Talk Fantasy Football

Howdy folks,

I've been doing some demo's around my local area recently at wargames shows and clubs to try and drum up some love for Blood Bowl and was wondering if you had any tips for teaching new players to the game so that they get the most out of it. I currently use humans and skaven as those are the miniatures I have for the game but ideally will be getting an orc team soon.

Besides teams, do you have any useful ways of explaining new concepts like the block dice to people or the agility rolls? Do you even go as far as explaining it to them or do you just tell them what dice rolls they need?

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Team Scotland: for Blood Bowl in Scotland http://www.createforum.com/teamscotland ... scotlandbb

Glasgow Blood Bowl League https://www.facebook.com/groups/273727376038744/

The Artist formerly known as "Shaheen"

Without wanting to teach you how to suck eggs when it comes to teaching, you need to take them from a concept they get to one they don't. American football or rugby played as chess with dice is a decent start point as it gets across the idea of TDs and ball advancement as well as being turn-based with an element of luck.

For AG rolls the "rule of 7" is a good place to start (7 - AG = base roll), and will often make the penny drop for people.
For block dice it's worth pointing out the two pushes, as that can confuse people initially.

Worth having relevant pages in your rules bookmarked (either hard copy or pdf - good free pdf bookmarking program here), such as the injury/casualty/kickoff table, skill descriptions etc for ease of reference. If you're actually teaching (as opposed to demonstrating) then get them to look things up themselves. A useful lookup guide would help, too. They were available online but I can't find them now, but here are the:
[url-http://www.mediafire.com/view/?1uvgvhyhzsz2kdh]Ickle LRB5[/url]
Blue Reference sheet
Bear in mind they are out of date due to being LRB5 (might undertake updating them, actually...).
There is also this for when you get Orcs: http://www.headlesshollow.com/downloads ... owl_v2.pdf (says it's LRB6, I've not yet checked it).

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www.FOLeague.com - the largest moderated Cyanide open league

Another thing you might want to do is have a hand-out for everyone who participates in and watches a demo. The handout can have basic local league times / contact information, can have an explanation of where to find the PDF Rulebook (as just saying it's on the GW Website isn't going to get most people there), information on useful BB websites (here, BBTactics (which is more useful to beginners), etc.)

The handout could also have a nicely arranged bit of useful beginner information:
-The block dice symbols explained
-The actions each player may take, with brief explanation (Move, Block, Blitz, Pass...), noting especially which are once per turn
-What counts as a Turnover
-The AG tables from the Rulebook for Pick Up, Dodging, Catching, and Passing along with all modifiers (and point out the "rule of 7" as above
-The injury and casualty tables


Other bits of information you might impart to players while teaching/demoing the game:
-Teach them to rotate a model 180 Degrees after it activates
-Remind them that while it seems complicated and daunting to pick-up, these basic rules are easy to memorize in just a few games
-Point out to them that while injuring the opponent's team can help you win a game, it's not a bad strategy to plan on every Block you throw being simply a Push. Point out that they can strategize and score just by controlling the space of the pitch, even if they opponent's team is at full health
-Point out that BB's real challenge and reward comes from managing your risks and optimizing your expected payoffs (otherwise, I think a lot of new players can be put off by the Turnover rules for BB, which are quite unforgiving compared to lots of other games--help them to see this as something unique about BB that makes it such a great game rather than something random and turn-stifling)


Have fun! BB can be a hard game to demo because there's soooo many things you have to go through just to get the first turn done for each player. I've only done it a few times myself.

I showed my kids, but we started on Cyanide single player. As they have played games for 5-10 years it wasn't a big stretch to get them to play table top. They are starting in their first full season this weekend

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Jonny_P wrote: http://d01.megashares.com/dl/BWKzaJf/LRB6_Handbook.pdf
"Icepelt is my hero", thanks for finding on the net Jonny_P

Misc Blood Bowl gallery: http://s1323.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... ood%20Bowl

Thanks guys, some things in there that I had already considered and done and others like the rule of 7 that I hadn't thought of. All very useful to reiterate and make sure I'm doing it right. Thanks again

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Team Scotland: for Blood Bowl in Scotland http://www.createforum.com/teamscotland ... scotlandbb

Glasgow Blood Bowl League https://www.facebook.com/groups/273727376038744/

The Artist formerly known as "Shaheen"

The rule of 1 and 6, or subrule to the 7 one, if you prefer.

That's a part of Blood Bowl that seems completely uneccessary to me. For example I never think of an AG4 player dodging to an empty square or attempting to pick up the ball as "I need a 3 but I get +1 because the square is empty", I just think "I need a 2". I don't get why the base roll is modified when there aren't any modifying factors. But hey ho, them's the rules.

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No blades... no bows... leave your weapons here.

Undercity Razorclaws
(Skaven)
W/D/L - 9/3/6
TD's - 31

For beginners, might as well go with a "rule of 6". I.e. an AG3 player needs a 3+ to succeed.
The +1 modifier applies to almost everything, so for beginners that subtle nuance isn't worth it.
Cheers
Martin

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Narrow Tier BB? http://www.plasmoids.dk/bbowl/NTBB.htm
Or just visit http://www.plasmoids.dk instead

The old 3rd Ed. boxed set included one or two of large colour cards explaining the characteristics and skills of Orcs and Humans - still perfectly valid in 6th Ed., I believe.

Hope that helps.

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Smeborg the Fleshless

Yes, mostly. The game rules themselves (as opposed to all the skills, league rules etc.) didn't change much, if at all , since 3rd edition. However, the cards reference only the 'basic' rules, so they make no mention of Assists, Fouls, Intercepts etc. I think you can play without most of those without running into any big issues, but Assists are IMO such a fundamental part of blocking that they should be introduced immediately, and therefore added to those cards, with a post-it if nothing better is available!

When I have teached new people this Game, we have played Orcs (the new one) vs Humans (me). We allowed only linemens and 4 blitzers, and 2 re-rolls each. This way there is only one skill present (block) and everyone has the same Ag, which allows to focus in other game mechanics (asisting blocks being allways the most complicated think to fully comprehend).