Thursday, November 24, 2011

Introducing the Helsinki-Kotka Interregional Blood Bowl Turboleague

Let's play football! Pictures feature the gorgeous Tehmeena Afzal, Pakistan's gift to the world.



Next year, Nuffle willing, will see the inauguration of the Helsinki-Kotka Interregional Blood Bowl Turboleague. I'll be posting game results and standings here, so if you're not interested, then just skip these posts. They'll be identified by the handy abbreviation HKIRBBTL.

We'll be playing Blood Bowl by the Competition Rules, available here. As league conventions go, we would prefer that everyone play with a team of more or less appropriate, painted miniatures. As a minimum requirement, teams should be made up of miniatures in such a way that different player types can be told apart at a glance; i.e. an Orc Blitzer and an Orc Lineman need to look different. There also obviously has to be a way to tell which lineman is which, to appropriately award star player points and tell leveled-up linemen apart from the others.

My personal opinion is that there shouldn't be a league commissioner at all. If there's a rule dispute during a game that can't be easily resolved amicably, I suggest using the old GW standby: both players roll a d6 and the higher-scoring player's interpretation stands for that game. If there's still disagreement afterwards, we can discuss it collectively and come up with a house rule. Anything outside of games can certainly be resolved through discussion.

Each season of the league will consist of a regular season, followed by the playoffs. Each regular season game will count toward the regular season standings: a win is worth three points, a tie one point to each team, and a loss gets you no points at all. If the game is tied at the end of the second half, it ends as a tie; no overtime or shootouts in the regular season. Teams will be seeded for the playoffs based on regular season standings, in a manner specified for each season, and reseeded for every round. The exact playoff format, as well as the number of regular season games and so on, will depend on how many people are participating and so on, so we'll figure that out later. For starters, we'll probably go with each team playing two games against each opponent, a home-and-home series or double round robin, if you will.

The tiebreaking formula for the regular season is: head-to-head games, goal differential, casualties inflicted, goals scored, fatalities inflicted. If all these are tied, roll a d6.



All team rosters are public at all times; an opposing coach can inspect your roster at any time during the game. Each coach is responsible for their own record-keeping, but should deliver certain stats to me, so I can keep standings and statistics on this blog. After every game, each coach should have recorded:

* the score
* touchdowns
* completions
* casualties inflicted
* fatalities inflicted
* sacks (knocking down or Wrestling down the player carrying the ball)

And for the last five, the players responsible so we can keep track of top scorers, passers and so on. Only casualties and fatalities that a team's players were awarded Star Player Points for count, so pushing someone into the stands or an opposing player failing a Go For It roll don't count as inflicted casualties. As it is, your players don't actually get any star player points for knocking down the player with the ball, but I think they should. We'll keep stats! However, the last statistic is different:

* casualties sustained

For this one, count all injuries and deaths sustained by your team from whatever source. This should be fairly easy to do in the post-game. Include injuries healed by apothecaries, regenerated or whatever.

As far as the post-game is concerned, I'd suggest that everyone make advancement rolls for leveled players in the presence of their opponent, note down the results and make their choice of skill or stat increase at their leisure. Developing players is such an important part of a Blood Bowl league that I don't think it would be right to rush those decisions.



At the end of the regular season, we'll award a wholly metaphorical and entirely meaningless trophy to the regular season winner, as well as to the players with the most touchdowns, completed passes and casualties. The player with the most regular season fatalities will receive the coveted Dick van der Smut Memorial Trophy, named after the frighteningly deadly roller-skating, meltagun-toting Van Saar gang leader from our Necromunda campaign. For these purposes, and to maintain the individual statistics in general, it would be really nice if all players had names.

The overall playoff winner will take home the tentatively titled Hellbird Turbocup, possession of which will grant the team one additional re-roll that counts toward team value as normal. Both the total fans and the total winnings for the semi-final games and the final are doubled. I suggest that playoff games be played to the bitter end in sudden death overtime; if the score is tied at the end of regulation, simply play more "halves" until a goal is scored, alternating kicking and receiving, replenishing re-rolls and so on exactly like in a normal half-time. More definitive information on the playoffs later!

Before or during the regular season, teams can play as many pre-season or friendly games as they like. These games will be played with the team's regular roster, but won't count for points or statistics, and players will accrue neither Star Player Points nor injuries. In fact, a friendly or pre-season game won't change the team roster in any way. Injuries and even deaths are ignored after the game, no MVP or other Star Player Points are awarded, and no money is made or spent. These games are really just intended for practice, or maybe as an exhibition game against an outside team.

I'm sure there's lots of other things I should address here, but frankly, I can't think of them. This should get us started. We'll look to start the regular season in January, and I'll be posting more stuff on the coming season and the participating teams as it comes along.

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