I organise Eucalyptus Bowl here in Australia, and in 2014 we're celebrating our tenth year so I decided to do something a bit different as the player gift.
In the past we've had custom miniatures, dice, coins, tokens and what have you. This year, along with other gifts like a custom Dice Bag, I've designed and printed a full blown custom card game, chock full of tongue in cheek Blood Bowl references.
The game is heavily inspired by Take That style games like Poo and Lunch Money, although I've certainly made great efforts to inject the style and character of Blood Bowl into it and bring something a little different to the table. I'm not expecting to win any awards for my stunning originality though
The art should be pretty familiar to the TFF crowd, I was very fortunate to receive the help from the amazing Pug who produced a beautiful set of colour illustrations to bring the game to life. I also had a lot of help from Mango on the Ausbowl forums, who worked on the card layouts and general graphic design duties. Without their contribution this game would have been a total non-starter and I'm infinitely grateful to both of them!
As it stands, the only way to get a copy of this game is to come to Eucalyptus Bowl 2014 in Sydney Australia, but if there is interest in getting a copy after the event I may decide to do a second print run, so by all means post your interest here.
I thought it'd be fun to give a breakdown of the contents, and what sort of gameplay you can expect. The premise of the game is that your team needs a new Blitzer, and the Coach has left it to the surviving Linemen to decide amongst themselves who gets the promotion. In true Old World style, they will settle it with a drinking competition at the local tavern.
Players each take on the role of a Lineman sitting around the table, using their skills honed on the pitch to challenge each other to finish increasingly deadly Beers, with a health dose of cheating of course!
The game comes in a custom tuckbox, with a double sided sheet of colour rules and a deck of 90 cards.
The deck is broken down into the following card types.
Lineman Cards - These cards are used as health trackers, with the reference cards doubling as health trackers you can use to record damage. Cards are broken down into "Action" and "Reaction" cards with Green and Red symbols respectively, and the reference cards give an outline of when each type of card can be played.
Beers - The basic attacks you play against opponents. Mostly these are a set value from 1 (a dainty glass of HighElven) to 7 damage (a steaming mug of Eucalyptus Brew).
There are also two Special beers. Witches Brew which has a random effect on whoever drinks it, and Morleys Revenge which you drink yourself (with the "revenge" causing more damage to everyone else at the table than drinking it does).
Apothecary Cards - These are the opposite of Beer cards, playing them heals either just you or sometimes the full table. You have Bloodweiser Babes, the Halfling Master Chefs and even Doc Bonesaw (who's methods are so horrifying that everyone else sobers up a bit too!).
Perfect Defence - Using these cards, you can deflect a Beer onto a new target. Each card gives a different result, so for example if you Block it goes to your Right, Dodge to your Left and Fend sends it back to whoever played it. You can also Intercept the Beer, choosing a new target (but also becoming the new "Thrower" for the purposes of any further cards like Fend).
Dirty Tricks - While Perfect Defence Cards change the target of the Beer, generally speaking Dirty Tricks cards chance the outcome. You can bribe the Barkeep to switch your drink with a nice refreshing Orca-Cola, or swap someone elses drink with "something non-alcoholic" which cancels all damage but leaves them missing a turn. There is also the dreaded Fumble card which forces whoever played the Beer to drink it themselves and miss a turn.
There is also one special Dirty Tricks card, that you play when being knocked out of the game. Raise the Dead lets you flip over your Lineman card and reanimate as a Zombie to stay in the game!
Miscellaneous Mayhem - These cards all have different effects, but generally speaking they cause something game changing or random to happen. For example you could steal a card from an opponent by zapping them with a Rogue Wizard, or sic the Ref onto a player with I've Got My Eye On You, forcing them to drink without being able to defend themselves. If you're REALLY unlucky, you might even get a visit from Boggy who will steal your drinks!
During a standard turn, the player draws up to their hand size (five cards). They can then either discard and redraw, or play an Action card (Beers, Apothecary or Misc Mayhem cards). On a Beer card, the other players then have a chance to play Reaction cards, and generally there are no limits.
So for example, Virral could play a Eucalyptus Brew card (7 damage) along with a Lurve Potion (whoever drinks cannot target the Thrower on their next turn) on Boggy.
Boggy plays Block, sending the card to GardenGnome.
Gnome plays Dodge, sending it back to Boggy.
Boggy plays Fend, sending it to Virral.
Virral plays Intercept, choosing to send it back to Boggy.
Gnome plays Illegal Procedure, meaning the Beer is still headed at Boggy but Virral will miss his next turn.
Boggy plays Bribe, changing the Beer to an Orca Cola and gaining 1 health instead.
End result: Virral misses a turn (goes "prone" by turning his player card sideways), Boggy gains 1 Health but cannot target Virral with a Beer on his next turn.
I'm really proud of how it's turned out, and can't wait to see games being played over the Euc Bowl weekend. We'll even have a mini-tournament on the Saturday night at Good Games Burwood, just a bit of fun with a small prize for the winner
