Just as in real life, sometimes an event comes up in a game that throws a wrench into the works. In two of my most recent videos, the outcome of the game/match was largely influenced by an injury event. While at first it may be a little frustrating, it's twists like these that really make it fun to keep coming back to the gaming table.
First off, in my first LIVE stream with Title Bout II, Muhammad Ali was just mere moments away from defending his Heavyweight Championship belt in his rematch with George Foreman. In the 8th round, it appeared my tabletop rematch that never happened, was going to play out much the same as their real life "Rumble in the Jungle" with Ali finishing off the younger Foreman after withstanding an early barrage. In Title Bout II, if a boxer scores 30 points in a single round, it's an automatic TKO and Ali was at 26 with about a minute left in the round. Then an injury happened!
Ali pulled a muscle in his leg and didn't land another punch that round. Foreman survived and then went on to get a TKO win in the 11th when it was clear that Ali was taking too much punishment to continue. This one card changed the course of the match and boxing history (at least in my boxing universe.)
In my ongoing fictional baseball universe, my beloved New England Minutemen find themselves in third place in a tough Eastern Division. Both the Cape Cod Lobsters and Milwaukee Grinders a few games ahead of them in the standings. However, last night on my LIVE stream with History Maker Baseball, second year pitching phenom, Fernando De La Rosa was set to take the mound. Fernando Mania was 9-1 on the season and looking for win number 10. And then a pre-game roll sent me to the dreaded Game Day Injuries chart!
The player hurt was the starting pitcher...it was a major injury...and he was going to miss the next 18 games! Not as bad as could have been but not what the team (or my sanity) needed as we tried to take game 2 of a 3 game series against the Littleton Hops. But the show must go on and the next pitcher in the rotation, Kelly Whitehouse, got the call. Things looked good and Whitehouse was in line for a win, but we had to go the bullpen to work the final 3 innings and reliever Goose Clark gave up the lead in the 8th and New England went on to lose the game.
But these are the ups and downs of playing games on your tabletop and I feel that without these occasionally hiccups, gameplay would get predictable. I wish more games would incorporate rare plays, random injuries, etc. because otherwise we're simply playing a spreadsheet, with (mostly) predictable results.
So while I lament the loss of Fernando Mania, and was sad to see "The Greatest" lose his championship belt when he was on the cusp of victory, I wouldn't have it any other way. And that's why I keep rolling the dice (or flipping the cards.)