Vamp the Necros?

[Dark Lord (retired)]

"THE LORD HAS SPOKEN!!! ALL HAIL THE GREAT JJ!!"

And yet people sit around and wait for his word on official rules changes before they start their seasons?! It's insane.

A teeny bit over-the-top, if somewhat accurate....

While both the waiting and the waited on share in some collaborative blame, we are both products of societies that ascribe to Intellectual Property Laws....

Sadly, we are both fulfilling our rolls....

Given that, I don't know how it can be any other way....

We collectively tell JJ to piss off. What's his use? How many good rules have been chucked in the bin because of his inexperienced, arbitrary and fickle whims?

Start house ruling your own leagues and using rules that work for YOU instead of rules JJ thinks might work.

[Joemanji]

I don't know about anybody else but I imagine JJ like a giant post apocalyptic computer with AI that has gone batty, but it's worshiped by a bunch of tribal mutants who say stuff like "The Lord works in mysterious ways" to explain his erratic behavior.

You work hard, polishing up a nice set of rules. Submit them into the slot on the side of this giant metal monstrosity. Lights blink, whirly sounds go, smoke comes out and the ground shakes a little...

...and boof! Out comes the rules only smeared and rewritten in crayon in some parts with corrections that read more like non-sequiturs than coherent rules.


"THE LORD HAS SPOKEN!!! ALL HAIL THE GREAT JJ!!"


My ideas get criticized because even though I have only played Blood Bowl for 20 years, I have only played a few games of LRB 5.

JJ doesn't play at all and it shows! And yet people sit around and wait for his word on official rules changes before they start their seasons?! It's insane.

Maybe.

But you then have to ask why JJ is the man in a position to do this. And that is because he invented and developed BB. So you have to credit it him with that at least.

[Dark Lord (retired)]

Oh I do.

He created a fun game that was good for sh!ts & giggles. He used creatively used other people's fluff mixed with NFL references to create a world we all love. (How fluff much he wrote I really don't know.)


But as far as designing balanced games for serious competitive play (which is what the community seems to want from Blood Bowl) he is complete shit.

In that area he either doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, or he doesn't understand that the community wants serious competitive play rather than 'beer & pretzels.' I used to think it was the latter but as time goes on, I am increasingly more convinced that it is the former.

[Joemanji]

I think the rules should have a base that it is fit for competitive play. BB is so easy to house rule that beer & pretzels is always an option, no matter how "serious" the core rules.

[Dark Lord (retired)]

I think the rules should have a base that it is fit for competitive play. BB is so easy to house rule that beer & pretzels is always an option, no matter how "serious" the core rules.

Ding ding!
You just surpassed JJ in game design competence.

And anyone who says we have that now is smokin rock, and/or hasn't played anything outside of GW games.

[Snew]

JJ wants the game fun. Everyone else wants a balanced, competetive thing that will never happen till we have fixed rosters and no role playing/growth. It'll be a true board game and soon bored game. Certainly not Blood Bowl.

JJ's the last bastion of (in)sanity here which is what BB needs. It's far too sterile now and getting downright clinical.

[Darkson]

Having seen JJ's attempts at writing a balanced Dark Angels and Blood Angels codex (yes, I still get 40K stuff, although I hardly play), I question the wisdom of letting him anywhere within 20 feet of any set of rules supposedly "balanced".

[Darkson]

but who cares what people in the next town are doing?

Quitre a lot of people if:
a) You'd like to hold tournaments with attendees that don't play in your local league ("whaddya mean that's not the official rule - we've played like that for years!")
b) you'd like to play in more than one gaming clubs league.

I really don't want to see BB go back the way it was in 3rd ed when if I went the 10 miles or so to the next town I couldn't get a pick-up game of BB because we'd have to have an hours worth of discussion before the game to decide who's houserules we were using and what those houserules were.

[Darkson]

But you then have to ask why JJ is the man in a position to do this. And that is because he invented and developed BB. So you have to credit it him with that at least.

Like DL, I do, but that doesn't mean he's the man fro the job now.
I credit Philo T. Farnsworth for inventing televison - doesn't mean he'd be the man I'd go to to make a LCD screen now though.

Thanks JJ, you invented a game that I love playing - now move over and let someone with a better understanding of the rules take over.

[Dark Lord (retired)]

JJ wants the game fun. Everyone else wants a balanced, competetive thing that will never happen till we have fixed rosters and no role playing/growth. It'll be a true board game and soon bored game. Certainly not Blood Bowl.

JJ's the last bastion of (in)sanity here which is what BB needs. It's far too sterile now and getting downright clinical.

I would agree with you Snew but the problem is that we are firmly in the minority here. The game has moved on to something competitive and the overriding theme is "balance."

Just look at every thread on this board! It's all they talk about! "How do we balance the game?" "Is this roster balanced?" blah blah blah. "Tournament, tournament and my world ranking...boy they need to fix those world rankings so I can know how good I am at this board game..."

The game has gone competitive. Personally I would never play 3rd Ed based BB as a serious strategy game but the die has been cast.

JJ may create fun rules, but he can't create balanced rules, and somebody needs to inform him that people aren't playing Blood Bowl for fun anymore.

[Snew]

people aren't playing Blood Bowl for fun anymore.

I've finally realized this and it breaks my herat. I do sitll like the people though.

[Marlow]

people aren't playing Blood Bowl for fun anymore.

I've finally realized this and it breaks my herat. I do sitll like the people though.

I play it for fun.
I like being competative, but the Fun is what makes it better than Chess!

[Dark Lord (retired)]

Of course there are exceptions but the vast majority of posters in this forums and others are concerned with tournaments, rules balance, and coaching a winning team.

They want a competitive board game. That's not to say they don't have fun, but the source of the fun is different. People say all the time, that it's not fun to play a game they don't have a chance of winning. That means the fun is coming from a competition source and not laughing at the random craziness Blood Bowl 3rd edition can bring.

[GalakStarscraper]

Of course there are exceptions but the vast majority of posters in this forums and others are concerned with tournaments, rules balance, and coaching a winning team.

They want a competitive board game. That's not to say they don't have fun, but the source of the fun is different. People say all the time, that it's not fun to play a game they don't have a chance of winning. That means the fun is coming from a competition source and not laughing at the random craziness Blood Bowl 3rd edition can bring.

D*mn good post DL. And very accurate I would say. I would say that another good sign that what you posted is true is how few leagues I've heard of that use the special play cards that we added for the game. My league does ... but I think their lack of us is another sign of how accurate your observation is.

Galak

[DoubleSkulls]

Of course there are exceptions but the vast majority of posters in this forums and others are concerned with tournaments, rules balance, and coaching a winning team.

They want a competitive board game. That's not to say they don't have fun, but the source of the fun is different. People say all the time, that it's not fun to play a game they don't have a chance of winning. That means the fun is coming from a competition source and not laughing at the random craziness Blood Bowl 3rd edition can bring.

Its a very valid point - but I think it says more about the people who post on TBB than BB players in general.

LRB5 had some attempts to reintroduce some of the fun elements (more secret weapons, access to cards). I hope we can keep pushing for this aspect to increase.