• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Ideas for a sport

Miles Lacey

Archmage
This is my first post where I pose a world-building question so be merciful.

In my work in progress my protagonist plays a sport but I am stuck as to what sort of sport I could create for her to play so I'm asking people for some ideas. Ideas about equipment, rules, game play and even a name would be readily accepted.

I have five things that need to be taken into account including:

1. The sport must be able to be played in very wet and humid weather as it is set in the tropics.
2. The sport is played by females only.
3. One of the pieces of equipment must be a bat, club or stick. (This is important for reasons that have nothing to do with sports.)
4. It needs to be a team sport.
5. The level of technology in this world is the 1930s.

Thanks. :)
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
It doesn't need much technology but you might want to look at the real game Stoolball.
It is supposed to be the root of Cricket and Baseball... It is and was a female lead team sport and uses a stick/bat. It's played in the UK so it is weather friendly... If the players don't mind getting wet.
 
If only I was less of a geek and more into those sport things (I play Bloodbowl and that's the extent of my sport orientated things). Probably a ton of variations on baseball and cricket already. Not usually tropical. Can it involve coconuts? Is there magic involved? Steampunk variations? Plant punk? Is that a thing? X-treme volleyball that involves hitting the other team with clubs? Making it the extreme portion.
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
If only I was less of a geek and more into those sport things (I play Bloodbowl and that's the extent of my sport orientated things). Probably a ton of variations on baseball and cricket already. Not usually tropical. Can it involve coconuts? Is there magic involved? Steampunk variations? Plant punk? Is that a thing? X-treme volleyball that involves hitting the other team with clubs? Making it the extreme portion.

What's bloodbowl?

Steampunk is more pre-World War One technology so it'll be too early for my purposes but maybe diesel-punk technology could be incorporated. Two teams of players have to hit a coconut over a net using a club made out of hardened leather or rubber. There could be a magical version where a spell rather than a stick is used to hit the coconut or, alternatively, the coconut is replaced by a magic generated ball or similar spherical object.

Some good ideas here.

It doesn't need much technology but you might want to look at the real game Stoolball.
It is supposed to be the root of Cricket and Baseball... It is and was a female lead team sport and uses a stick/bat. It's played in the UK so it is weather friendly... If the players don't mind getting wet.

Very interesting sport! I particularly love the idea of the bat shaped like a frying pan. A frying pan shaped bat instead of a stick! Awesome!
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
Think American Football without any penalty flags and an open interpretation of permissible personal contact.
Its a GW world game. I used to have half way reasonable halfing/dwarf team.

I'll need to brush up on my American football rules. It's not a game that gets much attention here in New Zealand. Down here it's rugby union and rugby league football.
 
The coconut was more of a joke, but hey, if you find a use for it, good on you. Could be like those coconut monsters from Moana too. And maybe you have closer pacific island sort of sports you can draw off of too. And yeah, I actually play it on the computer (cheaper that way). Use an Amazon team most the time.
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
The coconut was more of a joke, but hey, if you find a use for it, good on you. Could be like those coconut monsters from Moana too. And maybe you have closer pacific island sort of sports you can draw off of too. And yeah, I actually play it on the computer (cheaper that way). Use an Amazon team most the time.

You'll be surprised how much something that is said in jest can actually be a good idea. When I was in school I invented a sport called grapefruit rugby. At home we had huge grapefruit which I would take to school and toss around like a football. It didn't last long (usually 15 minutes) but it was an awesome game. Thus I didn't dismiss the coconut idea as quickly as others might've.

It even creates an interesting backstory for the sport. A sport that was originally played by coconut plantation workers and domestic household staff (hence the frying pan shaped bats) who took to whacking coconuts that were rejected for sale.

Now if only I could find a decent name for it....

And perhaps some basic rules.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Is there a scene in which we see this played? What has to happen in the scene? Leave aside rules and such, for the moment. Does an MC get injured in the game? Injures someone else? Does something dastardly, or protects someone?

You might try approaching the problem from the story first, and see if that doesn't help spark some ideas regarding game rules and dynamics.
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
Is there a scene in which we see this played? What has to happen in the scene? Leave aside rules and such, for the moment. Does an MC get injured in the game? Injures someone else? Does something dastardly, or protects someone?

You might try approaching the problem from the story first, and see if that doesn't help spark some ideas regarding game rules and dynamics.

The sport, in itself, is only a minor part of the story but it is a major influence on the protagonist. Because of her scrawny build she can't rely on brute strength alone to win fights so she uses her skills gained from the sport to give her the edge in situations where she has to fight. Think of Kim Possible and how many of her fighting moves were influenced by her cheerleading skills. This gave Kim the advantage over many martial arts experts (such as Shego) who were much better than she was.

My approach with the creation of a sport has been based on the idea that the skills she learns on the field can also have off field applications as well.
 
