Snooker

Behind the Black - Tabletop Snooker Simulation

Tabletop snooker on three numbers a player. Both men roll a d20 and add break-building; the bigger total takes the frame, and the gap between the rolls reads the size of the break straight off a lookup grid, century included. Roll close and it goes to a safety battle, then to nerve, and when one man is a frame from the match the tight frames skip safety altogether. Lose one narrowly and you can go for snookers rather than concede, once a match, with the gap setting how many you need and your safety setting how hard each one is. Four books and seven sheets: the core game, a world generator that builds a tour and ages it on until players retire, narrative tables for the tight frame and the safety battle and the press afterwards, a Quick Play book that settles a whole match in two rolls with a scoreline table for every length from a best of seven to a best of thirty-five, five eras rated across fifty-six players, a complete fictional thirty-two man circuit, and a one-page sheet for rating any real professional from his ranking and his style of play. A browser app plays the whole match with the dice on screen, and a second one builds and prints the player cards, rolling a whole field off the generator if you want one.