Masters of the Gridiron (2014)

Overview

Masters of the Gridiron combines the simplicity and strategy of a 15-minute head-to-head card game with the depth and detail of a pro football simulation. Years of development have yielded a realistic football simulation that combines simple and elegant rules with unlimited depth and strategy. By focusing on one key play in each scoring drive, you play an entire football game in under 15 minutes. Every player, from your star quarterback to your under-appreciated right tackle, has their own player card; and each player has the ability to impact the result of every game.

Masters of the Gridiron can be played by anyone; even those who are new to the game of football. Intuitive rules mixed with tense competition gives this game an addictive edge you won't find in any other sports game.

History

Clay Dreslough, the game's lead designer, wrote his first dice-based sports simulation in 1976. He later discovered similar games from companies like Strat-O-Matic and Sports Illustrated, but he didn't enjoy them very much. It's tedious to spend several hours picking plays, flipping them over, rolling dice, looking up the results on a chart, rolling more dice, moving counters on the "play clock" and so on, just to resolve each play.

Instead, Clay created the award-winning Baseball Mogul and Football Mogul computer games, capable of simulating entire seasons in just a few minutes. We used this technology as the under-pinnings for Masters of the Gridiron -- to create realistic player ratings for over 680 current players, and to create realistic playbooks for all 32 teams.

Over the last four years, we have boiled down 26 pages of rules to the bare essentials, creating a head-to-head card game that feels like football.

Setup

You choose your starting offensive and defensive players, and combine them with a playbook of 24 (or more) cards. You can pair an MVP quarterback with 3 superstar receivers, or focus on your offensive line and the running game. Choose a standard 4-3 defense, or add a nickel back to help stop a team built around the passing game.

Masters of the Gridiron encourages you to create your own customized deck, combining your favorite players and plays from multiple decks. Three simple rules govern the creation of your own customized team roster and playbook. This gives your freedom to build your offense around a power running game or a vertical passing game, and tailor your defense to pressure opposing quarterbacks or focus on forcing turnovers (to name just a few examples). Assemble an offensive juggernaut and try it out against your friend's shutdown defense -- the possibilities are limitless!

Game Play

Each player starts the game with 3 offensive player cards, 3 defensive player cards, and 4 playbook cards. To mount a scoring drive, you match a playbook card to an offensive player with the appropriate skills (such as "passing" or "run blocking") and lay them down on the table, announcing the player rating that your opponent needs to beat in order to stop your attempt to score. Their ability to stop you depends on a combination of their strategy decisions and the luck of the draw.

Players alternate possessions until "time runs out" (when each team has no more offensive player cards to draw). Along the way, you enjoy all the aspects of a real football game, from goal-line stands and two-point conversions to game-changing interceptions and last-minute field goals.

The playbook cards themselves are used to track your score. So the only thing you need to play are two decks (one per team) and 15 minutes of time.

Contents

Each deck contains 54 high-quality full-color playing cards:

13 Offensive Player cards
13 Defensive Player cards
24 Offensive Playbook cards
4 Defensive Playbook cards
Each team includes their own printed card box for safekeeping. Our cards are also compatible with other card-storage boxes and sleeves, such as those used for collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon.

Licensing

Please note that Masters of the Gridiron is not licensed by the National Football League. Our games use real player names and stats, but do not include registered trademarks (such as team logos). This usage is protected by the First Amendment and by a series of legal precedents (see, for example, C.B.C. Distribtion v. Major League Baseball).