Make Access to Passing Worth It!

Got a great idea and/or proposal for BloodBowl?

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Thespian
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Make Access to Passing Worth It!

Post by Thespian »

Out of the four skill categories, Pass stinks.

General is arguably the most valuable considering it has things like block, wrestle, frenzy, kick, sure hands, etc. Very valuable.
Agility is excellent as well, giving access to dodge, diving tackle (ask a dwarf coach), jump up, and side step.
Strength is a no-brainer with skills like guard and mighty blow. They alone are worth it.
Mutation access is very good as well.

With only seven skills to choose from, the only one that a non-thrower would even think about taking would be leader. Even then, you generally only want one player on your team with it.

So, how would YOU fix the disparity?

Option One - move kick and sure hands to the passing category.
Option Two - introduce a new skill or two to help the running teams. For example, allowing a player to keep moving after a hand-off. Or allowing a hand-off on the non-active player's turn (ie. run a player past the ball handler and take it from them along the way). Or allowing, once a turn, a free push back result in lieu of a blitz. These would be very powerful - the kind of skill you might consider using your doubles to take.

Any thoughts?

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Regash
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Re: Make Access to Passing Worth It!

Post by Regash »

Thespian wrote:With only seven skills to choose from, the only one that a non-thrower would even think about taking would be leader.
Well, I just went through CRP rosters to see who had access to Passing on a normal roll.
  • Amazon: Throwers
  • Chaos Pact: Marauders
  • Dark Elf Runners
  • Dwarf: Runner
  • Elf: Throwers
  • High Elf: Throwers
  • Human: Throwers
  • Khemri: Thro-Ras
  • Norse: Throwers
  • Orc: Throwers
  • Skaven: Throwers
  • Underworld: Skaven Throwers
  • Wood Elf: Throwers
All teams not mentioned in this list have no access to the Passing category on a normal roll. That is 11 teams from 24.
(Namely Chaos, Chaos Dwarf, Goblin, Halfling, Lizardman, Necromantic, Nurgle, Ogre, Slann, Undead, an Vampire.)
Obviously, only those players who actually would take skills like these are the ones with access to them.

Also, the Nerves of Steel skill seems to come in pretty handy for catchers, but they only can get it on a double.
CRP skill description wrote:Nerves of Steel (Passing)
The player ignores modifiers for enemy tackle zones when he attempts to pass, catch or intercept.

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Thespian
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Re: Make Access to Passing Worth It!

Post by Thespian »

Regash wrote:All teams not mentioned in this list have no access to the Passing category on a normal roll. That is 11 teams from 24.
(Namely Chaos, Chaos Dwarf, Goblin, Halfling, Lizardman, Necromantic, Nurgle, Ogre, Slann, Undead, an Vampire.)
Obviously, only those players who actually would take skills like these are the ones with access to them.

Also, the Nerves of Steel skill seems to come in pretty handy for catchers, but they only can get it on a double.
So, you are saying that because the number of players that have access to pass is small, the benefit of having access to Passing should be limited? I like this reasoning and I think it is wise. However, looking at something like Strong Arm being in the Strength category offers even these players incentive to take a dip from the Strength category on a double.

I guess what I am saying is that I would like there to be an option in the Passing category that might entice someone to use their doubles on a Passing skill. General has block, Agility has Dodge, Strength has Guard. Those are critically powerful skills! They would be welcome on any player you have. To get them all on the same player is generally rare/difficult due to the need to roll so many doubles. Why could there not be a similarly tantalizing skill in the passing category?

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Regash
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Re: Make Access to Passing Worth It!

Post by Regash »

Thespian wrote:So, you are saying that because the number of players that have access to pass is small, the benefit of having access to Passing should be limited?
No, not exactly.
What I was saying is that the passing category of skills was expressedly created to support throwers. Therefore the access is limited to them, mostly.
And of course will you find some useful skills in other categories as well.
Block and Dodge are surely the most common skills and aren't wasted on most players.

Strong Arm was placed in strength category just for one reason: No thrower has access to that skill on a normal roll!
Every thrower can get Accurate but to add Strong Arm to the mix, you need a double. Why is that important?
Because it limits the appearance of extremely good players, you need to be lucky to get that kind of extraordinary thrower for your team.
Just like in real life, right? How often do you see that one athlete standing out?

The only player who have access to both passing and strength skills are the Chaos Pact Marauders.
But keep in mind, they start with nothing, no skills at all, so if you were building a thrower from one of your Marauders, you would go for other, more essential, skills first.
And also, the team roster was added later in time and wasn't in initial releases of Blood Bowl.

So, basically, what I was trying to say is: This game has been developed for quite a while and, back in the days of LRB and BBRC, also been tested very thoroughly, as far as I know.
The passing skills category and its content is not a result of chance but of deep thought.

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Re: Make Access to Passing Worth It!

Post by Steam Ball »

Also Strong Arm goes with Big Guys and TTM, so a reason for going into Strength.

Many times passing comes up, the (now) obvious is mentioned sooner or later: passing requires a lot of dice throws, so probability of failing goes up, and thus it's avoided unless last option. Lack of interest in passing skills (or even the positionals) seems a natural outcome.

Pushing things there without rearranging access (13 positionals from 24 teams, as per Regash list), looks like a way to make them even less used for some teams (Kick? doubles will be used elsewhere most of the times... plenty to choose from already), a minor reason for a "thrower-or-equivalent" for the others (same kind than Leader) and a global negative for picking and keeping the ball (if you move Sure Hands out of General, many will only be capable 1/6 times and for +10K, to do the same than before).

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Re: Make Access to Passing Worth It!

Post by CyberedElf »

I understand the OP's complaint, but I can't take it seriously. As long as passing is not a common tactic, there is no purpose in Passing access to be significant.
I think it is more important to change how passing works first. As this would likely be a MAJOR change to the rules, I'm not even really a fan of going down that rabbit hole either.

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