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playground:inst17test

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Table of Contents

Intro

The IBL Game was created in 1995 to allow the players of the Internet Baseball League to continue enjoying a cards-and-dice continuous ownership baseball league, and new versions have been released yearly since its creation. Hopefully, after playing through a game or two, you'll see why the game has thrilled players for over two decades.

To play, you'll need a full set of IBL game materials (Batter, Pitcher, and Park cards, as well as the game charts). These materials will all need to be for the same season. For example, the set released in 2017 contains the players, parks, and weather conditions for the 2016 real-world season. You'll also need three ten-sided dice, marked 0-9, different enough for you to differentiate between them. If you don't have the dice handy, there are plenty of apps or web-based dice rollers which can help. When rolling the the dice, the results, unless noted otherwise, are read as three digit numbers.

Finally, even though The IBL Game is great for single-game play, it's designed for full-season play, and so some of the charts' readings reference league regulations, pitchers resting for a number of games, injuries, and so on. For single games, feel free to ignore these references to full-season play.

Setup

Each player will need to select their team, either by picking a real-world team to control, by drafting them from a pool of players, or some other method. In addition, choose the stadium and location of the game. In the IBL, teams may have different stadiums and locations (e.g. One team might have Boston's stadium, but it might be located in the Pacific Northwest).

Once this is done, players should pick their starting pitcher and set their starting lineup based on the pitcher they will face. Afterwards, head to the Weather chart, locate the proper location, and roll two dice for the temperature, two more for the cloud coverage (and an additional two on the precipitation section for cloudy weather, and two more if there is precipitation), then two final dice for the wind type.

General Play

Once the game has been set up, you're ready to play! The visiting team starts the game at bat, and will announce their first batter. The defense will then decide whether they want to change their defense by bringing one or more infielders in, by guarding one or both of the lines, by holding one or more runners, or by keeping the infield in its default state. A team may keep its infield as the default by telling the other team their fielders will be automatically set until a runner reaches base; this is also known as “autoset” or just “auto”.

Once the defense is in position, the batting team may attempt to steal a base, bunt, apply a hit-and-run play, or just swing away. If the batting team chooses to swing away or hit-and-run, which will occur most of the time, the batting team rolls three dice. If the result of the dice roll is from 000 to 499, the reading will come from the batter's card, and on a 500 to 999, the pitcher's card will be where the reading will be. Note that each card has two columns, one for facing a righty and one for facing a lefty, make sure to refer to the proper column for the at-bat.

For readings like “E”, there is no difference between lefties and righties, however, if the result on a batter's card is something like “2b HG ss”, this means the result is a hard grounder to second base if the pitcher is a lefty, and a hard grounder to shortstop if the pitcher is a righty.

Ratings

Each player has a set of ratings and reading ranges which come from the statistics, plays, and tendencies that player accumulated in the previous season.

At the very top of all players' cards is their batting or pitching hand, their name, and the abbreviation for the last team they played for in the season the cards represent. Mike Trout is a right-handed batter who played for “League A”'s Los Angeles team.

Below this, at the top of each player's readings columns are three numbers seperated by slashes. These represent the number of hits, times on base, and total bases for each batter's card against that hand. These are analogous to AVG/OBP/SLG slash numbers, and assume all other factors (Park, Error, etc) are at league average. Of the 500 results versus lefties, Mike Trout will average 132 hits, 264 times on base, and 226 bases, and will get 131 hits, 258 times on base, and 232 bases against righties.

In the rightmost column, most players will have one or more positions listed, as well as two or more ratings afterwards. The first rating after the position is the error rating (0-9, higher is better) for use during Error plays, then is the range rating (A-K, closer to A is better, some fielders may have AA or KK which are even more extreme), used in range plays. Catchers and outfielders have an arm rating (-4 to +4, LOWER is better), while catchers also have Passed Ball ratings (using IBL's standard five step rating system: EXcellent, Very Good, AVerage, FaiR, and PooR) and Pickoff ratings (0-9, higher is better). Except when no other players are available, players listed as DH ONLY can not take the field. Some second basemen and shortstops have a + or a - after their Range rating. These are used in IFR results that end in Close Plays, during hg- results, and during rg+ results. A position listed in all-caps represents a player who appeared in at least 24 games at that position, a position listed in lower-case represents a position where the player appeared in fewer than 24 games, and a position listed in italics represents where a player never appeared during the season, but is still eligible to play as a substitute or due to a late-inning defensive move. Positional typography is only relevant in full-season play.

