Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Wayfarer]

Looking over my "Scribes/books" thread (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=73069.15) again, I realized tht with bookworms inevitably come their greatest foes: sports-fanatics!

So Why sports? Sports train the body and prepare for real action. Danger rooms are dangerous (DUUUH!) especially if 90% of your dwarves are on the same cognitive level as insane cat-ladies or if you have alot of children. Installing danger rooms for soldiers only still has the problem of wardogs following your squads around (and having an army of war-elephants, I really dont like the idea of a danger-room). So what other way to train your Urist McsquishyCivilian?
SPORTS!
Of course, the famous dwarven pastme (no, not that one,....neither THAT one) DWARFBALL!
Introduction:
Sports work like this:
-You assign a sports ground via activity zone. depending on the size, several dwarves will go ther einstead of attending parties. tbhere they will wrestle around a run a few laps (increasing wrestling skill)
-if you made big sportsballs out of leather at a leatherworks, they will play some kind of football/soccer (increasing wrestling, kicking and dodging skills)
-if you made small sportsballs at a leatherworks and metal or wooden bats, they will play a variant of baseball (increasing striking, dodging and throwing skills)
-if you also made cloth padding at a clothiers workshop, they will wear that and train the armor using skill as well
-dwarves may have preferences wether to play baseball or football.

Ok, back to the more important topic. DWARFBALL!
If you have a stadium (a special version of the sportsground like a pond to a pit) then you can hold matches. for the public to watch it, you need free space around the stadium.
You may choose to announce a match at the stadium. if you do so, a certain number of dwarves proportional to the size of the stadium will volunteer to form 2 teams. these 2 teams will play against each other.
all dwarves who watch the game will receive a happy thought for every friend of theirs in the winning team (no unhappy thoughts for loosing though, it's a friendly competition!) and a bonus happy thought if they sat on a chair during the game. only a certain number of dwarves may watch a game, so a big stadium may give alot of dwarves happy thoughts, but at the same time, disable your fortress even more.
If you hold too many matches, dwarves wont get any happy thoughts from them anymore.

Now about the rules; if this will be done, it should be done RIGHT!
I thought this up:
Each game consists of two parts: Team A offense, and Team B offense.
Each offense consists of 2 stages: Throw and Run
At the beginning of a Throw, the offensive team will chose one dwarf to throw a small ball at the defensive team's batter, who tries to bat it back. if he succedes in doing so, the throw is denied forcing the offensive team to rotate until they are out of throwers. if that happens, the Offense is denied completely and switch to defense.
If the thrower succeeds in getting the ball past the batter, the offense will receive a point and the Run-stage will start
In this stage, the offense will have to get the ball from the defense's holder (who is behind the batter) football style and carry it back to their side of the field. if they succeed they get an extra point.

Thats as far as i got. I though of it as some kind of siege: first they dwarves soften up the enemies defenses with ranged weapons, then they try to steal their goods. maybe the teams can be labeled "Siegers" and "Fortress".


Any thoughts on this?

[gomez]

you could also have a little league for the dwarf children, and also a world cup, that would give the traders something to do whilst the liaison is waiting for your expedition leader to finish sleeping 

[Waparius]

I like this idea a lot, actually. It would give dwarves something much more interesting to do in their off-time than the endless parties, and provide a whole bunch of things for leatherworkers, craftsdwarves and clothesmakers to do.

It should be possible for high-class dwarves to organise hunting parties in the caverns, and commission trophies. There should probably also be sports played on particular days and break periods, as a more realistic option than the current "dwarves haven't had enough to do so PARTY TIME" approach. I'm not sure that professional sports should be brought in, but children should definitely self-organise their own games as well, and a gymnasium/sports arena would be a reasonable enough construction.

[Max White]

Hmm, seems interesting.
If toady is able to weave hes magic and apply this without spoiling the unique flavor, then I will support. This is historys of greed and labour, or historys of toil and death or a host of things that imply wealth, work and then death, a cycle that sports don't fit into for the most part.

I suppose there is wrestling, that's a sport, or at least it used to be, back in the time DF seems to be set in.

[Kc_spot]

is this just me or does anyone else wanna play dwarfball?

[TheSummoner]

Dwarfball? Nah, I'd rather watch them play Drownball.

Cept we do it the Dwarven way... Replace the water with magma.

[AngleWyrm]

So Why sports? Sports train the body and prepare for real action.

Designate a barracks from a weapon stand in the middle of an area called an arena, and have your troops train there. Training isn't dangerous, and could be considered a spectator sport.

[Vattic]

I like the idea of sports but not so much dwarfball which I neither like nor dislike.

