Fictional League Story Line

[myasu]

Hi,

I have enjoyed this great game for about 8~9 months now, and am interested in trying to build my own fictional league now. (With all the new features of the games, I can not resist it!)

I would like to know what kind of "Story/Setups" for the fictional league everybody out here has, to keep the motivation going and everything interesting!

Any kind of input here would be help here for me to create my own.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[ifspuds]

I might suggest taking a look through the Dynasty Forum. Loaded with lots of fictional leagues of all kinds that might inspire you.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by ifspuds

I might suggest taking a look through the Dynasty Forum. Loaded with lots of fictional leagues of all kinds that might inspire you.

I know ifspuds,

Thanks a lot.

I have actually read many of them before making this thread.
Well, you might not agree with me, but I think many of the great dynasty reports there seem to be created based on historical leagues.

A also think there should be many fictional players who just do not feel like making the dynasty reports (That is a lot of work!), but have great ideas about it!

[DreamTeams]

What keeps me interested in my solo Metro Leagues project is creating fictional players (future stars) and dropping them in the league to see what they do. I send them to my independent league first for three seasons to see how well they do then bring them over to the Metros. It allows me to add a instant shot of excitement that keeps me interested in my fictional league. I play in god mode and do not control any teams.

My league is set in a fictioanl country off the Atlantic called the Metrolpolitan Republic. Baseball is the only sport played professionally in the country so it's the only game in town. The fictional clubs all play in fictional metropolitan cities. It consists of a classic set up of 16 teams in two leagues (East/West) with no divisions. As mentioned before, there is also an independent league that consists of 24 teams. Players can jump from the independents to the Metros when they become from free agents.

For a little inspiration you can read more about the Metros at my site.

[kenyan_cheena]

In one of my earlier fictional dynasties (now discontinued) I used the premise that baseball was a disorganised sport below football and basketball in popularity, with five different regional leagues across America. A group of prominent businessmen took steps to bring the best teams from each region together into one league and make the sport more popular.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by DreamTeams

What keeps me interested in my solo Metro Leagues project is creating fictional players (future stars) and dropping them in the league to see what they do. I send them to my independent league first for three seasons to see how well they do then bring them over to the Metros. It allows me to add a instant shot of excitement that keeps me interested in my fictional league. I play in god mode and do not control any teams.

My league is set in a fictioanl country off the Atlantic called the Metrolpolitan Republic. Baseball is the only sport played professionally in the country so it's the only game in town. The fictional clubs all play in fictional metropolitan cities. It consists of a classic set up of 16 teams in two leagues (East/West) with no divisions. As mentioned before, there is also an independent league that consists of 24 teams. Players can jump from the independents to the Metros when they become from free agents.

For a little inspiration you can read more about the Metros at my site.

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

In one of my earlier fictional dynasties (now discontinued) I used the premise that baseball was a disorganised sport below football and basketball in popularity, with five different regional leagues across America. A group of prominent businessmen took steps to bring the best teams from each region together into one league and make the sport more popular.

Thank you both for a great input!
These stories both certainly add excitements to the game!

Did you set up your league from scratch? Without any template or qs?

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by myasu

Thank you both for a great input!
These stories both certainly add excitements to the game!

Did you set up your league from scratch? Without any template or qs?

No problem. The league I'm talking about started in 1953, using version 6.12. It had 32 teams divided into four divisions of eight with a 156 game schedule. (84 div, 48 inter-div, 24 interleague). I entered the schedule manually which is something I'd recommend avoiding if you can.

I'm currently working on another one that will include fictional players but will be pretty close to real life history as far as teams entering the league is concerned. I'll be posting about it in the dynasty forum once I get to the point where I want to start chronicling it in a detailed fashion.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

No problem. The league I'm talking about started in 1953, using version 6.12. It had 32 teams divided into four divisions of eight with a 156 game schedule. (84 div, 48 inter-div, 24 interleague). I entered the schedule manually which is something I'd recommend avoiding if you can.

I'm currently working on another one that will include fictional players but will be pretty close to real life history as far as teams entering the league is concerned. I'll be posting about it in the dynasty forum once I get to the point where I want to start chronicling it in a detailed fashion.

Kenyan_cheena,

Great ideas and tips!
Thanks a lot.

I am sure I will visit your report once you start chronicing again!!!!

