Talk Fantasy Football

Posted: **Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:12 am**

Anyone experimented with spiked ball rules? We've been trying some ideas for our dungeonbowl games (3 players, 2 balls, 1 normal, 1 spiked!)

We decided to stay away from the old rules of throwing the ball at players and using the block dice to see what happens, and are using something similar to the rules in the special cards of the LRB5. Which are based around the stab skill if a player fails to pick up, catch the ball!

Main additions are, the player holding the ball gains the stab skill whilst he has the ball.

We haven't tried rules for the player throwing the ball as a weapon yet, but i belive this could be good!

Players holding the spiked ball may use their pass action the throw the spiked ball at a player with an aim to injure them.

Using the passing rules, nominate a target square and follow the passing rules as normal, except, only quick and short passes may be attempted. If the ball lands on a player, the player must attempt to catch the ball with a -2 modifier. If the player fails the catch he must make an armour roll as he had been attacked with the stab skill.

I'm thinking that quick passes could use a +1/+1 modifier to armour or injury also.

What do people think?

Of course throwing the ball at a player would result as a turnover, and it wouldn't probably be used much, but it's interesting to have the rules for the more sadistic coaches out there!

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:41 am**

with throwing the ball *at* people, some things need to be addressed, which arent considered in the normal passing rules.

1: is it harder to catch a ball thrown to injure you, than one thrown for you to catch?

2: is it easier to evade a long bomb than a quick pass?

3: would strength affect possible damage?

4: how many outcomes should be catered for? (catch, miss, catch and injure, not caught and injured etc etc)

and some possible answers...

1&2: i think as far as throwing the ball at someone, it would use normal passing rules. catch-wise, i think as in normal passing rules it makes no distinction between long and short range for catching, we should carry it on here. id propose it counting as an innacurate pass for the sake of catching, with a further -1 modifier at quick pass range, to make it worth using against elfy teams (but you have to be closer

)

3: two sides to this...on one side, if youre stronger, you can throw a ball faster and harder. on the other side, in a block ST doesnt affect injury, so neither should it do so in an aggressive throw. for the sake of KISS, i think it shouldnt be a factor. this means gobbos and halfs would be at advantage, but remember they have passing handicaps, making a +1 at QP range impossible.

4: along with KISS, it may be worth making the armour roll independent of whether he catches it. so even if its caught, theres a chance of being impaled.

so how would this affect current teams?

elves: would catch the ball, but probably get hurt too
stunties: would have a harder time hitting people, but good for taking out undesirables
dwarves: probably would be used by/against dwarves much, due to need to hold on to ball/high armour

any thoughts on this?

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:04 am**

My recommendation for how do this is simple.

1) Allow any player holding the ball to have the Stab skill.

2) Allow any player holding the ball to have the MBBL2 Bullet Throw skill.

If the player with this skill has the ball, he may throw it at extremely high speed at any player that is not in an adjacent square. Roll to see if the player is successful throwing the ball as normal (expect that this pass may not be intercepted or Pass Blocked ... its just too fast). If the pass is successful, the player to whom the ball is thrown must make a successful Strength roll (agility roll using Strength stat) with a -1 modifier (extra -1 modifier if the thrower also has the Strong Arm skill). If the modified roll is successful, the targeted player may attempt to catch the ball as though it was thrown to them (+1 modifier for an accurate pass, if opponent catches the ball it counts as an interception). If the modified Strength roll is unsuccessful, the targeted player is nailed by the pass unaware. Make an injury roll straight away (no armour roll is required) with one of the following modifiers for the distance of the pass: +1 for Quick Pass Range, +0 for Short Pass Range, -1 for Long Pass Range, -2 for Long Bomb Range. If the player with the Bullet Throw skill also has the Strong Arm skill, add an additional +1 to the injury roll. After hitting the targeted player, the ball scatters one square from the target player. Using the Bullet Throw skill will result in a turnover unless the Bullet Throw is caught by a friendly player or successfully hits a opponent who then fails the Strength roll. If the ball hits an opponent who then fails his Strength roll, it will not count as a turnover even though the ball then scatters one square (the refs love this play when it works too much to blow the whistle). Use of this skill does count as the team's pass action for this turn and you do get SPPs for opponents who suffer casualties from use of this skill.

3) Use the rules from the Spiked Ball card in LRB 5.0:

Until the drive ends any failed pick up or catch roll (but not interception roll) is treated as the player being attacked with the Stab skill by an opponent.

Posted: **Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:38 am**

Bullet Throw, now that's a great skill

Posted: **Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:32 pm**

No-one loves the extra crazyness than me but I chucked the balls after a year. Found they didn't really pan out, and it's very difficult to construct an appropriate cost structure for them.

However, in the Dungeonbowl setting here it looks like it could work. I'd suggest that you could have all of the balls and they would be allocated randomly to the various ball collection points.

Talk Fantasy Football

Spiked Balls!

Spiked Balls!