Blood Bowl!
Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:23 am
With another kid on the way and moving my schedule is getting more hectic so both the regular RPG I run on another board and my weekly trip to the local gaming store for a bit of wargaming are out for a while.
The solution. Blood Bowl by forum!
For those of you who have never heard of it, Blood Bowl takes the races from Warhammer Fantasy and puts them into a sport somewhere between American football, Rugby, and a cage fight.
Something like this:
Aside from just being fun and a littly punny, bloodbowl is very well suited for play by e-mail or forum, because most of the time decisions are only being made by the player whose turn it is. Therefore a whole turn can be completed in a single post or e-mail. Allowing the game to be completed in a reasonable amount of time.
Another advantage is that unlike most GW games they make the current rulebook, with all the teams included, availible online along with some other resources:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/conte ... Id=4800003
The rules are simple (compared to Fantasy and 40K!) and so you might well be able to play just having read the book.
If any of you think you can play just off of reading the book or already know how to play, than I'd be up for a straight up game with you, likely using powerpoint as the graphical medium, turning the end of a turn into a pic to post in the forum, and a verifiable online dice roller to determine results.
Another option however would be for two of you who don't know how to play having a go at each other with me GMing things to the best of my ability, doing the actual rolls and handling details myself, which could be good practice for me. You'd take the role of coaches screaming orders at your team from the sidelines, cheering them on and/or calling your player's mothers whores if they aren't doing well, depending on your style and the selected race.
In any case others are encouraged to post in the thread as fans, sports commentators, armchair quarterbacks, or hecklers in the peanut gallary.
While all the teams are in the rulebook, I'll list them here quickly in case any strike your fancy. Each team can also add things like cheerleaders or a Bloodweiser kegger to help out.
The easy to start with teams: Humans and Orcs. These teams generally feature skills that allow for well rounded play and reliability. These teams can save their re-rolls for big plays, while fancy pants teams will find themselves rolling a one now and then and tripping themselves up running along or something. Humans wear armor to counter the Orcs natural brute force, but are still generally faster and better at the passing game. Orcs are a bit slower and better at the smashing of faces.
The pointy eared teams:
All Elvish teams feature highly agile and generally elite players. However their cost means they typically have a shallow bench and are prone to being a few men short come the second half.
High Elves- Rich nobles with good kit and a solid passing game.
Wood Elves - Debatably also "high" elves. These elves are still quite tough, and have support from Treemen for holding up the line of scrimmage
"Punk" Elves - Left out to dry after an upheval in the tournament structure, these elves are pro but without the resources of their brethering, however beyond the mohawks they have impressive skills and their recievers are the best at coming up with the ball.
Amazons - human warrior women, who are able to dodge and avoid the attacks of others, making their drives hard to stop.
Dwarves- They get knocked down, but they get up again, nobodies gonna keep 'em down! Dwarves are slow but tough, favoring a game of attrition. Very dangerous over short distances.
Chaos Dwarves- These Dwarves got a little too close to the chaos rift in the norse and are mad as hatters. There aren't many of them, but they have slaves to fill out teams and love Bloodbowl!
Khemi (Egyptian like) - These mummies and ancient warriors rose from their tombs to protect their homeland, but they head out to play their ancient sport as well. The years have not been kind to their agility or speed but they're tough and dangerous.
Lizardmen - These cold blooded warriors provide a solid balance between the nimble and clever skinks, tank like Saurus, and masssive Kroxigors
Necromantic teams- Why be damned if you can't have some fun! Werewolves, ghouls and other creatures prowl the field for a potent running game
Undead teams - Sort of a cross between the Necromanitc and Khemi teams Lacking some of the skills of Khemi and speed of the necromancers living creatures they feature hard to take out and strong undead.
Norse - These tough vikings are great at putting the other team on the ground, however their lack of armor makes them all to vulnerable taking a hit themselves.
Skaven (ratmen) - Man-things slow slow; Skaven fast fast!
There are also Chaos, Dark Elf, Goblin, Halfling, Nurgle, Ogre and Vampire teams. But the designers come right out and say they're tricky to play, and some not so likely to win, so we might want to avoid them. Except Goblins, those cheating little sociopaths are fun.
