The APBA Problem

The problem with needless player cards

The APBA Problem

A few years ago, a YouTuber by the handle idjester uploaded a video rant that hit the problem with APBA’s football board game right on the head:

It’s not the most articulate video in the world, and it is a bit long. However, he’s got a good point.

When he first created his football game in the late 1950s, J. Richard Seitz decided to create cards for every single player. All players received cards, ranging from the star quarterbacks to some second string linesmen.

The problem, of course, is that many of the players never really touched the ball. Some cards would be used maybe once or twice over the course of an entire replay.

This isn’t a problem unique to APBA, by the way. Every game runs into issues when it comes to deciding which players to card, how to separate offenses and defenses, and how cards ought to work.

Want to save space and create “team” cards to handle the less well known players? You can — but you then make redrafting teams difficult. Want to card every single player? Be prepared to create dozens of cards per team — so many cards that your customers will have a hard time storing them all.

So what do you think? What’s the right solution to the problem?