Discuss Fantasy football-style board games - GW's Blood Bowl, Impact!'s Elfball, Privateer Press' Grind, Heresy's Deathball, etc. THIS IS NOT AN NFL FANTASY FOOTBALL SITE!
Thanks for the tips (seriously, this should be required reading for people trying to teach BB). I probably taught one or two dozen players since I've started playing (and "hooked" about a third). But even that's not working anymore: people (under 40 ) I meet want quicker games, sleeker rules, and don't have my affection for BB to balance that. That's what I'm saying. At my LGS, Guild Ball is all the rage right now, because it plays quicker... (but it lacks League rules, and that leaves me cold)
No worries.
There are quite a few rules in BB that can be stripped out for beginners without fundamentally changing the game. Some teams may benefit from those rules being stripped out, but you're only taking them out at the start to help teach new players the fundamentals of the game without being overwhelmed by rules. You can add the rules in a bit at a time, depending on how quickly the new player gets the hang of things.
That said, I had 2 of my friends play in a tournament on the back of playing a half of a learning game. One was a 6 game, 2 day tournament. The other was a 1 day BB7's tournament. While neither player did fantastically results-wise (which is to be expected, as the other players at the tournaments were experienced), they both enjoyed it without feeling like they had no idea what they were doing.
Olaf the Stout wrote:Can you jog my memory about some of the changes from LRB4 to LRB5 that simplified the game? My memory is honestly struggling to remember what they might have been.
My old man memory is getting foggy ... here were some of them (and I'm not saying they made the game BETTER just simpler (due to speed of playing, less dice rolls, or deletion of rules).
1) Removal of Big Guy separate rules
2) Removal of IGMEOY
3) Single roll for Casualties (not two different rolls)
4) Removal of roll for Thick Skull
Those 4 come to mind off the top of my head ... there were more changes ... but those were done in the name of simplification.
Tom
Cheers for that Tom. The only one I wish was still around was IGMEOY. I found it added a bit of strategy to fouling as it meant that, if you were fouled, you could either foul back (and allow your opponent to foul you again on a 2+), or choose not to foul (and make it a 50/50 chance your opponent was sent off if he fouled again).
Yeah, miss that one as well. Couldnt you also argue the call, as a coach, and (on a 6 IIRC) being send off or something...? Or did we houserule that one.
Nope, that was a real rule (and one that should have never been removed).
Reason:''
Currently an ex-Blood Bowl coach, most likely to be found dying to Armoured Skeletons in the frozen ruins of Felstad, or bleeding into the arena sands of Rome or burning rubber for Mars' entertainment.
its taken fouling out of the game for expensive teams really, thats the biggest reasons most dont like it. i've only really recently earned my fouling wings as I found I wasnt fouling smartly in the past and just got sent off loads for little to no gain
JaM wrote:Yeah, miss that one as well. Couldnt you also argue the call, as a coach, and (on a 6 IIRC) being send off or something...? Or did we houserule that one.
No, that was a rule. Personally I wouldn't have minded if they got rid of just the "arguing the call" part of the rules for the sake of simplicity.
Otherwise you had to roll for the foul, roll to see if you got caught and then roll again to see if you successfully argued the call (and you could also argue to see if your secret weapon was sent off).
Blood Bowl target seems to be 2017 now (use browser menu to see image full size, or visit article which also has 4 players).
And yes, GW is repurposing kits as "age 8+".
I doubt that much will actually change. After informing myself about the current status of BB, I can see that this game easily has the most loyal followers that kept this game alive and kicking. Which really was great for me to see.
If GW changes the rules in a bad way (making the new version less fun, less tactical or worsen it in any other way), people will simply ignore it.
As for the new miniatures, they will probably be quite popular for sure. But there will always be space for independent miniature designers as well.
Some people like cheaper minis, some like diversity. I for example plan to get the future Iron Golems Orc team even with GW releasing new Orcs as well. Someone never can have enough Orc teams.
Who knows, the influx of new players might even increase sales for the independent designers.
Also who knows how serious GW will treat this re-release. Maybe it won't sell well and we`ll only get a couple of teams.
If you guys kept an abandoned game alive, a botched release won't be able to do much harm.
Not all complexity is good.
I get what javascrybe and Mike are saying.
As a very minor example, I had no problem with Cyanide removing the choice part of certain skills. And I get why they did it. Sure it Applied to all skills it would wreck some of them. But those could be removed or rewritten. I get that it is an "added layer of tactics" to sometimes not use Stand Firm or Side Step, or not use Dodge when you're being blocked close to the sideline. But hey, those are pretty good skills. You'd still pick them if you knew they we're "always on".
I think a lot of fat could be trimmed off the game.
Cheers
Martin
I totally agree with this. I would mind a faster game and you could do this without killing the game.
Currently an ex-Blood Bowl coach, most likely to be found dying to Armoured Skeletons in the frozen ruins of Felstad, or bleeding into the arena sands of Rome or burning rubber for Mars' entertainment.
If GW changes the rules in a bad way (making the new version less fun, less tactical or worsen it in any other way), people will simply ignore it.
In my experience it`s the players most of the time cuasing the "less fun" problem. The strange urge to thrive for a perfect ruleset....imperfect rules are just as good. The last decade of Blood Bowl proved it.
If GW changes the rules in a bad way (making the new version less fun, less tactical or worsen it in any other way), people will simply ignore it.
In my experience it`s the players most of the time cuasing the "less fun" problem. The strange urge to thrive for a perfect ruleset....imperfect rules are just as good. The last decade of Blood Bowl proved it.
That's true.
Back in the 80's & 90's when I played BB, I must have been quite fortunate though. The huge majority in my area really just played for fun.
And yes the rules aren't perfect, but when I look deeper into the rules now and compare them to what they used to be when I played, they seem much more balanced now (even with the added teams).
) I meet want quicker games, sleeker rules, and don't have my affection for BB to balance that. That's what I'm saying. At my LGS, Guild Ball is all the rage right now, because it plays quicker... (but it lacks League rules, and that leaves me cold)
