Digger Goreman's Manifesto
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:27 pm
Instead of qualifying my position repeatedly for new members (and to fill in the memory hole of older members) I present to you my (very occasionally updated) Blood Bowl Manifesto:
I began gaming in the summer of 1976. Having skillfully played a plethora of games from the simplicity of Metagames pocket editions to the novel sized rulebooks of SPI, as well as writing and playtesting for Avalon Hill's original Squad Leader.... So I feel I know what a balanced game and a well written rulebook look like....
What do I like about Blood Bowl: A lot of it is j' ne cest qua... (apologies to my french brothers for butchering the language) yet there is the melding of high fantasy with football... a tactically intricate game with elements of role playing and improvement for players and teams... miniatures that are active playing pieces that you get to express your talents... painting and playing with a team that matters and not just setting them in positions for a dungeon crawl (played D&D in the 70's and 80's and loved it too, but this is over the top of that easily!).... The dark humor, dry, witty and otherwise, certainly appeals to me.... While not being the biggest fan of american football, Lord of the Rings was my senior Brit Lit project....
I was/am also a huge fan of the Living Rulebook process.... My well beaten and worn Icepelt edition of the rules (Thanks again, my benefactor!) is one of my most favored treasures....
Love horror, love high fantasy, love gaming, love (oh so slowly and painfully) painting the minis, have gotten relatively good at playing while struggling to become even better....
Unfortunately there are flies in the ointment of the beautiful game and often enough people (sincerely or not) ask why one feels a certain way.... So that I don't spend the final bits of my knuckle cartilage retyping hot button topic reasoning, here are the explanations for future reference....
DG on Games Workshop: Greedy W@nkers is a corporate entity that trades stock and is beholden to its stockholders and their desire for dividends.... This easily runs anathema to the pursuit of happiness of its gaming fans.... Legion are the anecdotes and documents of pressure and contempt on the sales floor, nakedly seeking the dollar and pound through planned obsolescence of miniatures and brazen marketing to the weakest minded demographic with access to the richest, while using the same money that gamers pour into their coffers to hire lawyers to attack the gaming community (online and off).... Certainly I would be opposed to greedy on ideology (placing profit above the patrons it provides for) alone... but the situation got deeply personal when they attacked, and shut down, TalkBloodBowl forum.... The attack was imperious, threatening, and absolute. GW will never be forgiven for what they did that day.... In the process, gw also dissolved and placed gag orders on members of the BBRC, a rules committee that had been involved in a regular cycle of rules improvement.... While the committee members were not all fair and bipartisan, the process had created a body of rules leagues above and beyond the imperious, lunatic days of Jervis Johnson's reviled 4th edition.... Even greater a loss was the halted production of the imminent 6th edition rule book.... Only the end around of a fan provided the community with this resource.... Those who succor, aid or support games workshop are anywhere from delusional to criminal IMHO, bringing us to...
DG on sNAFu: Seemed like a good idea at first, before greedy Wendy went totally psycho, but the "tell" was in the special relationship brokered between the officers and gw.... Even when GW was forgetful, negligent, and even abusive during the Blood Bowl yearly tourneys, sNAFu was Chamberlain-esq in its apologies and kowtowing.... Although eventually kicked to the curb during the latest bloody I.P. purges/attacks, these Quislings still vocally kiss up to the corporate tyrant and seek every opportunity to crawl back in bed with her.... The picture becomes sharp and clear with the recent admittance of a current sNAFu officer owning Games Workshop stock.... The collusion of this Vichy organization can only be condemned for the cancerous disease that it is....
DG on the BBRC and LRB: The Blood Bowl Rules Committee, afaik, came into existence as jervis johnson's response to the plethora of house rules, in response to his disastrous fourth edition rule book, as exhibited by the OBERWALD website.... On the plus side, they enacted a two years cycle of rules review and testing that, despite in-game racial partisanship, produced a much better rulebook than the game's creator could have ever imagined.... The two down sides were jervis johnson's condescending use of king's prerogative to insert destabilization into the rules ("because I like it like that", see the Midgard website recorded messages of johnson)... and the aforementioned partisanship.... As I recall, any ruling had to be approved by 3/5 of the members and jj to make it official.... Three of the BBRC, including the last appointed (as a favor to his close friend already on the committee) swore to protect elves (especially wood elves) from any moderation....
That the tiny nerf-sans-nerf on woodies at the end of the BBRC passed is a tribute to Tom Anders management and diplomatic skills....
