Elven Longevity

[Christy42]

So one thing that always felt weird to me was the vulnerability of elves. I mean they aren't meant to be tough but these are meant to be 500 year old players and members of a dying race. Instead we have them with a tiny lifespan and hordes upon hordes of journeymen roaming around making a pretty decent living out of it.

Now the other side is I don't think there is a big issue with elves as is in terms of balance (well Wood Elves could get toned down but that is a different discussion). Just the fluff bugs me.

So I was thinking something along the lines of:

Elven Healing: This player has an incredible recovery time and is able to recover quickly from the most horrific injuries. Whenever this player is injured roll (the checking if badly hurt/dead dice roll not the stunned, ko, cas one) the injury dice twice and the owner decides what result gets applied to them. Note that this may not be combined with an apothecary. However the apothecary may be used instead of this if desired as the apothecary gets to the patient before the healing kicks in. However recovery rate and especially exceptional recovery rate is helped by youth. This skill only affects those with 31 spp or less.


First thoughts. It is badly worded but I feel I have the point across. It is essentially a mini apothecary for all elves. It doesn't affect a single game, it doesn't bring them back to the field for that game so that is fine. The 32spp limit on it is a little awkward but I was worried longer term leagues and formats could be adversely affected if superstar wardancers were never getting injured. However it does stop the need for so many journeymen elves which shouldn't exist. I had also considered leaving out the limit but only giving the skill to linemen but couldn't see the justification. The youth thing was easier to argue. As many of us know recovering from injury is tough when you are older!


Kind of a weird concept in that I am not trying to change the game too much but would love to know people's thoughts and if they have a better idea!

[MacHurto]

Hmmmm... I understand the cognitive dissonance regarding long lifespans. It is very clear to me for redrafting, for example. I try to head cannon it by assuming they do not "retire" necessarily but just get bought by bigger teams on more profitable leagues.

At the end of the day, it is how you want to head cannon the Blood Bowl world. Journeymen are very plausible if you think that being a Blood Bowl player is like being an NFL/Soccer star in terms of revenue generated. Who wouldn't want to risk it in order to make the team and start earning dozens of thousands of gold pieces per season? And sure, journeymen rarely make it to the team but man, some do. And anyway, you will be on cavalvision or whatever so perhaps another team hires you! Etc, etc.

Fluff-wise, it also makes sense elves get as injured as anyone else. It is a tough sport.

Regarding the rule and not the fluff, I am afraid I don't like it. It seems to be made only to ensure elven teams are not really hit by attrition, which will also affect each game as you can be much more aggressive with them.

[Darkson]

hordes upon hordes of journeymen roaming around making a pretty decent living out of it.

In a world without war what else are the elves that would have been in the military going to do?

For me, the journeymen are like the EBUGs in NHL hockey - lower league players that are 'on call' if there's an emergency, but otherwise with 'real lives/real jobs' away from the game (for the elves, hairdresser, poet, flower arranger etc).
You could say that any elf that retires through injury goes away to recuperate and takes up another career (think like the Eldar in 40k) - elves live so long that their BB career is just a passing 'phase' (maybe their teenage years).

And rule-wise I have to agree with MacHurto, it's still a boost for elves which they really don't need.

[Christy42]

I agree that elves don't need a boost. I was hoping that the difference in a non skilled lineelf and a journeyman was small enough that it wouldn't matter who was lining up. However maybe it is too much.

For fluff I like the idea of elves going on to do something else. Maybe something all elves try and do as a coming of age with a select few staying for a career. Still feels like oh let's throw another few of this dying race on the pile. Maybe elves who get retired off one team recover enough to make the journeyman line in a few different teams.

Cheers for the thoughts on the idea.

[Darkson]

Still feels like oh let's throw another few of this dying race on the pile.

Maybe, but the same could be argued for dwarfs (another dying race), and let's be honest, the few journeymen from each race are heavily out-numbered by the hordes of rank & file that are (were) killed every game of WFB...
Are they even still mentioned as a dying race in BB fluff (I don't have BB2016, so it's an honest question)?

If it really bugs you, don't think of killed as dead, think of it as 'too badly injured to consider returning to the game' - a lot easier to balance rules wise*. I did that in one of our (very!) early leagues, and used the 'dead' players as sideline/studio reporters and match commentators for the league newsletter - I even named some of the end-of-season awards after a few of them.


* - Waits for obligatory comment about Undead and the Raise the Dead spell.