What you need
The player cards (HTML export from the Cards page), one white d6, two colored d6, and a scoresheet. Rally scoring, best of five. Sets 1–4 to 25 win by 2; fifth set to 15 win by 2. Six on the floor in a 5-1.
The dice
Classic Strat-O-Matic. The white die is the column (1–6). The two colored dice sum to the row (2–12). Look up that cell on the acting player's card. Do not reroll a legal result. Column 1 is always serve; 2–4 are attack against a weak / average / strong block; 5 is dig or pass; 6 is block (hitters) or set (setters).
A rally
- Serve. White = 1 on the server. ACE or SERVICE ERROR ends the rally. Otherwise note TOUGH / IN PLAY / FREE BALL.
- Pass. Libero or back-row passer. Shift the row +1 on a tough serve, −1 on a free ball. DOWN is a point for the serving team. OVERPASS is a free kill for them.
- Set. Setter, column 6. Perfect / good / tight, or a dump kill / dump error.
- Attack. Best front-row hitter (or the one you want). Block look picks the attack column. Kill / tool scores; attack error does not; blocked consults a blocker's column 6; diggable goes to the libero.
- Dig / transition. A perfect or up dig turns the defense into the new offense. Cap a rally at 10 transitions.
How the 2026 cards were built
Returning players: 2025 NEC per-set rates, 12% regression to the position mean, then a class-year bump (Fr→So +7%, So→Jr +4%, Jr→Sr +2%). True freshmen: the NEC-average freshman at that position. Transfers: a template just under starter means. Those same numbers fill the 66-cell chart and the 139,000-season engine.
Season & tournament
Eight teams, home-and-away, 14 matches each. Top four make the NEC tournament (1v4, 2v3, championship). Tiebreakers: wins, head-to-head, set ratio. The winner is the NCAA auto-bid. Home court is +2.8 percentage points on each rally.