This page deals with all the rules questions that you might have about any of the games in the DreadBall series (DreadBall, DreadBall Season 2, Ultimate DreadBall). Note that some answers will be different depending on whether the game is a main arena game or an illegal DreadBall Xtreme match. See the DBX FAQ.
Please read the questions and answers below to see if your query has already been answered. If not, feel free to ask in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
If you have any questions on the game rules, or if you see a post on a forum somewhere that does, then please direct them here so that I can deal with them all in a single document. That way questions get answered consistently and everyone gets the benefit 🙂
To keep things tidy, comments and questions will be deleted from this page once they have been included in the FAQ.
Quirkworthy 
Further to Underdog bonus and Friendlies:
If the lowest value team bids on and wins the MVPs for that round and plays subsequent friendlies against other (post league game) lowest teams, they are still seen by the rule as their team value, ignoring all their Underdog bonuses. This will affect their opponent’s income as the MVPs are invisible.
But even given that we make the MVPs visible (and I would definitely be doing it based on the amount the player actually paid for them), they are still ‘locked in’ to that particular team for all the friendlies. And the MVPs were auctioned off at the beginning of the league round based on the underdog value determined at the time of challenge. This means that friendlies can’t use any hypothetical underdog bonus we could give them to actually buy more MVPs, because the MVP auction has already happened. The MVPs might also currently all be in other teams.
That leaves free agents to spend your underdog bonus on. MVPs are a lot better than free agents (and many can actually be cheaper).
Currently we have a team in our league with 5 players and 3 MVPs whose team value (ignoring MVPs) is less than 100MC. She got 42 underdog MC because she challenged the highest value team for the league match, but her team is currently still less than 100MC in value, despite having ~40 MC worth of MVPs. The consequence is that no one wants to play friendlies against her team (and friendlies are the best way for us to get regular games due to erratic schedules lining up league games) due to the disparity.
Now we’ve already said that playing her will get anyone the underdog revenue (1D6 per full 10MC Including MVPs difference), but the issue is more that when you’ve got Buzzcut, The Enforcer and No. 88 on your team it’s a hard match to play, regardless of the income and potentially lethal for lower value teams (who should benefit the most from the underdog bonus). On the other hand it would be a pain in the posterior to redo auctions every friendly match especially because not everyone will play an even number of them.
So basically, how do you balance friendlies against the underdog bonus when it’s determined based on the person you challenge first, and how do you incentivise low income teams to actually play friendlies if they can’t make use of the underdog bonus in the first place? The underdog bonus is there to ostensibly balance out the disparity in team values, but only for league games. I’d like to encourage more games rather than less.
If we are to add MVP costs (whether basic or actually paid) to team values, do we work this out before or after the league game? This affects how much underdog money you make, because 30pts of MVPs reduces the number of dice you get in income by 3D6 against the league opponent. So we would have to know when to add the cost, after the league match or before. Bascially do you only add them for the purposes of friendly games so league games still give you the MVP cost effectively twice.
Some good points there Doug.
Auctioning the MVPs once at the start of a league round is a compromise based on the most common situation which is that this is the only time most coaches can get together. As with everything in a league structure, it is an imperfect balance and won’t work for everyone.
There are a number of possible variations that might help in your situation. You could limit the number of MVPs available per team to 1, for example, forcing lower ranked teams to use the Free Agents. If coaches are available more often you could have very frequent rounds, reauctioning MVPs often.
I don’t understand why an underdog team couldn’t make use of their bonus (because Free Agents at least are always available).
http://mainedreadball.blogspot.com/2013/03/mvps-and-friendly-matches.html
Our solution to the “balance friendly matches with MVP” question. Randomly split the MVP’s into two pools each week…details in the link.
As a Guard can use a slam card to just run I assume a Striker can use a throw card for the same reason?
By this logic then we can deconstruct cards into separate components. So if I had ‘does this hurt?’ I can use a ‘stomp or suckerpunch’ card to just Run. Or if I didn’t I could Run anyway, as I can always attempt to sucker punch.
However, what about using a ‘stomp or suckerpunch’ card to actually just ‘slam’ (ie performing a legal slam)? It seems a bit wierd if I can choose not to slam with a slam card, but MUST foul with a suckerpunch card. A suckerpunch is a slam only differentiated by relative start and finish position.
IMO this kind of thing muddies the definition of actions quite a lot especially as a Slam action is an action by itself and the run is an optional extra you can use but the actual action itself is ‘slam’ which requires punching people (the same for throws). I struggle to see how I can declare/play a card slam with a guard, not define a target and run in the opposite direction to any players.
That rather reminds me of the old WFB tactic of declaring charges with Fear causing units against targets outside charge range in order to force them to take fear tests.
This issue could be resolved more neatly and bypass the ‘problem’ of splitting up actions and definitions etc if dreadball cards could always be used to Run regardless of what was on them (Run then becomes the default action given by a card). That way if you play a suckerpunch/slam/Run/Throw card you could declare ‘Run’ action instead. But you could still perform the action on the card if you wanted.
I’m not sure splitting it up like that *IS* required. Not every card is equal in goodness. The suckerpunch card just isn’t as good as (say) a RUN card, which itself is less good than a SLAM card.
Slam (may run and/or may slam) >> Run (may run) >> Suckerpunch (may run or/and may suckerpunch but at risk of foul – hardline you drew a duffcard).
There’s no problem with that NWP20 and I think there is a bit of conflation of two separate but connected questions. The first one, the one I’m currently interested in and the one that informs the second, is “What do the rules say?” The second question is “What would I prefer the rules say?'”
Currently i’m only interested in what the rules say and conclusions drawn from that. Whether I agree with it or not won’t be determined until I know what they say. The issue here is not whether cards should or should not be ‘equal’ in use, it’s whether the rules actually describe that lack of equality or not. Currently the cards are described in terms of actions. A guard may perform a Slam action etc. Now nothing there says you don’t actually have to slam, it just says perform slam action. The run a guard can use is a bonus for performing the slam action of which the slam dice roll is the defining feature, so it doesn’t seem consistent with the way actions are described.
However, given the premise that you may indeed perform only a component of the slam action rather than the whole thing, what about the rules actually makes that obvious? The next thing is that if one action can be performed in part, logically all actions would similarly be part actions should you use a card.
Whether the cards should be equal or not, once you start splitting them, unless you’ve got a list of exceptions the same logic that lets you split and selectively use cards applies to all. There is no way to distinguish when a card says ‘throw’ it means ‘whole or part’ from a card that says ‘suckerpunch’ means ‘whole or part’. Because it’s a rule after the fact. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but unless you’ve got clear delineations, it’s not ‘obvious’ that you can interpret one card selectively and not another.
If for example I cannot perform an ordinary slam with a suckerpunch card, but I can perform a run with that or a slam card, you have to provide a logical reading of the rules (and/or a list of exceptions) in order to support why one is possible but another is not. Now it we say that I cannot ‘slam’ on a suckerpunch the logic would be true backwards – you cannot perform a suckerpunch with a slam card. So if I MUST foul with one I also must NOT foul with the other. If this logical equivalency is not true, then the only way to decisively tell someone is with a list of exceptions.
This is why I made the original suggestion of all cards = Run action by default, Because my inference is that the spliting of actions is there to allow additional movement and positioning, so it would be cleaner to do it that way. Whether the suckerpunch card ‘should’ or ‘should not’ (personal subjectivity) allow a normal slam isn’t that important. How one determines the distinction is.
From my perspective clarity and lack of ambiguity is important, so I would attempt to remove logical inconsistency. I was able to logically argue why someone could not catch a ball punted onto them (Jake even quoted me) and I’d like to do the same for everything else. However this is not always possible or desirable when enjoyment is affected and that’s when exceptions have to come into play. But they must be very clear precisely because they go against the structural logic presented.
An example would be the faq on being pushed onto a ball. The rules state someone cannot catch a ball if it is in their rear arc, therefore being pushed backwards onto the ball would by that mechanic not require a pickup attempt as they are not facing it. However the faq says you must try to pick it up even if you aren’t facing it. Now the distinction there could be due to picking up and catching because I could move backwards onto a ball using a run action (where you can face in any direction whilst moving) thereby circumventing the requirement to pick it up. But the only exception to being required to attempt to grab the ball in the rules is that it’s in your rear arc, which being pushed backwards onto the ball is.
Anyway, so long as it’s clear which card can or cannot be split into parts, does or does not allow variations on the same action (slams can/can’t suckerpunch and vice versa) it’s fine.
Yup…..what he just said….im currently in a league and a confirmed definate solution would be great. Plainly and simply, wen you play a card…do you have to see the “slam, throw, suckerpunch” through? Or can you just move?
I come at this from a different angle to the folks who have trouble with it.
If I was required to complete the whole action in every instance what would happen in a RI or something else made this impossible? In my view the simplest thing to say is that you do what you can and stop where you must. I see it as a logical extension of this to allow people to then do this intentionally rather than only when forced by circumstance.
Doug’s suggestion of splitting up actions isn’t so much another way of presenting this as an alternative rule. It would work, though at the expense of a great deal of the variance in value (which NWP20 comments on).
I’ll add a Q and some commentary on the FAQ to explain this and see if it can’t be defined in a clearer fashion.
Well if I must only suckerpunch with the suckerpunch card, then that restriction on completeing the action is in force. So why that card and not others, or can we split them all? How do we tell?
If an RI made completeing a whole action impossible under the proviso that you must perform the action, then you’d have to determine what had precedence. Picking up the ball ends your turn so it’s possible that sort of thing could be used instead. RI is already of very limited use and the inability to interrupt peoples actions in the form of their dice rolls (so basically you’re only allowed to interrupt their movement) reduces this ability that Jacks get, something that makes jacks less desirable.
I’m just interested in being able to derrive these conclusions from the rules themselves, without needing to guess that I don’t have to perform a slam action with a slam card (because it currently says ‘slam action on it’ and a run is a not a slam). I don’t like the ambiguity of what an action is if this is part of the rules, but at least then I can actually see where it allows this to happen rather than guessing.
I was just reading this and something came to mind. I’m not sure if it’s relevant or not but I thought I’d mention it nonetheless. When it comes to splitting the cards into a run action and a slam action (as an example) it wouldn’t work the same way with Jacks. As a Jack doesn’t have a run as part of a slam (moving only up to a single hex) giving them the ability to run instead of using the card in the current format would give them a lot more options and variability in their action choices. Something that I don’t think is needed and could potentially unbalance the game a little.
The way I would do it is just like with Running Interference in the FAQ. Treat each step in the action as separate, stopping whenever is needed or desired. If you think of it in stages it might be a little clearer. For example:
Stage 1- You may choose to move 1 hex as a Jack or make a full run as a Guard.
Stage 2- If an opponent is in the adjacent hex you may target them for the slam.
Stage 3- Resolve the dice rolls etc.
In that way a slam card (or equally a throw, sucker punch etc.) could be used to just run as a Guard (or Striker) but only to move one hex as a Jack.
Don’t know if that helps anyone else at all but it seems the logical way of doing it to me.
With skills and MVPs some of the MVPs have skills that aren’t allowed for their role? Like “Steady” (Jack & Guard) for Gorim (Striker) or “Jump” (Jack & Striker) for the enforcer (Guard), I cant see anywhere where it says MVPs can use any skills on their stat line. I assume that that is how they are meant to be played like special circumstances.
You assume correctly. MVPs are in some cases unique and in all cases at least very special and the rules are bent for them to reflect this.
If I draw an event (other than the ball shatters) during a fan check, is it placed under the fan support pile or does it just sit by itself in the ‘event’ slot and then goes to the discard pile when a new one is played? I know it’s trivial, but it matters for the bored fans event. My feelings are that it’s the latter but I can’t be certain.
Also I noticed a question on the mantic forums about getting rid of people on your roster in a league which you may or may not have seen but it could do with some clarification here I think.
The latter mate.
What’s the question on the mantic forums you want clarification on? If its “Can you sell a living team player” the answer is no as far as I am aware.
It’s not necessarily that I need clarification on it, but it was mentioned (on that question, yes) that you can’t fire people for free. If it was brought up, some people may feel more comfortable with an ‘official’ ruling on it but it seems pretty obvious to me.
Events drawn as part of a fan check take effect as per the rules on page 48. Once a new event is drawn it replaces the old one which is discarded. Events drawn as part of a fan check will not go under the support card as they are worth nothing. Essentially, the event card must be on view to remain in play and cannot be in two places at once. This is why none of them have cheers on them. Obviously the Ball Shatters is an exception to this as it does not need to remain in play (which is why it has a cheer value).
You can remove a player from your roster by simply rubbing them out in the step between matches where you add new players (thereby making space for someone new). This costs nothing and gains you nothing (other than the free slot on your roster).
If I have a Striker that already has max skill and speed and he advances a rank and I have him roll on the extra coaching table and he rolls 5(Improve Strength, Speed or Skill) Is he forced to choose strength(a useless stat for him, wasting 6mc and an advancement)?
I noticed at the beginning of the rulebook that you clarified a couple of game terms, but during the second half of the book(Leagues) you often refer to, “points,” without clarifying league points or points from strikes. Just thought I’d bring it up as it has brought up a question in our league about team revenue.
That being said, since mc earned after a match is based on league points earned in that match, in friendly matches do you get paid anything?
Your first question, as I understand it is a resounding yes, followed swiftly by “That’s Dreadball” haha
Q: What actions can make a Keeper after he has taken the ball? I mean, Can a Keeper move or just punt the ball?
Good bit of ‘Yoda’ speak there my friend 🙂
Since “taken” is not an action, and a keeper could ‘take’ the ball either by picking it up, stealing, or catching it its a bit difficult to answer specifically.
The keeper follows the same rules as a jack or a striker when it comes to picking up, stealing or catching the ball, with -1 modification for being a keeper where necessary.
When a Guard does a slam and fails because the slamback is better and the Slammer falls to the ground, but makes their armor roll, can they use their second action to try and stand up?
Yes.
When a launched ball enters a hex with a Guard or model facing the wrong way, wouldn’t it be thematically appropriate for that model to make an Armor roll prior to the ball scattering? It sure seems like that ought to happen. (Apologies if this question has been asked before.)
i think this was addressed a while back. a scattering ball probably wouldnt have the strength of a ball thrown intentionally at full force from the glove of a player
In reality there would be a small chance of injury, though less of one that if it was thrown directly at them. I toyed with a couple of permutations of this in testing and neither really worked so I left it out. It was potentially several extra rolls during a scatter (which slowed things down) and either knocked down or out a bunch of players or did very little. There’s not much point in having rules that do nothing, and taking players off the pitch at random didn’t seem to add anything to the game (and slowed it down again).
In the end although it would logically be possible for a player to be injured by a scattering ball, I decided to cut them a little slack and err on the side of keeping the game moving quickly. The same is true for getting injured when falling over. It might happen, but for the number of times you’d want it to the extra time isn’t worth it.
Re the One Day Tournament rules:
( http://www.manticgames.com/SiteData/Root/File/DreadBall%20One%20Day%20Tournament%5B1%5D.pdf )
Players start at Rank 1 (Dreadball Rulebook p.57). According to the One Day Tournament Rules p.3, for my team I can “Purchase Rankings (5MC per Rank e.g. Rank 2 is 10MC, Rank 3 is 15MC)”.
Is this correct? Should that line read “Purchase Rankings (5MC per Rank e.g. Rank 2 is 5MC, Rank 3 is 10MC)” or is there something more complicated going on with the costings than a simple 5MC increment/rank?
I have a tournament to run on April 20th and some test games to play this weekend, so I want to ensure that I am playing it right from the get go 🙂
Thanks in advance for any help.
Good question. I don’t know. The tournament pack has been developed by Mantic in-house so I’ve had very little to do with it I will, however, pass this onto the relevant people.
Thanks for the prompt reply Jake. The question has been asked on the Mantic forum but not answered in any satisfactory way that I am aware of.
If you can you might also check to see if the Ranks purchased for the One Day Tournament are associated with the same player for the entire tournament or not. Its not explicitly stated. In other words are the ranks just additional skill rolls that can be assigned to any players before each game, or to the same specific players before each game).
Thanks for your help.
All good points.
I’ve alerted the chaps who’ve been tweaking these packs to your questions and hopefully they’ll pop along and sort you out 🙂
The pack has been updated
You rock Jake, thanks.
Just want to verify if I´m playing that right.
Pick-up ends the player´s action.
So if I sprint onto a hex with the ball I am not allowed to change my facing. Neither before nor after the pick-up.
When I run I can enter the hex with any facing I like. My acions ends and I try to pick up the ball.
Correct?
Yes.
Page 42 explains that with a Run you must decide your facing before you try to pick up the ball.
Player Advancement
If a Jack rolls an option on the Jack advancement table that they aren’t allowed (i.e. they already have it), then they have the option to choose freely from that table. Can they choose option 6 “choose from Guard, Jack or Striker list” or are they restricted to the remaining options available on the Jack list?
Thanks.
Jon
They can choose option 6.
Hi Jake,
Just noticed that in the Season 3 FAQ you have answered the above question (or very similar), but have given a different answer than here. Happy to go with the updated rule, but would be interested what caused your change of opinion?
Thanks,
Jon
“The Ego has landed” card:
I assume that I still may buy cards before activating this player, right?
It´s not “the first action” it´s “the first player to be activated”.
Thanks
You are correct. The card says that the “Ego” must be the first player to act. Buying a card is not a player acting, so you’re fine.
Looking at the new teams for season 2, all teams have a starting line up of 8 players apart from the Robots and the Judwans who start with only 6 players. Is this correct ?
Also what Robot models come in the team starter pack? are they all Jacks or are they a mix with Guards and Strikers? If so, how many of each ?
Thanks.
Correct, yup.
From memory (which is not necessarily right) I think that the robot team will come as 6 Jacks and 2 each of the others for a total of 10 models in the team box.
A few quickies I think I know the answer too but would prefer to have clarification my understanding is correct.
