I was engaged in a joke duel on a theology site, and as part of it I came up with a convoluted story about possumball, which is a combination of baseball, basketball, and barroom brawling. I'll copy and paste the meat of the description here: You have a basket hung up about 12 feet on the center edge of the playing field. You then take a possum, tie it’s hind legs together, and roll it up into a ball, placing the head between the hind legs and tightening the rope to hold it in place. The pitcher hurls the possum towards the home plate, and the batter has to try to score a run by batting at it with a pool cue. If the batter gets it through the basket the entire fielding team has to do the worm until the batter reaches home, and the coach has to run through the spectators wearing a tie-dyed tutu shouting “I’m queen of the epiglottis!” Now if a fielder catches the possum after it goes through the basket the batter is not out. Instead, he has to put on a pink elephant suit and summersault after the bases, while the basemen carry them anywhere they want in the field. The spectators will also be spraying the runner with cold potato soup. The runner will be allowed to carry his pool cue with him, and each baseman will get a barstool. If the possum reaches the base before the runner, the baseman and the runner will be required to keep their left hand on the possum while they try to incapacitate each other. In the event of a double KO, a trained chihuahua will drag the runner around the bases, after which he will take the place of the incapacitated baseman. So do you think it's worth adding as a minigame to an already absurd project? And no, I'm not on drugs. I just watch a lot of absurd comedy and read a lot of joke books. Edited to add: I'm not attatched to the worm. I can also have them do the mashed potato (or is it the monkey? It's the move where you run in place and move your arms up and down in front of you).

I don't know whether I'd want to play this in a game or not, but I suspect we might be related. :P

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that was a great read [smile] Tell me when someone implements it

I've decided to turn this into a full game (just showed my dad his script (he's going to use his ventriloquist dummy for the rules segment)), and I'm kicking around a few ideas here.

The first idea I have is obstacles in the fields. There won't be standard fields like in other baseball games. The fields will be behind a farmhouse, in a cow pasture, in the woods, etc.

Would it be a good idea to add obstacles, such as in the pasture have cow pies the runners and fielders can slip in, causing a delay, and in the woods having trees to have to run around? Granted, the trees may effect the batting, but it would also add more challenge, plus if I have the memory and/or time left for the extra animation a bit of comedy when the possum hits a tree.

The second idea is free range of motion for the runner. Most baseball games limit the control you have over the runner to the point of never allowing them to leave the baseline. Since this is just a loose gathering of backwoods good ol' boys (and girls), the rules won't be as strict as pro baseball, or even little league. Would it be a good idea to allow the runner to leave the baseline to avoid getting tagged between the bases?

The third idea is a 7th inning show. Would anyone like to see some kind of cornball "performance" before the top of the 7th inning? I'm thinking of having several programmed, then having one per game randomly selected. It would give it replay value, having to play again to see another "show," but the delay between the sixth and seventh innings may annoy some players.

By the way, I'm thinking of calling it "Ephus Flannigan's Possumball."

Im not sure if your going for 3d or 2d, if you do 2d I know this can be achievable and would make for one hell of a unique game to say the least!!!! :)

Since you are already going far fetched and trying to diss any concept of reality, you might aswell diss as much as you can. There was actualy a book written by a phychologist about that... though I cant seem to remember his name. Anyhow, he wrote there are 3 patterns to take in comunication, to try to convince someone that what you think is real, and force them to emulate typical human behavior. To force them to conform reality to suit a particular idea, but make it appear feasable. Or to totaly ditch any realistic concept of something, and let the consumers (creativity?) run wild. Run with the concept and try to remove anything that would make this game appear feasable :) Good luck with it, sounds fun!

Richard P. Cesar

I'm shooting for 3D for the final release. I'm prototyping it in Blender, and once I get everything worked out I'm porting to Direct X. If I have time I may do a 2D free version for the Game Maker community.

Two player will be handled split screen, and I may have network support in the final version. It could be two players controlling each team, or it could be eighteen people playing over a direct connection (i.e. peer to peer, don't have enough funding to set up servers for it) controlling one team member.

In the 3D version the home run events will be handled via overlay. Since it will be a home run there won't be any reason to control the runner, so it will cut to a shot of the outfielders doing the worm (or the monkey), and there will be an overlay showing the coach running through the bleachers.

And it is feasable, contrary to popular belief, other than being able to use a possum as a baseball without him getting hurt.