Volleyball World Championship

Let me tell you a story. This game is not just another boring "rolling dice" mechanic game, it is a breathtaking way to relive your High School or College Volleyball Tournament during which you were dreaming of one day, play at the Volleyball World Championship in Japan.

Except this time, it is the real thing! Or is it? Let me convince you by taking a closer look at this "once again great mechanic inspired by Amelie incredible creative mind".

Overview

So, this Volleyball game is more like a rolling path where your ability to hit the ball is measured by your actual score. Once served by, you receive the ball and reduce your score by the service (or the returned ball score). Then, each time you hit the ball for pass, attack, or block, you reduce your score by the dice value. Should your score reach 0 or lower, your opponent will score a point.

You may strategically use up to 4 special skills (out of 6 possible skills) during the game to gain an advantage.

This game is played in one set of 5 points. The scoring system is based on the Rally system. A point is scored on every rally, regardless of which team serves. If the serving team wins the rally by scoring a point they continue to serve, and if the receiving team wins the rally, they receive the opportunity to serve.

Game Actions

There are 5 game actions:

1. Service: Roll 1 die
2. Reception: Roll 3 dice
3. Pass: Roll 1 dice
4. Attack: Roll 1 dice
5. Block: Roll 1 dice

Actions are represented and explained in this decision tree diagram (also available as a card).

Here are 5 examples that covers mostly all situations:

Example A: Failed service reception.

1. Red is serving (S). Roll D6 : 6
2. Blue is receiving (R). Roll 3D6 : 1+2+2 = 5
3. R-S = 5-6 = -1 = α,
4. α <= 0 then Blue wasn't able to hit the ball
5. Red scores a point.
6. Red keeps the service

Example B: Failed pass.

1. Red is serving (S). Roll D6 : 4
2. Blue is receiving (R). Roll 3D6 : 3+4+1 = 8
3. R-S = 8-4 = 4 = α
4. α > 0 then Blue receiver hits the ball to the setter
5. Blue is passing (P). Roll D6 = 4
6. α-P = 4-4 = 0 = β
7. β <= 0 then Blue wasn't able to pass the ball
8. Red scores a point
9. Red keeps the service

Example C: Failed attack.

1. Red is serving (S). Roll D6 : 4
2. Blue is receiving (R). Roll 3D6 : 6+1+3 = 10
3. R-S = 10-4 = 6 = α
4. α > 0 then Blue receiver hits the ball to the setter
5. Blue is passing (P). Roll D6 = 2
6. α-P = 6-2 = 4 = β
7. β > 0 then Blue passes the ball to the attacker
8. Blue is attacking (A). Roll D6 = 6
9. β-A = 4-6 = -2 = γ
10. γ <= 0 then Blue hits the ball outside or on the net
11. Red scores a point
12. Red keeps the service

Example D: Sucessfull Block

1. Red is serving (S). Roll D6 : 2
2. Blue is receiving (R). Roll 3D6 : 1+5+3 = 9
3. R-S = 9-2 = 7 = α
4. α > 0 then Blue receiver hits the ball to the setter
5. Blue is passing (P). Roll D6 = 1
6. α-P = 7-1 = 6 = β
7. β > 0 then Blue passes the ball to the attacker
8. Blue is attacking (A). Roll D6 = 3
9. β-A = 6-3 = 3 = γ
10. γ > 0 then Blue attack succesfully
11. Red is blocking. Roll D6 = 5
12. γ-B = 3-5 = -2 = δ
13. δ <= 0 then Red succesfully blocks and send the ball back to Blue.
14. Take the positive value of δ, -2 becomes 2. Use this value as a S value instead of rolling and restart examples A to D.

