Bradu's SIMple NHB dice tabletop game
Bradu's SIMple NHB simulator:
NHB stands for No Holds Barred, and it was the acronym used to describe early MMA from the mid-90's when the UFC began running events. The goal of this game is to have a quick, fun dice game for generating realistic results of matchups from the early days of the sport. For now, I've only created fighters who had at least one fight in 1993 or 94.
What you need:
*dice: 6 sided, 10 sided, and 20 sided. There are dice and random number generating apps that will work if you don't have actual dice
*pen and paper to track results
*note cards if you want to make cards for the fighters
FIGHTER RATINGS
control 1-20
standup 1-20
ground 1-20
finishing 1-10
toughness 1-10
The CONTROL rating is basically a reflection of the fighter's overall skill, and ability to dictate the fight taking place where they want it. Royce Gracie would have a very high control, and is going to want the fight on the ground. Chuck Liddell is a high control, but he'd prefer to stand. Ken Shamrock is an early example of a guy with high control, but who may choose stand-up or the ground depending on his opponent. Tank Abbott would be a good example of a fighter who was very dangerous, but not necessarily a very high control. He was very dangerous standing but very susceptible on the ground, and relatively easy to get to the mat.
Bouts are fought in 'segments', similar to a round in modern MMA. Eventually I will go to 5 minute rounds for modern MMA, but for this version that focuses on the early years of the sport, each 'segment' is 10 minutes. Usually fights will finish within the first 10 minute segment, but occasionally you see a resilient fighter or an even matchup that goes for longer.
So first, we determine who is going to take 'control' and dictate where the bulk of this segment takes place. Roll d10 for each fighter, and add it to the fighter's overall rating. A roll of 0 on a d10 represents 10, and also means you roll another time and add that one as well! This is called "exploding" dice. This second roll makes it possible, though very unlikely, for a fighter with a control rating more than 10 lower than his opponent to still get control. The fighter with the higher result will get to choose where the fight takes place. Whichever fighter wins control gets a +2 to his next roll! If there is a tie, simply re-roll the d10 for each fighter until 1 fighter gains control.
Choosing where the fight takes place should be fairly simple. Calculate the difference between the two fighters' standup ratings, and the difference in their ground ratings, and choose the more favorable of the two for the fighter in control. On a tie choose whichever is higher for the fighter in control (standup or ground). If those are tied as well, you can choose randomly.
Once we've determined where the bulk of the fight (segment) will take place, roll d10 and add their rating for either standup or ground, respectively. Again, a roll of 0 (which represents 10) means it's an exploding die! You add 10 and roll again, adding the new roll as well. Whichever fighter has the highest result potentially wins the fight! These numbers are referred to as 'fight points', ie the fighter with the higher fight point is our (potential) winner.
DETERMINING THE METHOD OF THE FINISH
Once we've determined our result for the first segment of the fight, we'd like to find out if the fight is finished in the first segment, as well as the method of the finish. We roll a d10 for each fighter, adding the KI (killer instinct) rating to the winner's die roll, and the Toughness rating to the loser's roll. Additionally, we add 1 to the winner's roll for every 10 'fight points' of damage they inflicted. We then subtract the loser's total from the winners. The result of these rolls is then compared to this chart:
0 or less: the losing fighter survived everything the winner threw at them, and made it to the next segment. In early UFCs there's just a single 30 minute round, but for Simple NHB, the fight will be potentially 3 10 minute segments. So in this case, we now know the fight lasts at least 10 minutes, and we repeat the process for the next 10 minute segment.
If the result is a positive number, you'd refer to the relevant chart for standup or ground:
standup:
1-4:TKO
5+:KO
10+:highlight reel KO
Ground:
On the ground there are 3 different charts to choose from, based on the overall fighting style of the winner. Each fighter's card will say which chart you should use, but if you create your own, a general rule of thumb is if their standup rating is 3 or more higher than ground, they should use the striker chart. Someone within 2 points on both standup and ground would be hybrid, and someone with 3 or more higher on the ground than standup would be a submission specialist. Wrestlers like Coleman, Kerr, and Erikson would be the exception, they have a higher ground rating but they'd use the striker chart, opting for strikes over submissions on the ground.
Striker:
1-6: GNP TKO
7-9: submission
10+: GNP KO
Hybrid:
1-5: submission
6-10: GNP TKO
11: GNP KO
12+: submission*
submission specialist:
1-7: submission
8-9: GNP TKO
10: GNP KO
11+: submission*
Here is a generic chart for what type of submission it is (in the early years, this will be pretty reasonable for all fighters. It's also the chart for hybrid fighters. Refer to the specific charts for jiu jitsu fighters or wrestlers, or use your best judgement. For instance, a guy known for raw power might make more sense on the wrestler's sub chart even if he's not technically known as a wrestler.)
