I've read the comment that these things are "D&D for people who hate people who like D&D."

So, how do they work exactly?

Strat-o-Matic uses cards representing each player's hitting, pitching and fielding abilities as d6 x d6 random matrices (I knew you'd love that part!). Basically it uses a proprietary algorithm that convert baseball stats into a random dice tables. You roll some dice and cross reference the result on the card to get the result like a single, double, etc. or something special like an injury. The idea is to make up teams and play through a whole season with a buddy. I played plenty in the summers with the neighbor when I couldn't get a D&D group together.

OK, so...people pick their teams based on the performance of real athletes, then get the relevant cards, and work out what happens based on dice rolls?

I don't think we have this in Australia (it'd be for cricket).

Quote from: Age of Fable;323032OK, so...people pick their teams based on the performance of real athletes, then get the relevant cards, and work out what happens based on dice rolls?

I don't think we have this in Australia (it'd be for cricket).

Strat-O-Matic is definitely an American thing, invented and run by a small company in New York State. They make games for pro football, college Football, baseball, basketball and hockey.

The baseball game is more about getting to set your own lineup, or having drafts to build your own teams while the gameplay has fewer decisions. It plays fairly quickly. SOM Football is a little different because the players call each individual play and defensive formation, so there is quite a bit more in-game strategy and trying to guess what your opponent is going to do.

Fantasy baseball and fantasy football revolve almost entirely around drafting a team. Groups of people get together, draft a team from all the professionals currently playing the game and set the rosters weekly. You get points depending on how the individuals on your drafted team performed that week. There is no in-game strategy, the points you receive depend entirely on the real life performance of the players that week.

Sorry the only think I can picture when someone says Fantasy and Football is Blood Bowl.  Then I start running plays and strategies in my head and I'm useless for the rest of the day.  Thank you very fucking much.

From what I see most fantasy sports leagues are just another silly excuse to gamble.  You just pick players and then get to watch more sports or sports news.  And most leagues have lots of people shit talking and usually picking the best players and the ones on their local teams.  

I live in New England and we have some of the most obnoxious sports fans in the history of ever.  The Red Sox/Yankees "rivalry" (read: way to sell more tickets whenever they play each other and have higher TV ratings) is particularly awful and the Patriots rather impressive run has made sports fandom even more annoying.

But a fun sports game if you don't really want to get hardcore is Pizza Box Football which is a mixture of chart reads and a guessing game based on basic football strategy with a couple levels of detail but nothing to the level of Stratomatic or Statis Pro or anything.

I play Fantasy Football every year, and have since about 1994. Rarely for money, usually just for fun. If you're a football fan, or have any interest in the real-life game, I think it's a good way to expand your knowledge of the entire league and all of the players/teams - and it REALLY helps make that 3:15 Sunday non-conference game on CBS be more palatable if you have a player or two in the game. Also, it helps you have something to talk about so you fit in with "normals" around the office who like football but not D&D.

I've seen "Fantasy Cricket" and "Fantasy Football" (Soccer) banner ads on foreign news sites, unsurprisingly.

I've seen an Avalon Hill (American) football simulation on boardgamegeek, but it seemed like a complicated, themed, rock-scissors-paper.

I thought it might have more strategy if both players got (for example) six random options, known to the other player, from which they had to select their next four choices.

It'd at least add the elements of remembering what the other player had left, and what intersected with what.