A player with the Gotcha skill inflicts a -2 pen on any hexes he threatens which happens to be the maximum modifier for threatened hexes so any further modifiers supporting players are ignored or do you add the extra -1 pen for Gotcha after working out how many players are threatening the action so increasing the action to a possible -4 if two players have the Gotcha skill are threatening the players roll. Obviously only 1MVP currently has the Gotcha skill so its not going to come up much currently but in season 3 the Nameless teams as well as the Nameless spawn will be hitting the pitch and Gotcha will I expect see alot more use.
Is it in theory at least possible to win the match before any rushes take place resulting from doubling on catching the kick off scatter 2 or three times in a row and gaining a landslide victory before the whistle has even blown as a rush does not begin until after the scatter is resolved, I know the odds on such a thing are next to nothing but I wanted to confirm this is possible in theory at least. Also if a player doubles a catch when its not that coaches rush and chooses to use his free action to throw the ball to injure opposing players give the ball away with no draw backs to your side, correct?
What happens if at the start of a rush a coach has no legal moves, for example; I have not only removed all your players from the pitch but am distracting the ref and stalling, thus preventing you from bringing any new players onto the pitch until I lose my guards distract roll (+2 supporting players). Obviously they can buy cards with actions but otherwise does there rush end?
When moving a player onto the pitch from the subs bench, is the only actions allowed a run/sprint action. Or can a player make a slam, stomp or throw as long as they move at least 1 hex before hand. As an aside if a player can make a slam when moving on from the subs bench where do they count as there starting position for determining if the slam is in-fact a sucker punch?
A jack with slide, safe pair of hands and running interception begins a slam action but moves though the hex containing the ball, doubling his catch roll what happens. Does he: A) complete his slam before gaining his free action. B) must he then complete his free action and then complete the slam. C) or does he at the active coaches choice either lose the slam or forfeit his free action. This dramatically alters the options open to such a player depending on which order the actions take place. Also if the same jack used running interception and while moving to make his slam doubled a catch to pick up the ball in which order would the actions be taken between his free action, slam and finishing the opposing coaches action?
Thanks in advance for answers as well as all the great stuff so far, I must say that I am very impressed and pleasantly after reading the season 2 rulebook the over last few hours, and I literally cannot wait for season 3! As Dread Ball Ultimate was what sold me on Dreadball and the reason for me giving obscene amounts of cash to the kickstarter. If you need any more play testers or proof readers for season 3 I would love to get involved because I really cannot wait…
Crimsonsun
I dunno about your gotcha question, but the rest I can help you with:
In theory it is possible to win the game as you have described, it wouldn’t happen “before any rushes have taken place” as you put it, it would happen during the first rush.
If you have no actions you can perform, then your go is over. So in the situation you described, the unfortunate player could buy some cards up to his limit, then forfeit the rest of his rush.
You can come on to the pitch with a slam move, or any other action that involves a run beforehand as part of the same action. for the second part of this question, they have to actually be on the pitch before they can slam though, so no slamming the guy who is blocking your subs door.
Picking up the ball is something that happens at the end of an action. so if you moved into the ball as part of a slam move, that action would then end. If you are fortunate enough to pick it up on a double you get a free action which you could then use to run or throw. With his next action he could do the slam. So option B.
Hope this helps
James
thanks for the replies which pretty much confirm my thoughts, though I did not realise that picking up the ball only happened at the end of an action, I must have missed that in the rules, and again when looking them up.
Obviously regarding Gotcha I think its a case where the language used for the description is quite vague that just requires a confirmation as to how it was intended to work.
Crimsonsun
Maximum penalty to dice is -2. Gotcha! allows you to get this modifier with one player instead of 2
If the ball carrier is sent off. thus dropping the ball and it scattering. does this fall under Ending a rush .4 The team loses the ball? or is the rush continued as normal after scattering?
M
You would have lost control of the ball so yes, this would end your action.
thanks
After some research it seems this is one of the few ways you can loose control of the ball without endin your rush… http://forum.manticblog.com/showthread.php?5229-Player-on-moving-team-is-sent-off-does-this-end-the-Rush
Can you make it official on the FAQ jake?
Thanks
M
Mark is right sorry James. Jake has already FAQ’d this earlier
Can you choose not to finish an action? For instance, my first action in the rush is “Throw” with a striker, I move the striker and then I change my mind (because I realise I have better options for this rush). Can I choose not to throw the ball?
This specific question hasn’t been answered, however we have been told that we can perform a slam action without needing to roll a slam (so you just Run or step 1 hex) so it would be consistent for the same to be true of throws.
Doug is right
Hmmm… I wonder why Strikers have a Strength stat. Am I missing something here? An action where a Striker can use it´s strength?
There is currently nothing that allows a striker to use their Strength, but it is there for completeness.
There is nothing stopping a new ability appearing. I’m keen on a ‘Fend’ ability for strikers that allows them to slamback against a slam. I can’t imagine FF strikers refraining from punching some Johnny Upstart who thinks he’s hard enough when they come in for a slam…
No chance I reckon Doug. Strikers that could Slamback would break the solid game mechanics – why have Jacks if your strikers can slamback?
Well unlike the dreadball glove the background has nothing to explain why a striker CAN’T kick someone in the nads.
But if you are correct then there is absolutely no point to having a strength stat on a striker and I really don;’t like rules that have no purpose…
You never know: one day there might be a Striker equivalent to Prima Donna.
“Oh no! He’s ‘Lost It!'”
i could see fend being a skill that can be aquired maybe in ultimate or extreme
it would make sense for some (well one in particular right now) teams
And of course there’s the fact that Keeper already breaks the division and any guard can get that.
As I said, ‘fend’ was only for slambacks, so strikers couldn’t initiate slams, they could just choose to punch back rather than trying to dodge.
The “fluff” reason is that it’s not part of their training. They are trained to dodge if they get attacked, so much training that it’s instinctive.
Problem solved 🙂
Hence a skill. Although there isn’t a fluff reason that they can’t slam. There is one for the guard not being able to pick up the ball. Jacks aren’t trained as slammers but they can slam. Guards are the trained slammers. Unlike catching the dreadball slamming someone is not dependent on equipment, there isn’t a ‘slamming glove’. A striker just has to kick someone in the head, headbutt them or flail their arms, you don’t require skill to punch someone, you require skill to punch someone well.
Anyway, Keeper shows that you can get guards that pick up the ball, Prima Dona shows that guards can also become strikers, albeit bad ones. Therefore, no reason whatsoever for strikers being unable to at least slamback. A pretty reasonable ability imo.
Hi jake. In regards to season 2 player advancements.
If I select the season 2 jack table and roll a 6 can a choose from any season 1 or 2 table or just season 2?
Also if I complete a season 2 table can I then select that table to choose an advancement from any season 1 or 2 table or is it just any season 2 table?
Many thanks in advance
Good question!
Could do with an answer myself 🙂
i think it is covered on page 21 in season 2 where it says you ‘choose to roll on either the table in the main rulebook or here.’ On that basis i would interpret it as you role on the season 2 table you should then select from the season 2 tables and vice versa with the season 1.
When throwing a strike, must all the hexes of the trajectory be part of the strike zone?
Or, does a player standing in the hex directly in front of the Strike Hex block any throw to strike?
First question No, so long as the throwing player is in one of the scoring hexs and the trajectory is one of the shortest routes it can be a strike.
Standing in front of the strike hex only stops throws directly in front of it because it only has 1 shortest route.
Some questions, if you will :
1. When Fan Checks give a team a Coaching dice, is that Coaching dice lost after the game ends or is it kept on the roaster?
2. Conversely, can a Coaching dice won from a Fan Check be used to roll on the “Extra Coaching” advancement table or to re-roll a result on an advancement table?
1. It’s lost after the game. The only way to earn a permanent coaching dice is to buy them after a match with your winnings.
2.No, you can only use your bought coaching dice, as the one you have got through fan checks is discarded after the match.
Thanks. Seems to make sense and avoid abuse.
When rolling your winnings… Do 6’s explode?
I want to know the answer to this one too?
The main book states for winnings ‘You get a number of dice to roll and each dice earns you 1-6mc.’ so therefore 6 is the maximum you can earn with each dice. Additionally, you are not rolling for successes so there is no need to roll extra or additional dice for extra successes as you have already succeeded. Well thats how we played it.
If I roll on the Season 1 Jack Advancement table and roll a 5, can I choose the result to be a 6 and choose an ability from any other table? Or MUST I choose a result of 1-4?
If it is the later case, if my player already has one of the results on 1-4 (e.g.: Str 3+), can I choose that creating the loophole I can then go and pick option 6?
Really in the end I’m asking if option 5 lets you pick option 6, or if option 5 should actually be worded in such a way to close this loophole. An example of the wording being:
“5 – Choose from this list an option you don’t posses”
I would say that is does allow you to pick option 6, just luck of the dice. I wouldn’t say this is a loop hole, but showing the benefit and versatility of Jacks and their training. It gives some teams that are heavy on Jacks, such as the Orx & Goblins or the Sirens in Season 2, an ability to specialize their Jacks via Striker skills to help them out with scoring, picking up the ball, catching, etc. After all Jacks don’t get any plus dice for any checks naturally and can only move 1 square for a throw or slam action. So I see this as one of ways to help balance them with roles that get plus dice to certain actions natively.
So the keeper ability says you get 4 dice for an armor check at 3+, and keepers still count as guards unless specifically stated otherwise. So does that mean a keeper still gets a +1 dice on all armor checks, meaning that a keeper would roll 5 dice on an armor check?
Or is that extra dice for being a guard already factored into keeper armor check in the skill description, hence stating the 4 dice?
Good question, Jake?
Question about Running Interference and Slamback:
One Guard moving near an opposing Jack,.. then the player uses RI to Slam the Guard. If the guard decides to slamback… will he have an extra dice because he is moving before the Running Interference?
no because that isn’t a listed modifier of slamback
James
I played a game where I had 1 coaching die and the other coach had 2. He had ganged up two players and was moving his guard in for a slam. He decided to use one coaching die. Seeing this big hit coming, I mentioned before he rolled that I would be commiting my coaching die in defense. He immediatly picked up his second coaching die to nullify my addition.
This got me curious about the timing of contested rolls. Are they simultanious or does the attacker commit all of his dice and the the defender does the same? His move to add a die based on my intention seemed a little unfair to me. It also made me wonder if I were truely commited at that point or if I could have saved my die for later after he commited 2.
What say you?
Im a fan of secret rolls, as I use different coloured dice for coaching dice its works to pick them up in one hand transfering the desired number of dice to the hand I roll with. If both players do the same, neither player knows if coaching dice are committed until the roll is made.
Ofcourse sometimes (as with playing the Void Sirens) I like to set up an easy Slam and evil laugh as I overtly place all my coaching dice into the roll. Eventually the tactic might pay off and my stupid dice might do their job instead of staring back at me with a bucket load of “ones”.
We have always played attacker generates dice pool then defender.
In the games I’ve played, the pathing used to move players on the pitch has been pretty freeform. As long as the player is only running, we’ve been very loose with how a player gets where he’s going as long as the final facing and the count was right.
Being able to stop a player along his path is very counter to the above method. The Run Interference Action functions as an interrupt of the other coach’s turn. My fear is adding a path commitment might slow down gameplay.
How are people establishing the path of a move? Do you need to count out each hex a player moves to for each action of a rush? Does the coach playing the Run Interference Action have to telegraph his attempt and thus loose the element of surprise taking such an action might have?
This mechanic is built into the Void Siren team so I’m sure the playtesters may have encountered it. I’ve yet to play with the rule coming up myself.
Thanks!
Basically you just tap your model along the bath he’s taking a la Monopoly style, that way it doesn’t really take significantly longer, and your opponent also gets to make his interference actions 🙂
With the new Season 2 Player Res option, one of the rolls removes an ability. So if I where to choose it with a brand new player who starts with Abilities, can they loose one of their starting Abilites. I.E. I res one Judwan Striker and I randomly loose Pacifist which is one of the starting skills. Is it legal?
Yes, they can lose starting abilities. I’ll need to clarify a couple of issues with that when I get a moment to go through the book. Currently I don’t have a printed copy of S2.
Why would you rez a default-level player? You can just pay the starting cost to replace him, and you get back 5 mc for recycling him. Conversely, you pay the starting cost *plus* d6 more for rezzing him. Unless you are deliberately trying to lose the “Pacifist” rule, and I can’t see why you’d do that with a guy who only has a 5+ STR score…
because it only costs 4mc and a dice roll rather than 15mc to replace the player
Another two Season 2 question. This time I am asking two questions about Quick Change Artist. In The rules for Quick Change Artist it states that for purposes of Ranking up they can choose to role on any chart, and that they can only use the Abilities when in the given form. I.E. Striker can use Striker abilities, Guard can use Guard Abilities and Jack can use Jack Abilities. But what happens when they get a change to an attribute like speed, does that stay with form or convert over?
Second Question: What happens to abilities chosen with the Base rulebook Jack Improvement table that allows to choose from the Jack, Guard or striker lists with a model with Quick Change Artist? Do they get to use the abilities in both Jack and other Form or just Jack form?
Question 1:
Season 2 rulebook, p.21, right under the tables:
“A Robot player with the Quick Change Artist ability that rolls an improvement in Strength, Speed or Skill only applies this bonus whilst in their Jack form.”
I have another question on how does the Base Rulebook Jack Advancement Roll, a die roll of 6 work? Do you get to choose from any of the advancement charts from all the books (I.E. Base , Season 2 and forthcoming seasons) or just from the Base Rulebook?
I saw this answered above; if you roll on the Season X tables, you choose from the Season X tables. You cannot swap back and forth between X and Y.
I have two questions that have come in in recent games
Can a player who is standing the Strike Hex with the ball attempt to score? I am assuming the answer is No and that a throw must travel at least one hex.
Can a player choose to roll no dice? There is very occasionally cases where you may want your opponent to double you. For example if a player in his second action is trying to Steal he may be hoping to beat you, but not double you so the ball goes loose. You may prefer him to double you and get the ball. I am assuming the you must roll dice, and you cant choose to roll none
Thanks,
Paul
1. You assume correctly 🙂
2. The rules say you have to roll, but I see no reason why this should be the case – Jake?
Season 2 question: the team listing for the choromium chargers lists the robots move stats as 5 for guards and strikers and 6 for jacks. Is this right seems odd they’re faster as jacks then strikers.
It’s right.
Hey folks.
I have a couple of newbie Kick-Off questions.
If a player is knocked down, can he be slammed again and what is that knocked down players actions if he can be slammed.
Although cruel, I would see it in the spirit of the game and reading the comments in the FAQ about throwing a ball at knocked down player being allowed, I would guess (and extrapolate from that) a slam is also legal, but I am unsure. I am guessing that the knocked down player just needs to take the kicking, can’t dodge or slam back, as they are prone and don’t have the slamming player in their front arc.
My second question is that if you follow up from a slam and knockback, if you choose to slam again with a second action, do you get an extra dice for moving 1 square before slamming again.
Sorry, if the questions are a bit more basic than than the rest here, but I didn’t see answers for them in the KickOff rules.
1. If a player is on the ground, he cannot be slammed. Instead he can be stomped which is a very similar effect. Check the fouls section of your rules 🙂
2. No, a followup is something that happens as part of the original Slam action, not as part of the second slam action. Also, a follow up is not a “run”. “Run” is a very specific term which does not necessarily mean move. 🙂
Hey there.
You can delete my questions above, as I have found the answers.
Q1: Slam “This must be a single standing opponent in one of the slamming players 3 threat hexes”.
Q2: Since you are standing adjacent at the start of the new action, then obviously no +1 for moving, it was a newbie question, but now that I have the read the rules again I understand it.
Sorry for wasting you time
Bidge
Question on how sprint and 360 Vision interact. If you have a Player with 360 Vision who sprints, do they still spend movement to turn? I ask this because 360 Vision states a model with the ability front is any hex side.
In the Description of the rule 360 VISION in S2 rulebook it says;
“The player has no rear ark. Everywhere counts as being to their front.”
I believe this is intended to mean everywhere is their front ark, not direct facing, so no.
QUICK CHANGE ARTIST
Just want to verify: There are no modifiers to the QCA-roll, right?
It doesn´t get more difficult when in opponent´s Threat Zones or when knocked down?
This possibly stupid question arose after our first game.
The league campaign rules state that a player needs a number of XP to acquire an advancement roll equal to the next level. For example, a 1st level player needs 2 XP to become level 2 and therefore make an advancement roll.
The question is: do players start at level zero (0) or at level one (1)? In other words, when a new player in a new team gets his first 1 XP, does he get to level 1 and get his first advancement roll, or does he need a second XP to get to level 2 and therefore get his first advancement roll?
At first I had presumed all players started without any level, therefore level zero (the level representing the number of advancement rolls a player had made), but after discussion with my opponent it seems more likely that they start at level 1.
What’s the official answer?
Thanks!
All players start Level 1.
It’s mentioned in the rules.
Don’t have them here so I cannot quote.
Page 57, first paragraph of “Player Advancement”.
Thanks!!
Can you turn a Guard’s facing before performing a Slam, for free? This is something we were confused about last night. We didn’t feel he needed an Evade check without leaving his hex, but we also didn’t feel that he could perform a Run without leaving his hex. The Slam rules don’t say anything about turning with the exception of Jacks being able to turn for free if they take their 1 hex movement.
Yes you can. He doesn’t need an Evade check as he’s not leaving the hex, as you say. However, as he hasn’t moved into the hex he won’t get the +1 for moving.
So, for purposes of explaining this to my friends, would you term this as he is performing a Run, without actually moving? Thank you for the direct response!
He has to be moving in order to turn. if he was a Jack he could use his one hex step, but as a Guard he is allowed to Run so can use part of that. However, as I said before, note that a turn alone will not give him a bonus for taking a run up nor will it trigger Evades.
If a ball carrier is standing on a hex at the wall and gets knocked down, i’m wondering how will the ball scatter?Since the hex he’s standing on will not get 6 sides on the scatter roll, what will happen if the scatter roll turns out to be a result without a hex/ outside of the pitch
I play it the ball bounces off the wall. The direction the ball hit the wall from is determined by the hex the player scattered the ball and the side of the hex the roll indicated. Then i use the regular rules for balls bouncing off walls.