[Bobble]

More detail than you probably want here: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=149697

One of the things that helps me stay into it is writing a game recap for every game my team plays. It can be a little tedious at times but it keeps me focussed on "what's the story" for this game. Rather than did we win/did we lose, it keeps me interested in what is going on with my team. Who's not hitting still, another great outing by this guy, almost a no-hitter, etc.

[ctorg]

I have used several story lines repeatedly, or at least variations of them.

One of my favorites is to have the Federal League become not only competitive, but strong enough to force the AL and NL into a single league and have some massive realignment circa 1920 that sets up 24 teams in four six-team divisions. I've done this with both historical and fictional players, and I just carry out history from there with my own alterations.

I have also played out alternate versions of history that I've tried to keep realistic (e.g. no teams too far west in early years, expansion as population grows out west, etc.), but different from reality. For instance, I may have different cities with teams or more or less teams or different league alignments.

I have also had far-future leagues, usually after some apocalypse, the world is rebuilding and interest in an old favorite pastime is rekindled. These sometimes take place on Earth, sometimes on some other planet or reality, never so far off from current things that it makes thinking it through take too long to get to the game play, though.

I've also had complete fantasy leagues where I make up foreign countries or even just separate realities with no reference to our own.

I've also done smaller leagues, like a NYC Metro league and a Northeastern league, and I've once or twice had a mega-league that houses several of these regional ones.

I've done a few things like "What if the Dodgers never left Brooklyn" or "What if the strike in 1981 made things fall apart and a new league formed a few years later" and all that.

I generally don't like to have a huge number of teams because it slows things down and I like to play fast. Generally, I tend to get too ambitious in setting up leagues and lose my gusto for them before I even begin. My most successful endeavors have usually been my most straightforward. For instance, my current 110-season-old league (the longest running in game time that I've ever had) was created by modifying team and ballpark names in Lahman and using fictional players.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by Bobble

More detail than you probably want here: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=149697

One of the things that helps me stay into it is writing a game recap for every game my team plays. It can be a little tedious at times but it keeps me focussed on "what's the story" for this game. Rather than did we win/did we lose, it keeps me interested in what is going on with my team. Who's not hitting still, another great outing by this guy, almost a no-hitter, etc.

Thanks, Bobble!

Writing game recaps would certainly help me keeping the motivation for the league/team.
Another great idea here.
But, how long will it take for you to just play a sngle game, and write a game recap.
20~30 minutes?

[myasu]

Originally Posted by ctorg

I have used several story lines repeatedly, or at least variations of them.

One of my favorites is to have the Federal League become not only competitive, but strong enough to force the AL and NL into a single league and have some massive realignment circa 1920 that sets up 24 teams in four six-team divisions. I've done this with both historical and fictional players, and I just carry out history from there with my own alterations.

I have also played out alternate versions of history that I've tried to keep realistic (e.g. no teams too far west in early years, expansion as population grows out west, etc.), but different from reality. For instance, I may have different cities with teams or more or less teams or different league alignments.

I have also had far-future leagues, usually after some apocalypse, the world is rebuilding and interest in an old favorite pastime is rekindled. These sometimes take place on Earth, sometimes on some other planet or reality, never so far off from current things that it makes thinking it through take too long to get to the game play, though.

I've also had complete fantasy leagues where I make up foreign countries or even just separate realities with no reference to our own.

I've also done smaller leagues, like a NYC Metro league and a Northeastern league, and I've once or twice had a mega-league that houses several of these regional ones.

I've done a few things like "What if the Dodgers never left Brooklyn" or "What if the strike in 1981 made things fall apart and a new league formed a few years later" and all that.

I generally don't like to have a huge number of teams because it slows things down and I like to play fast. Generally, I tend to get too ambitious in setting up leagues and lose my gusto for them before I even begin. My most successful endeavors have usually been my most straightforward. For instance, my current 110-season-old league (the longest running in game time that I've ever had) was created by modifying team and ballpark names in Lahman and using fictional players.

Hi ctorg,

Thanks a lot for your feedback.
I am the same as you, in sort of getting too ambitious in setting up leagues...
That is part of the reasons why I made this thread, to see how everybody else keep motivated to go on....

To me, "coming up with the story and setting up the league" part is the biggest joy of this game! (Not that playing itself is dull, just setting up part is so fun!)