DG on team design: If you want to hang a mantra on the wall, let it be "same, but different".... Teams at similar TV should have the same chance of winning, based on coaching ability and team skill choices.... GW's penchant for unbalanced design, in the pursuit of selling more minis, is infamous.... While BB is hardly the vehicle for selling tons of lead, the disease is still there: favoritism and lazy design.... In short, any team that has starting access to more than eight non-linemen, spamming skills (especially the most useful ones and/or combinations), enhanced stat lines without liabilities, more than two of any positional, lineman access to more than general skills, ubiquitous Av9, and the ability to do anything on a 2+, is likely BAD design.... In second edition, only specialized catchers had access to Ag4 and in limited numbers.... Third edition spammed Ag4 on all elves and started the still irreconcilable schism of grinders vs avoidance teams wherein the only way to defeat a competently coached avoidance team is to roll consistently high on your few available armor breaks (removing players through extraordinary luck), or the avoidance coach rolls so many ones that even an advantaged team fails (i.e., extraordinary BAD luck).... Watching cigarette butts decompose is more exciting.... Only slightly less boring is trying to stop the Av9 cage grinding of dwarves, or the block spamming of dwarves, chaos dwarves and norse (at least block dice fail more than elven dodge dice)....
DG on Undead: I came to coach Necros by accident.... I was primarily an Orc coach.... Upon starting a league, I played the new Necros team since they were considered tier 1.5.... Luckily for me, their in-between style matched my playstyle.... That, the ability to share minis, and a love of traditional horror media carried me into the other undead teams.... Nevertheless, the current straight Undead could at least shave off two ghouls and redesign/reconsider the mummies.... And I am still unconvinced as to the worth of the khemri design.... Better to give the Necros access to skeletons and jettison the other two, along with elves, dwarves, lizards, amazons, Norse, and slann....
DG on FUMBBL and tournaments: After hours of consideration, deliberation, and dialogue, I must admit that both environments are artificial compared to the rules.... While not qualifying as mainstream, they do have a place in the community and provide (limited) positive services.... Although mechanics still don't match the rules exactly, Fumbbl does provide an easier and faster way to have a game, even vs opponents half a world apart.... Tournaments are limited to those of means and inevitably fail to provide an equitable environment.... Neither can be trusted to provide accurate data for the mainstream rule book, yet they have unwisely been used for just that purpose....
DG on forum(s): In a recent poll I conducted, it became readily apparent that any two people are unlikely to play the same format, let alone the same rules of Blood Bowl.... Even an official optional rule like assigned MVPs have a huge effect on team construction... let alone widely divergent scheduling, ignoring time and I.P., and a plethora of house rulings while maintaining (often with self-righteous zeal) an extremist sense of right and wrong.... My gratitude to the one percent that try to scrape off the manure of opinions, including theirs, before addressing and answering a question.... It is a rare talent.... Long story, short: few of us look past our own belly buttons when addressing each other and the great game.... Unfortunately it is easier to set fire to a straw man than to consider another's POV....
More to come as needed....
I began gaming in the summer of 1976. Having skillfully played a plethora of games from the simplicity of Metagames pocket editions to the novel sized rulebooks of SPI, as well as writing and playtesting for Avalon Hill's original Squad Leader.... So I feel I know what a balanced game and a well written rulebook look like....
What do I like about Blood Bowl: A lot of it is j' ne cest qua... (apologies to my french brothers for butchering the language) yet there is the melding of high fantasy with football... a tactically intricate game with elements of role playing and improvement for players and teams... miniatures that are active playing pieces that you get to express your talents... painting and playing with a team that matters and not just setting them in positions for a dungeon crawl (played D&D in the 70's and 80's and loved it too, but this is over the top of that easily!).... The dark humor, dry, witty and otherwise, certainly appeals to me.... While not being the biggest fan of american football, Lord of the Rings was my senior Brit Lit project....
I was/am also a huge fan of the Living Rulebook process.... My well beaten and worn Icepelt edition of the rules (Thanks again, my benefactor!) is one of my most favored treasures....
Love horror, love high fantasy, love gaming, love (oh so slowly and painfully) painting the minis, have gotten relatively good at playing while struggling to become even better....
Unfortunately there are flies in the ointment of the beautiful game and often enough people (sincerely or not) ask why one feels a certain way.... So that I don't spend the final bits of my knuckle cartilage retyping hot button topic reasoning, here are the explanations for future reference....
DG on Games Workshop: Greedy W@nkers is a corporate entity that trades stock and is beholden to its stockholders and their desire for dividends.... This easily runs anathema to the pursuit of happiness of its gaming fans.... Legion are the anecdotes and documents of pressure and contempt on the sales floor, nakedly seeking the dollar and pound through planned obsolescence of miniatures and brazen marketing to the weakest minded demographic with access to the richest, while using the same money that gamers pour into their coffers to hire lawyers to attack the gaming community (online and off).... Certainly I would be opposed to greedy on ideology (placing profit above the patrons it provides for) alone... but the situation got deeply personal when they attacked, and shut down, TalkBloodBowl forum.... The attack was imperious, threatening, and absolute. GW will never be forgiven for what they did that day.... In the process, gw also dissolved and placed gag orders on members of the BBRC, a rules committee that had been involved in a regular cycle of rules improvement.... While the committee members were not all fair and bipartisan, the process had created a body of rules leagues above and beyond the imperious, lunatic days of Jervis Johnson's reviled 4th edition.... Even greater a loss was the halted production of the imminent 6th edition rule book.... Only the end around of a fan provided the community with this resource.... Those who succor, aid or support games workshop are anywhere from delusional to criminal IMHO, bringing us to...