The most obvious sport that could be added is wrestling as almost everything needed is already in the game. It would be only a small stretch to include boxing except that punches to the head are often fatal right now. Racing both on land, mounts, and in water are very suitable. Various throwing sports such as hammer throw couldn't be more dwarven. Archery for civ's that use bows.

I'd love to send my best wrestler to compete in some kind of Olympics.

[Max White]

Well lets look at what a dwarf is.
There short, stout, and heavy.
There not very fast on there feat, but very strong.
Puching one over would require a sledge hammer.
They can handle higher then normal amounts of pain.
There bones don't break easily.

These traits make them ideal for full contact sports. Forget your cerominial martial arts, were talking greek wresting. Soccer? Nope, try Aztec tlachtli. Dwarf sports should be the kind of thing that keep your docters busy.

No throwing, RUNNING AND TACKLING! No bats, just FISTS OF STEEL! Man Dwarf this stuff up!

[EvilMoogle]

I like the general idea but would suggest a couple changes:

- All dwarf crafted balls should be stone, leather/cloth/wood/etc would need to be imported from other races
- Playing Dwarfball should result in a reasonable chance of mostly minor injuries, help train up doctors too.

[Fancy Admiral]

I'd think dwarfball would be a little more chaotic, like rugby.  No passing, really (who cares about the throwing skill, anyways), but one dwarf has the ball (stone?  need a stupid name for it, or something unique, at least) and is trying to move it to the middle square(s) of one edge of the zone.  The opposing team is trying to stop the carrier, who will drop the ball if knocked down.  If the ball drops, there's a scramble to get it.  The carrier's teammates are trying to defend the poor sod, and that's about it.  It's a free for all until one team successfully scores.  Zones should have a minimum size before games will be played.  Bonus points if this exercises military tactics skill (probably slowly).

I think this has been a common suggestion.  It's an interesting one, and not one I'm certain fits in with the survivalist nature much of the game evokes now.  But once you have a thriving fort, having new ways to occupy dwarves is a nice idea, and ways to make them happy is always a plus.

[harborpirate]

Sports is a good idea. I'm ambivalent about Dwarfball, but many ancient cultures used sports to train and show off war skills.

Obvious ones, because they were included in the ancient Olympics are:

• Wrestling (mentioned in the OP)
• Boxing (also mentioned already)
• War Beast Riding
• Jumping (though dwarves don't seem to care much for jumping, so maybe not)
• Running
• Weapon Throwing
• Pankration (a sort of ancient MMA fighting contest)

Also, early medieval contests would fit the feel nicely:
Archery contests
War Beast Jousting contests

I'd love to see dwarves throw festivals for archery or jousting once you have enough troops trained well enough in one of those disciplines (assuming attacking while riding something is in place).

[Kc_spot]

I've been inspired to make more rules for dawrfball:

As soon as the holder picks up the ball, that begins the run stage.
Run stage ends in failure if the person holding the ball is tackled (i.e american football)
runners CAN NOT cross the middle of the field until the run stage begins
batters are placed on a line in the middle of their teams zone
to score in run stage, you must bring the ball past midfield
Throws may only be thrown in the Throw box.
Batters may not use bats to tackle.



^^ what the dwarfball field looks like.

anything else?

[blizzerd]

try to incorporate as much sport elements from around the world so it both has recognition points with different cultures but as well be something unique and dwarfy

[Wayfarer]

Ok I see the point of many people here: Sports need to be down to earth in order to fit into dwarf fortress, so instead of dwarfball, maybe they can play another game:
Fortress Siege!
It's a bit more like a siege.
The siege works like this: the attackers try to capture the king. if the king is captured, they may make a demand, of course, they want the fortress' most valuable artifact.
The attackers dont know who the king is but he must reveal his identity as soon as he is captured. a dwarf is captured if he is tackled and brought down, then he is brought to the attackers' side of the field. the defenders' guards (dressed in cloth armor) may defend the civilians, but there are more civilians than guards
If the king is captured, the handing-over of the artifact begins.
for this, all defenders stand at the wall of their side. the commander comes to the middle of the defenders' side with the king, where one civilian awaits him with the artifact (ball). as soon as the artifact is handed over, the king is free to go. as soon as he reaches the wall (safety), the guards can try to recapture the artifact by bringing the commander to fall.
The defending side gets points for every civillian that fell before the king and every attacker held back by the guards. the attackers get set points for the capture of the king and the capture of the artifact.


The rules are a bit closer to ancient sports and incoorperate less skills (wrestling, dodging and armour usage).