Lines is correct.
I had an interesting situation today… A striker on the center line facing the direction my opponents launches would come from (so that he wouldn’t be able to attempt catches on my turn which I think is correct!) got slammed and turned to that he could now attempt these catches. Rush ended and the ball launches and surprise surprise he needs to try.
Ordinarily this would be ok, he would have +1 dice, but he was in the threat zone of the opposing guard still. My questions are:
Do modifiers take you below 0 dice? i.e. in the situation above am I at -1 dice on an inaccurate catch?
What order are the modifiers and bonuses applied? Would you get +1 dice but then -1 for the threat zone?
This basically meant I never got a rush for the rest of the game. I suspect I would get 0 dice for my own stupid positioning although I hope it started out as a good idea at least!
The order in which you add the modifiers is not important. Just add all modifiers and look at the final result. If the result is zero or less treat it as zero.
This is done before adding coaching dice.
So if you final result after all modifiers would be -2 dice it would be treated as zero dice. Now you could add a coaching dice to you zero dice and still try to roll you test.
p. 27: If the modifiers reduce the number of dice to zero or less count this as no dice.
p. 28: Note that modifiers cannot reduce the the number of dice below zero…. Coaching dice may be used to make this “impossible” roll.
…in your example if you didn’t have any coaching dice and the Guard would keep threatening you striker you’d not be able to make a rush… IF your opponent would strike in each of his rushes. If he doesn’t just move your striker somewhere else in your next rush.
I’ll certainly not make the mistake of putting a striker there again with a Judwan team, at least not without a coaching dice anyway.
Lines is correct. After all modifiers the lowest you can count as is zero. Coaching Dice are there to allow such “impossible” and dramatic moments 🙂
Morning Jake, just a quick one – underneath the advancement tables in the season 2 rulebook there is a note that says the following:
IMPORTANT! A Robot player with the Quick Change Artist ability that rolls and improvement in Strength, Speed or Skill only applies this bonus whilst in their Jack form
Now, the question I have with this is does this ruling only apply to the 5: Strength, Speed or Skill entry on the Extra Coaching table or does it also apply to the 5: Skill and 5: Strength entries on the Striker and Guard tables respectively? My gut feeling is that it should only apply to the entry on the Extra Coaching table (as the wording is exactly the same as that entry) but figured it was a tad ambiguous enough to warrant looking for a clarification
It applies to any Strength, Speed or Skill bonus. It would be a bit of a pain to have to remember where you got each bonus from.
Excellent, thanks for the clarification 🙂
sort of an add on question,
if a robot rolls keeper as an upgrade does that replace guard or is it in addition to guard so they have 4 ‘modes’?
Keepers are in some ways best thought of as a subset of Guards. As the description explains, when a rule does not differentiate between Keeper and Guard then you should treat that model as a Guard.
On a related note does stat losses due to Freezer Burn apply to just the Jack form in a similar manner or to all forms?
The way the “Transform” and “Keeper” abilities are worded I’m sure Keeper replaces Guard.
I’m certainly interested in the question of whether Freezer burn stat decreases effect all of a Robot’s forms -it looks like a lot of admin to track it if they do…
Hello, a rookie question here. I would like to know if i understood this correctly.
In league games, a coach can only revive/buy players, buy coaching dice and cards using the team revenue earned and revenue gained from selling a dead player’s parts? Thanks.
…and any money he has in his cash from previous games.
Thanks.
A question about freezerburn loss of stat bonus for a model with Quick Change Artist lose the skill from just the jack form or all forms. This question came up in our league tonight.
Abilities are shared between all forms, but does it matter anyway? Presumably they have to start the game as a jack and without Quick Change Artist, they can’t access other forms anyway…
Robots always start a game as a Jack, so as Henry says, if they lost Quick Change Artist they couldn’t get into the other roles in order to not be able to access it.
Thanks Jake – what about the stat reductions though? Just for Jack form, or effecting all forms and the resultant admin that would bring?
But what about stats like Speed, Strength and Skill. If they lose a point in one of those does it just affect the Jack form or cross to all forms?
Stat changes only apply to Jack form.
Jake,
I can’t find it, but I thought there was something you have said earlier about just playing on if you make mistakes. In keeping the fast play moving this works and makes sense to not have to back track.
What if you forget to launch the ball?
Purposful exploitation might allow some from avoiding the auto end to their rush (when a player is stranded on the launch line). However, this could be incorporated as a mechanic within the game.. If you forget the trigger to launch the ball at the start of a rush, it fails to launch and you forfeit the opportunity to strike and the next trigger would be the start of your opponents rush.
From the perspective of a team with a stranded player this opens up some options.
1. You could launch the ball anyway, hoping to roll low enough to not reach a ball handler who would fumble it.
2. You could delay the launch. Allowing you to not waste an entire rush – but preventing you from influencing the score board.
Forgetting to launch the ball on purpose sounds more like cheating than tactics to me. It’s not a common thing as people tend to be focussed on what’s just happened (someone scored) so launching the ball again is quite natural.
This is one of the very few things I can think of that would be worth going back to do, but really it is the sort of thing that most gaming groups will sort out among themselves without needing a rule form me.
If I have to decide on this, I would say launch the ball as soon as the lack of launch is noticed.
Does a slamming player need to evade, when following up after a slam and moving out of a threated hex in doing so? It is stated that the player being pushed back doesn´t need to, but nothing is specified for the player performing the slam.
No Evade is needed when following up.
Would you mind explaining why a scattering ball counts as an inaccurate pass rather than an attempt to pick up the ball. Is it a fluff reason, or did it work better during playtesting? It just seems odd to me. I didn’t see it in any of the designer’s notes, but if it is, I apologize.
Please disregard. I asked on the forum, as I probably should have in the first place, and received an answer. sorry.
A player in my group has started to do an interesting thing with his RI, namely using it to generate the Suckerpunch foul!
Situation:
A guard is about to slam a jack facing the guard directly and runs up. However, before any blows are landed the jack uses RI to change his facing and turn the other way – now with the jacks back to the guard. This turns a normal Slam into a Suckerpunch and calls for a ref check.
Question:
Is this really a foul? In the rulebook the description of the suckerpunch is to in one action run around another player to slam them in their back, rather than go the most direct route and hit them from the front. This is described as being an unsporting action. Then the actual rule states that a sucker punch is a slam action in which the slaming model begins its slam in the targets front arc and ends up hitting the target in its back arc.
My interpretation is that these two, the description and the written rule, contradict each other in the situation with the RI and I would like to know if this situation generates a ref check.
That’s a really interesting one.
If the slam continued and the player slams the jack as intended, I’m not sure if that would be a foul, but nothing forces the slammer to do this. He could chose to move again (assuming he’s got movement / wants to risk a dash) to get back in the target’s front or simply choose not to do it at all.
Good question – Jake? 🙂
However the answer is, this move deserves 3 thumbs up! Great idea 🙂
Tricksy. Seems like an attempt to play the ref like the showboat dives to the floor basketball players do with the slightest contact. I’d hope the ref could tell this practice from a legitimate foul and allow the guy to get plowed. But that’s just me.
I agree, Chris. Reading the description of Sucker Punch, and considering the spirit of the game, I’d say that the ref couldn’t care less if a defender is stupid enough to turn his back (and yes, I know that fluff =/= rules).
However, We’ve all seen enough sports to know that this occurs, and that referees sometimes makes incorrect calls because of it, so it would be great to have a ruling, if only to protect against other players using this tactic.
The rule can really be read both ways “if you begin your action in your target’s front arc…” check “…and hit them in the back” check “…then the Slam is a foul” so you would certainly meet both those criteria if you finished with the slam behind the player.
However further in the rule it states “The foul is only when you start in their front arc and move behind them to Slam in a single action”. As YOU haven’t moved behind them, and it isn’t a foul to slam someone from behind if “they just happen to be facing away from you” I’d be inclined to think that you haven’t fouled as they were the one who moved.
Bear in mind though whichever way this is ruled that you don’t have to finish the slam action, or could continue to move to hit them in the front. As a jack can only do running interference once per match (without a card) this would be a huge waste for them. You could then use a second action to slam them anyway. In fact you could use this as a counter tactic to make this particular player burn through their RI moves.
I actually like the idea of drawing the suckerpunch.
There is no obligation to carry through with it, and the move really just facilitates some additional flexibility for an underappreciated position.
I agree., the only way to foul by slamming a player is to start in their front, run behind the player and hit them in the back.
In this case you have not ran around or behind at all. If the fiqure was facing you directly, to have run behind the player you would have needed to end up in one of the original rear three hex’s. The player just turned away. So now all you have done is to slamned into his back. Which is not a foul.
Furthur more if your intention was originally to run behind and commit a foul to slam the jack in the back. But before you could the jack ran RI. The jack has now turned and now its not a foul.
But remember as always you dont need to declare the target just the action, you can always change targets or not slam anyway.
This would be a waste of RI and in most sports consideted taking a dive. So hopfuly in the next rules we see a foul called dive.
The fans would never stand for a player who turns away from a slam, they want to see action, carniage and death. Thats what the pay their money for.
“After further review, there was no foul on the play.” By the rule on Sucker Punch (page 44, Season 1): “The foul is only when you start in their front and move behind them to Slam in a _single action_.” (Emphasis theirs.) So, by the Jack suddenly turning his back on your Guard who is about to slam him, he has only presented a tastier target. Neither the ref nor the eye-in-the-sky will call that a foul, as the Guard did nothing wrong.
Jake has addressed this here and it is a foul https://quirkworthy.com/2013/06/20/dreadball-sucker-punch-and-running-interference/#comment-26655
Transform:
1. Can I use Transform on a model the SinBin/Reserves?
2. Is it true that there are no modifiers for transforming while in enemy’s treat hexes?
Thanks, Jake
1. Doubt it, the rules don’t mention anything anywhere about performing action in the sin bin or in reserves. Plus in the sin bin, the players are supposed to be incapacitated 🙂
2. Its true 😛
Hey Jimmi.
Thanks for the answer.
2 was just to verify. Sounds strange, since all actions get at least a modifier for being in a threat hex.
1: players actually can take actions while in the reserves. If they include a move they may move on the field. Transform can be used while downed, thus is a specific exception to the basic rules. So I’m still not sure why I could ‘t transform a robot while in the reserves. Thematically this would fit.
I really hope Jake can take half an hour off from Dreadzone to answer here.
I answered some question for him here but still waiting for mine to be answered by him 😦
1. They can take actions that move them onto the field, but they’re explicitly not allowed to complete moves in purely the reserves bench – the example for this is that you are not allowed to slam someone standing on the yellow hex from within the reserves bench.
2. It does indeed. That is the RAW at the moment though 🙂
Can a player stand in front of the strike hex to prevent the opposing team from scoring?
No. Keep in mind that if the player throwing the ball can trace one (of potentially several) unobstructed paths to the target hex, then he can throw to that hex. (You can, of course, trace that path outside of the actual scoring zones.) You’ll find that to completely block an opponent from scoring on one particular strike hex, you need 3 players.
So yes, you can block a throw by standing somewhere on the shortest path between the throwing player and the target hex, but placing a player directly in front of a scoring zone does not automatically prevent strikes on that zone. (Only from along the center line.)
The most obvious way to use this blocking is to place a player on the center line of your own 3-point scoring zone, thereby preventing your opponent scoring a 4-point strike.
Correction:
“Keep in mind that if the player throwing the ball can trace one (of potentially several) SHORTEST unobstructed paths to the target hex … “
Thanks.
I’ve been reading the rulebook and noticed a rule that you can’t slam etc if you’re coming into the pitch from the subs bench. Does this mean that the only actions that a player can do coming from the subs bench are either a run or sprint?
Another question is what would happen if a launched/scattered ball hits the ref? Thanks.
The rule isn’t that you cannot declare a Slam action when you’re on the subs bench, it’s that you can’t roll the Slam test while you’re still on the subs bench.
So a Jack could declare a Slam action, move onto the pitch and then roll the Slam test. A Jack couldn’t declare a Slam action, roll a Slam test while they were on the subs bench and then come onto the pitch.
The ref isnt allowed to end her movement inside the yellow hexes so a launch can’t hit her
if a scatter hits her it simply scvatters off again
It states only in black hexes which is not strike hex or ball landing hex, hex between the “yellow lines” is still black hexes?
Simon, the ref can stand in the black hexes between the yellow lines. As none of these interfere with the ball launch, it will never hit her. (See pic on page 44 for proof that refs can stand where Simon asked!)
Thanks for the response.
Hi. I know this has been answered already by a couple of good folks here but I would like to get an answer from Jake aka Quickworthy ( sorry the players here want it to be “official” sorry) since there is no err email address I can bug him with hopefully he would get a chance to read this one :D. So this is a direct. So here we go 🙂
“When moving a player onto the pitch from the subs bench, is the only actions allowed a run/sprint action. Or can a coach declare a slam, throw, steal, etc action to a player that is inside the bench as long as the player is able to move into the pitch first before doing the slam/throw.
and I could not edit that :P.. anyway thanks for the response 🙂
Jake seems to be very busy and it might take a while to get an official answer. I’m NOT an official but it the meanwhile -if you don’t mind- I’d like to point you to the official wording from the official designer in the official rulebook:
P.34 “…have an action played on them that allows to move at least 1 hex.”
P. 35 ” A Jack can move up to 1 hex before he makes a Slam… A Guard can make a full run action as part of a Slam.”
P. 37 “A Jack can move up to 1 hex before he makes a Steal… A Striker can make a full run action as part of a Steal.”
P. 38 “A Jack can move up to 1 hex before he makes a Throw… A Striker can make a full run action as part of a Throw.”
S2 p. 15 “A Jack can move up to 1 hex before he makes a Feint… A Striker can make a full run action as part of a Feint.”
S1 p. 44 “a Sucker Punch is a type of Slam” so see above “Slam”.
Hope this helps until Jake finds the time for an official answer.
I am new to DreadBall and can’t seem to find this clarified anywhere. Both the Robot and Judwan teams only have one position to start with with a limit of 6 starting. There is a rule that says you can’t have more than 14 players and one that says that you can only have double starting max of any position. So does the double limit apply to these 2 teams, meaning max 12 players or can they have 14 players because they only have one position since every other team so far can fill their 14 players with normal players?
This is covered on p29 of the Season 2 rulebook for the robots and on p43 for the Judwan.
Thanks got it. Robot can have up to 14 and Judwan can only have up to 12.
If a player that can pickup the ball is slammed/dodged into a hex with the ball, and scores a double on the pickup roll, does that player then get a free action – similar to as if he had caught a scattering ball?
It is a normal pick up action so yes they do
Few questions that feel “rookie” but I can’t find answers.
1. If you change facing to throw does that count as moving? Thus attracting the penalty?
2. Does Running Interference have to affect the ball play? I was demo’ing to a guy and he was resigned to the score but wanted to use Running Interference to set up his next play.
3. What happens when a Slam results in a push and the spaces behind are occupied? Do you chain push or no push?
3a. What if there is no where to go? I’ve been boxed against a wall before.
No rulebook to hand but:
1. Yes
2. No
3. No push
3a. That’s a lot of players to tie up one person! But as you can’t move through people without a skill you’ll have to slam your way out, but I guess it wouldn’t be easy.
3a. Poorly worded question on my part, it was an extension of the #3. It’s not a question of escape, but what is the effect of being pushed when there is nothing but wall. I am guessing “no push” is the right answer.
Jeff´s right in all points.
1. Truning is part of the movement.
2. You don´t even have to Slam.
3a.+b. See page 36, box in the upper right corner: “If all 3 hexes behind an opponent are already occupied then they cannot be pushed back. If you double them then they will fall down in the hex they started in.”
How are 8,9 or 10 point mandslides are counted towards strike difference in a league? Are they counted only 7 points or their actual points?
(Explanation: when you’re ahead by 6 points and score a 2, 3 or 4 point strike you theoretically end the game with a 8,9 or 10 point landslide.)
Landslides count as 7 points regardless of the actual total.
To answer another couple of questions:
“Q1: Can a Robot transform in the Sub’s Bench?
Q2: A Guard Slams a Jack with Running Interference. Tha Jack uses RI to turn its back to the guard. The guard Slams. Is this a Foul?”
A1: No.
A2: No. The rule is about “where you start your action relative to your target” (page 44). RI interrupts the Slamming model’s action, it doesn’t change what the situation was at the start. If the Slamming model began the action in the target’s front arc then the move is not a foul regardless of what the target does in any RI move.Regarding A2, its so obvious when you put it like that!
…but still confusing. I mean, I really know what Jake want to say and the answer is and stays “No”.
But reading this sentence again: ” If the Slamming model began the action in the target’s front arc then the move is not a foul regardless of what the target does in any RI move.”
So if the RI player just moves a hex without changing facing and the slamming player would move around this player and slam from behind…According to the quoted sentence this wouldn´t be a foul (?)
No foul, because the “action” includes the movement prior to the slam test. So you’re checking for the foul condition before either the active model or the RI player moves. (The RI can’t “interrupt” an action before it’s declared.)
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Yes, that’s wrong. Like I said… rushing these things never helps.
I’m going to withdraw the current A2 and reconsider a better reply.
Tough one. How about:
RI may be used for interrupting a Slam. After the RI takes place, the Slamming player’s current square counts as the originating square for purposes of determining whether an ensuing Slam against the RI player counts as a Sucker Punch.
This would eliminate the “turn my back for a foul” manoeuvre, while also not discounting intended fouls on the part of the Slamming player.
Is there anything wrong with empowering jacks to draw a foul?..
They seem to be the most under appreciated position.
Nothing forces the guard to follow through… and with infinite dashes possible the guard could walk around anyway.
+1
I really like to have that option.
Doing that move the Jack usually sacrifies the Slam part of RI. Instead he forces the slamming player to:
– re-think his move
– maybe choose a different target
– dash in order to reach the Jacks front again.
Also it would be the easiest solution with less rule changes. You’d only have to eliminate the “move around a player” from the Sucker Punch description.