Underneath the Defense ratings are the Hitting Tendencies. A batter's tendency for a plate appearance is their batting hand, plus the tendency for type of reading rolled. For example, if Mike Trout rolled an IFR against Clayton Kershaw, Trout would be an Rsp, then you'd go to the IFR chart and resolve the play using that. If Trout were facing a righty instead, he'd be an Rp for IFR plays. Sp means spray or spread, p means pull, o means opposite field. Just below that is the Power ratings, using the same five-step system catcher passed ball ratings use.

Symbols in General There are many symbols on the players' cards, each of which refers to a specific situation or play type. Most of the results' meanings can be found on the charts, but some can be ambiguous. In addition, it is usually a good idea to read the charts, as there are subtle, yet important, changes made each year.

1B is a single. If the result is a “1b inf”, it's an infield single, and runners can only advance one base, no matter what. If there are runners on base, it can be helpful to refer to the 1B section of the charts.

2B, naturally, is a double. The runners on second and third always score on doubles, and for the runner on first, refer to the 2B chart.

3B means triple. Obviously, all runners score on a triple.

HR represents a home run. This is not automatic, as outfielders with good enough range may rob the batter of a homer! Check the Deep Fly Location, ignoring any foul results, and then the At The Wall chart to see what happens.

HG means hard grounder. This usually results in a double play with a runner on first, but on an HG-, the batter might be safe at first if the pivot man has a - in their defense rating at that position. During players requiring an infielder to be a pivot, the second baseman will be the pivot on plays to third base and shortstop, while the shortstop will pivot on plays to second and first base.

RG is a routine grounder. With a runner on first, this is a fielder's choice most of the time, but with an RG+ play, the defense has a chance to turn a double play, if the pivot player has a + in their defense rating at their position.

SG is the symbol for a slow grounder. These will usually result in the batter, not any runners, being out, and can never result in a double play.

SO is the strikeout symbol, easy enough. Similarly, BB is a walk, and HB is a hit batter.

IFR and OFR are special symbols, referring to InField Range and OutField Range, respectively. Each player has

! is the Wild Play symbol. There are two Wild Play charts, one to be used with the bases empty, and one for when there is at least one player on base. The batting team should refer to the correct chart, then roll three dice again, resolving the result of this roll.

E is the Error symbol. The batting team should refer to the Error chart and roll one die. If the result is from 1-9, the fielding player at the appropriate position may have committed an error. Note that player's Error rating, then roll two more dice. If the reading contains a number in parentheses, for example, (1), the fielder commits an error, and all runners, as well as the batter, advance that many bases. On a result like (1B+1), the batter is awarded a single, with all runners advancing one base, but the fielder commits an error which causes the runners and batter to advance another base. The other plays should be explained on the chart.

If the initial die roll on an Error is a 0, a Wild Error may occur. Roll two dice to determine the type of Wild Error, then follow the instructions there.

L is the Line Out symbol. Most of the time this results in a line drive out for the batter, with the position listed being the fielder making the out. In games in certain parks, however, this will be a single instead. In addition, if the current pitcher is fatigued, the lineout will a single, as well. However, if the game is in one of the special parks AND the pitcher is fatigued, the batter hits a DOUBLE instead!

Park refers the batting team to the Park card for the stadium in which the game is played. Roll two dice and refer to the bottom of the Park card for the result. With the exception of “3b?”, the results may be found above. The “3b?” reading means that if the batter has any triple readings anywhere on the card, the batter hits a triple (3b cfw), otherwise it's a 2b rcf, with all runners scoring in either case. Note that the triples do not have to be on the same side as the current pitcher; even one triple result on either side of the card results in a triple.

(!/e/L/Park/etc, then Park/WPPB/Range/etc)

Fielding

(Infield in/holding runners/etc)

Baserunning

(Stealing/Extra bases/Bunts)

Injuries and Fatigue

(Injuries/Fatigue)

Substitutions

(Pinch hitter/runners/relievers/sub fielders/etc)

Misc

(Everything else)
playground/inst17test.1495760642.txt.gz · Last modified: 2017/05/25 21:04 by jerry