What is Deep Bag?
Deep Bag is a daily mystery player game. One NFL career sits behind nine hints, vaguest first, and your job is to name the man, the same man everybody else is trying to name today. You start at 100 and spend from it: ten for every hint you open, and a rising price for every wrong guess.
How to play Deep Bag
- One mystery player a day. Everybody gets the same man.
- You start at 100 points with the opening hint already showing: his position and his college.
- Each further hint you open costs 10. There are nine in all, running through his draft year, the round he went in and the club that took him, two career numbers, how long he spent with the team he stayed at longest, and finally his initials and his first name.
- Each wrong guess costs twice the number of hints on screen, and doubles for a second miss at the same hint, trebles for a third.
- Seven guesses for the day. Use them up without naming him and the day is over.
- Naming him always beats not naming him: a solve never scores less than 1.
- A new player tomorrow, and a streak for turning up.
Tips and scoring
Both things cost you, but they cost differently, and that is the whole game. A hint is a flat ten. A miss is two points for every hint on screen, so it is cheap at the start and dear at the end.
The two costs cross at five hints, dead centre of the board. Below five a guess is cheaper than a hint. At the opening hint it is a fifth of one, so fire off your shortlist while it costs almost nothing. Above five a miss costs the best part of two hints, so buy the hint instead of fishing.
That makes early guessing cheap and late guessing expensive, which is the opposite of how it feels. The opening hint gives you a position and a college, and that is often enough for five or six names. Say them then.
Repeated misses at the same hint multiply: the second is twice the first, the third three times. Working through a shortlist is fine, but once you have tried three names off one hint you are better off opening the next.
If you do need to open one, the early hints narrow hardest. Draft year fixes an era, and the round plus the club that drafted him usually collapses a shortlist to a handful.
Deep Bag questions
- Is it the same player for everyone?
- Yes. One mystery player a day, the same for every player, rolling over at midnight Eastern. That is what makes a score worth comparing.
- How many hints are there?
- Nine. The first is showing when the day starts and gives you a position and a college. After that they run through his draft year, the round he went in and the club that took him, two career numbers, how long he stayed at the team he spent longest with, and finally his initials and his first name.
- How is it scored?
- Out of 100. Every hint you open costs 10, and every wrong guess costs twice the number of hints showing, doubled for a second miss at the same hint. Naming him off the opening hint with no misses is a perfect 100. A solve never scores less than 1, so finishing badly still beats not finishing.
- How many guesses do I get?
- Seven for the day. Spend them without naming him and the day ends at zero. Guessing early is cheap, so there is no reason to hoard them at the start.
- Do I need an account?
- No. The day plays and scores signed out. An account is what keeps your streak and your scores from one day to the next.
