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Rollerball, as promised.
Jan. 28th, 2018 07:06 pm"Welcome to the Mortrith Sports Dome and Lunion State Entertainment! I'm Tory Andelson, and with me is four-time Planetary MVP, Nagano Tanak. Tonight we have a friendly Rollerball match between Consolidated Mortith and Consolidated Ling Standard Products. Tanak, many fans see this as a meaningless friendly, but you disagree?"
"Absolutely, Tory. These are two very good teams and with early selection for the Strouden Cup looming, the players will be looking to stand out. LSP has an incredible, fast defense, so Mortith will need star carrier Janco Marais to continue to crash walls and reach the goal."
"Thank you, Tanak. Looks like we're all in for a good match tonight. We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors.
One of my favorite short stories ever was The Roller Ball Murders by William Harrison. The 1975 movie, Rollerball remains on my list of the top 10 science-fiction movies. James Caan is brilliant as Rollerball hero Jonathon E. Amusingly, the movie is set in 2018. But what really got me was the sport. Merging roller derby, hockey, and a bit of basketball and soccer, the sport is fast and brutal. So I had to put it in Traveller.
As I see it, the birth of Rollerball came when workers were tearing on the colony ships apart and turning it into Lunion's first orbital port. Working in zero-gravity, workers became adept at tossing tools and material long distances to other workers. This led to bragging, which led to competitions using magnetic grapples as targets which led to teams fighting to hit the grapple first with a large ball bearing.
With the port nearing completion, and after several serious accidents playing "Grapple", the game was banned. But furloughed worker brought the game down to the surface, trading vacuum suit maneuvering jets for wheeled footwear. Over the next few decades, the game was refined and popularity grew as Lunion's population exploded. Today, some 500 years later, and it is still the most popular sport in Lunion March, and has spread to neighboring sectors.
The goal of the game is simple. Put a 2.5kg steel ball into a conical magnetic goal set 2 meters up on the track wall. The magnet is strong enough that if the ball enters the cone, it will most likely be drawn to the magnet, scoring one point. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Rollerball is played on a track 10 meters wide with no more than a five-degree slope running from the wall down to 29 meter point. the last meter is level. At the inside of the track, there is a line showing where the playing area ends. This is known as the inside line. At the center of the track is an area 20 meters in diameter. This is where the team benches are located, as well as the officials' tower. The track around the goal is painted a distinctive color (usually the home team's official colors) in a 10-meter semicircle to designate that this is the goal area, with special rules apply. If a player manages to get the ball into the goal from outside this circle, three points are awarded.
Each team is allowed 24 active players, seven of whom are allowed on the track during gameplay. Most teams use shifts, sending out set line-ups to allow players to rest. In the game, there are three basic positions. Carriers are the players best at taking the ball and scoring. They tend to be fast and agile. Blockers are the enforcers, clearing the way for the carrier or knocking players out of the way to stop an opposing player. Finally, there are the Mounts. Each team is allowed two motorcycles on the track during play. These bikes have handles attached to the back so the Mount can tow other players.
Gameplay is straightforward. An official title the Controller fires the ball from a magnetic cannon into a channel that runs the length of the track. The visiting team is always given the first chance at a score. Once caught, the player with the ball must keep it in sight at all times. To score, the ball must pass over a line on the track opposite the goal. This is called the midline. Other lines at right angles to the midline cut the track into quarters.
The team on defense will try to stop the ball from reaching the goal. They can do this by taking the ball away from the carrier by stripping him of the ball or picking it up if it has been dropped; preventing the ball from making forward progress for five seconds; or having the ball cross the inside line. The latter two results in the ball being declared dead and the players form up for the next ball to be fired. If a player scores, a horn sounds, and the ball is dead.
Play continues for three 20-minute periods, with a 10-minute intermission between periods. There is no overtime except in playoff games. Each player begins with five foul points. There are three referees on the track and the crew chief in the tower. Fouls run from one to three points. Cross the inside line and returning to play is a one-point fine. Holding or grabbing a player costs you two points. Get really nasty, like using the ball as a weapon or intentionally hitting someone with a bike, gets you three points. Lose all your points and you're done, out of the game. Interestingly, fouls are assigned to the bikes, not the Mounts riding them. So a team with a sloppy rider can find themselves without a critical tool late in the game.
Teams are organized into leagues commonly known as "Associations." These range from pick-up teams to organized youth leagues. Associations for professional players are numerous on highly populated worlds, and the bigger Associations use the lower-levels as a farm system. The league every kid dreams of playing in is the Premier Rollerball Association of Lunion. Legends play at this level.
300 years ago, the champion team of the Strouden Professional Rollerball Association challenged the reign champions from Lunion to a "friendly" match. As interest grew, the then reigning Marchese of Strouden commissioned a magnificent platinum cup for the victors. Strouden won that first match, and three years later Lunion repeated the challenge, this time in the form of tournament. Thus was born the triannual Strouden Cup, where teams from all over the Marches come to play. Entrants are split into groups according to ranking and play three round-robin heats. The eight teams with the most points then play a series of elimination games to see who gets to hoist the cup in triumph.
"Well, Tanak, I think we can say that this match did not disappoint, and what a finish! I cannot believe what we just saw!"
"You said it, Tory. If you had asked me earlier today if Janco Marais had the arm strength to hit a 3-pointer, I would have laughed. But we all saw it, with less than five seconds left in the 3rd period, Marais left everyone in the area in shock."