I suppose whether you think there’s anything wrong with playing like that will depend on whether you think real life sports are improved by players taking a dive, or not.
Today’s post will look at this issue a bit more.
It’s a bit of an underhand tactic but not one that I would disagree with. Drawing a foul is not exactly the same as diving and something that players use to their advantage in real sports. I wouldn’t mind the tactic played against me after all they could of slammed my player and killed/Injured or stopped their action and in most cases the player has only a finite amount of RI’s to use.
Like many sports fans…
I hate my opposition taking a dive, but am horribly biased toward my own team who never dive but are always legitimately fouled… ‘Open your eyes Ref… Come On – that was clearly a foul’.
Thanks for the considered response.
Okay, Jake answered the question here:
I´ll just copy and paste the essence:
“Allowing cunning Jacks to make it look like they’re being fouled seems to be entirely in character both for that player role and the game in general. It’s the kind of thing that a DreadBall crowd would love and which would probably make the game highlights on the tri-vid later. As is often the case, I go back to thinking about what it would really be like, and this makes most sense to me.
So yes, use the rules exactly as they stand: if the Slamming player starts in the front of the target and makes a Slam from the rear then it’s a foul. The rule doesn’t ask how either he or his target got there.”
So, yes, it´s a foul.
Do Cheerleader and Coaching Staff add to team ranking?
I´m pretty sure they do, but I think it needs to be mentioned somewhere in the rules…
Sorry, “Running Interference” yet again….
Assuming my rush ends with the ball scattering one hex from one of my Jacks. After my opponent declares his first action, could I then declare that my Jack is Running Interference, move one hex to pick up the ball, hopefully scoring a double and get a free action on their turn?
Yep, the jack can use its free move from Running Interference to do whatever it wants.
As dirty as a prone cage… Better still if you double… you could run your jack toward the nearest group of enemy ball handlers and dash until he trips scattering the ball and possibly ending your opponents rush.
Well, only if he also has “slide” – otherwise he can just move a single hex in any direction and make a slam…
More… using RI to step onto the ball, doubling the pick up and then using the free run, or throw action to put the ball in an inconvenient place.
It would only end their turn if the ball scattered to them and they failed to pick it up. If you dashed to fall and the ball scattered cleanly, then the opponent did not lose the ball on their turn, and thus, their rush does not end.
Derp, yep – ignore me…
Using RI to pick the ball up on your openents rush and the dropping it. Does not end their rush.
No but forcing your opponent to try and catch a scattering ball which they will usually automatically fail (bar coaching dice/strikers) WILL end their rush
Is there ever a point to Suker Punching Strikers? Since they can only dodge and get the +1 for being a Striker to do so, doesn’t that make taking this foul pointless in game? This point struck me as I considered an action card with Sucker Punch or Foul and my only target was a Striker.
There’s no advantage to Sucker Punching Strikers – still a foul to dance round them and hit them in the back though. While its pointless against Strikers, its viable against Guards and jacks (especially those with a high strength but a low speed).
Good to know. Thanks Henry. Making sure I wasn’t missing anything.
Sometimes you want to slam a guy but you weren’t thinking when you moved your helpers up to give him a -2 on his dodge, and now back squares are your only open spots from which to hit him. In that case, I’d shrug and say “Good luck” to my opponent as I crushed the life out of his flimsy little girly-Striker! (I hope.) 🙂
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on sites I stumbleupon everyday.
It will always be exciting to read through articles from other authors and use a little something from their websites.
The suckerpunch mechanic is actually quite powerful for strikers to remain aware of. When considered in line with supporting players it can often be used to draw additional actions out of your opposition if they fear losing their heavy hitters over a foul.
If you can face your striker in a way that has all the opposition guards in his front arc and an assist or two threatening his front hexes it forces your opponent to choose between a suboptimal legal slam (losing one or more dice), risk the ref check or spending an additional action to get to a better slamming position.
Can a Jack with Slide start a Slam action adjacent to an opponent’s player, use the 1 Hex move to move away (with an Evade check), then Dash with Slide back to the hex they vacated to get the +1 dice on the Slam attempt?
No. The +1 is dependant on not starting adjacent to your target.
Same reason a guard can’t pull back and get the bonus.
No, because you only get the bonus if you did not start your action adjacent to the target.
Dreadball rules, p35: “* +1 if the player did not start adjacent to the target, but moved adjacent during this action”
No, the +1 is for not starting the action adjacent to them. You could move away as 1 action and then as a second action do the slam if you really want the extra dice.
I truly love your site.. Very nice colors & theme.
Did you create this website yourself? Please reply back as I’m planning to create my own personal blog and want to know where you got this from or just what the theme is called. Many thanks!
I’m sure I read this somewhere but can’t find it.
What happens if the enemy is standing on the strike hex facing away. You go to score a strike. You miss.
The FAQ says “If you miss then an opponent would be struck. This should also apply to a friend who does not have the Throwing player in his front arc. He cannot see the ball coming to avoid it – even if he knows it’s on its way. ”
But unless I’m blind it doesn’t explain how this works within the game mechanics.
For example, I roll 3 dice for the strike and get 1, 1, 1. Obviously I miss the strike, but in doing so I also miss the enemy player too… kind of makes it seem a little pointless?
OR do you have to re-roll or something?
Cheers
You have to re-roll.
Page 38: Note that if an opposing player is standing in the strike hex you will resolve the strike attempt first, and then if you fail to score resolve it as if it had been a throw at the opposing player all along (rolling the dice again with the appropriate modifiers).
Question: Can a match involving a robot team result in a draw?
The rules say the match is only a draw if at the same time neither team has any players that have the ablitity to score a strike (strikers or jacks). Seen as every robot can, through transforming become able to throw a strike, then as I see it the game continues until either you kill all of the robots or the normal ways to finish a sudden death game. Or is it at the instance there are no current robot players in striker or jack mode and opposition players able to handle the ball it’s a draw?
I suspect that RAW – if all your robots are currently Guards then as they cannot catch, that would result in a possible draw, as none of them can score a strike.
But it an interesting one and well worth getting the official answer
I thought the RAW would go the other way.
As all robots (barring any that lose QCA) ‘can’ throw the ball, the would count to the last man.
Depends if a player is defined as a robot, an ork, a human etc, or as a striker, a guard, or a jack…
Personally I would go with the latter, but…
If you go with the latter then a robots is defined as all of them at once. He current role is what he actually is that instance but has access to all abilities and so surely can be every role.
Well, Lucky Logan was killed during this evening’ s league round by an Orx guard. QUESTION: Are there any defined rules for a dead MVP? I suggested the deceased MVP would be gone for the rest of our season. Other league members feel it’s an auto-resurrection. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Yes, I believe its in the rules.
MVP’s are rich so they can afford to pay for their own rez in the same way you rez your players.
Hi! I have just bought Dreadball in a Rome shop and I have to say it is a great game!
Perhaps due the fact english is not my first language, I have some questions:
– When one of your players advance in a rank, you have to roll on the table of his role or, as I think, you can choose any of the 3 tables avalaible?
– A player can ever progress of just one point in his skills, so if I have an ability of 5+ I can never reach 3+? I just can get better becoming a 4+ in that ability and never obtain the maximum level of 3+?
– When a player dies to revive him I have just to pay the basic wage for his role, it is not important to consider how many ranks he has obtained in his career meanwhile?
Other questions I have:
– There will be some possibility to see multiple sub-factions in one team? For an exemple will a human team see men and women together? Or will Orx and Goblins see some other “green race” like a Troll or Half-Orx in their teams?
– Do you think we are going to see in future specific miniatures for Keepers?
– Do you think there will be more roles avalaible apart Guard/Keepers, Jacks and Strikers?
Hi!
-You can roll on the skill table for that player type or discard a coaching dice and roll on the ‘Extra Training’ Table.
-Correct only one extra point to each stat, so if you start at 5+, 4+ is your max.
-To fully revive a dead player you pay their starting cost + the roll of one die
Ok so, except for the first question I understood everything correctly 🙂 Thanks!
Awaiting now for other hints about the future of Dreadball…
Sorry an addendum I considered now:
– Is there any possibility to see more “evolutions” of roles (like Keeper is an “evolution” of Guard?)
None are planned.
Neither are new roles?
I have a question about the jump ability.
The rules say I can jump over players, but is this meant to include the ref-bot too, or are players not allowed to jump over the ref-bot?
Thanks
You can jump over the refbot.
can you jump over the hex the ball is in so you dont have to attempt to pick it up?
Sorry for the “re-bouncing” of the following question 🙂
– There will be some possibility to see multiple sub-factions in one team? For an exemple will a human team see men and women together? Or will Orx and Goblins see some other “green race” like a Troll or Half-Orx in their teams?
Mmm… I’ve red in these days the just bought S2 book, and I have seen that men and women CAN play together, the important thing is to choose the kind of human team organization. There will be such solutions in future for other races/teams?
Some ROBOT Q’s ..
Can a ROBOT gain the “Prima Donna” ability ??
If a ROBOT is “killed” during a game whilst transformed into either a STRIKER or GUARD and then due to Freezer Burn loses the “Quick Charge Artist” ability is it forever stuck in the role it last held or does it somehow revert back to being a JACK as part of its reassembly ??
This is answered above – Robots always start as Jacks. A Robot that loses Quick Change Artist is stuck as a jack.
No one can gain the Prima Donna ability as things stand – its a unique ability of Anne-Marie Helder…
Hi Jake.
A question has come up on the mantic forums about MVP resurrections. Now I could have sworn it had been answered with ‘they auto rez because they’re rich/it’s in their contract’, but can’t find the text.
It’s possible it was in the conversations that you’ve removed when updating the FAQ, but if not and I’m just hallucinating, is that the correct ruling on their resurrections? They’re always available whether they die or not?
Cheers.
i have question, how many ‘free actions’ is a player allowed? this came up in a game i was playing where my striker stood up, doubled, moved for free, picked up ball, doubled so free move again then last paid action too shoot and score….effectivly the player had 4 actions… is this right?
As many free actions as you can get. Doing things well gives you a reward.
Chris is correct. There is no limit to the number of free actions a player can have.
thanks guys just cheaking. my opponent got slightly annoyed and placed a guard one hex away from my subs entrance point…that made it intresting considering i only had 4 players on the feild
OK, bit of a long one, but as I’m going to be running a tournament at my Friendly Local Gaming Store onm July 27th I thought I’d try to get an official response from Jake,
This rules query came up in league play yesterday, and caused quite a heated debate…it comes in with an issue with the rules of Coming onto the Pitch…
The quote on Pg.34 of the season 1 rulebook states
“In order to move onto the board, a model must be in the Subs’ Bench (not the Sin Bin) and have an action played on them that allows them to move at least 1 hex. This first hex must be the yellow entry hex adjacent to their Subs’ Bench. This costs a movement point to enter, just like any other hex. The rest of their action is resolved as normal. Note that a player can only Slam, etc when they are actually standing on the board – this is not possible whilst they are still standing in the Subs’ Bench.”
Now, this has been interpreted in two different ways by our players, either:
1. Players coming onto the pitch from the subs bench CANNOT Slam at all, because you DECLARE the Slam when you are still on the Subs Bench, and the rules state you CANNOT Slam whilst standing on the Subs Bench, or
2:Players coming onto the pitch from the subs bench CAN Slam, as long as the TARGET of their slam is not standing on the yellow entry hex, as the move happens BEFORE the Slam action is performed, thus the actual Slam itself is only checked when the player moves adjacent to the slamming target.
I am currently in the camp of interpretation 2, I believe that the SPIRIT of the rules is designed to prevent you having six players on the field, and slamming with a player on the subs bench…(as it says have an action that ALLOWS them to move one hex, a Slam by a Guard allows the Guard to move one hex but he does not have to…
The Mantic FB page has suggested (2) is the correct interpretation, but also suggested posted on here to see if I could get an official response.
Cheers!
2 is correct. The “Slam, etc” that you cannot do unless you are on the pitch is the actual hitting someone bit of it, not the action as a whole. If that makes sense.
Makes perfect sense, thank you for the response!
When using RI, can you wait for a ball to be thrown, then slam the catcher before he rolls his catch? This could potentially move the player off the correct hex, or even just turn him around so he’s no longer facing the thrower, and therefore no longer able to catch…
No. You can’t interrupt a dice sequence. Once he’s made the Throw you have to wait till the rest of the process has finished before you can interrupt. You could, however, let him move into position and interrupt him before he rolled the Throw.
So I have this right: your Jack with Running Interference (or a card…) is 1 hex away from a potential Catcher. Your opponent declares a Throw, so you can choose to use RI now, Slamming the Catcher or just lowering the dice for the Catch, which could let them pick a new target of the Throw, or you can hold off. You hold off, and his pass is accurate; so you now have to wait for the Catch to be made. Can you declare a RI after the Catch is made, but before they take the free action from doubling the Catch?
You can call RI when a player is moving, though, right? With a Guard coming to Slam your Jack, can you call RI when the Guard is 1 hex away, making a 4-dice Slam against his 4-dice Slamback, then he can continue his Slam, but without his 1-die for moving adjacent – or he can choose a new target of the Slam, and has to Evade your Jack (assuming it survived)?
The incoming guard did not start his action adjacent to your Jack, and therefore would not lose his +1 dice for moving adjacent to you, even with you interrupting him. In short, he wasn’t adjacent, he declared a slam, and then we was adjacent. +1 for that.
2 follow up questions: can a player declare and resolve multiple RIs at once? Before rolling for the Throw for instance, a player uses two Jacks to mess things up before the active player resumes their rush? Additionally, I know you can’t interrupt the dice, but if the catch is doubled, you could still interrupt the resulting free action, correct? The player has caught the ball, but gets smacked before they have a chance to do something with it– like a “normal” RI
Ha! Ninja’d on that second question, nice work Rob! 🙂
You cannot declare more than one RI during a single action – that’s in the description of RI.
Sorry to bombard with questions Jake, but a thought occurred to me. Is RI that powerful in your mind that it is not allowed to interrupt a dice sequence? I mean, I can imagine some devastating scenarios, but not really sure if they are “worse” than Dirty Tricks (now that it can be used in either players rush)…..both are once per match abilities and if RI had that kind of potential, Jacks would be infinitely more desirable…especially for players who desire more defense in their game. Not complaining, mind you, just curious as to your thoughts behind the scenes on these. Thanks!
Not being allowed to interrupt a dice sequence is simply because it causes awkward and confusing situations if you can. It’s a decision that keeps things cleaner all round. If you start thinking of being able to RI at any point at all then what about if I’ve Slammed you and pushed you back but before I follow up for example? And if I could interrupt in the middle of a Throw and push someone beyond 9 hexes, what happens then? It’s just messy.
@ Henry, yes, you are correct….what I had in my head and what I typed didn’t mesh up, thanks!
When does one rush end and the next one begin? Does it end the instant you drop the ball or is it when the ball finally settles?
This came up in the last game i played. My ball carrier tries to dash and falls over losing the ball it scatter onto an opponents jack who fails to catch it. Did the jack fail to catch the ball in my rush or theirs?
iirc the letter of the rulebook would mean its been dropped by you in your rush and your opponent in their rushmeaning its now your rush again
No, under ‘Ending a Rush’ on page 32 the final paragraph tells you to complete any remaining parts of the current action (scattering the ball, etc) and then resolve the end of rush steps. The rush will not be over until these have been completed (moving players down through sin bin, take back actions tokens, move the ref).
Indeed, if the ball comes back to one of your own players who is able to catch it, the rush is no longer over.
That’s what i thought, but i’m not sure when it is considered that you have lost the ball, as you can throw a pass the catcher fails and it scatters onto a striker who manages to catch it and your rush would continue. Which leads me to think that it’s when the ball stops.
It was mostly an argument with myself when this happened.
You could argue it either way really
@James – You can’t argue it either way if you read p.32:
– 4 ways to end a rush – losing the ball is 4)
– Goes on to say that in all variations of 4), if the ball is recovered by a member of the rushing team, the rush is not ended after all.
– However the rush ends, you complete the current action (including the given example of scattering the ball) and THEN resolve the ‘end of rush’ step of your turn.
– It’s therefore impossible for your opponent’s rush to also be ended by a scattering ball in your rush, as they will not have ended their rush until the ‘end of rush’ step is completed.
It end when it finally settles. You are able to catch your own scattered ball thus not ending your own rush if you get lucky and so an opponent can attempt to catch the ball in your rush before the rush ends.
see i seem to remember it was faq’d that it would end both rushes
can’r remember now and i’m at work so i shouldnt even be typing this reply :p
Don’t remember it being FAQ’d that way. I could have missed it.
Surely it comes down to the part about finishing all parts of the current action ie the scatter then the possible catch before the rush ends. We tend to play when using a rush clock that your time ends once you have resolved moving the ref as the last part of a rush and if you always do this last the. The rush hasn’t swapped players so the opponent cannot have losted possession in his own rush to constitute a end of rush. Surely it’s unfair that if you could get lucky and catch you own fumble with a handly placed player in which case your rush continues but if it is you opponent catching he could lose his whole rush. If that were the case you would see tactics such as dashing till you fell over near as many jacks as you can find. Which I doubt is how jake would want the game played
I could well be wrong
as i say, cant realy sift the FAQ at present but i’ll have a look on my lunch if i get chance
Cheers for the answers guys. That is the way we played it, I usually go for a ‘least controversy if wrong’ approach.
James i think your think about slamming the ball carrier in your rush and the ball scatters onto your jack who fails to catch it ending the rush. That is what caused my initial confusion.
So if it had bounced off his jack into the arms of my striker i could continue my rush score the winning strike and the crowd would go wild.
@David – only if he actually catches 😉
A question that may or may not of been answered already. When resurecting on the cheap the S2 book makes no mention to losing Exp that player has from that match and any unspent exp they have. As written thats correct but I have a nigle that it may of been missed off. Any thoughts?
The season 2 revival process is just a different method of revival – p.23 Season 2 rule book – “you now have the additional choice of how you will choose to revive him”.
