What is Paper Soccer on a large field?
The standard field here has 9 points across and 13 along, a pitch of 8 × 12 squares. In this variant you play on 11 × 15 points instead, a pitch of 10 × 14 squares, chosen as the field size in the table setup. Everything else stays the same: the ball starts on the centre spot, each move draws a line to one of the eight neighbouring points, landing on a point that a line or a wall already touches earns another move, and the goals are 2 squares wide in the middle of the short sides.
The ball starts seven steps from each goal line and five from each side wall, and the pitch has 140 squares instead of 96. The centre stays clean for longer, so bounces are rarer in the opening and the game is decided more by slow manoeuvring than by early bounce chains. Games take longer, and there is more room to build a trap or to run out of one.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Paper Soccer | Paper Soccer on a large field |
|---|---|---|
| Field | Standard Paper Soccer9 points across and 13 along: 8 × 12 squares. | Paper Soccer on a large field11 points across and 15 along: 10 × 14 squares, chosen in the table setup. |
| Kick-off | Standard Paper SoccerThe centre spot, six steps from each goal line and four from each side wall. | Paper Soccer on a large fieldThe centre spot, seven steps from each goal line and five from each side wall. |
| Goals | Standard Paper Soccer2 squares wide, in the middle of each short side. | Paper Soccer on a large fieldThe same, 2 squares wide in the middle of each short side. |
| Moves and bounces | Standard Paper SoccerDraw a line from the ball to one of its 8 neighbouring points, never along a wall or a line already drawn. Landing on a point that a line or a wall already touches is a bounce: you move again. | Paper Soccer on a large fieldThe same. |
| End of the game | Standard Paper SoccerThe ball in the goal you attack wins, the ball in your own goal loses. A player who has to move and has no line left to draw loses. | Paper Soccer on a large fieldThe same. |
History
Paper Soccer is a pencil-and-paper game drawn on squared paper, known in Poland as piłkarzyki and popular there among pupils and students. A Polish games website made it playable online in 2004. Its rules have never fixed the size of the pitch: 8 × 10 squares is one of the more common sizes, and the only general requirement is that both sides have an even number of squares, so that the centre point exists for the kick-off.
Larger pitches are a known part of the game. The Russian variant is usually played on a much larger pitch, and a Polish version is played on an area such as 16 × 20 squares. Those versions also change other rules, such as wider goals or no bounces. The 10 × 14 pitch here keeps every rule of the standard game and changes only the size.