Putting the Wild back into Wild Animal

[darthnoir]

I had posted this in another wild animal thread in the General Forum.

I'm hoping to get more feedback on this.

Here's a modification to the current Wild Animal my league's have been experimenting with:

If the Wild Animal attempts through a Blitz roll 1d6.
1-3: The Wild Animal must immediately Blitz the closest player (regardless of team) or Foul if the closest player is not standing. If there is more than one closest player, your opponent chooses which single player is Blitzed or Fouled.
4-6: The Wild Animal may Blitz as normal.

Couple of notes on this change:

-We had to add the explicit "single player" comment to avoid weird interactions with Multi-block
-We added the Fouling aspect when many opposing coaches were simply leaving their players prone next to the Wild Animal to avoid the 1-3 result consequences.

I feel this helps puts the Wild back in Wild Animal. Under the LRB 3.0 version, Wild Animals have gained the nickname Lazy Animals.

What do you folks think?

[GalakStarscraper]

I think I'd still be tempted to leave a prone player next to him.

50% to get him ejected with the eye on the team ... gotta like those odds.

Galak

[gken1]

i'd probably do same thing...turnover + get the wild animal off the pitch

Best so far is the wild animal the BBRC is tossing around.

2+block,foul,blitz
4+ anything else.

[Sixpack595]

Why do you hate Minos and ROs so much?

[Circular_Logic]

Right.
Both suggestions are even worse than the current, which is also horrible.
Why not simply put back the old rule and maybe add:
The coach of the WA may choose to use his blitz to move one player before the WA does.

That fixes most traps.

[Vero]

If there's a 2+ to foul it's 2+ to move the most time

[gken1]

a wild animal shouldn't be better than an ogre or troll. if we keep the current negative traits then giving them 2+ to block/blitz/foul puts in on par with the bonehead for blocking/blitzing. 4+ for anything eles makes it a tad worse than bonehead but better than really stupid. Also he still doens't lose his tackle zone like the others.

Also conditional rules are bad... like you may move one player before this player. it's either move first or it isn't.

[darthnoir]

Why do you hate Minos and ROs so much?

This had nothing to do with Mino/RO hate. It was all about Lazy Animal hate.

[astaplatz]

Dear BBowl staff,

The new wild animals are much simpler, which is a good improvement.
They also make the RO function more like his skills would indicate (stay close, try and pin opponents down, use the tail to force people to stay next to you).

However, the new skill makes the Minotaur's horns useless (since you can't blitz with a WA under current new rules), this seems illogical to say the least.

In addition, predictable tactics of leaving players down next to the animal or leaving him on his own are too penalizing and make the game silly with open loop holes for people to utilize.

As a game designer myself I would suggest any of the following variations as significant improvements:

If I had my way, I would give the RO OPTION1 and the Minotaur OPTION 3.
--

OPTION1:
Wild animal:
Wild Animals are extremely violent creatures. If you declare any action other than Block or Blitz with a Wild Animal, roll a D6. On a roll of 1-4 (or 1-5 if too powerful, needs play testing), the Wild Animal stands still and roars in rage instead, and the action is wasted. Note that the Wild Animal no longer has to move first and that he can now use assists.

notes: fixes minotaur to be able to use horns, allows a down player to "blitz" themselves up from a prone position, fixing loop holes and silly tactics
--

OPTION2:
Wild Animal:
Wild Animals are extremely violent creatures. If you declare any action other than Block with a Wild Animal, roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3, the Wild Animal stands still and roars in rage instead; however, the action is not wasted. A Wild Animal that was prone may stand up and take no further action. Note that the Wild Animal no longer has to move first and that he can now use assists.

notes: fixes a loop holes with conditions.
--

The following trait might make a good alternative:

OPTION3: [A completely different WA]
Bezerk Animal:
Bezerk Animals are extremely unstable creatures. If you declare any action with a Bezerk Animal roll a D6. On a roll of 1 the Bezerk Animal rampages instead and moves using the scatter template until its full MA are expended (no "go for its" allowed), it falls over or it enters the square of a player. If it enters a prone player square its movement stops and it is considered to have fouled the prone player (normal rules). If it enters the square of a standing player, its movement stops and it conducts a Block (friend or foe), this block is considered a Blitz for purposes of using skills if the BA moved at least 1 square. If a BA blocks a friendly player, calculate assists as if the BA belonged to the opposing team.

A Bezerk Animal that is rampaging may not pick up the ball (scatter it), must dodge normally if leaving tackle zones and use skills normally. If BA rampages while holding the ball it immediately drops it, completes its rampage and then the owning team suffers a turn over.

--

I am not sure if "un-stunning" is currently considered a "move" that requires a dice roll, but that would be silly and so should not require a roll!

[Uber]

In our league, we'll give +2 to the Wild Animal roll when blitzing the closest opponent. We also won't require Boneheads, Really Stupids and Wild Animals to roll over or stand up. It seems logical to us that recovering from a hit is more of a natural reflex than an action. Big guys, although not too familiar with the rules of the game, know that they should get back up on their feet when they've been knocked down. That's probably the only thing the coaches could get in their heads!