The People's
World Cup

I. The Duel

Two nations are selected. Each contributes exactly one number, the Effective Power. The larger number wins. There is no second leg and no away-goals rule, because we are not animals.

II. Effective Power

For each side, calculate:

Move Damage  +  Form  +  Approach  +  Weather  +  Match Day Roll

Move Damage is printed on the card and reflects pedigree. The rest is where the sport lives.

III. Form (The Chart)

If your style preys on your opponent's, add +25. Otherwise, add nothing and play honest football.

A predator gains the bonus; its prey gains only resentment.

IV. Match Day (d20)

Each side rolls a twenty-sided die. This is the weather, the referee, the early red card, the shot off the post. Large enough to ruin a favorite, small enough that it usually doesn't.

Football is not fair. The die is merely honest about it.

V. Result & Scoreline

The margin between the two totals becomes a footballing scoreline:

1–9 → 1–0  ·  10–19 → 2–1  ·  20–29 → 3–1  ·  30–39 → 3–0  ·  40+ → a humiliation

VI. Penalties

If the two Effective Powers are exactly equal, the match goes to penalties, decided by the higher HP — stamina holds its nerve from twelve yards. If HP is level too, the Commissioner flips a coin nobody may inspect.

VII. The Spark Clause

Spark sides — the debutants and the giant-killers — prey on Flair, because the famous freeze and the fearless do not. They are in turn worn down by Engine, which simply will not stop running.

VIII. Disputed Rolls

Any challenge to a Match Day roll is reviewed by the Commissioner, whose ruling is final. The Commissioner is also, for the avoidance of doubt, the Commissioner.

Merit is flexible. The crown is not.

IX. The Draw

You choose your own side and nothing else. The opponent is drawn — you find out who you face when you take the field, not before. No more puppeteering both benches.

Pick your team. The hat picks theirs.

X. Approach

Before kickoff, having seen the matchup and the weather, each side commits to one. Guard: +5, and softens a defeat by one scoreline step. Press: +15, no strings. Gamble: +25 if the Match Day die lands 7–20, but −10 if it lands 1–6.

Read the sky, then decide how much to gamble.

XI. Weather

One event is drawn each duel and applies to both sides by its own rule — mud favours Iron and punishes Flair, thunder lifts Storm, a rainbow rewards the underdog, and a mangonel devastates whoever it lands on. Most days the weather catches no one and the sky merely looks nice; the days it bites, it bites everyone equally.

The weather is drawn from things that actually happened. It does not take sides; it only takes notice.