Talk Fantasy Football

First let me say that printing issues not withstanding, I HATE (HATE!!!!) the way handicaps are now handled. The "events" weren't all that there was to Handicaps before. Before, part of the advantage gained by handicaps was the element of surprise. Before, not only did you get some tricks, but the other player had to wonder what you had and sometimes second guess himself and you could smile wickedly and look at your cards when the moment came and bluff people. All of that is gone, and it sucks. I think to make up for it, they should issue basebal bats to a d6 players on the underdogs team instead.

That said, I need some clarification on the handicap result #45 "That boy's got talent"
I believe that it intends that you be allowed one player from any poition off of your teams roster but have seen it interpreted a number of ways. I would like to know what the official interpretation is. Also, do the available selections include "allied" players from your team? IE, could a goblin team take another troll, or a human team take an ogre?

Well, IMO i prefer the new table but this is not the question here.

You can take whatever positional player that IS on your Team Roster:
No Allies (there not official) but it depends of your commish.
I m not sure about Big guys, i would say go for it but there are technicaly not in the roster...
So, someone else should answer to these on for clarification.

Big guys: NO. They are not a part of your roster.

Allies: No. See above.

You must take a player from the team listings in the back of the LRB. Note that this may give you a player above your normal allotment, such as having 3 Mummies for undead instead of the max of 2.

Also would note that I dislike the new Handicap chart also because some of the selections arent handicaps, more like nuisances, and don't help the weaker team at all. Such as rolling a:

21: Bad Press (opposing team 1/2's Fan Factor for this match)
22: Bad Habits (-1 Reroll for opposing team for this match)
32: Bribe the Announcers (You get your MVP before the game starts)
34: Sponsorship Deal (+10,000 gps after the match)
35: Palmed Coin (Wow, you win the coin toss)
36: Scutts Scroll of Weather Magic (You pick the weather. Hoorah.)
41: Team Anthem (+1 Fan Factor for this match only.)
64: That Babe's Got Talent! (+d6 cheerleaders)

Now tell me, how are +10,000gps, +1 Fan Factor, +d6 cheerleaders, or 1/2ing the opponents fan factor supposed to help you overcome the fact that your opponent has more players, and more SPP's than you? A few of the above options are annoying, but won't hinder the opposition hardly at all. They just plain suck.

Bloodbasher Masher wrote:Now tell me, how are +10,000gps, +1 Fan Factor, +d6 cheerleaders, or 1/2ing the opponents fan factor supposed to help you overcome the fact that your opponent has more players, and more SPP's than you? A few of the above options are annoying, but won't hinder the opposition hardly at all. They just plain suck.

Indeed they do, but I suspect that was the point. Instead of producing 36 reasonably balanced handicaps some are enormous (In the Bag) while others useless. This in its own way is a balancing factor and adds to the randomness of the handicap.

It makes me think that you almost get punished for playing a handicapped game. Sure, there are a few that really help out, like the 2d6 winnings instead of 1d6, but cmon. It seems like handicaps go like this:

30% actually useless/bad rolls
50% attempt to even the game a bit, though they usually dont.
10% stack the odds in favor of the weaker team
10% put the handicapped team at a big disadvantage, or help out the handicapped team a lot

Sounds similar to the fouling changes. They don't like handicapped games so they encourage people to not play them.

Just my 2 gps. Your thought may vary.

We thought that the handicap table needed some tweaking in our league. Too many handicaps were worthless (though not the 1/2 fan factor as it impacts on a number of our kick off table results). We ended up making the 10k 35k instead (as a new team always needs money), the cheerleader results in a permanent cheerleader and assistant coach for your team (or 10k each if you are maxed), +1 Fan factor is permanent (and affects the gate of the current game). But we kept many of the ones you pointed out, as the handicap roll is supposed to help, not hand over the victory. We also weakend Virus slightly, now on a 5+ the player can make it to the game.

Incidentally Ian, I love it when someone rolls In The Bag against me, as it is a blanket excuse to foul the bejeezes out of them, and get my stars back in the game quicker.

We have constructed a new Handicap Table for use in our next season: http://www.arosbb.dk/abbl-handicap-sheet.pdf