My recent story was,

1. Set up the MLB with *** at 1958 (Both historical. With the murmur13's great set!)

2. Put my father, myself, my brother in *** as a rookie with certain ratings (20/60, with various specialties) when the one becomes 18 years old. They all will be drafted by a Japanese team, and I am not managing a team, so you never know what will happen.

3. And you just enjoy watching youself, your father, brother, and even my daughters (7 & 4 now!) as the first professional female ball players. (Obviously, at this point all the players would be fictional)

4. The result, they all somehow made the MLB, and my father's name is on the alltime leadersboard! Most Strike outs/season(198) And he is a hitter!

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by myasu

But, how long will it take for you to just play a sngle game, and write a game recap.
20~30 minutes?

Probably no more than 20 minutes usually. The recaps I do are usually only 3-5 sentences. As the game is going on, I try to come up with what the main story of this game would be and a title (e.g. "Blasted"). Then I write a few sentences working that into the verbage with a closing sentence on how the game turned out. All this from the point of view of a local sports writer from the team I manage. And, as it happens, my trademark has been to wedge the word "today" in there somewhere with every recap (God only knows why I do that). Something like:

"Your Pastimers were absolutely blasted by the league-leading All Reds today. Clark McGurl gave up 3 dingers, two to Country Gates, and closer Dallas Dannattet followed suit giving up a solo blast in the ninth to close the game. Pastime hitters seemed to be in awe of the Red hitting display. Pastimers lose this one 8-0."

FWIW.

BTW, did this get moved to another forum or am I losing it?

[ifspuds]

Yeah, it moved.

[DreamTeams]

Originally Posted by myasu

Did you set up your league from scratch? Without any template or qs?

Yes. I set mine up from scratch and added rules for play from various eras of baseball. I've been playing this league since OOTP3. I've had to start over several times, but this is the first version of OOTP that has allowed me to add all of the league features I've dreamt about within the game itself.

[kenyan_cheena]

Originally Posted by myasu

and even my daughters (7 & 4 now!) as the first professional female ball players.

Are you jionaran?

[myasu]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

Are you jionaran?

What is jionaran?
What does it mean?

[kenyan_cheena]

Don't worry, just jokes. There was a guy named jionaran who posted a whole bunch of dynasty threads that would each die before the end of the first page. In a couple of them he had school aged girls playing in MLB.

No offense meant, just being silly.

I hope that you have a lot of fun with your dynasty, myasu. That's really the most important thing, for it to be fun. There's no way my HBF thread would have reached 65 pages if I wasn't having fun doing it.

I also hope that when I start my next baseball dynasty, you sign up a fictional player in it. Like others have done before, I'll be inviting community members to contribute fictional players to the dynasty.

[myasu]

Originally Posted by kenyan_cheena

Don't worry, just jokes. There was a guy named jionaran who posted a whole bunch of dynasty threads that would each die before the end of the first page. In a couple of them he had school aged girls playing in MLB.

No offense meant, just being silly.

I hope that you have a lot of fun with your dynasty, myasu. That's really the most important thing, for it to be fun. There's no way my HBF thread would have reached 65 pages if I wasn't having fun doing it.

I also hope that when I start my next baseball dynasty, you sign up a fictional player in it. Like others have done before, I'll be inviting community members to contribute fictional players to the dynasty.

kenyan_cheena,

OK, I got it.
Thanks for your feedbacks.
Looking forward to your next baseball dynasty.

I am sure I will enjoy my dinasty, and will post it here once I know it will be something that people can enjoy as well.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by myasu

Hi ctorg,

Thanks a lot for your feedback.
I am the same as you, in sort of getting too ambitious in setting up leagues...
That is part of the reasons why I made this thread, to see how everybody else keep motivated to go on....

To me, "coming up with the story and setting up the league" part is the biggest joy of this game! (Not that playing itself is dull, just setting up part is so fun!)

I agree. Unfortunately, there seems to be an inverse correlation between how much time I put into setting up a league and how long I go with it once it begins. I guess that has something to do with building up too many preconceived notions ahead of time, or maybe I just burn out on the league too soon. I don't think I've ever had a "big idea" league go more than a few seasons before I started to lose my interest. After the big setup, I guess playing the game can actually seem kind of humdrum.