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How NFL Showdown is Played "I was at GenCon a week back and took part in the NFL Showdown demo, and here is some of the info I observed/asked about: First, your teams. Teams are comprised of 20 players, split into offensive, defensive, and special team players, totaling 5000 points. The offensive categories are QB, RB, WR/TE, and OL. The defensive categories are DL, LB, CB, and S. Special teams are K and P. You stack your players in each category by points, the highest RB being RB #1, the second-highest being RB #2, and so on. So let's run a play. The offense has a bunch of plays, as does the defense. I wasn't able to find out how many plays each side gets, because it didn't seem like WotC had come to a decision yet. On one side is the formation (for example, pro set for offense, 3-4 for defense), and the specific play is on the other (down and out, short zone). The offense begins by picking a play and putting it face down on the board, so that the defense can only see what FORMATION the offense is in. From that, the defense must determine what play to run and show its own formation. If the offense doesn't like what it sees from the defensive formation, it can switch its play, but that allows the defense to do the same after seeing the offensive switch. So basically this step goes on until both sides are content with their plays based on the opposing side's formation. Passes are divided into short and long ranges, while runs are divided into left, middle, and right. All play and player cards have bar codes which are scanned into the handset/computer thingie just like a credit card. So first the offensive play is announced, then scanned, followed by the defensive play. The computer will then ask to scan a certain offensive player's card, such as "RB #1." It will then display which attribute it was checking, such as Speed, Power, Hands, etc. Next, it will ask to scan one defensive card, after which it will state which attribute it was checking. Once you've played the game for about 30 minutes, it's pretty easy to infer what's going on inside the computer's 'head'. For instance, if the offense played a pass, the defense played a LB blitz, and the computer asks to scan OL #2, it's probably checking to see if the offensive line can hold back the defense in time to get the pass off or if the QB will get dumped on his butt. After scanning both players, a gain/loss result will be given, always a multiple of 5 (i.e. 0,5,10,15,20..). It will also say whether there is a possibility for an injury, turnover, or penalty. That's where strategy cards come in, along with modifying yard totals (such as "change the yards gained on a pass to your QBs range, rounded to the nearest 5 yards"). The random element is provided for in the computer's programming. A couple times the exact same plays were called on both sides, the same players were asked for, the same attributes were checked, yet different results were given. Other times when the same plays were called against one another, different players were asked for. Kickoffs and field goals are done with the good ol' 20-sided die. In the basic game, where you don't buy kickers, I think field goals from the 10-yard line or less (symbolizing a 27-yarder and in) are successful on a 3-20, and it gets harder with each 10 yards. In the base rules, you can't try a FG past the 40 (so 57 yards), but I'm sure there's a strategy card for it somewhere. All I know is I saw John Hall's card and he sucks. You start the game with 3 strategy cards and you draw one with every first down or turnover. As of last week, WotC hadn't decided if a deck should be 20 cards or 40. Why is this important? Because a half is suppose to go on until you draw (not play, just draw) your last strat card. If it's 40, it seems to me NFL Showdown will be a bit longer to play than MLB. I should've written this sooner so I'd have a better memory about good players. Vinny Testaverde was 100 points I think, but he drove the ball down the field for me quite nicely. Troy Brown was pretty sweet and 500something. Deion Sanders stunk, but hey, Deion Sanders stinks. Tony Richardson was 490 and had some good stats. Jeff Garcia was up there. I was really hoping to get a peek at Jimmy "I'm Feeling Kinda Queasy" Smith but they didn't have him there. If you only have one quarterback on your roster and he gets injured, the computer has a system that simulates an emergency-type player. The little computer gizmos were temperamental, but the demo guys said they had been around for awhile and the retail versions would play nice. Other than that, I'd be a little worried about the bar codes on the cards wearing out, especially on holos, which are much more expensive to replace. The staff said they were working on making the cards readable through plastic sleeves. Technically, you can have as many or as few players at each position as you want, since the computer has the default button (which signifies an average/emergency player). Let me give you an example:I had one safety on my team, but he was injured due to a strat card played by my opponent. Later, after plays were scanned, the comp asked for my #1 safety, but since I didn't have any, I just hit the default button and the result was a 5-yard gain (so obviously the receiver wasn't out there all alone or it would've been a 100-yard gain). I would guess the optimal team would be 2 QBs, 2 RBs, 3WRs, 1TE, 2OLs, 2DLs, 2LBs, 2CBs, 2Ss, 1K, and 1P, but I didn't get to see a copy of the rules"-Showdowncards.com |