The rules for revived players are on p.59 of season 1 “Revived players stay on the roster as before, but lose any unspent experience points and cannot earn any experience from this match.”
The season 2 rules are just a modified method of revival – cheaper, but with side effects.
Yep I agree with the principle. But season 2 states, that you now have 3 options to deal with dead players revival as per page 59 of season 1 book, sell for parts and revive using the new cheap method.
In the new cheap method it neither mentions any loss or exp or direct you back to the season one. So as far as rules written goes a player that dies but revives using the cheap method neither loses any exp from the game or unspent. I have a feeling the rules you quote should of been included as part of the cheaper revival but I may well be wrong. It would seem that is the feel Jake was going for.
I agree it would have been cleaner to directly state it, but it doesn’t need to, because we already know what happens to a “revived” player, because we’re told in the Season 1 book. The Season 2 rules tell you in which way they change these – you definitely lose unspent experience whether you revive cheap or expensive…
Otherwise, you’d have to ask – “What happens to a player who is revived on the cheap? It doesn’t have the wording from page 59 of the main book (specifying that they remain on your roster).”
“Reviving” either has to be compared to its common language usage or to its previous usage in the game in order to make any sense, so logically it must follow the same rules we’ve already been given, apart from where modified. It could certainly be clearer though.
If a guard’s slam moves him over the ball, causing it to scatter, which is then caught by a member of his own team, doubling the catch (exploding 6 or with a coaching dice for example). When does the free move/throw action take place?
It does say immediate in the rulebook, so does this mean that free action would interrupt the guard’s slam, causing him to complete it after the free move, or does the guard’s action just end there?
The former.
So the free action happens because it interrupted the guard, then the guard finishes his slam afterwards
What if this then causes a strike does the rush end?
Slam interputed by a free action which scores. May or may not ends depends in whos rush.
It will end the rush if it’s your rush. But if your opponent scored during your rush then no.
No if your only way I see this happening is during your rush. Your guard moves into a hex containing a ball which scatters. Or
If you opponent’s jack using RI slams you forcing you into the hex containing the ball. Or simpley using RI to move into the hex and then has to pick up the ball.
A Guard tries to slam a jack. When he is 1 hex away, the jack chooses to use RI and moves next to the Guard, then the slam action resumes – does the Guard still get the extra dice for starting apart and moving adjacent? I.e does the ‘Moving adjacent’ requirement mean the Guard himself has to physically move the hex that brings the other models together, or is it enough that they started apart, and “somehow” ended up adjacent to each other before the slam takes place?
From how the rules are written, the Guard would get his extra die for moving, since he was not adjacent when he started his action.
If you choose to revive a player but after rolling the dice you don’t have enough money. Can you sell the body or try the cheap method?
Example: I have 15mc and I wan’t to revive a human striker. I roll a 6 in the dice…
I’m away from my book at the moment, but I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to roll to see how much it would cost for full revival before committing to it, so you have full information before your decide what you’re doing.
Event Card Question:
The event card “That wasn’t supposed to happen” (I think that’s the name, don’t have the deck with me) is an immediate event. It says to take the ball and relaunch it – but even specifically says that it does not end the rush. If this card is drawn as a fan check for a successful strike – does that then prolong the rush (even though the strike would have normally ended it). If not, does the ball launch immediately before the next rush, from the side of the player who just scored? Or does the event just have no effect then?
The strike ends the rush. Ball launches as normal.
Is Buzzcut supposed to be an Orx-Marauder or an half-Orx?
I don’t think he’s either. Not nearly green enough 😉
In one faq it is mentioned that the “bored fans” event can also remove fan support cards that have already been used to generate additional coaching dice. Does this remove coaching dice as well if enough fan support is lost?
Good question. No it doesn’t take CD away.
Jake, may I suggest to put the Mind Like Water errata into the changes section. For those playing only S1. They won’t know unless they bud S2…
Hi all,
Just a quick question regarding ‘Quick Change Artist’, I’ve just reread the section in the Season 2 rulebook and just wondered if anyone can confirm that doubling up on a transformation roll provides a free action.
Or do you need to spend 1 action for the transform and then regardless of the result, spend another to take an action?
You don’t get a free action if you double your transform roll. Instead you get to change two places, so Guard to Striker, or Striker to Guard.
Sorry if this has already been asked and answered. With Quickchange can I use action on a player that is on the subs bench? Bascially can I try and change from a Jack to a Guard and then spend a 2nd action to run and slam from the bench as normal.
No, unfortunately you can’t. The only actions allowed in the Sub’s Bench are those that include movement.
(Has been asked (by me) and answered in June. See above)
Thanks, I’ve now found the post and the official answer by Jake 🙂
ok random questions, 1) how exactly is a keeper supposed to stop/punt the ball.. according to the book he has a -1 dice cheak to get ball in first place…with a scattered ball (since he cant interupt a strike attempt) is a 0 dice cheak so a keeper is at -1 dice?…or am i just mis-reading the entry.
2) with the jump ability does it act like a dash on the 1,2,3 test? i.e scarficing 2 movement to jump one player would need a single success on 1,2,3 or is it 2 successes since you are using 2 movement to make the jump? also could the player jumping, jump two or more players without having to land inbtween them as long as the pass the 1,2,3 test?
1. a keeper can pick-up or catch a ball thrown to him by one of his own players, just like a Jack but with -1 dice.
Trying to catch a scattered ball would result in zero dice (number of dice cannot be negative). Then he can add coaching dice.
thanks that makes more sence now
2. If you have 2 or more squares of movement left for the Jump you don’t need to dash.
If you only have 1 square of movement left you have to dash once before the jump.
You could also jump with no movement lert but you’d need 2 dashes (1,2,3) to do so.
Jump is always over two squares, so you cannot “combine” two Jumps to jump 4 squares.
But you can jump several times within your movement, each time needing 1 more success (1,2,3).
thank you, so a jump is akin to dashing over two squares. so too jump 1 player is 1success then a second success to complete the jump? just so im sure
Errrm, no. A jump is only one test. If you succeed the test you succeed the jump over two squares.
But if you want to jump a second time within the same movement you have to make another test, this time needing two successes.
A Veer-myn has movement 6 (without needing to dash) so it could Jump 3 times!
First jump: one test, one success needed. If successful jumps two squares.
Second Jump: one test. Two success needed. If successful jumps two squares.
Third Jump: one test. Three success needed. If successful jumps two squares.
Are the zorr teams striker stats correct in the season 2 book? It seems to me that their skill stat should be lower.
which stat? if its the skill then no its meant to be that bad!
It just that I can’t see any benefit for taking a striker over a jack as their skill is less their armour is less and they have one less skill and cost two mc more! Only benefit is one more move, just doesn’t seem worth it.
Strikers get a series of bonuses just for being Strikers. These can often be the difference between 0 dice and 1 dice, or 2 dice not 1, so can increase their chances of doing something far more than might appear if you rely on statistical analysis of their statline alone.
Also, Strikers can Run as part of a Throw action, rather than being limited to a single hex move. Again, that’s a Striker bonus and can be very important, but doesn’t show on their statline.
The best way to see is to either try one out, or to use Jacks and then work out what the difference would be if you actually had a Striker instead.
Something you may find interesting from a discussion I was having about odds.
Okay…..so here so here is some additional info on picking up the ball:
Jack: 88%, with 69% chance you’ll double
Striker: 80%, with 60% chance you’ll double
The chance to double is from the BASE chance, not from how often you’ll double IF you pick it up. So there is a 69% chance you’ll pick up the ball AND get a free action while attempting with a Jack, while the striker is a 60% chance.
Now, when factoring those against the shooting:
Chance a Striker will grab the ball and score on a moving strike: 45% (1/3) 27% (2/4)
Chance a Striker will grab the ball and score on a planted strike: 56% (1/3) 45% (2/4)
Chance a Striker will DOUBLE the grab and score a moving strike: 34% (1/3) 20% (2/4)
Chance a Striker will DOUBLE the grab and score a planted strike: 43% (1/3) 34% (2/4)
Chance a Jack will grab the ball and score on a moving strike: 44% (1/3) 0% (2/4)
Chance a Jack will grab the ball and score on a planted strike: 66% (1/3) 44% (2/4)
Chance a Jack will DOUBLE the grab and score a moving strike: 35% (1/3) 0% (2/4)
Chance a Jack will DOUBLE the grab and score a planted strike: 52% (1/3) 35% (2/4)
NOW…..as I stated before, when dashing is involved, the Striker is gonna have the clear advantage, both in the fact he gets another die, and the fact if he has to move and throw he gets his FULL movement so may not even need to dash, or if you only have one token left, on the double, could push further to get to a scoring zone, in particular the back strike zone. He also has a chance to hit a 2/4 ON THE MOVE at all, where as the Jack cannot without outside help (when adding one coaching die to the moving strike, please see all the planted numbers). So if you are down to one last token/card and need the score, the Striker is clearly the option you need to defer to.
By the way, the above is a quote lifted from a discussion on Mantic forums. I probably should have made that clearer 😉
Jimmi and your stats.
Ok, I’m swayed. I don’t generally maths out games like that and it isn’t apparent in a cursory glance, but clearly it has been factored in. 🙂
Oh yes 😉
Unlike Han Solo – I always like to know the odds.
Your stats are looking a bit strange to me Jimmi Terry Taylor, can you show your work for the striker picking up the ball? I show a 4d6(5+)e6 for them (rolling four dice, succeeding on 5s and 6s, counting all 6s and rerolling them) to pick up the ball.
For that I get:
0 Successes: Simply (2/3)^4 = .1975 (essentially the 20% you rounded it to), leaving 80% for some kind of pickup.
1 Success is a bit tougher because of the exploading chance. To calculate the odds of a SINGLE dice having EXACTLY 1 success is much easier. We can then use simple statistics to determine the rest of the issue of 1 Success on 4d6(5+)e6.
1d6(5+)e6
0 successes: (4/6) = 67%
1 Success: (1/6)+((1/6)*(4/6)) = .27778 (About 28%, this accounts for the initial success, and the failure on the possible explosion)
2+ Success: 1-(p(0)+p(1)) = .05556 (since doubling is all that matters, we do not need to take this further, but we easily can if needed)
As such for 4d6(5+)e6 you can say that the probability of getting AT LEAST 2 succeesses is the inverse of getting 0 (which we already showed) OR 1 (which we now have the tools to show)
1 Success on 4d6(5+)e6:
There are 4 separate ways to get this result:
0001
0010
0100
1000
Where each number represents the number of success on a particular dice (note this can be more mathematically shown as 4C1 or C(4,1))
Thus we simply take the probability of each of those four possible outcomes (which are all the same) and add them together (essentially we multiply by 4)
(2/3)^3*(.27778)*4 = .32922
So at least doubling would be the result of NOT getting 0 success, OR 1 success:
1-.1975-.32922 = .47325
I will readily admit that I am not at all conversent with probability regarding exploading dice, but I am pretty fluent with statistics of dice that don’t expload, and I don’t think I missed my mark by TOO much.
Would you mind going into your work on this particular subset of rolls?
Howdy God_of_Acid,
Unfortunately I can’t, the stats are not mine, they just came up in a discussion I was having.
I’m taking no responsibility for them 🙂
I have a question. I have a striker and the ball is laying on the ground in front of him Could I declare a throw action, then moving my striker, picking up the ball and finishing the movement and throwing the ball? Or because i don’t have the ball i cannot declare a throw action, and I have to declare a run or sprint action and then declare a new action.
I believe that you must have the ball to be able to declare a throw action. If you run pick up the ball on a double you can then throw which is effectively the same as your original idea just requires some more dice rolling.
Picking up the ball ends your current action, so you would have to spend another action in order to throw anyway
Yup. Whilst you could declare a Throw action, you couldn’t actually do one unless you either had the ball to start with or doubled the pick up. In the latter case it would be a new action, as James says. Essentially there’s no benefit from declaring anything except a Run if you want to pick up the ball. You just need to double the pick up and with a Striker that isn’t usually too hard. Then you can Throw it 🙂
Very true much more simpler explanation.
On Mantic forums, the new launch rules are reportedly ‘out’ via Facebook.
Have I overlooked them here on the Blog?
No. To my knowledge, Jake has not written about them yet.
The sources are two mantic employees. One of which is the community manager, who has publicly said that as far as Mantic are concerned the rules are official season 3 stuff and he doesn’t mind us knowing earlier.
This is sorta shouting at the air, but it would be super convenient if this sort of thing was done in a centralized location. I understand getting involved in the community and just answering questions, but if it’s the first we hear of official rules, they should be re-posted somewhere where people can see it. As it is right now, there’s nothing I can go and look at without it being second or third-hand information. I’m subscribed enough to Quirkworthy.com and the Mantic-Dreadball forums to know the /second/ someone so much as says a word on either website, and yet I was still in the dark. This does not give me a whole lot of comfort that I’m going to be using the most current ruleset in the future, if I’m expected to hunt down closed Facebook groups to receive rulings.
I thik this case is more like it is an offical season 3 rule that got out and Mantic came along to say yes that is the rule we are happy to confirm it as opposed to being a new rule release.
From a post on Dreadball Fanatics on Facebook:
“When the ball comes on the the pitch it will hit any player on one of the DB hexes just like an opponent throwing the ball at them. The number of dice rolled to hurt them is the same as the number on the dice rolled for the ball to come in. Players can attempt to dodge as normal. ”
This means that if you are facing the launch, you do have the option to dodge it, but if you are not facing it, you have a world of hurt coming your way. There is no mention that I saw about Judwan not Feinting players into the launch lane, so they may have a nice loophole in their Pacifist trait. There was some clarification that a player standing in the two possible bounce spots on a launch roll of “6”, saying that it would be a 1-die “throw”. The launcher rolls the throw as if it had a skill of 4. James from Mantic noted that “The Ball Shatters” was used to get the ball to launch at the back of his Goblin’s head, so take note of that when moving through the strike zone.
It had this picture with it (but I’m not sure if linking the picture will work): https://sphotos-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/954846_596409650409167_1835300035_n.jpg
I think I posted the badly-worded version. The other clarification was that the number of dice is based on the position – the first “DB” tile is 6 dice, the next is 5 and so on.
Can one of you guys please post a link?
I couldn´t find it on the Mantic forum.
THanks!
Search Dreadball Fanatics on FB at work so cant link sorry
It’s a closed group too so you have to ask to be invited
On play testing against the Teratons am i right in believing that the disadvantage to teleporting into a slam is that you don’t build up momentum thus don’t receive an extra dice?
No. You do get the extra dice.
I’ve been trying to playtest the Zee v2 Beta with a couple of friends, as they have greatly piqued my interest, but we had a question about Runaround: Do you get the second Run action for another player whenever another player with Runaround gets a Run action, or only when you buy one with an Action token?
Example: Zee #1 is prone. I spend an action token. I perform a Stand check, and double on the check. I have him Run for free. Does Zee #2 get to Run as well, or is that it?
a single Team Action Token can buy a Run action for two players
Thanks, but that doesn’t clearly answer the question. If I were to tell this to anyone who’s played a board game before they will lawyer me off the board. Does the use of the team action token to perform a non-Run action that results in a Run action let me Run with another player? The Zee v2 Beta rules are not clear on this, and most who read it are of the belief that you cannot.
Jacks don’t get the free run component of the slam, steal and throw actions. As all Zees are jacks I don’t think that it’s ambiguous here. I think it is pretty clear that the token needs to be spent on a run action itself for a second Zee to get the free run out of it.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
Lawyered
That’s just simply not true. Jacks can Run for free after doubling a Catch, Stand, or Pick-up. That’s three instances right there where you would Run as a free action on top of a non-Run action you already bought. It needs to be clarified whether or not another player could Run as well after that free action. I’m honestly completely on the fence on how the rule is interpreted. I can almost guarantee how my opponents are going to interpret it.
Runaround does not generate extra Move actions off Free actions. It only works when you buy the action with a TAT. The wording I have is:
“A single Team Action Token can buy a Run action for two players with this ability instead of the normal one. Both players must have this ability and they must take their actions immediately one after the other. This action counts towards both the players’ total actions for that Rush.”
All this ability does is change what a TAT can do. Nothing more.
Thank you, Jake!
Hi Jake.
I am starting a league on Thursday and we have a Judwan team playing. I have heard an almost confirmed rumor (as much as a rumor can be that is!) that there speed is dropping to 4+. Is this true as I don’t want to be changing stats just after the league has started.
Yes. Judwan Speed is going to 4+
Thanks for the confirmation Jake, and thanks for a great game!
Jake, what are the other rule erratas regarding Judwan, Prone Cage and Ball launch??
Prone cage is a new foul, but don’t worry about that. Most people won’t see it very often.
I’ll post the ball launch rules this week.
Just wondering what made the decision to go with Speed 4+? It means that the Judwans will now get pummelled by high strength guards on 5 dice vs 4. If misdirect was too powerful why not make that a skill test instead?
I spoke to a lot of Coaches and the overwhelming view was that this was the change needed. The problem wasn’t just misdirect. The problem was that they weren’t a challenge overall and did too many things too easily.
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Hiya having trouble finding any answer to this with the skill advancement I know that you can only do it once (so 5+ down to 4+) but there’s a debating going around atm in our club if you go below a 3+ I.E a Orx guard rolls and gets str so would be now a 2+ str test, is that allowed or is it a case of reroll the die so you get a result you can use? Cant find a single thing in season 1 or 2 rule book on it.
If you roll a Strength upgrade on your Orx you can choose any option on that table because you can’t get the Strength any better. (page 58, third paragraph – note the second bullet point in the next paragraph).
On Player Advancement: When a Jack gains enough XP to level up, and the coach rolls a ‘5’, they could choose to select option ‘6’ and pick from the Guard, Striker or Jack list, at least that is how it is worded. It seems like it isn’t intended that way – you could have just written “5 or 6 – choose from Guard, Striker or Jack list” – but that is the wording. I have been playing such that choosing the Season 1 Jack upgrade and getting a 6 (or a 5) allows the coach to choose from any of the Season 1 role-specific tables. Should the season be “locked” like this?
