Passing with Dice

[blue32]

About the third or fourth time the foam football went bouncing off the field, my friends and I got rid of the triple threat quarterback. We started using a six sided dice. 🎲 When D&D became popular I saw dice I never knew existed. 🤪 I also recognized the potential: The defense could be actively involved in thwarting the offense. I've settled on a twelve sided dice for the offense and a six-sided dice for the defense. This video demonstrates how I pass.🤽‍♂️

There are a few advantages.

• No passing practice. (this is my favorite)
• No ricochets to track.
• The long bomb is common place.
• It's easy to find matching dice. 😉 

I tweak my receiver to run straight and fast. Using dice gives me an opportunity to always hit them in stride. 😃

 

 

[zak99b5]

So, for a completion the offensive roll has to be higher than the defensive roll?  What makes an interception--same number on both dice?

[blue32]

The offensive roll has to be higher than the defense.  Here's the video for a pass completion.

If the numbers are the same, that's an interception.

It's really gut wrenching when the defense rolls a 1, and then the offensive dice comes up 1. 🤪

I used a D10 for a couple years, but a D10 has a zero which means the offensive dice doesn't have that much of an advantage (30%). The D12 (50%) better enables the West Coast offense and the long bomb.

[NO Dave]

Interesting. Do the types of die change for a different quarterback?

Do you use a d4 or a d8 to simulate a better defense? What about using a d8 for a rookie QB? 

Just throwing that out there.... what did I get?

[blue32]

An interception! 😉

13 hours ago, NO Dave said:

Do the types of die change for a different quarterback?

Yes. When I bench the QB that mean I bring in a different D12.

 

13 hours ago, NO Dave said:

Do you use a d4 or a d8 to simulate a better defense?

Never do. A good secondary holds up the receivers for a few seconds. A great secondary, the receiver never gets off the line of scrimmage. That sets up the QB sac by the loopers. Usually.

[NO Dave]

19 hours ago, blue32 said:

An interception! 😉

Yes. When I bench the QB that mean I bring in a different D12.

 

Never do. A good secondary holds up the receivers for a few seconds. A great secondary, the receiver never gets off the line of scrimmage. That sets up the QB sac by the loopers. Usually.

Maybe, but not letting a WR off the LOS is not a great secondary, that's not even exactly an accurate depiction of football. There is always give and take in a football game. A great secondary can anticipate the opponent's decision with the ball and give it back to their offense, or take it for a score themselves.  Happy gaming, coach!

[Paul Kian]

3 hours ago, NO Dave said:

Maybe, but not letting a WR off the LOS is not a great secondary, that's not even exactly an accurate depiction of football. There is always give and take in a football game. A great secondary can anticipate the opponent's decision with the ball and give it back to their offense, or take it for a score themselves.  Happy gaming, coach!

That was kind of my thought as well. A Secondary that doesn't let the WRs off the line is most likely holding. 🤔

[LandofLogic]

I've experimented with this myself. I base the die roll on yardage between passer and receiver. If a guy is 30 yards down field, you'll have to roll a higher number than if he was 5 yards away. I think just beating out a d6 roll fails to take in to account distance. And what if a player is wide open with no defense players nearby? It sort of defeats the purpose of setting up good coverage if the defense has a chance to force an incompletion regardless of where their men are on the board.

What I do is I start the play, and when somebody is open, I count the yards between the QB and the receiver. I have a rolling chart of what you need to roll for different yards, (i.e. you need a 3 or higher to complete a 5 yard pass, 1s and 2s are automatic incompletions), and then I roll. If it reaches that number it is complete, if not, it is incomplete. Then the defense is allowed to turn two players towards the defender (not move them, just turn them) and the play resumes.

It has its flaws, but it's a work in progress.

[blue32]

On 2/21/2022 at 11:05 AM, NO Dave said:

Maybe, but not letting a WR off the LOS is not a great secondary, that's not even exactly an accurate depiction of football. There is always give and take in a football game. A great secondary can anticipate the opponent's decision with the ball and give it back to their offense, or take it for a score themselves.

I believe it is a very accurate depiction of football. The following quote is from The NY Times, December 21, 1976:

"Russ Francis, the Patriot tight end, had his nose broken by a blow from the forearm of George Atkinson, the same Atkinson who had been fined $1,500 by the league for a vicious tackle of Lynn Swann of the Steelers. Swann suffered a concussion and missed a few games..."

If you watch my videos you can see the CBs, safeties, and linebackers are right up on the line of scrimmage. Little plastic men can't get broken noses. Or concussions. And little plastic fingers certainly can't hold. But they can hit. They can hit really hard. That's the joy of the game for me.

Pretending little plastic men are NFL players is a lot like pretending little plastic motels are real motels in Monopoly, it isn't necessary for the electric football to be fun.

I appreciate that many hobbyists pretend a TTQB is like a high school, college, or NFL Quarterback. But the act of pulling back on a little plastic catapult doesn't seem like a skill that is necessary to enjoy a long bomb. Or a 10 yard down and out. The little plastic men + bases run. They run really fast. That's the joy of the game for me.

I love this quote from John Elway: 

After being knocked out of the game by Jack Lambert, Elway said:

He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, you can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant. I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of here!

I suppose having a "pad-to-pad" version of a heart-to-heart with Jack Lambert would solicit some initial concerns, no?

[Coach Shawn]

On 2/28/2022 at 8:17 AM, LandofLogic said:

What I do is I start the play, and when somebody is open, I count the yards between the QB and the receiver. I have a rolling chart of what you need to roll for different yards, (i.e. you need a 3 or higher to complete a 5 yard pass, 1s and 2s are automatic incompletions), and then I roll. If it reaches that number it is complete, if not, it is incomplete. Then the defense is allowed to turn two players towards the defender (not move them, just turn them) and the play resumes.

It has its flaws, but it's a work in progress.

Interesting.  While reading this my first thought was that after calculating QB to Receiver distance uou would then measure distance between defender and receiver snd then use both measurements to get the final dice roll. 
you could even incorporate defenders position relative to the incoming pass, is he between the qb and receiver or is he behind the receiver?

[LandofLogic]

35 minutes ago, Coach Shawn said:

Interesting.  While reading this my first thought was that after calculating QB to Receiver distance uou would then measure distance between defender and receiver snd then use both measurements to get the final dice roll. 
you could even incorporate defenders position relative to the incoming pass, is he between the qb and receiver or is he behind the receiver?

Yup, I was thinking about that yesterday. I'm just not sure how to determine what number you have to roll to determine if the defender smacks it away. Maybe only roll a defensive die the defender is in the vicinity of the receiver, or if there is a defender that is free that is near the QB. But it does get convoluted at some point, so you sort of have to determine what you want to keep in and leave out.

[zak99b5]

Yes, convoluted.

If it's a deep pass, there's more time for a defender to make a break for the ball, so that would need to be considered.

One could use measuring sticks (short, medium, and long) to figure it out, but at that point just use passing sticks as intended.

The one bonus to a dice method over passing sticks is when you want to throw a slant over the middle.  Very hard to replicate with passing sticks, as there usually are just too many guys in the area for ball placement.