Mascots

ScottyBoneman · Post by **ScottyBoneman** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 2:34 pm

Robotorz wrote:Well I dont care what the Name of Blood Bowl is. I would even play it if it was called something else. I play it because I like strategical/tactical games and I realy dislike the Idea of not doing something stupid and still loosing all chances to make a draw/win the game.

Not to use it to attack your opinion, but it is truly amazing how often that opinion comes next to a dwarven picture. I swear its literally 80-90%!

(Okay, now to attack it) The dirty little secret is that Bloodbowl is not a fantastic strategic/tactical game, it’s a really fun ‘beer and pretzels’ level of strategy game that relies on a fair amount of random chance to make it interesting. Good coaching in Bloodbowl is being able to mitigate and react to the opponents player’s skills, make best use of your own and the effects of ‘luck’.

I agree that random elements shouldn’t be allowed to be too strong for good coaching to recover from, that is why I like the idea of the Mascot as a ‘lightning rod’ for fan anger. No significant rule changes, good humour, and not unbalancing.

Shadow Monkey · Post by **Shadow Monkey** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 11:36 pm

I've been trying to come up with some good ideas to incorperate a mascot as something other than a cheerleader for a long time.

One of my ideas was that he counts as a d6 cheerleader. When rolling for the Cheering Fans on the kick-off table, you roll the d6 + FF + Cheerleaders. If you have a mascot, you roll an extra d6. The d6 determines how well your mascot performs. Possibly make the mascot cost 20 - 30 instead of the 10k cost for cheerleaders.

Maybe add a little more flavor by saying that if you roll a 1 for your mascot, he ticks the crowd off so much that you automatically lose the roll to your opponent and your opponent makes an injury roll for your mascot.

DesTroy · Post by **DesTroy** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 1:55 am

Hey, I like that! I think I may just try that, with a 30K gp mascot.

Evil Git · Post by **Evil Git** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 2:13 am

shadow monkey

that to me sounds like a good idea but a little underpriced, especially if it gives an extra d6 for cheering fans and that.

in my opinion, mascots are there to whip the crowd into more of a frenzy and to get the crowd to get behind the team a bit more than usual. i would have the cost as a standard price as well, maybe something like 70k or so.

the mascot can then add +3 on all rolls that affect the crowd in some way (cheering fans and all that) plus maybe once per game they could perform their special trick (falling over or whatever they do these days) and so get the extra d6 for one roll. maybe you could also have a clause in there saying that if you lose the roll (or lose it by say more than 6 or something) then the coach would have to roll a d6. on a roll of 1 or 2 the mascot is forcibly removed from pitchside by the officials and can't contribute with any further fan rolls.

just thinking all this as i'm writing and not too sure whether this all makes any sense so apologies if this is all rubbish.

Evil Git · Post by **Evil Git** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 2:20 am

also just to take this off the subject (sorry about this) but here in blighty there is an annual race for all the mascots for all 92 football teams in the football league where they have to run a course and jump over hurdles like a horse race (actually it takes place at a racecourse but i can't remember which one). last year or the year before one team put a professional athelete in the suit thinking they would win but he fell at the last face first. very funny when strange animal heads start flying in all directions after they crash and burn.

another boxing bout was between the three little pigs of bristol city (or rovers can't remember which) ganged up on wolfie from wolverhampton wanderers. they got a ban of some kind too. maybe someone can work this into the whole thing.

Shadow Monkey · Post by **Shadow Monkey** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 3:50 am

that to me sounds like a good idea but a little underpriced, especially if it gives an extra d6 for cheering fans and that.

in my opinion, mascots are there to whip the crowd into more of a frenzy and to get the crowd to get behind the team a bit more than usual. i would have the cost as a standard price as well, maybe something like 70k or so.

70k seems a bit steep for something that only gives you a max of +6 to the roll. You could spend only 60k for 6 cheerleaders to get an automatic +6 to the roll, and not run a chance of having your mascot get brutally beaten.

the mascot can then add +3 on all rolls that affect the crowd in some way (cheering fans and all that) plus maybe once per game they could perform their special trick (falling over or whatever they do these days) and so get the extra d6 for one roll. maybe you could also have a clause in there saying that if you lose the roll (or lose it by say more than 6 or something) then the coach would have to roll a d6. on a roll of 1 or 2 the mascot is forcibly removed from pitchside by the officials and can't contribute with any further fan rolls.