Multiple nets/goals to defend... think a mash-up and badminton/volley ball/soccer and croquet/polo. Move up and down field depending on team lead (American football). Each goal/ net can be worth different points, advancing players in the field towards more point-heavy nets. Maybe a goal or minimum number of points is required to advance to the next section of field to get to the next point batch. Only so much time allotted per team play to reach the farthest, most heavily defended net. Scoring there equals game-won or absurd amount of points. Nets get smaller and easier to defend, but the number of nets increases per section of field.

Larger sized nets get more defenders. You can only use a stick club whatever to move the ball (lacrosse/ field hockey). Different players get different shaped sticks (straight paddle or curved) to function for different team positions. Goalies can use their hands to spike ball back into play.

If you want a really chaotic game concept, have the goals be double-sided until the end of the field.

I'm not a sports person. But here is a terrible diagram from my doodle app to explain better.
 

Attachments

  • Coconut Sport_0(2).jpg
    Coconut Sport_0(2).jpg
    97.4 KB · Views: 3
Last edited:

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Lacross is coming to my mind. Simply because a good portion of it is avoiding the opponents. I think my initial, not a game we already know twist, might me that it is played with raquets and a bouncy ball. A requirement being that the ball must be struck from the air.

Generlly though, i try to come up with games that are different than just put the thing in the net at the other side of the playing field and add a bunch more violence. I cant say i always succeed.

How about a game like a giant pencil fight. Where the object is to break something belonging to the other team. Rules being hitting each other with sticks is not permissible but other forms of contact are. Players are allowed to disarm and break opponents sticks if able, and disarming and tossing an opponents stick would make them have to go run after it. Winner is whoever breaks the opponents goal beam first...by whacking it till it breaks with a stick. Why women would play this and not men, i dont know, but maybe its just a cultural thing.
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
Orc Knight's steampunk idea, which I had initially dismissed as being too early, gave me a eureka moment.

The sport, which I had initially called aggroball, would be played on a circular field using sticks. A coconut that is 1.44kg is used as the ball. There are two goals at opposite ends of the field. The goal posts are the same as those used for rugby. A steam-driven engine below the goal posts move them around the field. It takes 20 minutes for the goal posts to do a full 360 degree rotation. The end of each rotation marks the end of a quarter. The game ends after eighty minutes (the completion of the fourth rotation).

The field is broken into three "rings". The outer ring is where the two teams have three defenders each who have the job of protecting their respective goals. The defenders cannot leave the outer ring. The middle ring is where the strikers (each team has four of them) begin the game from. They are forbidden to enter the inner ring which is called the Neutral Zone. The Neutral Zone is where the independents (each team has three of them) gather at the start of the game. The Independents can operate anywhere on the field. Whenever the coconut is knocked out of play or a goal is scored the strikers and independents assemble in the Neutral Zone where the nut boy places the coconut dead centre.

Only if game play is stopped do the goals stop moving.

Any tactic is permissible except that a player cannot be struck by either stick or person and a coconut can only be hit with a stick.

There are several variations of the sport.

I'm still interested in other ideas for sports, though. Just as real world countries often have many sports the Empire in which my work in progress is set will have other sports as well.

Pmmg and Night Gardener have really great ideas as well. I'll have to sit on them for a while and see what I can do with them. I'm thinking their suggestions could be merged.

Thanks for the inspiration! :)
 
Now I want to see the concept I proposed played out in a field composed of concentric rings. 2 large double-sided goals on the biggest outer ring, with 3 goalies per side. 4 on the middle ring, still doublesided but smaller goal sizes defended by two goalies per side. The inner most ring has one very small goal, double sided. This field would also be the smallest, and therefore the most congested with players fiercely defending the approach to the lone goalie on each side of the net. I also propose changing the size of the ball as the ring field changes. Large ball for large nets, medium balls for middle ring nets, something like a raquet ball for the inner most ring, so the action moves really fast like hockey. I would also offer goalies a mit to catch the ball so they aren't killed by the small projectile. I'm also adding the option that the goal zones allow the goalies to shift their numbers around the doublesided net for strategy.
 

Miles Lacey

Archmage
Now I want to see the concept I proposed played out in a field composed of concentric rings. 2 large double-sided goals on the biggest outer ring, with 3 goalies per side. 4 on the middle ring, still doublesided but smaller goal sizes defended by two goalies per side. The inner most ring has one very small goal, double sided. This field would also be the smallest, and therefore the most congested with players fiercely defending the approach to the lone goalie on each side of the net. I also propose changing the size of the ball as the ring field changes. Large ball for large nets, medium balls for middle ring nets, something like a raquet ball for the inner most ring, so the action moves really fast like hockey. I would also offer goalies a mit to catch the ball so they aren't killed by the small projectile. I'm also adding the option that the goal zones allow the goalies to shift their numbers around the doublesided net for strategy.

This sport has possibilities. I'm thinking it would be the sort of sport that would be played between military units to sharpen their reflexes, agility, adaptability and other martial skills.
 
Top