11 Years, 11 Months, 1 Week & 4 days into Daddyhood

I used to love making up and playing dice games with my Dad. Feeling quite nostalgic lately, I decided to make up the following dice tennis game…

Simple Dice Tennis

<<<>>>

Serving

Toss a coin or roll a die or use some other random method to decide who serves first. Then serving alternates between GAMES.

As the server, you can choose whether to attempt a HARD or a SOFT serve.

HARD: 3d6
SOFT: 2d6

HARD:   [ only 8/16 (1/2) shots ‘in’… but better chance of powerful shot or ‘ace” ]
3-6 fault (net)
7-12 in (returnable)
13-14 in (ace!)
15-18 fault (out)

SOFT:   [ 7/11 (nearly 2/3) shots ‘in’… but less chance of powerful shot or ‘ace’ ]
2-3 fault (net)
4-9 in (returnable)
10 in (ace!)
11-12 fault (out)

If you get a fault on your first service attempt, then you can attempt a second serve. If you get another fault (so it is a ‘double fault’), then your opponent scores. Two more faults is another double fault… and so on… until you serve a SHOT that is ‘in’.

<<<>>>

Every Other Shot

For SERVICE RETURNS and every other SHOT, you firstly need to roll 2d6 to see if you manage to HIT your opponent’s SHOT. You need to score >= their SHOT. If you fail to do this, then your opponent scores, by the standard tennis format (if you don’t know the proper way to score, you may either ignore it or Google it). If you manage this, then the difference between your opponent’s score and yours is called your EFFECTIVENESS BONUS (EB). You can then choose, as per a SERVE, to attempt a HARD or SOFT SHOT, as below:

HARD (3d6):
3-6 net
7-14 in (returnable)
15-18 out

SOFT (2d6):
2-3 net
4-10 in (returnable)
11-12 out

In additional to your normal SHOT roll, you can choose to add anything up to your EB to your roll. It would, of course, not make sense to add your EB if this made your shot ‘out’!

If you don’t use your EB, it does not carry over to your next SHOT, so you use it or loose it.

Your opponent then attempts to return your SHOT, as above… and so on.

<<<>>>

Happy tennising! 🎾😉👍

Now I just have to convince someone to play it with me!