do not have to use these cards if you do not want.
That was @RokTikiTIki’s idea. I over looked that part of it in the excitement
of making the new thing. So those traditionalist you have him to thank.
The
reasons we made the split cards are plentiful. The first reason is we were running
out of interesting cards to put into sets. That doesn’t mean that if you have
one of our sets that the cards aren’t fun to play but there are only so many
combinations of players that can be made. If you owned all the 2009/2010/2011/2012/2013
cards then you had 1,800 different batters. That doesn’t include the 550 or so
2000/2001. Also limiting ourselves to the stats of players in season we only
have so much wiggle room. Yes that is part of the reason we allow for 10
customs with each set. We still felt we could take 5 regular batters out of
each set and make them feel a little special without ruining the set and
without “power creeping”.
Another
reason we added the split cards was it makes line-up building more interesting
pre-game. If you are in a large league how many times do you change your
line-up? Odds are pretty low. Most people use one line-up. In the instance of
an extremely low control starter maybe you move a lower OB/big chart batter up
a hair. This allows players who like making managerial decisions often one more
legitimate decision to make.
The other
big addition is now pitching have an additional element to them. Being able to
drop a batters OB in a crucial situation could be big. Also your best reliever
may make the batter better. Do you want your best reliever or someone who has the
better match up?
Here are the charts
| Pablo Sandoval vs LHP | 5 | 270 | C(11) | 3B+2 | 19-20 | 0 | 17-18 | 0 | 11-15 | 7-10 | 6 | 2-5 | 1 |
| Pablo Sandoval vs RHP | 9 | 270 | C(11) | 3B+2 | 19-20 | 18 | 16-17 | 0 | 7-15 | 3-6 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Chris Carter vs LHP | 8 | 220 | C(10) | 1B+0 | 16-20 | 0 | 14-15 | 0 | 9-13 | 4-8 | 0 | 0 | 1-3 |
| Chris Carter vs RHP | 5 | 220 | C(10) | 1B+0 | 13-20 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 9-11 | 7-8 | 0 | 0 | 1-6 |
| Derek Norris vs LHP | 10 | 360 | A(18) | C+3 | 19-20 | 0 | 16-18 | 0 | 8-15 | 4-7 | 2-3 | 1 | 0 |
| Derek Norris vs RHP | 8 | 360 | A(18) | C+3 | 20 | 0 | 17-19 | 0 | 9-16 | 4-7 | 2-3 | 1 | 0 |
| Jason Heyward vs LHP | 5 | 350 | A(18) | LF/RF+2 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 13-18 | 7-12 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 |
| Jason Heyward vs RHP | 10 | 350 | A(18) | LF/RF+2 | 20 | 0 | 17-19 | 16 | 10-15 | 6-9 | 4-5 | 2-5 | 1 |
| Billy Butler vs LHP | 9 | 60 | C(9) | DH | 19-20 | 0 | 17-18 | 0 | 8-16 | 3-7 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Billy Butler vs RHP | 6 | 6 | C(9) | DH | 0 | 0 | 17-20 | 0 | 11-16 | 7-10 | 6 | 2-5 | 1 |
Do you like the splits cards?
I really enjoy this idea. Reminds me of strat-o-matic cards and all the strategy that went into that game. It is a fun idea to try out I look forward to seeing the effect it has.
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ReplyDeleteYep, there is a non-split version of each guy
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