With Ultimate Dreadball coming out soon, there will (presumably) be three sets of tables to upgrade from; should we read Option 5 as “Pick any upgrade from Any Jack advancement chart (except ‘6’)” and Option 6 as “Pick from the Guard, Striker or Jack tables in this book”?
I like your thinking. With regards to the “rolls a ’5′, they could choose to select option ’6′”- I must admit i have used this loophole to my advantage. I think it’s a loophole and could quite happily stay at that. But i do think that you should only be able to pick from the season you have rolled on…
Can I use the cards that say ‘Any Action’ to Run Interference with a Jack?
It seems that the answer is really simple to most people but they just reach different conclusions. 😛
Only if that player has the skill already. If he hasn’t got the Run Interference ability in the first place then this card will not give it to him.
You can do “any action” that is available to that player. So you can’t use that card to pretend you Goblin is a robot and turn into a Guard either 😉
That’s a kind of fascinating answer (and one which I don’t think that anyone was assuming was true in the discussions.) I assume that restriction does not apply to the Run Interference cards which can be played on any jack (it seems explicitly to work for all jacks in the rules.)
If a jack with the RI skill uses an “any action” card does that count as their one use of RI for the game? I assume not, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the any action could only be used by jacks with the skill already.
Zorblag R`Lyeh
And never mind the last bit. The rules pretty clearly state that you can use Running Interferences via special move cards more than once per match for a single jack.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
I don’t see that you could argue the other way, really. As I mentioned, if “Any Action” meant “any action in the whole game regardless of nominal ability”, then any player could use it to Transform into another role as Transform is an action. And that’s clearly nonsense. As soon as you start saying any action except this or that then you need a natural boundary, and the obvious one is the things that the player can do anyway.
Having a card that specifically allows you to do something you can’t normally is different because it explicitly tells you that you can do X.
Thanks for the reply so there are 3 ways to run interference?
1. Play the Run Interference card on any Jack.
2. A Jack with the Run Interference ability can do it once per match without having a card played.
3. In addition a Jack with the Run Interference ability can do it by having an ‘Any Action Special Moves Card’ played on him.
Interesting, this implies Dirty Tricks and Taking a Dive should also be able to be used more than once per match per player using an any action card.
Dirty Tricks is not an Action. But Taking a Dive would be fair play, i guess
I’m not sure that “Taking a Dive” is an action in its own right – is it? The ability says the following:
“Whilst taking any action that involves movement, the player may decide to Take a Dive.”
This would seem to imply that it is an ability that can be activated during an action and that, although cards can buy extra actions, the restriction on the number of uses of the ability is separate.
However, a counter argument can be made that Run Interference is defined as an “Extra” in the Season 1 rulebook and we already have a ruling from Jake that this can be activated with the “Any Action” cards.
Not really sure which side of the fence I sit on for this one…
Just had an interesting situation come up in my latest game. The rules for performing a throw state in bold text that “you cannot throw to a teammate who cannot try to catch the ball”, now in the context of the paragraph that it is in, this seems to mean that you have to throw the ball at a striker, jack or keeper who is facing the correct direction.
In my last game, the opposing coach got into a situation where he wanted to intentionally ground the ball by performing a 9-hex zero dice throw at jack ( 1-die for 9 hexes, +1 striker, -1 moving, -1 threat).
Is this a valid action, when he knows that the jack has no chance of catching the ball? Is he even allowed to perform a zero fice action without the use of a coaching dice?
If by grounding the ball you mean dropping it why not dash around untill you fail a 123 success. But either way ends your rush.
Unless you intention was to catch the scatter from a player facing away then yes you could try. But again if you failed to catch the scatter, rush over.
Well his intention was to get the ball as far down the pitch as possible, hence the 9 hex throw.
The question I am asking is – Are you allowed to perform a zero-dice throw without the use of a coaching dice?
If the answer to that question is a Yes, then the follow up question is in relation to the bold text under the rules for throwing – “you cannot throw to a teammate who cannot try to catch the ball” – Are you allowed to throw it at a target you know cannot catch it? (i.e. a Jack or a Striker currently in 1 or more threat zones)
This is already answered above (almost at the top of this FAQ) regarding a Jack having to “try to catch” a launch, when he cannot possibly make the catch without the use of a Coaching Dice. The coach wanting to down the ball in this case is well within the rules for doing so, and is under no direction to use any Coaching Dice he may have.
They can try to catch it with 0 dice the old launch rules showed that. If not there is always the option of throwing the ball at them anyway isn’t there (Just checked it does say opponent so that one is ruled out). I thought the reason the Punt was special was it allowed the guard to do something strikers could do but not as well hence scattering twice.
A punt is just kicking it down feild to get the ball clear your defensive zone. A few sports allow that tatic.
A striker cant make the throw if he has zero dice. So that action won’t be allowed.
A jack has to rely on the extra successes generated to be able to catch. Or coaching dice.
Choosing not to throw a coaching dice in, so the ball scatters in an effort to get rid of the ball, by scattering it to prevent someone from being able to get it back. That does not sound in the spirit of the game.
Having zero dice never deters a dreadball player. That’s why we suffer auto rush over with scatter. Attempting a throw with zero dice is entirely within the spirit of the game.
No having zero dice and making a throw is impossible and against the rules that would be cheating.
The rules are spacific about having zero dice pages 26-27.
If the modifiers reduce the number of dice you can roll to zero or less then count this as no dice. You cannot make this roll without using Coaching Dice (see below
Coaching dice are added after all other modifiers have been applied. Note that modifiers cannot reduce the number of dice below zero. If negative modifiers had reduced the number of dice you could roll for a test to zero then Coaching Dice may be used to make this “impossible” roll
In other words its impossible
As the rules for coaching dice are being applied for situations like picking up a ball which has scattered, dodging or slamming back after getting to 0 dice after modifiers, etc., I interpret the “make” that shows up in the rules there as “succeed at” rather than “attempt.” There are times when players are forced to attempt 0 dice rolls so clearly having 0 dice doesn’t stop the roll from being attempted.
I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to attempt an action that will automatically fail for a single roll especially given that you’re forced to do so so often in the game.
As always though, if Jake had something else in mind I’d be happy to hear it.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
The throwing player rolls a Skill test. If you cant roll a dice you cant do the skill.
Yes, you make the skill test and fail automatically. If we are talking about a throw, the catching player could be a striker, have safe hands or you could use coaching dice. Or don’t, and then fail the catch automatically
If you can’t roll a die then you fail the skill unless you use a coaching die to give the player a chance for success, but you’re still making a skill test when, say, you have a jack forced to grab a ball that scatters into their hex. For the language use to be consistent I don’t think that the rules anywhere forbid intentionally using an action which requires a test with zero dice.
Again, I’m not actually the expert here and I’d happily take official guidance.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
In a previuous post Jake said.
Strikers get a series of bonuses just for being Strikers. These can often be the difference between 0 dice and 1 dice, or 2 dice not 1, so can increase their chances of doing something far more than might appear….
Why each player as per the main rule book gets specific training, that modifies the amount of dice the can roll.
Jacks not having a dice to catch the scatter is completely different to strikers not being able to throw without dice. Strikers have the extra dice to pick up/catch the ball as part their training as a specialist. Jacks dont have that training so dont get that bonus unless they have the ability called safe pair if hands.
As per the rules on page 27 if you read them they say
If the modifiers reduce the number of dice you can roll to zero or less then count this as no dice. You cannot make this roll without using Coaching Dice
That’s clear you are not allowed. Do we need Jake to suggest until you physical role the dice you can’t of actually have made the test in the first place.
Suggesting a throw can be made on zero dice when all other skill test need dice to complete goes against the game mechanics. Oh its the 14 rush the score is equal I need to get my guard off and bring on a striker or I lose because I dont have a player able to pick/throw the ball. But wait he will never make the distance to come off. I know I will slam on zero dice so if the slam back is one success I get sent of. Not in the rules.
Please let us know on what page of the rules it specifically says about automatically failing.
Not all skill tests get dice to complete. From page 31 in the rule book:
“4. If the ball hits a standing player before it goes its full distance then either:
a. The player must try to catch the ball if they would normally be allowed to. It counts as an inaccurate pass. When working out if the player can see the ball coming to catch it, count the hex the ball originally scattered from as if it was the thrower. …”
This establishes that any striker or jack who is facing a scattered ball makes an attempt to catch (regardless of how many dice are rolled.)
From page 38 in the rule book:
“A Throw that gets no successes is called “inaccurate”.”
From page 39 in the rule book:
“Catching the ball is a variable number of dice Skill (1) test. The basic number of dice is 1 dice per success the thrower had in making the pass.”
This establishes that catch is a skill check that can have 0 dice rolled.
Putting those together, a jack without a safe pair of hands is forced to make a 0 dice skill check if a ball scatters to them. There are then skill checks in the game already for which 0 dice are rolled. Your insisting that it’s something different doesn’t make it so.
I don’t particularly need to cite a spot in the rulebook to determine that if 0 dice are rolled there will always be less than the 1 required successes. That makes that catch an automatic failure.
As for your guard example, I don’t believe that guards can ever get down to a 0 dice slam in the current game, but let’s change it to a jack and allow that they’re playing a Nameless team in season 3. There’s no reason that they wouldn’t be able to make a 0 dice slam check against an opponent if they were doing so without moving and while in the threat zones of both a John Doe guard and another opponent. Their opponent might be able to slam them back and knock them out of the game, but it certainly wouldn’t be a given. It’d probably be safer just to commit a sneak foul to bring on the striker in the situation you’re describing (especially as that wouldn’t waste a turn.)
If you don’t think that’s fair, do you think that the jack in question should be able to try to move at all? Neither the run nor sprint actions require skill checks, but either one would entail making an evade which would give them a 0 dice skill check. Gotcha actually means that they wouldn’t move when they auto-fail that evade which would be a waste of their action; it turns out they’d be better off trying the slam and hoping to get knocked back if they desperately need to be out of the hex that they’re in.
I’ve already replied to your point about the wording on page 27. The interpretation that makes sense given the way that catch interacts with scattered balls is for “make” as it’s used there to mean “succeed at” rather than “attempt.”
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
I’m with Zorblag on this.
A 0 dice test just means you auto-fail rather than you can’t attempt it.
The way I see this argument. It has to be looked at with the following statement in mind: “Is it within the Spirit of the game”. I would say no. Wanting to be able to take a “zero” dice roll as an “unforced action” is not in the spirit of a game based around rolling dice. Yes this type of test can crop up, (such as a Jack catching a throw), but it happens because of another action in the game that had been instigated through rolling dice.
Looking to take an action (which normally requires dice rolling) without rolling any dice (so you can auto-fail) in game based around dice rolling for me is just gamesmanship and potentially even cheating. It smacks to me of power-gaming and not fair play. Of course others could read into this differently, but this my opinion and unless Jake rules otherwise, its how I will continue to play it.
As per the rule on page 27 if you read them they sayIf the modifiers reduce the number of dice you can roll to zero or less then count this as no dice. You cannot make this roll without using Coaching Dice
Your argument implies there is only one rule
One rule to rule them and on the dreaball pitch to bind them.
“A Throw that gets no successes is called “inaccurate”. Is the basis of your argument. You have then read all the rules in an effort to prove this corrcet ignoring any rule that proves you wrong.
Throwing is a dice test to argue its not is illogical, as it’s a dice test the rules are completly clear if you dont have enough dice to complete the action ie a single die then you cant throw. There is no reward in dreadball for being useless there is no reward in dreadball for failing.
But you still want to argue about “A Throw that gets no successes is called “inaccurate”.” rule. This hhappens after a dice roll has been attempted.
Before your rule on page 39 can even be attempted you have to apply the rule iv quoted ontop of this post.
My rule occurs before your rule and thus if you cant have a dice roll to fail you cant throw.
How about another example. The ball is on the pitch in 2 threat zones. A goblin jack sprints onto the ball. The rules state he must attempt to pick it up. With -3 in modifiers he gets zero dice.
It is now impossible to “make” this roll.
So one of 2 things happens:
a) it counts as a pick up with automatically zero successes. ( scatter ball, probable rush over )
Or b) the match comes to complete stop as no rule resolves the situation.
The precedent is clear. Any dice roll attempted on zero dice is simply an automatic zero successes. It doesn’t prevent the attempt in any way.
If you read the faq jake said thats not the case.
So, if a player enters a hex with the ball in they will always try to pick it up if they can (and scatter if they fail), or scatter it as they go through if they cannot pick it up.
I think the “cannot try to pick it up” part applies to Guards.
Since a Jack in the launch tube WAS forced to try to pick the ball up, even with zero dices.
No as there is zero dice he cant finish his action to pick up the ball so there are two options either the ball scatters or you pick up a coaching dice and try to use that to make the success as per the rules.
It’s not a hard concept if the dice modifiers equal zero you have to use a coaching dice or you fail to pick up the ball or throw. That’s what coaching dice are for.
To suggest the game comes to an end would imply you have failed to grasp the core rules and should re read the rule book. Especially the section on coaching dice which explains why your implications are so wrong.
As far as throwing on a zero dice you notice the quote of the rules below notice the capital letters on the part where it specifically mentions a fact that you have over looked.
the throwing player rolls a skill test. This implies you have to roll.
The rules do not allow a player to refuse a dice test by not rolling dice. In the case of a zero dice throw if you do not use a coaching dice you can not make a throw.
The inaccurate rule you keep trying to use only comes into existence after the dice roll has been attempted and failed. Its not proof of a zero dice roll its a rule thats been created to allow a striker who gets one dice to attempt to catch the ball.
The reason strikers get the modifier is because the have specialised training. And that’s also covered in the rules if you take the time to read them.
Again Trying to justify the fact strikers get a modifier to catch an inaccurate throw or catch a scatter again is not evidence of a zero point anything its evidence of strikers having more training to handle the ball than jacks do.
The level of training jacks get is why they can only move one hex and throw/slam.
If the Throw is to a teammate, then they must be able to see the throwing player, and must be either a Jack, Striker or Keeper. You cannot Throw to a teammate who cannot try to catch the ball. This is completely against the player’s training as it would lose control of the ball for nothing. In all cases, your target must be in your front arc. TTHE THROWING PLAYER ROLLS A SKILL TEST using a number of dice that depends on the distance between him and his target: 1-3 hexes= 3 dice 4-6 hexes= 2 dice 7-9 hexes= 1 dice The maximum distance a player can Throw a ball is 9 hexes. This test is modified by: * +1 if the player is a Striker. * -1 if the target is a strike hex. * -1 if the player moved or turned during this Throw action. * -1 per opposing player threatening the hex you are in (maximum of –2
Nowhere in the rule book does it say a jack may scatter the ball by moving on to it.
The scatter only occurs through attempting to pick up the ball with zero dice and then automatically failing. The pickup attempt still occurred.
Once a jack has moved onto the ball you may only use the pick up ball rules. There are no other options.
Considering you must roll the dice for a throw, its in the rules right above the inaccurate rule on page 38. You cant therfore make a zero dice roll. You can only make a throw thats been reduced to zero with coaching dice. Making a dice roll implies the physical presence of a dice. So with out the presence of an actual dice you cant pass or fail a dice test.
Id even go as far as to suggest this is why Jake has deliberately included that no dice can be reduced below zero so as to give a player a chance to use coaching dice.
You cant suggest a zero dice test allows you to have an automatic failure when the rules explain in this case you need to use coaching dice.
The thing is you can make a zero dice roll. It’s really easy and fast! Automatic failure (0 successes). See? I have made throws that had 0 dice, but the catcher would be a striker so he would have the chance to grab the ball. You are saying this is no posible and goes against the spirit of the game. Think again.
Actually, everyone keeps quoting the “You cannot throw to a teammate who cannot try to catch the ball” part of the rule, page 38.
But I think the next sentence is even more relevant : “This is completely against the player’s training as it would lose control of the ball for nothing”.
From those sentences it’s pretty clear to me that you CANNOT attempt a throw if your target does not roll at least one dice.
It’s again the spirit of the game… think again !
i think the ‘discussion’ is more centred on making a throw with zero dice rather than making a catch
James > I thought this was about the ability to make a throw TO someone who cannot make a catch… but you may be right !
This is becoming quite confusing.
Please, please Jake, enlight us all.
But I think the next sentence is even more relevant : “This is completely against the player’s training as it would lose control of the ball for nothing”.
From those sentences it’s pretty clear to me that you CANNOT attempt a throw if your target does not roll at least one dice.
It’s again the spirit of the game… think again !
—- Uhm I am pretty sure that means you cannot throw at a GUARD since he cannot catch it.. you know because it is against his training..
Jacks and Strikers can catch a ball though.
In the case of a throw, following the dice rolling sequence on page 27, you first need to determine how many dice you start with. This is dependent on how far you want to throw it, as per page 38, giving your initial dice pool. You then add or subtract dice modifiers, this included the Striker bonus, threat hexes etc.. Should this, as previously quoted, ‘reduce the number of dice you can roll to zero or less then count this as no dice. You cannot make this roll without using Coaching Dice.’ If you opt or do not have any coaching dice in this instance you cannot proceed with the dice rolling sequence. As you roll no dice there can be no successes and therefore no failures and so cannot be inaccurate. So you cannot throw the ball in this instance, and no catch can be attempted. As you cannot attempt to throw the player would retain possession of the ball.
The example given of the Goblin looking to pick up the ball is not as clear. The player would be unable to pick up the ball because they would have no dice and as mentioned previously you would need Coaching Dice then to attempt the action.There is a precedent in the game for this with the Guards who are unable to pick the ball up. and this would cause the ball to scatter without a turnover. However, this is a direct contradiction to the rules of picking the ball up and would open up a debate on catching the ball as well. Being unable to enter the Hex is the other option as, because of the way the rules are written for generating your dice pool, you are unable to perform the pickup action once you enter the hex. This, as silly as it sounds under the current rules, and the way that they are written this is the only option.
I really hate the phrase ‘spirit’ of the game. It is a ridiculous fictional justification because it is entirely subjective.
Under the zero dice = no attempt model, how do you resolve a one dice throw if the thrower is unexpectedly subject to a threat zone?
