Pit Traps

[bigallium]

adapting the concept originally published in white dwarf many moons ago (from memory). I used to like the concept but it never really seemed to work because it was so difficult to get anyone to enter the squares, but now with pushbacks and skills like grab I think they could come back to popularity (with the crowd at least..)

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Before the game begins (i.e before any players are placed on the pitch) each player places six pit trap cards in a single square on the pitch. The cards can only be placed in that players half and cannot be placed next to the sideline or on the line of scrimmage. Coaches take it turn to place the markers, with the 1st coach being decided at random.

Markers cannot be placed adjacent or within one square of each other

Once all 12 markers are placed on the pitch, each one in turn is scattered from its placement using the D8.

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N.B. The ball may never enter the square of a revealed trap and will automatically scatter again. It may however come to rest is a square with a marker in it and will rest there until someone dare pick it up - the ball will not trigger the trap.

Any time a player enters a square containing one of these markers, roll a D6 to see what that square contains.

1-3 nothing happens, false alarm.
4-5 normal trap
6 special trap


Normal Trap

player falls into the trap, roll for armour. This is a Turnover if the player was on the moving team.

In subsequent turns the player can use a move action to attempt to climb out - it costs 3 points of MA to climb out of a trap.
Roll D6 against AG. If passed then player climbs out and can be placed in any empty adjacent square and may carry on moving if they have MA left.
Players who are prone in a trap at the beggining of their move still require 3 points of MA to stand up, thus a player with MA 6 who is prone in a trap at the start of his move could stand up and climb out of the trap but would have no MA left.
PLAYERS MAY NOT BLITZ/THROW/HANDOFF/FOUL OUT OF A TRAP - MOVE ACTION ONLY.

Players with Leap skill get a +1 to the roll, Big Guys get a +2 to the roll due to their size, but must still make nega-trait rolls to perform the action (no 'blitz' allowed).
For each team mate not in a TZ, that is adjacent to the trap, the player can add +1 to the roll. As usual the 1 and 6 rule applies.

If at any point a 2nd or subsequent player is pushed into the trap while a player(s) are still in there, make an armour roll for both.
If 2 teamates are trapped in the same trap then they have two options
1) try to get out individually as described above
2) one helps the other, giving a +2 to that players roll. The helping of a teammate is considered that player's action.

If opposing players are trapped in the same trap then each players attemps to get out suffer a -1 to the roll.

The trap, once reveled, remains open for ther rest of the game and any player entering that square must apply the results described above.


Special Traps

Rolls a 2nd D6 to determine the type

1. Trampoline

player bounces and flies through the air 2D6 squares in a D8 direction.
If the player lands in the crowd, roll for injury.
If the player falls to ground in an empty square, make an AG roll to see if that player lands on their feet. If suceeded they may complete any action that they were attempting, with any movement allowance that was remaining. A failed roll results in the player going prone and making an AV roll.
If the player falls to ground in an occupied square, make AV roll for both and scatter landing player from that square.

If player lands in crowd, lands on another player or fails the landing roll it is a turnover.

Trap remains open for the rest of the game

2. Trap Door

Player falls in, make AV roll, then door shuts above him. Player cannot return to play till next kick off. Also any injury suffered cannot be apoth'ed.

Square is treated as normal for the rest of the game.

3. Spikes

AV roll +2, with injury roll +1.
With any failed attempt to escape then player must make AV roll.

Trap remains open for the rest of the game.

4. Poison Dart

AV roll +2, treat all results as K.O'd.

Trap remains open for rest of the game, although trap is treated as 'normal trap' for rest of game.

5. Swamp

No AV roll, but all attempts to escape are at -2 to roll. If player escapes, they are treated as having 'Hideous Appearance' due to stench.

Trap remains open for the rest of the game.

6. Multi-ball!

This is not a pit trap, so no AV roll made and square is treated as normal, except the following effect is applied.

D3 new balls enter play from the trap, each travelling 2D6 squares in a D8 direction. Any balls landing in the crowd are lost, any balls landing on the pitch are in play and can be used to score with as normal. Balls landing in occupied squares can be caught as normal, any landing in an empty square bounces one square.

Trap is now spent and square is treated as normal for the rest of the game.

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total madness..?

I hope so.

[duff]

That could be fun for a short time, 1 or 2 novlty games, maybe a short tournement. Once it became routine the fun would be gone and it would be just unneccassary complication

[bigallium]

agreed.

Played a game last night which was a real laugh, but yes I wouldn't want to play with them every game.

I will add a tweat or two (in intalics) later today as a result of the game yesterday.

If you were to include it in a league, a pre game roll could be used to determine whether there are pits in the game. For instance, each coach rolls 1D6, if the results are the same (so a 1 in 6 chance), or possibly, within one of each other (so a 1 in 3) then the game includes the pit trap rule.

[MadLordAnarchy]

I love the crazy stuff and did write up some rules for traps while developing my league format a couple of years ago but I had to can them as it is just too difficult to keep them in check. I was going for something along the lines of having just a couple of traps - perhaps one or two for each side and then having the random trap roll as illustrated here but with longer odds of something happening and a much greater variety of outcomes with the most deadly being the least likely. I went down that route as it would be based on the idea that the pits would be seldom activated and even when they did it probably wouldn't be too disasterous but there would be a slim chance of something nasty happening.