HYBRID/GENERIC SUBS
1-4: rear naked choke
5-7: armbar
8-9: guillotine choke
10: triangle choke
11: arm triangle
12-14: heel hook
15-16: leglock (ankle lock or achilles lock)
17: kneebar
18: kimura/keylock
19: toehold
20: rare submission (forearm choke, lapel choke, smother choke, leg scissor choke, flying armbar, flying triangle, twister, banana split, scarf hold, neck crank)
WRESTLING SUBS:
1: triangle choke
2-5: rear naked choke
6: armbar
7: guillotine
8-9: arm triangle choke
10: headlock/jawlock
11-12: forearm choke
13-16: keylock/americana
17: north-south choke
18-19: neck crank
20: special/rare sub (heel hook, leglock, kneebar, strangle choke)
JIU-JITSU SUBS:
1-7: rear naked
8-12: armbar
13: guillotine
14: triangle choke
15: arm triangle
16: heel hook
17: kimura
18: leglock/kneebar/toehold
19: wristlock
20: rare sub (lapel choke, scarf hold, flying triangle, flying armbar)
TIME
The time of the finish can be found in the following chart:
Difference in FP (fight points) minutes
10+ less than 1 (if a fighter wins the fight by more than 10 'fight points', he finished his opponent during the first minute. Subtract 5 seconds for every point above 10. So a 15 difference is a finish in 35 seconds (60 seconds minus 25(5fp x5sec)
9 1
8 2
7 3
6 4
5 5
4 6
3 7
2 8
1 9
This is my thought process here. When you decide where the fight will take place and roll a d20 for each fighter, this result gives you an idea how competitive the fight is (as well as how 'exciting.') If one guy wins by over 10 points, he dispatched of him quickly and easily, it wasn't competitive. If he wins by just a point or two, it was very close, competitive fight, and lasted longer. In addition, higher numbers here suggest an action packed fight, whereas low numbers suggest a slower pace/not as much action, regardless of how competitive the fight was.
If you'd like to add an exact time of the finish instead of just which minute the stoppage occured, simply roll a d6 and d10 to get a number from 00-59. Subtract 1 from the d6, that will represents 10 seconds. So on a fight point difference of 6, a D6 roll of 4 and d10 6, the time of the finish would be 5:36.
INJURIES:
If it's tournament style, a fighter may win but go on to the next fight at less than 100%. To avoid the issue of alternates, you may choose to just assume that ALL fighters can continue (so you never have anyone pulling out mid tourney, which is a big bummer.) I think the simplest way to do this, is anytime the opponent does 10-19 fight points of damage against a winner, the winner sees a -1 to all their ratings for the rest of the tournament (if it's 1 night.) If they took 20 or more fight points worth of damage, their ratings are reduced by 2 each. By the 3rd fight (finals in an 8 man tourney), it's likely that both guys will have at least a point, possibly 2-3 reduced from each rating, which seems pretty realistic.
So here is the order of events when you run a fight:
1)roll d10 and add it to control rating for each fighter. Whichever fighter wins gains control and gets a +2 to the next roll. A tie goes to the fighter with the higher control rating.
2)Determine whether the fight segment takes place primarily standing or on the ground. Calculate the difference between the two fighters' standup rating, and the difference in their ground ratings, and choose the more favorable of the two for the fighter in control.
3)Roll d20 for each fighter and add it to either their standup or ground rating, whichever the control fighter has chosen. Remember to add +2 to the fighter in control. Highest total is our potential winner.
4)Roll d10 and add it to the killer instinct for the winning fighter, and d10 added to the toughness rating of the losing fighter. Compare these totals and use the result to determine the type of finish. For a submission you can then make an additional roll to see exactly what type of submission it is.
5)Determine the time of the finish.
*IF there was not a finish and the fight goes on to the next (10 minute) segment, we repeat the process from step 1, adding a +2 to the roll for the fighter who is winning so far, to signify their control.
A few final notes:
*for this early version of the game, I'm only using fighters that fought in 1993-95, and starting at the very beginning of the UFC. In 93 UFC 1 occurred, and Pancrase was also busy running shows. Other lesser known organizations were active here and there but those are the two big ones. As far as timing, I have yet to tackle anything but the idea of one 30 minute round, and in those early UFC's a fight going even 10 minutes was pretty unheard of. So with this rule set most fights should end within just a few minutes, but fights going the distance are possible, just rare. Likewise, I used early to mid 90's actual fight results for the submissions that are most likely for this era. As I continue to create more fighters and try to recreate the way the sport evolves, I will work on ways to do timing when rounds are introduced and perhaps some more in-depth charts. I also want to add a way for rare and unusual happenings, such as spinnging backfist or flying knee KO's, specific injuries, etc. For now, my focus has just been quickly generating realistic, believable results. Have fun and please let me know any feedback you've got!
| Bradu's SIMple NHB rules |
| Fighter ratings |
