What about having a playaction skill?

[Jural]

I can make a 2 turn skaven score out of this with almost no difficulty. Anything that allows a ball handler to be out in free space without the possibility of being blitzed should be out of the question.

Of the ideas so far, the original idea is worthy of being a fun house-rule (with the simplifications Fronko suggests.) However, it is bit too cumbersome for canon, especially combined with the 4 minute timer (which changes games immensely!)

Too complicated. How about this?

Play Action (Passing)
A player with this skill is expert at pretending to hand off the ball, but keeping it for a turn instead. The player takes a hand-off attempt as normal, but if successful the player using Play Action keeps a hold on the ball rather than handing it off. Until the beginning of your next team turn, the opposing team cannot use a blitz action to block the player.

[mattgslater]

Ah. OK. Make it a pass, rather than a hand-off. That way, you'd still have to get the ball to your GR. Also, it should definitely be a P skill.

[mattgslater]

Hmmm... I don't like that either. Never mind.

[Kyrel]

I have to admit that though I don't mind having to deal with a lot of rules, I'm not a great fan of this idea. My problem isn't so much the concept of having to note on a piece of paper which player really has the ball (though that would be somewhat annoying...). The bigger problem I see, is balance. Attempting an simple hand-off in order to prevent someone from blitzing the ball carrier next turn is overpowered, and forcing the opponent to guess at who really has the ball, is going to be a royal pain, though it would be slightly better.

While I like the basic idea, I'm affraid that this is one of those things that doesn't really translate very well into the game.

If we look at it again though, why do players try and make a fake hand-off?

1) Confuse the opponent to get a couple more yards before they're tackled.
2) Get more time to make an uninterrupted/-cepted pass.

As I see it, there is no real good and easy way to simulate confusion in the opposing team. You can do it by makine the ball "disappear", but this becomes cumbersome in gameplay, or you can do it by (potentially) making the ball carrier immune to being blocked/blitzed, which IMO is overpowered.

Alternatively you could try and let the skill affect Passing attempts, i.e. by letting a Passing player, that has made a Fake Hand-off in the same turn as the Pass, ignore enemy tacklezones with regards to modifications to the passing attempt. And/or add an additional negative modifier on any interception attempts. Arguably the problem with this is that those two types of modification already are covered by Nerves of Steel and Safe Throw.

So back to the starting point. Interesting idea, but no real good way to implement it, so that it has a real point in existing.

[mattgslater]

Ah-hah!

Playaction (Passing Skill)
The player gets a special Playaction action, which replaces both the Pass and Hand-Off actions the turn it is used (this skill may not be used if either of those actions is unavailable). The player takes a move action as normal, and if he ends his move action holding the ball in a friendly player's Tackle Zone, makes an Agility roll at +1, -1 for each enemy TZ; if successful, players on the opposing team must succeed at an Agility roll at +1 to blitz (not block; just blitz) the player during the next turn. A failed roll is treated as a fumbled pass.

Hmmm... that's huge against (and useless for) Khemri, but no sympathy there. It's also a big deal against Dwarfs, Undead and Necros, but they'll get good mileage out of it themselves (esp. Dwarfs, with their P access Runners and Undead, with 4 Ghouls who'd love that skill to, um, death). Elves would get the most use out of it, and would be the best at getting around it, but the loss of the pass action on an elf team is a big enough deal that you'd probably see two camps with it, and the camp that uses it would get more mileage out of now-underutilized Throwers (or take it on Catchers, but I don't see why I'd take it on doubles over Nerves of Steel or Pass). One more weapon isn't going to make a huge diff, frankly. If your opponent uses this skill, then just blitz him while you've still got a re-roll, or with your +AG guy, or whatever. That's usually good practice anyway.