2016 Star Players

[nazgob]

Hi all, i must apologise, but my searching has failed me.

Is there an official GW ruling on the star players from older editions?

[Regash]

As far as I know, GW has not dismissed any of the old Star Players.
They just added a few with the new DZ books.

So, in my humble opinion, you should be allowed to use all the known Star Players from the CRP.
Star players from older editions are still retired, I think.

[dode74]

Nothing from GW afaik, but NAF is allowing them. https://www.thenaf.net/2017/05/naf-and-death-zone-2/

[nazgob]

That's what I thought. There but officially in blood bowl 2016.

[Rolex]

GW puts that star player list in the rules pack of the tournament they run (as warhammerfest).

So I think they consider it 100% official.

[nazgob]

Perfect! Thank you.

[Milo]

It's a little bit of a grey area. GW recognizes that the current tournament scene expects those star players to be in place, and doesn't want to impact that. But at the same time, I think some of the stars are not ones GW wants to move forward with, for various reasons.

So for the moment, at least, GW doesn't want to hurt the tournament scene by removing any star players, so consider the ones in the Death Zone books to be additive to the existing CRP star player list. (GW tournament rules illustrate this as well, as someone else posted.) Please don't take that as me suggesting that once the DZ books are done, there are plans to remove existing stars -- I am privy to no information like that and am not trying to say that is part of their long term plans. (However, I do note that GW events do require GW miniatures, and unless you plan to convert miniatures for some of the old stars yourself, there may never be an official GW miniature for some of them, which may serve to make some of them effectively illegal in certain events.)

That said, for NAF tournaments, the NAF is the final arbiter of what is legal and not legal, and so far they have taken the additive approach as well (and they do not have the "GW minis only" rule, so all of the 3rd party Star Player miniatures will still be valid.)

Most likely, I believe you'll see a number of the old stars return, a number of new stars appear to fill the void of the older ones they aren't in love with, and some brand new stars to boot. But this will happen over time, as new background stories are written, over the course of multiple Death Zone editions. It will also depend on their production timelines, although the recent success has enabled them to hire more staff and I think we'll see Star Players come out on a faster basis soon. I can't wait to see Kreek and Karla, personally.

Note that most of this post is my own opinion only, not anything official from GW.

[mikeyc222]

you know milo, i understand why you have to do it, but i really feel bad for you that you have to tack on so many disclaimers to your posts.

[Gaixo]

Honestly not trying to start any trouble here, but all of those that have been "targeted" for removal are BBRC stars, correct?

[Milo]

Honestly not trying to start any trouble here, but all of those that have been "targeted" for removal are BBRC stars, correct?

None have been "targeted" for removal, so that's not a fair statement to make. GW is not trying to invalidate any Star Players currently in the CRP; I feel like I made that clear in my earlier post. Doing so would negatively impact the current ruleset and they are committed to minimizing the impact on the tournament scene as much as possible.

But let's be honest -- there are certainly Stars in the current CRP that could be grey areas in terms of IP usage. You can't blame a company from wanting to avoid any sort of entanglements of that nature.

GW is offering a variety of updated stars and new stars. This allows them to control the background of those characters (instead of background by committee, which has produced some hit-or-miss results), AND allows them to adjust the release of new characters to sync with their miniature production schedule. At some point, the CRP stars that GW does NOT update may be unnecessary, and it will be largely up to the NAF to determine if and when they would let them fade into history (except in GW events, of course.) That is the only "star removal" that is on the horizon, and it is entirely out of GW's hands.

[Gaixo]

That might be the party line, but Fezglitch, Glart, Ugroth, and Zara have been implicitly replaced.

I might have answered my own question there, as Glart and Ugroth predate the BBRC, at least as concepts.

[Milo]

That might be the party line, but Fezglitch, Glart, Ugroth, and Zara have been implicitly replaced.

Oh, I'm not arguing that. Karla von Kill is clearly an IP-concern-free clone of Zara, and Glart is a fatter version of his possibly illegitimate son. It would be foolish to deny the similarities.

But Glart Sr. is a version of Glart Jr. with a great, unique model that fits his new background but showcases the reason for his exceptional strength, and Karla brings in old background reference to the von Kill family.

I know people fear change, but if this is the sort of star player replacement we are getting, what sort of complaints do people have about GW supporting the game by introducing flavorful new characters that fit the fluff and have great models? Especially since they have done nothing to get rid of any of the existing stars?

[stashman]

Great work! I like the new stars with history background, not just 'stats'.

Hope that new stars can differ from the 'normal' rules, like the Twins. Some side effects that do them even more unique.

[Gaixo]

I know people fear change, but if this is the sort of star player replacement we are getting, what sort of complaints do people have about GW supporting the game by introducing flavorful new characters that fit the fluff and have great models? Especially since they have done nothing to get rid of any of the existing stars?

Don't ask me! I don't think the fluff for them is spectacular (the authorial voice of BB2016 feels a bit "off" to me in general), but I'm not especially bothered or threatened by them.

I was just curious if this was a deliberate effort to delete items that were created by the BBRC. It seems not.

[Milo]

I was just curious if this was a deliberate effort to delete items that were created by the BBRC. It seems not.

I can tell you definitively that whether a Star was created by the BBRC has never come up in discussion within the playtest group. (And there are a number of former BBRC members within the group, FWIW.)