Talk Fantasy Football

I have a few homebrewed teams that I've pondered making models for for some years now, but I've not yet showed them to anyone. I thought that rather than waiting until I have the models to play them and springing them on my opponent unreviewed, maybe I should post them here and see if anyone has any feedback or ideas.

Hobgoblins:



Sneaky - Agility Skill
When this player performs a foul, the roll to see if he is sent off afterwards is always made as though the Eye of the Ref is on the other team. Additionally, the player is never sent off if the AV roll caused by the foul was unsuccessful (ie. if the fouled player was not injured).

Dryads:



The above teams should be fairly straightforward and self explanatory, but this one is a bit odd...

Ethereals:



Incorporeal
A player with this ability is never knocked down, but suffers armour and injury rolls as normal. When affected by the Stunned result on the injury table, the player is placed in the Reserves box of the Dug-Out for the remainder of the drive instead. When failing a Dodge roll, if the player successfully passes his AV roll, his team does not suffer a turnover and the player may continue moving. If a player with this ability is carrying the ball, roll a D6 before taking an action with that player. On a roll of 1, the player drops the ball. A player with this ability may not be given any skill that requires the player to be knocked down, such as Piling On.

Resilient
Rolls made against this player's AV as well as injury rolls against this player may never be modified.


The idea here is obviously to represent a (semi-) ghostly team as interestingly as possible. Obviously we can't have a team that can't pick up the ball or interact with the opposing players, so my solution to how to let them play the game while still "feeling ethereal" is to say that they can never be knocked down, just be injured or nothing, and have a tendency towards dropping the ball from their semi-incorporeal hands. I haven't tried it out yet and it might not be fun at all, but any feedback appreciated nonetheless.

These links don't seem to be working for me...

The one thing I would say from what I can see here is that the rules for fouling in CRP/LRB 6.0 has changed. So there is no more ref eye on you, etc. I think sneaky seems similar to sneaky git, but I'm not sure if that is exactly the effect you are looking for...

You are correct, sorry about that, the links had been cropped when I copied and pasted this message. They should now be working. You are also correct in your observations, the explanation is that the lists are written for a set of league house rules that use the LRB 1.1 which has the IGMEOY rule. Sneaky is simply a retro-modified version of Sneaky Git for that environment (and I changed the name because I didn't like the idea of a skill being named after a Warhammer troop type, it sounds like Plague Monk or Temple Guard to me...).

The Hobgoblins seem perfectly fine to me. Thumbs up.

Not sure I like the Dryads, not sure why, maybe it's the combo of Ag4 and Regen. Thumb neutral (:))

Didn't like the Ethereals until i spotted that they were almost exclusively St2 so the Incorporeal ability became kind of like Stunty. Still not sure i like the idea of mass no fail actions though. Thumb tentatively up.

Thanks! Thumbs appreciated. One thing I am very unsure about is whether to allow one or two big guys on the Hobgob team. They are kind of feeble so I went with two, but I think I will change it back to one both because they are meant to be feeble, but also because it devalues the fact that Goblins have two trolls when a team with positional players could have these too...

Not sure about the S access on the dryads, there's a reason elves don't get it.
Apart from that the dryads just seem a bit dull, not really any different to the existing teams.

Hobgoblins - Looks OK but I'd limit the big guys to just one, they aren't very good but they aren't stunty.

Ethereal - No idea, but leaving the field when stunned may mean the team just ends up in the reserve box too often

Perhaps allow the Hobgoblins 0-2 Black Orcs?

I would prefer Hobgoblin teams to be like their smaller cousins:

0-16 Hobgoblins
0-2 sneaky git assasins
0-2 Minotaurs (yeah more minotaurs on the pitch)
0-1 Chaos dwarf blunderbuss (aka bazooka)
0-1 Chaos dwarf Chainsaw (need more chainsaws)
0-1 Hobgoblin bomber (yeah more bombs)

Sorry just thinking allowed or a loud.

There have been a few Hobgoblin teams proposed over time. I still rather like my version (Sneaky Git heavy with a couple of stabbers) but they wouldn't be able to compete with the tier 1 teams (by design).

Not sure about the S access on the dryads, there's a reason elves don't get it.
Apart from that the dryads just seem a bit dull, not really any different to the existing teams.

Thanks for the comments, it makes sense to take the S access away from the Dryads, I had missed that one.

Regarding dullness, I thought the Dryads were an interesting design for three reasons, one being that they are a non-elf team with AG4, another that they are a non-undead team with Regenerate, and finally that the combination of the two is not usually seen. Is the combination perhaps too strong? You could say that the appeal is mostly a question of theme rather than mechanics, which is true, but it works for me.

Your comment also raises an interesting question about design philosophy, I think. In some of the newer teams I've seen floating around, notably Slann, it seems like the idea has been to make them as different as possible by not giving them "standard" starting skills like Dodge or Block, but giving them really niche skills like Diving Tackle and Diving Catch instead. While I can appreciate wanting something different, to me it just looks incredibly jarring when a team turns up with very unusual skills instead of standard skills for seemingly no reason other than to make them different from the norm. It smacks of that team having been designed separately from the majority of teams that all just start with basic things like Block, Catch, Pass, etc., and therefore following a different philosophy. Even though it is fine gameplay-wise, it is unappealing design-wise to me. I prefer to have teams be different by having unusual combinations of basic abilities like the Dryads here, or by having unusual abilities in addition to standard ones like the Hobs here. I feel that when designing new teams, you should stick with the design philosophy that is integral to the foundation of the game - like Blitzers always having Block.

Perhaps allow the Hobgoblins 0-2 Black Orcs?

Good suggestion, but I'm personally adamantly against mixing races on teams (big guys, undead and dungeonbowl excepted).

I hope I don't sound too opinionated, I just have lots of thoughts about certain things and strong feelings about others!

In retrospect it seems like maybe the two Dryad positionals should have their cost raised by 10k each. Also, is the phrase "a remarkable resilience to injury" good english? Seems like it should be "resistance" instead.

Ooops, I forgot to comment about the ethereal team comments.

sheep on drugs wrote: Ethereal - No idea, but leaving the field when stunned may mean the team just ends up in the reserve box too often

I suspect you may be right. I'll need to think of an interesting way of representing the player getting stunned without knocking them down. Currently, I'm thinking something to do with a teleport effect. Maybe like so:

When an Incorporeal player would be stunned, instead remove them from the field and immediately place them D3 squares away directly towards their own end zone. If the square the player would be placed in is occupied by a model or is off the field, place the player in the reserves box instead.

That would serve to disrupt the play of the ethereal coach, without removing the player from the field entirely. The placement could also be done in a random direction instead of towards their own end zone. Another option is to remove the player from the field for a whole turn and return him to the field in some fashion in the following turn. Any suggestions appreciated!

Actually, "D3 squares directly away from the attacking player" makes more sense than "D3 squares directly towards their own end zone" I guess. I'll go with that for now.

Edit: When being attacked, of course. When dodging or going for it, I guess D3 squares in a random direction.