The Idea
If I was going to make my own pitch, I wanted to make something that
- Wouldn't take up much more room than a normal pitch setup
- Wouldn't require any (or as few as possible) templates from the boxed set pitch
- Had someplace to roll dice contained on the pitch
I feel I came close to succeeding on the first point, but the board is just a touch longer than a standard pitch and a few inches wider than any game which has the dugouts both on one side of the pitch for the coaches. Unfortunately I was not able to quite get the same width as a pitch + dugouts because of the third item in the list, which I'll address momentarily.
The only item from the boxed set required to play, if only every once in a while, is the passing template. While I could recreate the scatter template onto the pitch and for most coaches with a modicum of intelligence, a reminder of the throw-in template as well, requiring the passing template is simply a necessary evil. We do have charts (printed, not on the pitch) which tell us what range different attempted passes are, but the rangle ruler is still needed for checking valid interception players. You can sometimes eyeball it, but you're better off double-checking with the ruler anyway.
While I have seen many pitches with "rails" on the sides of the pitch that their creators say helps contain the dice, I am still not a fan of rolling dice on the playing field. Too many coaches in my league (myself included) have been guilty of hitting the figures when rolling dice sometimes, and I wanted to remove that element while still giving coaches the option to have their dice contained nicely. So I devised a plan to create "dice gutters" along either side of the pitch, each wide enough that a coach can roll dice comfortably in. Putting the gutters on both sides of the pitch was crucial for me, this time around, because I wanted coaches to have the option of using their left or right hand to roll dice without having to reach across themselves to roll in the left gutter while throwing dice with their right hand, for example.
With these ideas in mind, I was off to Home Depot to buy some of the essential supplies... on the first trip, this was namely the wood for the base and the rails, some nails, and wood glue. I would learn of more things that I would need later, and this was by no means my only trip to HD during this project.
<< Back One Page
<< Back to the Beginning