The job to rewrite the rulebook has been posted

[rolo]

In his defense (I feel like I have to do this because I'm the one who threw his name out there), by all accounts Matt Ward is a genuinely nice guy in real life, and a successful author. GW being what they are, we'll never know what constraints he was working under.

The big things which many of his projects at GW are frequently criticized for are poor game balance/codex creep, and fluff mangling.

The Codex Creep part (for the non Warhammer/40k players, GW would release new "editions" with bare-bones rosters, reasonably well balanced against each other, then would release army "Codexes" one by one. Every Codex released was more powerful than anything which came before it, hoping that everybody would drop what they were doing and go out and buy a new army for several thousand dollars. This process continued until the game balance was so shot that the game was essentially unplayable, then a new "Edition" would be announced.
Whether it's his fault or not, Matt Ward was responsible for many of the worst offenders of Codex Creep. I hear from Fantasy players that his "Daemons of Chaos" codex was so game-breakingly bad that it started the player exodus from Warhammer Fantasy, culminating a few years later with Fantasy being killed off and turned into Age of Sigmar.

The Fluff Mangling part, while also possibly not entirely his fault, turned off a lot of old school gamers. Warhammer 40k had a rich, detailed setting, with many different factions, and players felt like their army had a distinct "personality". Kind of like Blood Bowl now! Matt Ward murdered the back stories of nearly every Space Marine chapter, essentially reducing them all to wannabe Ultramarines with different colored armor. He also consistently made special character stats which didn't really match their back story - supposed tactical geniuses (basically every special character is described as a tactical genius) decide that the best way to help their cause is on the front lines, swinging a power sword in melee. If he "reimagined" Griff Oberwald, he'd be described as a tactical genius, finesse star player, with MA6, ST6, AG3, AV10, Block, Mighty Blow, Leader, Pass Block.

Basically, the two best things which Blood Bowl has going for it are a mature, reasonably well balanced rule set, and a rich setting with a detailed history and a unique feel. So I thought I'd troll a bit by mentioning a game designer best known for screwing up game balance and twisting the fluff into unrecognizable pieces.

Oh, and Matt Ward has a hard-on for Space Marines like you wouldn't believe. If he did take up Blood Bowl, there'd be a Space Marine team before you know it. Probably MA7, ST4, AG4, AV10 linemen with Block, Guard, and Nerves of Steel, for 90k each.

[Norseprophet]

This could be bad. The rulebook is fine the way it is.

[frogboy]

Mat Ward dosn't work for Games Workshop. The last thing he did was re-write the three elf books for Fantasy which turned out good IMO.

[celticgriffon]

It should be a damn interesting 2016 if nothing else... I have been collecting GW stuff since the 80's.

I haven't played 40K in beyond forever. I still have a boatload of Necromunda, LOTR SBG, and Epic Space Marine. The original rules or the community rules for these systems are both fine by me. I thoroughly enjoyed my two games of Kings of War so I refuse to participate in AoS. I own every previous edition of WFB... IMO Space Marines do not belong in that world. I can always just break out WFB 3rd ed and play Oldhammer. Dreadball doesn't work for me, unfortunately.

Whatever GW decides to do things will be fine. We can easily carry on carrying on. I like the state of Blood Bowl today. Whether in a league setting or at a tournament the game is healthy. And the players I surround myself with make the game worth playing.

GW has done so much garbage over the years I am not ready to join their bandwagon quite yet (if ever). Not to say I haven't bought the odd thing here and there but I am just as happy to support the small independent scene as well. There may have been a time when GW cared about my input and cared about my loyalty (hmm... White Dwarf 100 and earlier perhaps) but those days are long past. The nostalgia of what Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone started is a ghost in the past.

No matter how much I rant, however, I think deep inside I want to see those glory days return. Some of the best memories of my life revolve around those games (perhaps Blood Bowl most of all). But when I really think about it the game itself was secondary..

[Jural]

This could be bad. The rulebook is fine the way it is.

Blood Bowl now is very good for what it is. And that is an extremely tactical, complex, multi-generational fantasy football simulation. I personally would make a few tweaks for my own personal enjoyment, but I don't think the game would be a better example of what it is (e.g.- I, Jural, would like to see a Dark Elf thrower, no runner, and assassin as a special only.)

But Blood Bowl as an intellectual property could be re-imagined into something which was completely fun and just a different type of game. Imagine an 11 on 11 console game which operated like an American football simulator, but with Orcs, Ogres, Halflings, etc. Imagine an MMORPG type video game where you control one model in a real time match.

Now obviously GW wouldn't do either of the above, but they could use the Blood Bowl IP to imagine a completely different ruleset which didn't aim to be like the current Blood Bowl at all. It would be risky, but I would vastly prefer this to some idiot going around and "adding Khorne rosters", "adding +1AV to human catchers" and those sorts of tweaks. My guess is those sorts of changes would make the game much worse.

[odinsgrandson]

I would vastly prefer that the game remain the same at its core.

I love Blood Bowl- but I must admit that I'm not actually interested in fantasy sports games in general. I don't have anything against them, I just don't care most of the time.

If Blood Bowl got Age of Sigmared, I would have no interest at all in the new edition.

Now, if it were tweaked a little here and there, I'd definitely try it out. I love BB the way it is, but I don't think that a few small things would actually hurt it. And a few changes might actually add.

Now, I haven't tried out any of Plasmoid's suggestions, but they looked like sound tweaks to me (Orc blitzers are a steal for 80k, while the human team could use a small boost to its passing game). These would be less game changing than most of the LRB updates that I kept playing through, so I don't see any issue with it (I swear, I though the orc blitzers used to be 90k, but I'm not sure which version it was).


If Games Workshop basically makes some tweaks and we get an LRB 7 out of it, I think that'd be fine. I'd probably be on board with the new version.

If they just re-print the Icepelt rules with an official stamp, that'd be great.

If the tweaks create an utterly different game experience... then I suppose I'll keep my Icepelt rulebook handy.

[Toffer]

anybody know who actually got the job?

[celticgriffon]

I truly hope we get the fluff back into the rulebook with the new edition. I would also like to see the star players listed with their position type. New players are not always sure what position and race a player is based on the crp description.

[Shteve0]

According to one report from the event (see the NAF article!) Any Hoare will start the job later this month. Andy, I believe, is an author of some pedigree in GW circles - so it might well be a reasonable assumption that he's rather interested in fluff.

We'll see though, I guess. The sky has not yet fallen in and I'm sure we'll be doing all we can over the next few months to find out what makes Andy tick and what vision he has for our beloved game.

[lunchmoney]

... Any Hoare will start the job later this month....

Amusing typo or personal opinion on GW writers?

[Madsherman]

Link is dead. Can anyone summarize the job-post?

[Glowworm]

more importantly....... does this mean next years NAFC will be back at Warhammer world?

[frogboy]

more importantly....... does this mean next years NAFC will be back at Warhammer world?

Best question I've heard on this thread...

[RoterSternHochdahl]

more importantly....... does this mean next years NAFC will be back at Warhammer world?

Best question I've heard on this thread...

I hope not!

[BillyDee]

Seconded.