I made up a new (I think) game that emphasizes safety play and kicking as well as shotmaking. Here goes:
You rack 9 balls (short rack) or 15 balls (full rack) and break normally. For the short rack game the 5 is the money ball and for the full rack game the 9 is the money ball. You play in rotation and the person who legally pockets the money ball wins.
The extra balls are just blocking balls to enable safety play. More blocking balls = easier to get ball in hand and harder to run out.
You can only legally pocket a ball if you start your inning with ball in hand. Ball in hand rules are consistent with rotation games. Table scratches, scratches and illegal hits are ball in hand fouls.
So if you get ball in hand and run to the 5 you win.
The general strategy would be to maximize every ball in hand you get and try to avoid giving your opponent ball in hand. So you would be playing safe, kicking or jumping like heck, and putting your opponent in places where they can't play a good safety. Also moving balls to set up future safeties while not allowing your opponent to capitalize on it.
The difficulty of the game can be modified by adding or removing blocking balls and making the money balls higher. Handicapping can be done by the players having different money balls.
One player might be the 5 and the other might be the 6. Or the 3 and 7 racking 10.
An absolute beginner in safety play might be a 1, meaning if they can get ball in hand and make the 1 ball they can beat a good player who might be going to 5.
An 8 ball variation might be racking all balls with the stripes all being blocker balls and the solids not taken in rotation.
Thoughts?
You rack 9 balls (short rack) or 15 balls (full rack) and break normally. For the short rack game the 5 is the money ball and for the full rack game the 9 is the money ball. You play in rotation and the person who legally pockets the money ball wins.
The extra balls are just blocking balls to enable safety play. More blocking balls = easier to get ball in hand and harder to run out.
You can only legally pocket a ball if you start your inning with ball in hand. Ball in hand rules are consistent with rotation games. Table scratches, scratches and illegal hits are ball in hand fouls.
So if you get ball in hand and run to the 5 you win.
The general strategy would be to maximize every ball in hand you get and try to avoid giving your opponent ball in hand. So you would be playing safe, kicking or jumping like heck, and putting your opponent in places where they can't play a good safety. Also moving balls to set up future safeties while not allowing your opponent to capitalize on it.
The difficulty of the game can be modified by adding or removing blocking balls and making the money balls higher. Handicapping can be done by the players having different money balls.
One player might be the 5 and the other might be the 6. Or the 3 and 7 racking 10.
An absolute beginner in safety play might be a 1, meaning if they can get ball in hand and make the 1 ball they can beat a good player who might be going to 5.
An 8 ball variation might be racking all balls with the stripes all being blocker balls and the solids not taken in rotation.
Thoughts?