UFL for Play By E-mail?

[JoeMontana]

Many moons ago (around 1989/90 to be precise), I used to play PBM (that's Play By Mail for you young folks!) football over here in the UK on an old system called Gameplan, which was very enjoyable.

I've been giving some though to running a very basic Play by E-mail league using UFL, and I'm wondering if this is something which anyone else has attempted or thought about trying? I've had a few ideas about the interactivity side of it, and how the players would actually have their input:

1. At the start of the season, each team is given a certain number of "Attribute Points", which the coach then has to divide among the players on his squad, this is something a spreadsheet could easily be knocked up for.

2. Deciding the order on the depth chart for the teams.

3. Choosing the offense and defence styles from the Edit Team page, and even choosing the climate and stadium type for home games.

Anything else anyone could add to this?

Scotty

[Benjamin]

I have never thought of playing by email. That sounds like a good idea.

[JoeMontana]

I've put together a first draft of a rulebook, would you (or anyone else who happens upon this) be interested in participating in a dry run to see if this is something worth developing?

[Benjamin]

Sure. I would be willing to give it a try.

[rick]

I just stumbled across this board, I've been enjoying the program for a while. I've actually been working on the details of a PBeM league for a while.

I'd like to work out details and see if one of us has a better idea then the other. Hopefully we can find others in this world who want to join us.

-Rick

[JoeMontana]

Sure, that'd be great, e-mail me at scott.b7@ukonline.co.uk and we can have a chat about it!

Scotty

[Benjamin]

Joe, did you and Rick ever play any UFL by email?

[JoeMontana]

Joe, did you and Rick ever play any UFL by email?

Unfortunately not, Rick did e-mail me privately and we discussed a few ideas, but a combination of me returning to University on a full-time basis and lack of interest from players really put an end to the project. Perhaps one day...

[browns34]

I know it's been a while since we all talked about it, but I've figured out some ways to clean up my problems with running a UFL PBEM.

Among the issues were:

-Rosters: I've decided to set things up in Excel and run off-season rosters from there. The current software limits your control in the off-season, but our ability to edit players could allow us to create more control.

-Injuries: The latest fixes to the software are fantastic! The ability to fix injuries are going to be big help.

If anyone is interested in helping set this up, please let me know. My Browns are well out of it as we speak and I need to get my competitive football fix down.

-Rick

[JoeMontana]

As before, Rick, anything at all I can do to help, I will. Have you had any interest from potential players? That was where my idea really fell down.

[browns34]

Joe - I've actually gotten some interest - right now my plan is to work on finalizing the rules, prepping a website, and then doing the recruitment drive.

I believe my current plan is to start during/around the beginning of the NFL playoffs (week of Jan. 1)

[JoeMontana]

Count me in, I'd like to see this in action.

[sutto]

Very interested. Used to do the old PBM with gameplan back in the early 90's.

[JoeMontana]

Very interested. Used to do the old PBM with gameplan back in the early 90's.

Are you a Brit, sutto? And which version of Gameplan did you play? I remember mine being the really basic one (which I think was called Gameplan Superbowl, the others being Basic and Advanced if I recall correctly.)

[sutto]

I'm Australian.

I seem to remember it being either basic or advanced. You had to fill in a heap of plays every fortnight that the team would run depending on the situation.

It was a lot of fun. Some guy ran a newsletter for it. You could send in press releases and fake player interviews. Really added a sense of realism.