Referee system overhaul

Got some ideas for rules? Maybe a skill change or something completely different!!! Tell us here.

Moderator: TFF Mods

Post Reply
Mori-mori
Experienced
Experienced
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:11 pm

Referee system overhaul

Post by Mori-mori »

By "Referee system" I mean infamous referees added in DZ. There were complaints that it additionally discourages fouling (what I believe it does indeed, as most of those referes increase risks for a fouler). There were as well complaints about it adding even more random factors to the game. And I've also seen a couple of interesting ideas on how to put bribes to some additional uses.

Thus I tried to come up with new rules which would be less random, and more rely on coaches' decisions, will allow them to affect much more aspects of the game with their bribes and as well will make Flings' and Gobbos' lives a bit easier (particulariyly, Gobbos will be able to bend rules in their favor much more often than other teams, due to their cheap bribes - which goes along with their fluff pretty well and makes their style even more unique; Flings just get certain tactical benefits if they'll manage to pull their referee through to the pitch). It also provides a couple of new ref types, which do not discourge fouling that much, so by taking some place in infamous referee table they will make foul a bit more viable option under new rules.

I don't claim all of those are my own ideas, I could saw some of them somewhere else, perhaps, and forgot the source in such case I appologize in advance :)

New additional general referee rules:
  1. 1) 2 new referee types are added to infamous referees table (see below)
  • 2) For a bribe, one of the coaches may initiate referee substitution at the start of any drive, right after resolving Kick Off events, selecting any referee he wants. Other option is to use your Argue the Call action for this, but if it's anything except 6, referee gets infuriated of your clumsy attempts to displace him, and your Head Coach is sent off. Coach who is on offence in this drive is the one who is allowed to decide whether he wants the substitution first. If he ignores the opportunity, defending coach is allowed to do it. In both cases, opposing coach still may halt the substitution the other coach initiated (regardless of method that was used to trigger it) by using his own bribe/Argue the Call (the later also results in Head Coach sent off on anything except 6)
  • 3) In all mentioned situations above and below where bribe is being spent, the usual rules for bribes still apply, i.e. D6 is rolled and on 1 it's simply wasted; in Gobbos' case, if Fink da Fixer is also purchased by a Gobbos' coach, any his usage of Argue the Call action under these new rules is affected by him untill he is sent off (thus it succeeds on 5,6 instead of just 6)
  • 4) As both of new refs bend rules of the game to extent when it's impossible to overlook, they tend to quickly summon rage of the fans upon their heads. After the first time any ability of them is used by any coach, at next kick off, if the 1st 2D6 roll didn't result in Get the Ref, roll 2D6 once more, and if it's Get the Ref this time, it must be used instead of the 1st result; otherwise, the 1st result is used. For each next kick off, add one more 2D6 roll, using the same approach
  • 5) At the end of the match, calculate total number of dealings with any kind of shady referees in it (any kind of "favor" from a referee for which a coach gives his consent or asks for it is counted as such) for each coach, then substract their FAME from it, getting the LAME value. Whoever has a greater value is getting punished by enraged fans (possible outcomes are one injury roll at randomly selected players, or 1-3 MNGs). If they are equal, they both are getting the treatment
Flings' infamous referee:

A bit of fluff:
Fraternity and strong family bonds are one of the most striking halflings' features. Even those of them sociopathic enough to become a BB referee still bound to follow this urge to help their kind, showing them unconditional compassion whenever possible. A Flings referee will try to suppress all his fears and to do his best getting in the way of opposing coach's players and pulling out whatever ridiculous restriction and long-forgotten legacy regulation rule to hamper his game when it comes to helping his brethren. Yet, still remaining a frail, easily scared creature, his resolve quickly vanishes in a thin air when facing enraged fans becomes inevitable, and he'll go back on his previous words this very instant.

A special entrance rule:
Except from being randomly rolled from a table as any other infamous referee, or selected through the substitution action mentioned above, Flings may engage their vast social connections and squeeze one of their loyal referees onto the pitch for the match. A new Flings-only inducement is available and costs 50k. First, it allows Flings' coach to add 1 to infamous referee roll (increasing chance of selecting a non-standard referee). Next, in case if any non-standard referee is rolled, Flings' coach may choose to substitute it with Flings' infamous referee instead. If special referee wasn't rolled at the start of the match, the roll is repeated (still with +1 modifier) at the start of each subsequent drive, until the one is rolled. If Flings' coach then decides to substitute referee with their special one, this action cannot be prevented or reverted by the opposing coach till the next half of the match (as burocrats overseeing the whole procedure during this match "accidentally" happened to be halflings as well), with overtime counted as such as well; only then he may try to use bribes or Argue the Call action to substitute the coach, as usual. This doesn't protect the ref from enraged fans in case Get the Ref is rolled.