So, you automatically get a +3 to the Cheering Fans roll, and you have the option of using a special trick that will give you an extra d6 to the roll? Does this d6 roll stack with the +3, or do you have to choose one or the other?

Darkson · Post by **Darkson** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 5:36 am

I'd make the mascot D6-2 and 20k, so if he performs well, it's +3 to the roll, but if he's crap (falls over, knocks over the star blitzer cos his mask slipped, dances in front of the wrong fans) it's -2.
Make it a risk, like most things in BB.

Bredin · Post by **Bredin** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 7:12 am

Perhaps mascots could have an array of effects and the coach chooses (or rolls randomly) one when the mascot is first purchased, giving a more unique feel to each team.

Evil Git · Post by **Evil Git** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 11:55 am

shadow monkey

i was thinking that you get the +3 on all fan rolls and you can choose to use the special trick to get you an extra +d6 as the mascot was working really hard. with this i was thinking that at worst you would get a +4 but that may still not be enough to win that roll. that's why i was thinking 70k but then i can never work out how you price things in this game.

darkson

i like that idea. brings a little bit of jeopardy to the preceedings

bredin

i also like this idea. have the halfling coach play up to win a re-roll and all that kind of thing. yeah i like that.

anyway i was just writing as i was thinking and i know that alot of what i said is probably useless. maybe i'll put some real thought into this when i get back from work.

Shadow Monkey · Post by **Shadow Monkey** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 5:02 am

I still think 70k is way too much for someone with a very limited use. You still only have a 1 in 11 chance of of even getting to use it every kick-off. Something with that limited of a use should never cost more than a human lineman. An apothecary only costs 50k, and they can heal players that have been seriously injured or even killed.

Evil Git · Post by **Evil Git** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 7:02 pm

that's very true shadow monkey but like i said i can never work out how to price something in this game. maybe 50k or even 40k would be more of a sensible price.

bluetooth · Post by **bluetooth** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 1:58 pm

I'd really like a mascot who could do something funny during the game. Something different. Perhaps 2d6 would be rolled once in every match and...

Mascot Roll. For example...
2-3 Your mascot is a useless git. -3 to your FF for this match only.
3-4 The crowd goes wild - add +3 to your FF for this match only.
5-6 ?
7 Nothing special. Your mascot doesn't have any effect. Quite useless.
8-9 ?
10 ?
11 Distract the Ref - You may ignore the 1st sent off.
12 Totally confused ref - The ref sends off the fouled player.

Something like this. What do you think? I'd like to have some special mascot events more than just + or - to FF etc.

KLK · Post by **KLK** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 9:06 pm

a mascot! great idea!

if your team has a mascot also must have at least four cheerleaders. they can work togheter to help the team to play better. per any cheerleader and mascot you have, you can re-roll a one in the gate dice. at the half time show, you roll a a number of d6 per any cheerleader and mascot you have. any six will give you a chance to have an extra re-roll. re-roll those six, and if you roll a six again, you have an extra re roll the second half.

other idea is during the kick off roll. we roll a d66 here, and one is about the mascot, who is making the crowd have fun, and the team earns an extra re roll.

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 10:33 pm

My favourite idea here is the one in which the mascot takes the first injury in the event of a pitch invasion or thrown rock. It seems more in keeping with the spirit of the game than having them capering about entertaining the kids.

Someone also mentioned teams having real mascots as well as a guy in a suit. I think it would be fun if teams could also have a viscious squig, boar, dog etc. as a mascot which could be "accidentally" let loose to attack an opposition player.

Dark Lord (retired) · Thu Nov 27, 2003 10:56 pm

Deathwing wrote:
Darkson wrote:Slightly off-topic, but the American mascots sound much more fun than the ones we have here. Here the ref will ask them to leave the pitch if they try to distract the players on the field.
Though we did have a couple get into a fight on pitch, and one elected as mayor of Hartlepool(?).
Ah yes..the Bristol City 'Cat'. He got sacked for that.
The penalty competitions are quite funny though.
And yes, it was the Hartlepool monkey that became major, I suppose voting for monkeys makes a change from hanging them.

There was a Reebok or Nike commercial over here a few years back with some love song playing while 2 mascots beat the hell out of each other. A beaver and general, I think. Funny as hell.

OK sorry to interrupt.