Anyway if you're interested lemmi know. And if you can't be arsed to actually read the book I could try explaining the rules of the game.
The solution. Blood Bowl by forum!
For those of you who have never heard of it, Blood Bowl takes the races from Warhammer Fantasy and puts them into a sport somewhere between American football, Rugby, and a cage fight.
Something like this:
Aside from just being fun and a littly punny, bloodbowl is very well suited for play by e-mail or forum, because most of the time decisions are only being made by the player whose turn it is. Therefore a whole turn can be completed in a single post or e-mail. Allowing the game to be completed in a reasonable amount of time.
Another advantage is that unlike most GW games they make the current rulebook, with all the teams included, availible online along with some other resources:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/conte ... Id=4800003
The rules are simple (compared to Fantasy and 40K!) and so you might well be able to play just having read the book.
If any of you think you can play just off of reading the book or already know how to play, than I'd be up for a straight up game with you, likely using powerpoint as the graphical medium, turning the end of a turn into a pic to post in the forum, and a verifiable online dice roller to determine results.
Another option however would be for two of you who don't know how to play having a go at each other with me GMing things to the best of my ability, doing the actual rolls and handling details myself, which could be good practice for me. You'd take the role of coaches screaming orders at your team from the sidelines, cheering them on and/or calling your player's mothers whores if they aren't doing well, depending on your style and the selected race.
In any case others are encouraged to post in the thread as fans, sports commentators, armchair quarterbacks, or hecklers in the peanut gallary.
While all the teams are in the rulebook, I'll list them here quickly in case any strike your fancy. Each team can also add things like cheerleaders or a Bloodweiser kegger to help out.
The easy to start with teams: Humans and Orcs. These teams generally feature skills that allow for well rounded play and reliability. These teams can save their re-rolls for big plays, while fancy pants teams will find themselves rolling a one now and then and tripping themselves up running along or something. Humans wear armor to counter the Orcs natural brute force, but are still generally faster and better at the passing game. Orcs are a bit slower and better at the smashing of faces.
The pointy eared teams:
All Elvish teams feature highly agile and generally elite players. However their cost means they typically have a shallow bench and are prone to being a few men short come the second half.
High Elves- Rich nobles with good kit and a solid passing game.
Wood Elves - Debatably also "high" elves. These elves are still quite tough, and have support from Treemen for holding up the line of scrimmage
"Punk" Elves - Left out to dry after an upheval in the tournament structure, these elves are pro but without the resources of their brethering, however beyond the mohawks they have impressive skills and their recievers are the best at coming up with the ball.
Amazons - human warrior women, who are able to dodge and avoid the attacks of others, making their drives hard to stop.
Dwarves- They get knocked down, but they get up again, nobodies gonna keep 'em down! Dwarves are slow but tough, favoring a game of attrition. Very dangerous over short distances.
Chaos Dwarves- These Dwarves got a little too close to the chaos rift in the norse and are mad as hatters. There aren't many of them, but they have slaves to fill out teams and love Bloodbowl!
Khemi (Egyptian like) - These mummies and ancient warriors rose from their tombs to protect their homeland, but they head out to play their ancient sport as well. The years have not been kind to their agility or speed but they're tough and dangerous.
Lizardmen - These cold blooded warriors provide a solid balance between the nimble and clever skinks, tank like Saurus, and masssive Kroxigors
Necromantic teams- Why be damned if you can't have some fun! Werewolves, ghouls and other creatures prowl the field for a potent running game
Undead teams - Sort of a cross between the Necromanitc and Khemi teams Lacking some of the skills of Khemi and speed of the necromancers living creatures they feature hard to take out and strong undead.
Norse - These tough vikings are great at putting the other team on the ground, however their lack of armor makes them all to vulnerable taking a hit themselves.
Skaven (ratmen) - Man-things slow slow; Skaven fast fast!
There are also Chaos, Dark Elf, Goblin, Halfling, Nurgle, Ogre and Vampire teams. But the designers come right out and say they're tricky to play, and some not so likely to win, so we might want to avoid them. Except Goblins, those cheating little sociopaths are fun.
Anyway if you're interested lemmi know. And if you can't be arsed to actually read the book I could try explaining the rules of the game.