If your player (a jack) moves and attempts a range 2 pass, or a range 1, whilst still in a threat zone, a RI could prevent him from passing at all if you subscribe to the ‘zero dice can’t pass’ theory.
The precedent has already been set that a roll of zero dice is still a roll in the game and results in a zero success outcome.
quite easily, you have no dice and can only use coaching dice to make the role as stated on page 28
If you have no coaching dice?
Dash, evade or learn better tactics to not put your self into that situation.
The choice to use coaching dice is the choice of the coach so surely that shows that the coach can choose to not use coaching dice and so attempt a 0 dice check.
In game turns surely a zero dice throw is just like a hail mary pass. Its a desperate move other options are possibly better but that’s your choice.
And when you throw RI in then the chances of 0 dice checks become more frequent with the surprise threat hexs being put on players doing anything slams, throws the lot.
Surely the question has to be what is wrong with a 0 dice check as far as I can see you are shooting yourself in the foot for some slim tactical advantage. Well that seems fine to me go ahead throw away the ball? Or slam me with 0 dice I will dodge and take an extra hex move or slam back and auto double you.
No Caballero you declare a zero dice test and as thats impossible the player retains the ball.
You have read one rule and have ignored all the rules that have to be followed before the throw can actually take place.
Its simple the rules explain how your wrong there is even a specific example on page 28 under the heading coaching dice.
Please take the time to read
Zero dice tests happen every time a jack without a safe pair of hands is forced to try to catch a scattered ball. They are clearly possible.
Looking carefully through the rule book there appear to be two cases where jake uses the phrase “make this roll” or a variation (I’m happy to have others pointed out if I’ve missed them.)
Let’s focus on the one on page 28:
“They can be added to any player’s normal test during your turn or your
opponent’s. This can be any test that uses the normal dice mechanic as
explained above. For example, a Slam, Dodge, Evade, Dash, Throw or
whatever. They cannot be used for Ref checks or scattering the ball, for
example, as these are not normal tests.
Coaching dice are added after all other modifiers have been applied. Note
that modifiers cannot reduce the number of dice below zero. If negative
modifiers had reduced the number of dice you could roll for a test to zero
then Coaching Dice may be used to make this “impossible” roll.”
There are a couple things to look at here. If we were looking at “make this “impossible” catch” in that case I don’t think that there’d be any question that Jake was saying that the coaching dice allowed the player to succeed at the catch rather than attempting it. If it were “make this “impossible” shot” or “make this “impossible” strike” I think that most people would say that a perfectly valid interpretation would be succeeding at the shot or the strike rather than attempting the strike.
The fact that Jake has only used the phrase “make a roll” in cases when coaching dice allow it to happen leads me to believe that this is the intent here as well.
There’s also the fact that the word impossible is in quotes. That indicates that it’s not actually impossible, but rather that it’s very hard (in this case requiring the coaching dice to succeed.)
And this is long already, but you said earlier that I was looking to turn everything into a single rule. I don’t disagree; that’s the more elegant solution and we’ve had Jake on record saying that he prefers a smaller, elegant rule set rather than extra rules and exceptions which is what you’re arguing that he’s using here.
For what it’s worth, I don’t actually expect to convince you to try looking at this from any point of view other than the one that you’re coming in with now. I can see why you’re coming from that stance, but it’s not the only interpretation that a careful reading of the rules might lead to, and in fact I think that it’s the less likely one.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
Under the zero dice = no attempt model, how do you resolve a one dice throw if the thrower is unexpectedly subject to a threat zone?
You dash one hex and you make an evade to do so.
Suddenly you have a dice wow.
Jake has said in the past
“What I don’t like is allowing people to do things with no consequences as this encourages what I would call sloppy or bad play where I can push models about without any real care or attention, and be none the worse for it. Moving towards that kind of game is what I would define as dumbing down. I think this is a Bad Thing”
A zero dice test is doing something without consequences, it is definitely sloppy play, even worse its removing the risk/reward part of the game it allows players to throw from a situation of weakness with out risking a dashing or trying to make an evade.
Worse is the coaching dice that should have been used for the throw is now able to be used for the catch and that is rewarding laziness.
Making a skill test with zero dice does have consequences. It results in an automatic failure. In the case of a throw that would be an inaccurate pass. In the case of trying to pick up the ball it’s a scatter. In the case of a slam it allows one’s opponent a very easy shot at dodging or doubling a slam back.
It’s going to be sloppy play in some situations, but in others it’s going to be the only way to get the ball out of a spot that you really don’t want it. There are going to be times when it’s a particularly good, if risky, move to make. It certainly doesn’t remove the risk/reward part of the game though.
The dash/evade that you keep bringing up isn’t always going to be possible (e.g. a jack who has already made their one move as part of the throw and then had RI played to put 2 threats on them.)
Coaching dice in general are better served as part of a catch rather than part of a throw; there’s nothing lazy about players using them for that, it’s a sound tactical decision on their part (though, there’s really no reason to assume that there will be coaching dice available in the situations we’re talking about.)
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
Again you have missed a simple point where the rules specifically tell you throw is a dice roll. Your zero dice rules do not exist outside of your head. You need to physical roll dice. An as per the rules unless you have the physical dice to roll you can’t throw.
And once again ive got to point out your failure to understand the rules unless you make the dice roll in the first place you cant pass or fail it.
You keep using non throwing examples to prove you don’t always need to roll dice but again a throw you do have roll physical dice.
I hope for the games sake jake rules on this soon as this is the worst peice if games lawyering ive seen.
You can either throw the ball with coaching dice or keep hold of it.
You say coaching dice can have a better use, this is what the are used for. Oh you dont want to play by the rules that’s your argument.
A zero dice throw if existed would be allowed to throw from one side of the board to the other as you can not be penalised anymore dice.
A zero dice throw is not in the rules there is no mention of you being able to. Its just you have taken one rule and twisted it.
Ducky, whilst we all admire your passion, I think you are wrong here.
No matter how you dress it up, a throw is not a ‘dice roll’ as you state… it is a skill(1) test with modifiers like every other test in the game which requires the thrower to see the target, and if passing to a friend, the target must be able to see the thrower, and have the capacity to handle the ball.
In accordance with the rules on tests, modifiers are applied and coaching dice can be applied.
A test which modifies to zero dice counts as no successes.
No successes on a pass action counts as an inaccurate pass.
An inaccurate pass can still be caught if the catcher has a method of generating dice.
I don’t see why you are adamant that throwing is different from any other stat based test.
how is there no consequences, its an automatic failure.
In my games i will be allowing this as i believe there is rules precedent and it is entirely in keeping with A. the game, and B. any ball based sport where a desperate/risky action may be called for
Seriously the rules are clear
The throwing player rolls a Skill test using a number of dice that depends on the distance between him and his target. As quoted from the rules
What part of rolls is not clear.
A dice game that does not involve the physical presence of a dice.
If a zero dice rule exist then I can throw the ball twenty hexes off the back of the ref bot and catch it.
As the modifies that allow me to get dice for throwing only limit the range based om the amount of dice I get per the distance.
Which is clearly against the rules so while you admire my passion your logic lets you down.
Everyone keeps complaining about jacks not being able to do this or do that.
Well thats dreadball and jake has said very clearly that he realises sometimes you get zero dice and he could change the game but there is a risk reward component to the game. And if a jack gets zero dice thats to bad.
Thats what coaching dice are for.
You couldnt throw it 20 hexes, thats definitely against the rules. The facility to throw that far doesnt exsist. The only abiolity that does exist that could do that is PUNT but that isnt throw.
I think you’re getting too hung up on the term ‘Rolls’ its symply a Synonym for test and they are used interchangbly throughout the book IIRC.
Simple fact is that Zero dice test do exist. You could attempt a zero dice test for any of the stat based abilities.The only differenmce is throw is the only one you would probably attempt. (Maybe a pick up if its your last action and you and you want to try and scatter it to a player with ASPOH).
Now this argument is becoming circular and your tone is becoming more aggressive so i think we should leave it hear until Mr Thornton can give us some input before this devolves into name calling.
The rules clearly state maximum range for a throw… being 9 hexes for all except those with long arms who get 12.
Sorry to necro this, but I have only recently started to play Dreadball.
I full agree with what Ducky and others say in favor of not being able throw at all. Why?
Because there is a difference between wanting and having to. The striker chooses to throw the ball – if the number of available dice for the required roll are reduced to zero he cannot throw at all as stated in the rules. The Jack moving into a square, being hit by the ball has to try to catch it/pick it up no matter if he wants to or not – therefore you can end up with ‘zero dice’ rolls filing the attempt automatically.
/Michael
The maximum number of hexes is 9 or 12 so a player has dice in which to attempt a throw by rolling dice. If your zero dice theory is indeed correct there would not be a physical reason why a player could not throw 20 hexes.
I suggest there is a reason why a throw of 9/12 hexes gets only one dice. Thats so they can make an actual dice roll.
“The maximum distance a player can Throw a ball is 9 hexes”. Clear as day on page 38 of the Dreadball rule book.
So is the rule about coaching dice but you keept arguing it does not apply to you. If you can have zero dice roles jake can easily turn around and cancell the distance rule. As there is no logic behind it now you have changed the game machanics.
Jakes is allowed to change the rule you know.
Are you serious?? After arguing till you were blue in the face about rules that ‘only exist in peoples heads’ and that your version of the rules is clearly a better interpretation… when it turns out there is nothing to base your version on you resort to ‘rules can be changed’.
do not feed the troll
Nobody’s gonna touch this? “Badbeef” telling people not to “feed” trolls? 😉
Hi Jake
I am not sure if this is the right place but I was wondering if you could explain your thinking regarding making Giants like mvp’s in how they are hired and obviously the fact that they do not have the ability to gain experience. I was hoping to be able to invest in one as a constant part of the team (though only 1) and that they would gain experience.
Now obviously I can house rule it anyway but will try as is first before making alterations, otherwise the season 3 does exactly what I was hoping for – Create utter Mayhem!! Now I would also like to see the new card deck as obviously that will have a overall effect upon how the carnage commences.
I am assuming the New skills listed are only available on open picks? As Threatening is Amazing especially for my coming Nameless squad!!
Crimsonsun
Actually, speaking of threatening, I’m a bit confused by a part of it’s description.
“The player’s Threat Hexes always modify a test (up to the
maximum for that test) if the modifier is listed at all. For
example, if a Threatening player Slams an opponent then that
target player will take a -1 penalty (or -3 with Gotcha!) for being
in the Slamming player’s Threat Hex.”
Gotcha claims to double the -1 for skill checks due to the threat zone to give -2. Why would threatening cause that to be -3 for slams? It’s just giving the base -1 which Gotcha! doubles unless I’m missing something (which is entirely possible.)
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
Sorry, OT question. Where are these quotes from? Is S3 released??
We got our Kickstarter PDF’s this afternoon 😀
It’s available for download for Kickstarters
The way I took it to read was it applies an additional modifier to all opposing skill checks (-1) but it can combine with gotcha for a massive -3 (1 from threatening and two from gotcha) Remember this is a Skill for big guys initially!
Hmm, I guess that could be it, though that’s not how I read the language presented.
It looks more to me like it’s saying that all skill checks by the opponent are now penalized by being in the threatened hexes even if it’s an action by the giant that’s causing the skill check. It used to be that evade and stand up would all get penalized by everyone, but that active skills like slam, steal and misdirect wouldn’t give a penalty for the player doing it, just additional threat hexes on the target. That would already be a pretty big advantage.
By my understanding, the problem with the interpretation that it just always give an additional -1 penalty is that the slam then shouldn’t be getting the normal threat hex from the player, so Gotcha! shouldn’t be multiplying anything (or coming into play). A normal slam by a Nameless (sticky) guard would give the full dice to roll against (say, 3 for a jack to dodge or slam.) Or have I been playing that wrong the entire time?
Zorblag R`Lyeh
I just read the entry once more, basically it works my always inflicting the maximum threat rating upon a target as long as they are listed modifiers. So when you make a Slam you inflict the threat modifier as if you were assisting (threatening the hex) instead, so yes that mean Gotcha would be added on top for a total maximum of +3. Yes its very powerful, but only when that model is active & I am glad we have a ‘Killy’ type skill in the mix.
crimsonsun
Just so that we’ve got everything in front of us, here’s the skill description for Gotcha!:
“Whether it is the tentacles, a magnetic personality or the trail of sticky ooze, some players are just tricky to get away from. This has two game effects. Firstly, whenever a player with this ability would cause a -1 penalty for an opponent being in their Threat Hex, this is doubled to a -2 penalty instead. Secondly, if an opposing player fails to Evade out of a Threat Hex of a player with this ability, then they do not move at all and their action ends.”
The -2 you’re getting from the Gotcha! on top of the -1 from the Threatening is supposed to be the standard Threat Hex bonus doubled. In your Model would a player without Gotcha! be giving the opposing player a -2, one for the Threatening ability and 1 for a threat hex? If not then I don’t think it would be there to be doubled as the skills are written.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
Just checking is that the updated version of Gotcha? As normally the maximum modifier a player can suffer for being threatened is -2, but a player with Gotcha now makes that -3 which is once more the maximum, so 1 for Threatening the Hex will be the standard when using a Threatening player but if he was supported by a team mate it would become -2. Gotcha now states that a player threatening a hex with this skill inflicts a -3 penalty so this would apply to the slam.
Only the nameless Spawn has Gotcha plus Threatening and he is the most expensive player in the Game – With good reason as a moving slam rolls 6 dice and -3 from his opponents pool! He is going to RIP IT UP!!
The update to the Gotcha! skill is an addition to what I put up previously, as follows:
“Whenever a test says that the maximum penalty for opposing
players threatening the hex you are in is -2, it is treated as -3 if at
least one of the opposing players causing the penalty has this ability.”
It doesn’t appear to cause the player with Gotcha! to inflict a -3 on their own, but raises the maximum penalty allowed (which is then reached if any one other player has the target in their threat zone typically.)
The -2 from Gotcha! when interacting with Threaten should still be a doubling of threatening the hex rather than an additive effect.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
I was going to ask the same thing as Zorblag – the way I read it is that Threatening allows you to count the slamming player’s threat hexes against the target, and that Gotcha counts each threat hex as -2 (and errata means that the maximum penalty if Gotcha is present is -3).
So to me this looks like the description for Threatening where it references Gotcha has a typo – otherwise the Nameless Spawn slamming on it’s own inflicts a -3 penalty without any assistance!
I thought GIANTs were a bit too destructive to have as permanent team members and the MVP system just seemed like the obvious option. In effect that’s all they are, really. Just very big ones. It’s the being big bit that requires the extra rules, not how they function in relation to the team structure.
Also, from a background POV, I thought that the DGB would prefer that the limited numbers of GIANTS be more flexible and available to more teams to spread the entertainment value about.
So two reasons 🙂
Shamed really, MVP rules will significantly limit the use of such cool minis. The individual nature of MVP rules means two dreadball mechs can never face off against each other and cannot be used in tournament rules.
Besides who didn’t want a Zees team led by an Alpha? Or a Nameless led by a Spawn.
Hi there Jake,
I feel like a couple of recent issues might have been buried in posts in a way that I am a major part of, but which would benefit from a concise answer from you. I’m hoping that you can quickly weigh in on these and clear a couple things up. I also apologize for the clutter I’ve contributed to this thread.
1.) Can a player initiate a 0 dice skill test? For example, can a Jack in the threat zones of a Nameless Sticky Guard and a Nameless Hard Guard attempt a throw of any sort without using coaching dice? We know that you can be forced to attempt a 0 dice skill check when trying to pick up the ball or catch an inaccurate pass (in the form of a scattered ball,) but there’s been some pretty serious debate about whether players can choose to attempt such skill tests if they’re not being forced to.
2.) With the Season 3 advancement Threaten, is the target of a slam by a player with both Threaten and Gotcha! really supposed to get -3 dice or is that a typo in the given example? My calculations give it a -1 for being in a threat hex (thanks to Threaten) which is then doubled to -2 by Gotcha. If it’s supposed to be a -3 could you help me see what the mechanic at work is here? I don’t see where the -1 normally/-3 with Gotcha! can be coming from.
Thanks!
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
With gotcha being revised season three.
Whenever a test says that the maximum penalty for opposing players threatening the hex you are in is -2, it is treated as ‐3 if at least one of the opposing players causing the penalty has gotcha
Distracting the ref is maximum of -2 and a three dice test.
Does that mean its now -3?
And can a player stand with the ball on the hex you use to bring players on and off the pitch and force a player into having to enter the new stall area to comment a foul to get the ball back.
The threatening skill looks like a typo to me. No where does it mention putting an extra modifier on only that you can count threat hexes from active players ie the guy doing the slam. Gotcha only says you increase the msx aloud to -3 do long as a player putting a threst hex on has gotcha and that any threat hexs they put on a player count as -2 not -1.
Answering an early question about skills from season 3 looks like they are all locked out to either the races or Giants that have them much like prima dona is only available to Helger in s2. A shame but it seems that there isnt enough new skills to fill new tables. So looks like threatening is for giants only.
The Gotcha! Threatening combination works like this.
Gotcha! works as written in the season 1 book with the addition from season 3 so whenever a -1 would be applied it is doubled to -2. So whenever a player with Threatening and Gotcha ‘would cause a -1 penalty for an opponent being in their Threat Hex, this is doubled to a -2 penalty instead.’ As the Giant players Threat Hexs are always threatening, to none Giant player, then there would be a -2d for any that has that combination which can be increased to -3d from any other threat hexs.
Where does it say that giants are alway threatening to non giants. As far as I can read they all have the skill and the skill says nothing about being a giant or non giant so therefore they get the skill vs anything.
The combo you mention is right the rule book has a typo you would need a buddy to put an extra THex to hit the new -3 max
disregard my comment, i had was commenting primarily on Gotcha! and forgot to reread Threatening.
Regarding Gotcha/Threatening.
I’m looking into this now. My original manuscript said -2 and I’ve only just got a copy of the final version to compare. I think I know why the change was made, but need to do some more digging. I’ll post a proper reply later.