Special actions available under this referee's supervision:
  1. 1) Only for Flings' coach: for 1 bribe, 2 TRRs are taken from the other team and given to yours, for the rest of the match; can be done only once per match; is reset in case Get the Ref kick off event has happened
  • 2) Only for Flings' coach: for each TD Flings's coach scores, 1 TRR is substracted from the opposition and given to his team; is reset in case Get the Ref kick off event has happened
  • 3) Only for Flings' coach: for each foul against you, if fouler is caught, unless bribe is successfully used, 1 TRR is substracted from the opposition and given to you; is reset in case Get the Ref kick off event has happened
  • 4) For anybody: for 1 bribe, 1 TRR is taken from the other team and given to you, for the rest of the match; can be done only once per match; is reset in case Get the Ref kick off event has happened (Flings cannot use both this option and 1) in one match, though)
  • 5) If Flings ref finds himself judging a match where Flings playing Flings, he is being too reluctant to decide which side to take, and thus ends up staying mostly indifferent, only providing option 4) to both coaches (the rest are inactive). In case he attends a match in which no his beloved Flings participate, he'll may find some time to be a guardian angel for any other Stunty and Titchy players on the pitch, regardless of their side and race; any foul against them is resolved according to option 3)

Gobbos' infamous referee:

A bit of fluff:
Nothing is sacred for a goblin. He'll take money from anybody, even if what he asked in exchange for them will hurt his own kind on the pitch. Extent to which he is ready to bend the rules is trully remarkable, as well.

Special actions available under this referee's supervision:
  1. 1) For anybody: for a bribe you can move turn counter back or forth for 2-3 steps (still within the standard range of 1..8 )
  • 2) For anybody: for a bribe you can force TO to your opponent when he finishes action with his player carrying the ball, but before the ball leaves his grasp in any way, like through pass or hand-off; in such case he keeps the ball, but hand off/pass is cancelled and TO happens. If it seems too OP, the opposition could be also granted such right for free at the same time, till the end of the drive; or perhaps it's enough to just limit its usage to once per match
  • 3) For anybody: by spending bribe at the start of any of your player's action, if he ends his movement one square away from the other team's endzone (and will stay 1 square away till he'll gets the ball, if he doesn't have it when finishing his action), it is counted as if he IS in the endzone anyway till the end of this turn (thus if he carries the ball, or will recieve a pass later on this turn, it's TD). This only handled this way for the purpose of scoring, so doesn't affect crowd surfing distance. If bribe fails, that player is forced to end his action immidiately (though it's not a TO)
  • 4) For anybody: for a bribe, you can increase chance of ejection for the opposing coach for the rest of the game; each time he'll try to foul your player, the fouler is ejected if any doubles OR 10+ result is rolled at either of rolls (armor or injury; if I didn't spoil my calculations, it results in ~60% total chance of ejection for a foul against AV7 w/o assists, comparing to the base chance of ~33,1% with default rules). Sneaky Git still works as expected, and no ejection will happen for such player unless armor is broken. This effect is reset in case Get the Ref kick off event has happened
Both new coaches behave as normal ones in case of Get the Ref kick off event.

Final thoughts:

There also could be a bit different approach: some of those special referees' abilities could be instead made a standard option apllicable to any referee. In particular, candidates are: increasing ejection chance, manipulating endzone, manipulating turn counter, "stealing " TRRs. Not sure, though, may be it's already too much. I'm also not sure whether or not it's too restrictive to allow coach substitution through Argue the Call (i.e. without a bribe) only at 6. May be 5,6 is ok for that? Would probably lead to a more frequent tactical kicks to the groin this way, as bribes are not that often to be seen used on the pitch, except for Gobbos' games.

I also thought about perhaps allowing to use Argue the Call as "poor-man's" substitution for a bribe in all those new rules would be a good thing (thus if you are lucky to roll 6 or 5,6 you can use ANY of those powerfull actions for free, otherwise your coach is sent off; makes Argue the Call a very usefull tactical asset, out of sudden, and gives more opportunities to coaches to have a taste of those new rules). For the latter purpose, it probably should be just renamed to something like "Put a pressure", sounds more consistent. Thus despite the absence of bribe, you still can "put a pressure" on the ref, often achieving the same result, be it getting some "service" from him, or arguing ejection. So it neatly integrates in the current mechanics this way.

Any thoughts, suggestions or cryticism are welcome :)

Reason: ''
Mori-mori
Experienced
Experienced
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:11 pm

Re: Referee system overhaul

Post by Mori-mori »

A bunch of ninja-edits again, but now I'm done :)

Reason: ''
Post Reply