Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Over the past several months, I went a little nuts, in a manner of speaking. I spent countless hours creating a solitaire board game that follows the evolution of professional football (ALL of professional football) in the United States from 1920 through 1949. The object of the game is to help the leagues and teams survive, and it contains a mini game where you "play" an exhibition game between two teams to earn points that you can spend on other actions and to help independent teams become "bona fide" teams. The game includes a poster-size game board, a 31-page chronology that tells you what teams and leagues to add each year, what changes to implement, and which teams are in danger of folding, an eight-page instruction booklet, 583 team counters that represent every team in every league and their changes over 30 years, 352 additional tokens and markers, plus more than 1,000 additional team counters for independent, non-league teams.

I've put this thing through seven generations of prototypes and playtesting.

I have no desire go into the business of selling the game to a game publisher nor to sell it on my own.

Now what?

RyanChristiansen wrote:Over the past several months, I went a little nuts, in a manner of speaking. I spent countless hours creating a solitaire board game that follows the evolution of professional football (ALL of professional football) in the United States from 1920 through 1949. The object of the game is to help the leagues and teams survive, and it contains a mini game where you "play" an exhibition game between two teams to earn points that you can spend on other actions and to help independent teams become "bona fide" teams. The game includes a poster-size game board, a 31-page chronology that tells you what teams and leagues to add each year, what changes to implement, and which teams are in danger of folding, an eight-page instruction booklet, 583 team counters that represent every team in every league and their changes over 30 years, 352 additional tokens and markers, plus more than 1,000 additional team counters for independent, non-league teams.

I've put this thing through seven generations of prototypes and playtesting.

I have no desire go into the business of selling the game to a game publisher nor to sell it on my own.

Now what?

My brothers and I played a homemade dice football game for years. Cut up a pizza box to make the field and playing cards. Probably took two hours (including eating the pizza). So I can appreciate the effort you put into this. But sweet Jeezus. If you aren't interested in selling it to some game company or manufacturing it yourself, the options seem kind of limited.

Whatever you decide to do, I got dibs on the 1920 Detroit Heralds....

RyanChristiansen wrote:Over the past several months, I went a little nuts, in a manner of speaking. I spent countless hours creating a solitaire board game that follows the evolution of professional football (ALL of professional football) in the United States from 1920 through 1949. The object of the game is to help the leagues and teams survive, and it contains a mini game where you "play" an exhibition game between two teams to earn points that you can spend on other actions and to help independent teams become "bona fide" teams. The game includes a poster-size game board, a 31-page chronology that tells you what teams and leagues to add each year, what changes to implement, and which teams are in danger of folding, an eight-page instruction booklet, 583 team counters that represent every team in every league and their changes over 30 years, 352 additional tokens and markers, plus more than 1,000 additional team counters for independent, non-league teams.

I've put this thing through seven generations of prototypes and playtesting.

I have no desire go into the business of selling the game to a game publisher nor to sell it on my own.

Now what?

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Well...
1. I work at a printer. So do whatever you will with that information.
2. As a board gaming nerd AND a fan of football history (obviously), I would want a copy of this should one become available!
3. You probably know this already, but should you send any files of any parts of this game to anyone else, be sure to put copyright disclaimers all over it.

I am also a (retired) Printer and (current) Board Game enthusiast.
If I wanted to get the game out there physically I would talk to someone like Mr. Babcock and investigate the options for printing a decent quantity of copies (I'll take one, too!) versus a Print On Demand option.
But that is going to require a financial commitment, eventually.

If you really have NO interest in profiting from your creation you might consider checking out Board Game Geek.
I am not familiar with their policies but I know there are many user created, free, "Print and Play" games available there.
That's one way to make your creation available to the public but you are likely to get very little monetary compensation if you go that route.

I searched "Print and Play" at BGG and came up with a list of games (but sadly no guides or information about the process):
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.ph ... and%20play

I know that a very few Print and Play games have been picked up by game publishers...

So.... what are the rules?
I notice the Decatur Staleys, Chicago Staleys and Chicago Bears all have the same numeric values (as do the Racine Cardinals and the Chicago Cardinals) so those appear immutable as franchises survive the test of time...
Does one play as a franchise, league or just... the spirit of Pro Football?

Is there an "expansion" that covers the 1950's to present?
Just a thought...

I’m thinking about publishing it on Wargame Vault as a print and play game. It’s not fully print and play friendly because of the size of the game board.

You play all of pro football. You basically follow the history of the game and alter it as the years go by. The team counters change for location, league, and uniform changes, but teams always have the same ratings (Stability, Potency, Spirit, and Magnetism... all calculated values).

Nothing to add except this is cool.

RyanChristiansen wrote:I’m thinking about publishing it on Wargame Vault as a print and play game. It’s not fully print and play friendly because of the size of the game board.

You could always have it in pieces and have the user "tile" it together.

Reaser wrote:Nothing to add except this is cool.

+1

I'd be willing to just give it to the PFRA. We could use it as part of the organization's pro football history education initiatives.

RyanChristiansen wrote:I'd be willing to just give it to the PFRA. We could use it as part of the organization's pro football history education initiatives.

I'm sensing a Friday night game night at the 2021 Canton convention. Unless this is going to take forever to play... like Risk... or Star Wars Rebellion.