DG on sNAFu: Seemed like a good idea at first, before greedy Wendy went totally psycho, but the "tell" was in the special relationship brokered between the officers and gw.... Even when GW was forgetful, negligent, and even abusive during the Blood Bowl yearly tourneys, sNAFu was Chamberlain-esq in its apologies and kowtowing.... Although eventually kicked to the curb during the latest bloody I.P. purges/attacks, these Quislings still vocally kiss up to the corporate tyrant and seek every opportunity to crawl back in bed with her.... The picture becomes sharp and clear with the recent admittance of a current sNAFu officer owning Games Workshop stock.... The collusion of this Vichy organization can only be condemned for the cancerous disease that it is....
DG on the BBRC and LRB: The Blood Bowl Rules Committee, afaik, came into existence as jervis johnson's response to the plethora of house rules, in response to his disastrous fourth edition rule book, as exhibited by the OBERWALD website.... On the plus side, they enacted a two years cycle of rules review and testing that, despite in-game racial partisanship, produced a much better rulebook than the game's creator could have ever imagined.... The two down sides were jervis johnson's condescending use of king's prerogative to insert destabilization into the rules ("because I like it like that", see the Midgard website recorded messages of johnson)... and the aforementioned partisanship.... As I recall, any ruling had to be approved by 3/5 of the members and jj to make it official.... Three of the BBRC, including the last appointed (as a favor to his close friend already on the committee) swore to protect elves (especially wood elves) from any moderation....
That the tiny nerf-sans-nerf on woodies at the end of the BBRC passed is a tribute to Tom Anders management and diplomatic skills....
DG on team design: If you want to hang a mantra on the wall, let it be "same, but different".... Teams at similar TV should have the same chance of winning, based on coaching ability and team skill choices.... GW's penchant for unbalanced design, in the pursuit of selling more minis, is infamous.... While BB is hardly the vehicle for selling tons of lead, the disease is still there: favoritism and lazy design.... In short, any team that has starting access to more than eight non-linemen, spamming skills (especially the most useful ones and/or combinations), enhanced stat lines without liabilities, more than two of any positional, lineman access to more than general skills, ubiquitous Av9, and the ability to do anything on a 2+, is likely BAD design.... In second edition, only specialized catchers had access to Ag4 and in limited numbers.... Third edition spammed Ag4 on all elves and started the still irreconcilable schism of grinders vs avoidance teams wherein the only way to defeat a competently coached avoidance team is to roll consistently high on your few available armor breaks (removing players through extraordinary luck), or the avoidance coach rolls so many ones that even an advantaged team fails (i.e., extraordinary BAD luck).... Watching cigarette butts decompose is more exciting.... Only slightly less boring is trying to stop the Av9 cage grinding of dwarves, or the block spamming of dwarves, chaos dwarves and norse (at least block dice fail more than elven dodge dice)....
DG on Undead: I came to coach Necros by accident.... I was primarily an Orc coach.... Upon starting a league, I played the new Necros team since they were considered tier 1.5.... Luckily for me, their in-between style matched my playstyle.... That, the ability to share minis, and a love of traditional horror media carried me into the other undead teams.... Nevertheless, the current straight Undead could at least shave off two ghouls and redesign/reconsider the mummies.... And I am still unconvinced as to the worth of the khemri design.... Better to give the Necros access to skeletons and jettison the other two, along with elves, dwarves, lizards, amazons, Norse, and slann....
DG on FUMBBL and tournaments: After hours of consideration, deliberation, and dialogue, I must admit that both environments are artificial compared to the rules.... While not qualifying as mainstream, they do have a place in the community and provide (limited) positive services.... Although mechanics still don't match the rules exactly, Fumbbl does provide an easier and faster way to have a game, even vs opponents half a world apart.... Tournaments are limited to those of means and inevitably fail to provide an equitable environment.... Neither can be trusted to provide accurate data for the mainstream rule book, yet they have unwisely been used for just that purpose....
DG on forum(s): In a recent poll I conducted, it became readily apparent that any two people are unlikely to play the same format, let alone the same rules of Blood Bowl.... Even an official optional rule like assigned MVPs have a huge effect on team construction... let alone widely divergent scheduling, ignoring time and I.P., and a plethora of house rulings while maintaining (often with self-righteous zeal) an extremist sense of right and wrong.... My gratitude to the one percent that try to scrape off the manure of opinions, including theirs, before addressing and answering a question.... It is a rare talent.... Long story, short: few of us look past our own belly buttons when addressing each other and the great game.... Unfortunately it is easier to set fire to a straw man than to consider another's POV....
More to come as needed....