Encouraging more scoring

bjcantwell · Post by **bjcantwell** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:13 pm

I'm thinking of starting a little league with some buddies and was trying to come up with ideas to open the game up a tad and move away from the 2-1 grind as the optimum strategy... or at least reward team that take a chance to score.

A couple of ideas I was tossing around in my head (could be used singly or in any combination)

1) Give SPP for "assists" - a player that passes the ball to a player who scores a TD in the same turn gets an assist and is awarded a SPP. Assist could be broadened to include hand offs if the player was required to make an agility roll in order to reach the player who scores the TD (e.g. if you are required to dodge past an opponent to reach the scorer, you would get the SPP, but if you just ambled up unopposed and handed off the ball, no love for you)

2) Award 4 SPP for a TD instead of 3 SPP - Despite being the nominal point of the game, TD's are only a little more valuable than casualties. This reinforces the team build to crunch the opponents players and score a minimum number of times, even for teams that could potentially score more.

3) Allow a team that wins by more than a single TD to roll twice for MVP and choose which of the two players selected gets the award.

Any other good thoughts? Am I the only one who would like to see more risk taking?

Later

Brian

Grumbledook · Post by **Grumbledook** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:39 pm

just skew your league scoring to give more points per touchdown or something

dont need to be messing with the game rules for that

Aliboon · Post by **Aliboon** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:07 pm

Problem is that it's generally the agility teams who will benefit from these sort of changes. Slow teams will fall behind in the skill (and win) stakes if you make the 2-1 grind less of an option.

A counter balance to this could be to give an SPP for a KO, maybe 3 for a CAS and 5 for a TD.

But I think that LRB 5 has gone a long way to make it less of an option to "reliably" go for the 2-1, invest in some wrestle and fend.

bjcantwell · Post by **bjcantwell** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:12 pm

Definitely not looking to give the agility teams a big boost, but hoping to encourage players to take a few more risks (by upping rewards). It seems that the very safe and conservative tactics are dominating the day. As it stands it seems that players are willing to just try and get their SPP through casualties as they slowly and safely move up the field.

Part of this is that I think I'll get my buddies more interested in a BB league if it's more chaotic and less staid. We play mostly historical games, so BB would be for those evenings when we want something different. If we want to plod slowly and methodically across the field, we play Roman legions or Renaissance pike blocks

Brian

Cracol · Post by **Cracol** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:21 pm

The only problem I can see is that even though you don't like a 2-1 grind some teams don't have much of an option, and the points you're suggesting seem to favour those agility teams that are more likely to try and score a shed load anyway.

Have you ever tried doing a league without the grinders? I know this takes something away from the game but could encourage the "beautiful game".

Another option could be awarding the grinding teams with 4spp for a td and the agility teams 3spp for a cas to even it up a bit. Although I can see this being a pain to sort out in itself.

Personally I think it's difficult to implement a system that encourages lots of scoring without penalizing the strengths of some teams.

Aliboon · Post by **Aliboon** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:34 pm

Part of this is that I think I'll get my buddies more interested in a BB league if it's more chaotic and less staid.

I don't know if anyone has tried it, but maybe using the old 3rd edition handicap system (cards) with the LRB5 rules might be an option-they'd certainly make for a more chaotic game...

Lictor · Post by **Lictor** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:27 am

Our league offers a simple bonus point system.

Beat your opponent by more then 2 TD and you get extra points for the ladder.

Similarly, winner of Cas get's a bonus point(s).

Fiddle with SPP's and you will merely favour some teams over others.

Wylder · Post by **Wylder** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:41 am

Tear up their rosters and tell them they have to create an elf team?

Seriously though, if people are picking grind teams, and playing grind strategies, maybe thats because thats how they find BB fun? If they wanted to score all over the place they'd be playing woodies or skaven.

MerchantDragon · Post by **MerchantDragon** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:10 am

I'm thinking of starting a little league with some buddies and was trying to come up with ideas to open the game up a tad and move away from the 2-1 grind as the optimum strategy... or at least reward team that take a chance to score.

Which teams do you (and they) play?

If you are looking for more risk taking/touchdowns you could ask some of the coaches to try:

Chaos Pact
Goblin
Halfling
Skaven
Underworld
Vampire

Tripleskull · Post by **Tripleskull** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:12 am

I have played in a league that alowed the coach to pick the MVP if he won the game. This could be modified to win by two TDs and you get to choose the MVP.

The atvantages is:

- You motivate people to take the chance and score more

- Even though you might see agile team winning by two TDs way more often that bashy teams, the bashy team benefit way more from choosing MVPs. Obvius examples are BOBs and long beards.

mattgslater · Post by **mattgslater** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:36 pm

You could also put in a bonus for scoring 2+ TDs and losing/tying, or 3+ and winning. It doesn't have to be a lot. Say, one extra roll to gain FF. So if the score is 2-1, nothing happens, but if it's 3-2, the winner rolls for FF twice, and the loser rolls once like he lost and once like he won. If it's a 2-2 tie, everybody "wins" as far as FF is concerned, but if it's a 1-1 tie, nothing happens. Or you could simplify it further and say "roll FF like you won and add +10k winnings if you scored 2TDs, even if you tied/lost."

spubbbba · Post by **spubbbba** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:24 pm

What about doing a league structure with points as follows?

Win:10
Tie:4
Lose:2
Forfeit/concession:0

TD:2
Cas:1

You might want to make it only SPP generating cas to avoid people going foul crazy, but i creates an inetersting structure and a win is worth more than 2 draws whilst a draw is only double a loss so it encourages people to go for the big wins.

Otake · Post by **Otake** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:40 pm

I once thought of the following rule (never tested) :

Once per game, to avoid Ball Control, you can concede the actual drive and give the TD the the other team. It is awarded randomly to a player of the opposing team.

In addition, at the end of the match, if the opposing team has not also conceded a drive during the match, it gets a second MVP.

There were great discussions about also throwing rocks at the conceding team if they were still largely the same number as their opponents.