Example E: Successful Attack

1. Red is serving (S). Roll D6 : 1
2. Blue is receiving (R). Roll 3D6 : 6+5+5 = 16
3. R-S = 16-1 = 15 = α
4. α > 0 then Blue receiver hits the ball to the setter
5. Blue is passing (P). Roll D6 = 3
6. α-P = 15-3 = 12 = β
7. β > 0 then Blue passes the ball to the attacker
8. Blue is attacking (A). Roll D6 = 2
9. β-A = 12-2 = 10 = γ
10. γ > 0 then Blue attack succesfully
11. Red is blocking. Roll D6 = 1
12. γ-B = 10-1 = 9 = δ
13. δ >0 then Blue succesfully attack although the block reduced the strenght of the attack.
14. Take the value of δ, 9. Use this value as a S value instead of rolling and restart examples A to E while switching Red to Blue.

Special Skills

There are 6 special skills. At the beginning of the game, each player will choose 4 skills out of 6. Playing a skill must be declared just before the action dice roll. Roll the Black die (Ω) and add it to the action roll result. The Black die is a special D6 with 0 (the black ball), 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9 as value.

1. Setter Dump Shot: Make a sneaky surprise attack on the second ball contact. With this skill, you skip the Attack roll. Add the Black die result to your pass (P) score result.
   • Use this card before your P roll (line 5).
   • Line 6 becomes α-P+Ω
   • If the result is lower or equal to 0, then the opponents scores a point.
   • If the results is higher than 0, use this value as a S value instead of rolling and restart examples A to E without rolling an Attck (A) or a Block (B).
2. Power Spike: Practice makes perfect. Add the Black die result to your attack (A) score result. With this skill, there is no block.
   • Use this card before your A roll (line 8).
   • Line 9 becomes β-A+Ω
   • If the result is lower or equal to 0, then the opponents scores a point.
   • If the results is higher than 0, use this value as a S value instead of rolling and restart examples A to E without rolling a Block (B).
3. Back Row Attack: Jump and attacks from the back row. Wow, that is very impressive. Add the Black die result to your attack (A) score result.
   
   • Use this card before your A roll (line 8).
   • Line 9 becomes β-A+Ω
4. Jump Float Serve: Serve with a more favorable trajectory with power, height, and style. Add the Black die result to your service (S) score result.
   • Use this card before your S roll (line 1).
   • Line 3 becomes R-(S+Ω). Make sure to add Ω inside the brackets
5. Double Block: Work in unison to deflect an attacked ball at the net. Add the Black die result to your block (B) score result.
   • Use this card before your B roll (line 11).
   • Line 12 becomes γ-(B+Ω). Make sure to add Ω inside the brackets
6. Lucky Shot: Chance is simply on side. Period. Add the Black die result to any score result.
   • Use the this card as any of the 5 previous skill, or
   • Use this card before your R roll (line 2).
   • Line 3 becomes R+Ω-S.

Action Dice and Special Die

Here is what the special full color custom dice looks like.

Keep track of the score

Use this special card and the 3 included cubes to keep track of the score or just use your memory. Sometimes, it is even easier.

2-minute overview and full game on video

As we say in Quebec: "Pardon my French"! I believe strongly that game design should not be stopped by the language barrier. So, I hope you will acknowledge my little accent. Enjoy and relax while I explain the game.

Overview

Full Game

Try it for free on Tabletop Simulator

Steam Workshop::Volleyball World Championship

Should you prefer old school Print and play, use the link above.

This is us

Amelie is my daughter and we have designed games together since she was 6 years old (about 10 years ago). Overall, this will be our fifty-second game.

Over the years we have been exhibitors at 7 events from school fair, local community fair, Montreal Joue Event to Comicon Montreal. We have hosted 2 TGC Designer Table one of them at Comiccon Montreal.

We paid a friendly visit to TGC at GenCon in 2018 and made a unique Creative Game Design Workshop in an elementary school during which 18 kids created a game in one morning!

So far, TGC has produced 275 copies of our games. We have also participated in 10 community contests and have made semi-finals twice like the preceding Community Anthology Contest with Mountain Dice.

You can also find us under the name DG Games where we team up with the extremely talented Dan R.J. Tremblay.

View our timeline here