"They'll be talking about this for years. Please stay tuned for our nightly wrap up and highlights from across the planet, coming up right after this important message from Planetary Testing Board. Your test is coming, are you ready? Goodnight from Mortrith Sports Dome!"
"Absolutely, Tory. These are two very good teams and with early selection for the Strouden Cup looming, the players will be looking to stand out. LSP has an incredible, fast defense, so Mortith will need star carrier Janco Marais to continue to crash walls and reach the goal."
"Thank you, Tanak. Looks like we're all in for a good match tonight. We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors.
One of my favorite short stories ever was The Roller Ball Murders by William Harrison. The 1975 movie, Rollerball remains on my list of the top 10 science-fiction movies. James Caan is brilliant as Rollerball hero Jonathon E. Amusingly, the movie is set in 2018. But what really got me was the sport. Merging roller derby, hockey, and a bit of basketball and soccer, the sport is fast and brutal. So I had to put it in Traveller.
As I see it, the birth of Rollerball came when workers were tearing on the colony ships apart and turning it into Lunion's first orbital port. Working in zero-gravity, workers became adept at tossing tools and material long distances to other workers. This led to bragging, which led to competitions using magnetic grapples as targets which led to teams fighting to hit the grapple first with a large ball bearing.
With the port nearing completion, and after several serious accidents playing "Grapple", the game was banned. But furloughed worker brought the game down to the surface, trading vacuum suit maneuvering jets for wheeled footwear. Over the next few decades, the game was refined and popularity grew as Lunion's population exploded. Today, some 500 years later, and it is still the most popular sport in Lunion March, and has spread to neighboring sectors.
The goal of the game is simple. Put a 2.5kg steel ball into a conical magnetic goal set 2 meters up on the track wall. The magnet is strong enough that if the ball enters the cone, it will most likely be drawn to the magnet, scoring one point. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Rollerball is played on a track 10 meters wide with no more than a five-degree slope running from the wall down to 29 meter point. the last meter is level. At the inside of the track, there is a line showing where the playing area ends. This is known as the inside line. At the center of the track is an area 20 meters in diameter. This is where the team benches are located, as well as the officials' tower. The track around the goal is painted a distinctive color (usually the home team's official colors) in a 10-meter semicircle to designate that this is the goal area, with special rules apply. If a player manages to get the ball into the goal from outside this circle, three points are awarded.
Each team is allowed 24 active players, seven of whom are allowed on the track during gameplay. Most teams use shifts, sending out set line-ups to allow players to rest. In the game, there are three basic positions. Carriers are the players best at taking the ball and scoring. They tend to be fast and agile. Blockers are the enforcers, clearing the way for the carrier or knocking players out of the way to stop an opposing player. Finally, there are the Mounts. Each team is allowed two motorcycles on the track during play. These bikes have handles attached to the back so the Mount can tow other players.
Gameplay is straightforward. An official title the Controller fires the ball from a magnetic cannon into a channel that runs the length of the track. The visiting team is always given the first chance at a score. Once caught, the player with the ball must keep it in sight at all times. To score, the ball must pass over a line on the track opposite the goal. This is called the midline. Other lines at right angles to the midline cut the track into quarters.
The team on defense will try to stop the ball from reaching the goal. They can do this by taking the ball away from the carrier by stripping him of the ball or picking it up if it has been dropped; preventing the ball from making forward progress for five seconds; or having the ball cross the inside line. The latter two results in the ball being declared dead and the players form up for the next ball to be fired. If a player scores, a horn sounds, and the ball is dead.
Play continues for three 20-minute periods, with a 10-minute intermission between periods. There is no overtime except in playoff games. Each player begins with five foul points. There are three referees on the track and the crew chief in the tower. Fouls run from one to three points. Cross the inside line and returning to play is a one-point fine. Holding or grabbing a player costs you two points. Get really nasty, like using the ball as a weapon or intentionally hitting someone with a bike, gets you three points. Lose all your points and you're done, out of the game. Interestingly, fouls are assigned to the bikes, not the Mounts riding them. So a team with a sloppy rider can find themselves without a critical tool late in the game.
Teams are organized into leagues commonly known as "Associations." These range from pick-up teams to organized youth leagues. Associations for professional players are numerous on highly populated worlds, and the bigger Associations use the lower-levels as a farm system. The league every kid dreams of playing in is the Premier Rollerball Association of Lunion. Legends play at this level.
300 years ago, the champion team of the Strouden Professional Rollerball Association challenged the reign champions from Lunion to a "friendly" match. As interest grew, the then reigning Marchese of Strouden commissioned a magnificent platinum cup for the victors. Strouden won that first match, and three years later Lunion repeated the challenge, this time in the form of tournament. Thus was born the triannual Strouden Cup, where teams from all over the Marches come to play. Entrants are split into groups according to ranking and play three round-robin heats. The eight teams with the most points then play a series of elimination games to see who gets to hoist the cup in triumph.
"Well, Tanak, I think we can say that this match did not disappoint, and what a finish! I cannot believe what we just saw!"
"You said it, Tory. If you had asked me earlier today if Janco Marais had the arm strength to hit a 3-pointer, I would have laughed. But we all saw it, with less than five seconds left in the 3rd period, Marais left everyone in the area in shock."
"They'll be talking about this for years. Please stay tuned for our nightly wrap up and highlights from across the planet, coming up right after this important message from Planetary Testing Board. Your test is coming, are you ready? Goodnight from Mortrith Sports Dome!"
