Simple Seasons Basketball - Short Season Games

Simple Seasons Basketball gives you the power to simulate a lengthy pro basketball season in a matter of hours! Each team is individually and accurately rated to give you a realistic result in just a few rolls of the dice.

Each season bundle contains a card for each team, that season’s schedule, its playoff bracket, and a blank playoff bracket so you can run your own championship tournament.

Core materials

Simple Seasons Basketball instructions (want to play right now? scroll down to the Quickstart Instructions)
Simple Seasons Basketball scoresheet
Simple Seasons Basketball cross-era modifiers (updated November 2025)

Seasons available

Quickstart Instructions

Want to start playing immediately without having to look through the instructions? I’ve got you covered.

At minimum, you need a d20, a d10, and two team cards. A pen and paper might help keep track of scores, but they’re not mandatory.

Pick two teams. Designate one as the home team and the other as the visitor. For my example, I’ll play Utah @ Washington in 2024-2025. (I know, they’re not the best teams.)
Roll your d20 and d10 for your visiting team. Add the home team’s home defense rating (“H: d+_”) to your d20 roll, then find that modified result in a range on the visiting team’s scoring chart. This corresponds, essentially, to the tens digit of their score. Then add in the unmodified d10 result to their score. Beginning with Utah, I roll a 4 on my d20 and a 5 on my d10. To my d20 result, I add Washington’s home defense rating (d+3) to get my modified result, 7. Checking Utah’s scoring chart, I see 7 falls in their 100 point range. Finally, I add in Utah’s d10 result, for a final score of 105.
Repeat step 2 for the home team using the visiting team’s visitor defense rating (“V: d+_”). Once you’ve added the d10 result to their score, also add in their Home Court Advantage modifier, listed under the HC column. For Washington, I’ve rolled a 7 on my d20 and a 6 on my d10. Utah’s visiting defense rating is d+3 as well, so that gives me a 10. The 10 falls in Washington’s 100 point range. Now add the d10 and Home Court Advantage (100 + 6 + 4). Washington totals 110 points.
Record the final score. Washington 110, Utah 105.
(if necessary) If overtime is needed, consult the OT column on each team’s card and roll the d10 for each team. Add each team’s regulation score, their OT rating, and the unmodified d10 result for a final overtime score. Repeat as necessary for each overtime period. Let’s say Washington and Utah tied at 110. Next I would look for their OT ratings (Utah is +5, as is Washington +5). Rolling my d10 for Utah, I get a 6; rolling for Washington, I get a 1. Thus, the final score would be Utah 121, Washington 116.

Core materials

Seasons available

NBA/BAA (1946-present)

WNBA (1997-present)

ABA (1967-1976)

Quickstart Instructions

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