Thank you for the quick response on the Gotcha/Threatening issue Jake. If possible can we also get a ruling on a Zero dice throw please as it has caused some debate.
Any update on ‘Zero dice-gate’?
I’m afraid I’ve not had time to look at all the references yet. Currently fighting a different fire 😦
It’s on my list of stuff to do, and it’s very near the top 😉
Good to hear
Thanks for the update Jake
Am I right in thinking that there is no advancement table in the season 3 book?
Thats right James.
interesting,
wonder why
I think its because the majority of the new skills are team traits.
The problem is that two of these abilities require a 2nd player to use them (Run Around and It wasn’t me).
Monkey Business is a special rule that affects the whole team and so couldn’t be included on a skill advance.
Coming through is only really applicable to Giants, though i could see it being added to someone like Buzzcut.
As for Teleport as far as i’m aware there is no teleporters in the Warpath Universe, and the Terratons ability is a natural one and so would not fit the current background though this could be changed.
Gotcha and Take a Dive could have been on a table, as its the only one that a player could have been trained to do.
In short, I do not think that there are enough new skills to have been able to create a new table for each of the different positions. Though a new coaching one might have been possible. Still there is always season 4…
Well put and entirely right.
Oh yeah,
never even considered that.
Cheers Rob & JAke.
Also any input on initiating a 0 dice test jake?
I was hoping to see a season three consolidated table. Which might have easily incorporated take a dive and dirty tricks.
A new player here with 2 basic questions about the make up of teams:
1. I note that most teams have 8 players in their “starting team”. So that would mean 6 players on the pitch and 2 reserves. However I note that the Zees (in the Beta rules) have 10 players and others like the Jadwan and Robots have 6 listed. Does that mean that the Zees have 4 players on the bench and Jadwan & Robots have no bench players? Or is it just that teams going into the game always field 8 players (6 on the field and 2 on the bench)?
2. Given that a league roster can be larger than 8 players. Can the coach decide on the exact nature of the make up of his full roster? (eg Human sides could include another 3 guards). And then does that mean that the coach can decide which of their 8 players will make up the match day squad?
By the way…loving the game thus far!
Hey there. Good to see new people picking up the game!
1. You’ve over complicated this a bit. The number of models in the box, or in the starting line up does not affect how many players you can legally have on the pitch (6). The number you get in the box is typically 8, the exception to this is Zee’s (probably because they are so small, and that they are supposed to cheat and have more than 6 players on the pitch) So you can field up 14 players in a team, of which 6 can ‘legally’ be allowed on the pitch at any time.
2. For a ‘by the rules’ league, you have to use the starting teams as provided in the relevant rule books. In a league, as you earn money you can then buy new players of whatever position you like. So for humans you start with 2 guards, 3 strikers, and 3 jacks. (8 in total, no restriction on which 6 you use on the pitch at any time) You might buy more players as the league progresses and then you can have whichever 6 on the pitch (legally) you like.
You’ve mostly got the right idea and Jimmi Terry Taylor covered a lot of the answers, but for your second question you are limited to twice as many players at any position as the starting team has.
For example, the Human team which starts with 2 guards could only have up to 4 guards on their roster. Beyond that you’re welcome to build a roster of up to 14, all of whom would be available for each match. It might make sense to leave a roster spot or two free for MVPs (as they would count towards the limit as well,) but that’s something that would only come up fairly deep in a league (and I think that most players find that deaths and lack of funds for resurrections often stop it from being a huge issue.)
Glad to hear that you’re enjoying the game though!
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
I like the new launch rule. We’re having fun with it!
Is it still the opponent who decides where the hit model is pushed to on a successful or doubled throw?
Also there seem to be only to hexes a model can get pushed onto if you take into account the direction the ball is coming from.
@Jake and Mantic:
Shouldn’t the erratas from S2 and S3 (Mind like water, new Foul, new Launch, etc) be released as a downloadable PDF on the Mantic site?
Or do you guys want S1-only owners to play without errata?
I’ve mentioned it to the guys at Mantic (who have all the shiny laid out files to pdf).
Do 6s explode on a ref check?
I don’t know anyone that plays exploding 6s on ref checks 🙂
i’m going with no as you are not looking to generate sucesses
I’m not sure but I think this has been asked and answered somwhere here before. And the answer was no, they don’t explode. Just like the direction and distance rolls of a scattering ball don’t explode.
No they don’t. Ref checks are not a “normal” test.
Can you sprint/slam/misdirect or pick up the ball coming from the subs bench
Yes. As a rule of thumb you can perform any action that includes movement from the sub bench. And the movement must bring the player onto the pitch.
Ok next question, if the zee’s distract the ref and fail does this count as the single ref check allowed and is it optional to call?
It wasn’t me ability season three page 28 states
The player cannot Distract the Ref. In effect they are doing this all the time and the Ref simply wouldn’t notice a special attempt to catch their attention.
Any ref check on the zees you can decide if you want to argue the point or claim it wasn’t me before the ref rolls.
In a league game if a zee lost the wasn’t me ability he could distract the ref.
Cheers, sorry im still on beta rules awaiting my delivery
OK another newbie question for you all – today’s topic – the sucker punch. The rules talk about it being a sucker punch dependent on whether you started in front of the opponent and then hit them from behind. By “in front” does this mean in the threat hexes of the player or that the slamming player was in any of the hexes to the front of the target?
In front like every hex the target can see !
Draw an invisible line (keep going till you hit the edge of the pitch) through the centre of your model. The front arc should be entirely on one side of this line. We’ll call this side of the line “in front”.
Hope that clarifies it for you 🙂
Thanks…that does help and it points out that I have been missing opportunities to call foul!
‘Also note that you cannot commit a Sucker Punch foul against a player with the Teleport ability.’
What does this mean? Can you never slam a teleporter in the back if you started in his front or can you do the slam in the back but no foul can be called?
Can you use the ‘sucker punch/stomp’ special moves card to slam a teleporter?
Another question about Running Interference, if some player is activating far away from my Jack and the ball can I play Run Interference to declare a slam and move onto the ball(and try and pick it up) even if the Slam move doesn’t bring me into contact with an opposing player?
If you read the teleport rule you will see that you cannot hit them in the back, hence the statement means exactly what it says – you cannot commit a Sucker Punch foul against a player with teleport ability. The card won’t make any difference as the teleport will trigger when a Slam is attempted, regardless of how that is done. As it says in the teleport rules, the Slam is not resolved. As it doesn’t actually happen, there can be no foul.
RI, yes you can. Remember that RI only moves you 1 hex (unless the Jack has Slide).
How does scatter from a fallen player work in Ultimate Dreadball?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vayaPwAQY8 This youtube video shows them using the ref center hex as the directional for scattering balls from fallen players.
Also, here is the line from the season 1 book about scattering from fallen players: (Page 31) “If scattering from a fallen player or from an empty hex then direction 1 is always straight down the pitch, directly away from the Coach rolling the dice.” What is “Straight down the pitch” if the pitch isn’t straight? The pitch is three half pitches melded together.
This is what is confusing me about the scatter rule.
I’m mainly confused i think because of the video. They are acting like the center scatter hex is the template.
Also, the line “1 is always straight down the pitch, directly away from the Coach rolling the dice” infers two things: 1 that there is a relative “up” and “down” of the pitch, 2 that there is a coach who represents the “down” portion of the pitch.
In dreadball ultimate, some of point 2 (a referential coach) is true, but theoretically point 1 may not be true. You could reasonably argue that there is no “up” and “down”, seeing as there are the 3 sides all joining at the center.
So how does scatter work, and also sorry for my confusion.
It doesn’t matter which way you define as 1 for scatter, as long as both players are clear before the dice is rolled. The Ultimate pitch has numbers printed around the centre hex to provide a convenient and consistent reference for coaches. However, you don’t have to use this if you don’t want to.
Something came up in a discussion today regarding free actions and Ball shatters.
If I start an action that will cause me to pick up the ball, and my opponent plays Ball Shatters and I then manage to double my pick up, giving me a free action, do I get to do my free action before the event take place?
As I interpret the rules, picking up the ball ends your action, and even though you have to take an eventual free action immediately after the “parent” action, it is a new action giving you a priority window before the next action begins.
My opponents interpretation has been that they link together because they are ‘associated’ dice rolls. They are all still part of the same action token.
We pretty much agreed that the rule has enough ambiguity that we wanted confirmation.
The free action is part of the same token, but is a separate action. The ball would therefore shatter after it was picked up, before the free action was taken.
Quick, clear answer. Thanks!
2 questions regarding the Ultimate rules:
1. Does a coach advance his players in the Sin Bin at the end of his own rush, or at the end of the round?
2. If a coach has unused defensive dice (from a Defensive Coaching Staff), when are they discarded? I assume at the end of the round, but I wasn’t certain of your intention.
1. End of the Rush, like normal.
2. That’s a good question and there are a couple of ways to approach an answer. For the moment, go with the end of the Round, as you suggest.
My thinking worked like this:
First, I thought that if the defense dice were allowed to carry to the end of the round, it would be more powerful than intended, as the “insurance dice” are potentially lasting through several enemy rushes. But then I thought that the value of the dice is very much on a sliding scale. If your team is early in the turn rotation this round they’re more valuable, while if your team is late in the rotation, they’re less valuable, & if you’re last, they’re useless (assuming they’re discarded at the end of the current round). I figured that variability would limit any sort of “defensive-dice-are-overpowered-in-Ultimate” argument. Of course, my opinion at the time of writing is only based on the experience of one game of Ultimate.
I have a question about Zee Free Agents.
According to Rulebook 3 if you roll 1 on the 3rd free agent table you get 2x Zees as they always travel in packs.
Does that mean they take up 1 slot on the roster or 2?
Would a team with 12 players on their roster not be able to hire anymore free agents (assuming they still had the underdog funds to do so) after getting the 2 Zees or would the Zee free agents only take up the one slot and allow for another “purchase”?
I think this has already been asked, but I can’t find it anywhere, so if a player fails to evade from a hex threatened by an opposing player with “gotcha”, the rule says that player doesn’t move and his turn ends. Does the player fall?
1.Dead player can be advancement?
2.Revived player must be returned experience already earned on this match?
MVP was killed. What happens on the rules?
IIRC MVPs are considered to have the finances to access he best medical care, so can always revive fully – no need for any dice rolls.You could house rule that so they miss a game during recovery, but that’s at your discretion.
The coach can remove players.
Similarly, can the coach remove cards, dice, cheerleaders, and coaching staff?
How long do Defensive Coaching Dice last for in Ultimate games? The issue comes up regularly as one of our players likes to regularly use his Asterian team, who start with a Defensive Coach by default.
S2 p.12 states that Defence Dice last until “the end of opposing players next rush”. The same page also states that Defence Dice “may only be used in the opponents next rush”.
The current wording is fine for regular DB games but a bit clumsy/unclear for multi-player Ultimate games. It also may not work as intended in that format.
Perhaps the Defence Dice should last:
1) until the end of the game Round
or
2) until the player with the Defence Dice/Coach begins a new turn.
If a jack steps onto a hex with the ball as his single step for a slam action does he still get the slam?
No, picking up the ball stops whatever action you were taking. If you pick it up with a double you can still get that free action though.
I have a question regarding experience and fan checks in Dreadball Ultimate.
In a normal game you gain experience for making a 3 or 4-point strike or injuring a player for 3 or 4 (ie killing him) turns. But in Ultimate, you cannot make 4-pointers. You only have 2-point zones, requiring a strike from a bonus hex to gain 3 points. This makes it harder to gain experience from strikes than slams in ultimate, and makes it impossible for the long-armed judwan. The same would be true for fan checks.
I haven’t seen anything in the S3-rulebook contradicting this and a quick google-search and FAQ-scan revealed nothing either.
Is this intented or should there be some addendum to the Ultimate-rules?
Cheers,
You make a good point, though I don’t believe the rules have officially endorsed Ultimate for league play. Therefore it wasn’t designed with gaining experience in mind.
(Nothing to stop you house ruling something up though)
You could be right about that (even though the ultimate introduction mentions season openers and finales) but it’s still a problem with fan checks.
Problem with Zees and sneaking. Description for a sneak says decide the player sent off at random after the ref check. Zees rule says decide which way to avoid the foul before the ref check and seen as you need to know who is accused in order to see if you can pass it to a friend.
Which way is it?
If Jake says I’m wrong then it’s a conspiracy 🙂
There isn´t any update of the FAQ since a year… When is going to be updated? No FAQ about new rules? Thanks Jake
Heyy perhaps you haven’t heard about DB season three, Deadzone and Mars Attacks? These things take up time otherwise spent updating websites!
Not to sound like an arse kisser, but when he’s not doing his job (designing games) Jake does an excellent job of staying in contact with the community. He’s not omnipresent though and the guy deserves the right to prioritise earning his living 😛
Hello just a quickly can someone clear this up for me……Page 16 under winning the game
” if at any point only one team has players left on the pitch who can throw a ball (and therefore make a strike) then they win.
So if you have nobody left on the pictch who can score a strike then I win.
What I’m trying to find out is what constitutes as the pitch.
To me players on the pitch are the ones in play.
To me players in the subs bench are not in play and are considered not on the pitch.
So it’s to my understanding that if I killed your last striker who was on the pitch but you had 2 Jack’s still in the subs then I would win as they are not on the pitch……..but this is what I want to find out…….what cconstitutes as being on the pitch.
You’re interpreting on the pitch correctly. It is just the players on the playing field that would matter. The rule for winning that you’re citing only takes place in a sudden death overtime though; during the normal course of the game, up until rush 14 ends, there is no penalty for not having a ball handler on the pitch at any given time. Once you’re in the sudden death overtime you can’t bring new players onto the pitch so having extra ball handlers in your subs bench wouldn’t be helpful anyhow.
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
Ah ok I didn’t know that. Is there anywhere where it specifically says that meathod of winning can only be done in sudden death………because on the page mentioned it doesnt say that. It just says……..”ways to win”
Sorry scratch that…….it does say sudden death
will there be a rubberized gaming mat pitch to come just for the standard 2 team game? I would buy that in a heartbeat
I don’t know. I’ll ask around.
Thank you. This has been asked a lot on the Mantic forums.
James Hewitt, Community Manager has said: “It’s something we’ve talked about in the office. We definitely want to do it, it’s just a case of doing it properly. Watch this space”
OK. These things are a bit pricey to make in low numbers and won’t sell in great volumes as an add on, so the thinking is that they’d have to wait for a second edition to be viable (in terms of quantities). However, DBX will get one, at least as an option if not as standard. Not sure about what will be in the basic box yet.
Hi Jake
We’ve been having a discussion over on the Dreadball Fanatocs group about this and would appreciate a clarification. If the event is in play that allows you to do a fan check for every strike, including missed ones (Excitable Fans I think it’s called), what happens if you successfully score a 3/4 point strike? Do you get a single fan check? Or would you get two with the event? My interpretation is that you would just get one but the event also allows you to do fan checks for 1/2 point strikes, and all misses. But others think that the fan check caused by the event is in addition to any normal check you may make for scoring (not including showboating).
Thanks
My read would be each strike/attempted strike gets one fan check (showboating would still allow an additional).
They stack. Last para on page 48. A single action can generate multiple fan checks if you have multiple reasons for doing so.
Any insight about the zero dice questions. It’s been 2 months since somebody last posted. I appreciate your all busy with deadzone (as am I :)) but most of us need this ruling confirmed……especially as I’ll be running a tournament in February.
Thank u for the hard work
Sorry about that. I’m trying to clear through a backlog of work before the end of the year – at least to see how far I can get. Going through the FAQs is a major part of that.
Ok thanks. I really appreciate the level of support. I can imagine you are very busy at the moment and with Xmas around the corner your probably trying to as Mich as possible without it affecting you Xmas family holidays. Don’t forget to enjoy yourself!
I’ll try 😉
Hi Jake.
Just wanted to say thanks. Last year around this time my boys & I played our first game of Dreadball, not long after Season 1 Kickstarter stuff arrived. It has quickly rocketed near the top of our favorite games.
This year, my wife bought me the Deadzone Starter box for Christmas. So that’s two very happy Christmases I’ve had that you have had a direct hand in.
Thank you very much & Merry Christmas.
Greetings,
In our last game we encountered a question regarding the rules.
A) When a player able to pick up the ball, can the opponent play “running interference” between moving and picking up the ball?
B) can he do so if the enemy is Teraton?
This is, what the rules are saying:
“Running Interference is something you do in your opponent’s Rush, to [b]interrupt one of their player’s actions.[/b]”
“Picking up the ball must be [b]part of[/b] any Jack, Striker or Keeper’s [b]action[/b] that involves moving onto a new hex that contains a loose ball.”
“In either case, Teleport is considered a [b]type of movement[/b] for purposes of interacting with other rules.”
“Teleport is an instant move that does not require any Evade tests and [b]cannot be interrupted by Running Interference[/b].”
We had 2 ways of thinking on this:
a) You can only play “running interference” after every tile moved, after every step for entering this tile is finished, so you have to try to pickup the ball before “running interference” is played.
b) Picking up the ball is a seperate action automatically done after moving a tile, so “running interference” can be played after moving but before picking up the ball.
c) You can do a) but if you are playing “running interference” against teraton you cannot do so in in this case.
How do you handle this situation, or better, is there any kind of official FAQ for this situation?
Thanks a lot 🙂
WarEagle
Yes you can provided that it is not in the middle of a dice roll or rolling sequence.
In the case of the Teraton teleporting into the Hex it would appear there and because you are not interrupting its movement you should be able to RI before the roll to pick the ball up so long as it is declared before the dice are rolled.
1. I would play it as RI not working versus teleport. I read “Teleport is an instant move that does not require any Evade tests and cannot be interrupted by Running Interference.” as Jake’s intent that it can’t be mucked with. Just my read on it.
2. This is another example of why I dislike RI. It always seems to me like an argument waiting to happen as everyone picks the intent/writing to pieces trying to justify their interpretation. In many cases, it also seems RI can be argued for prosecution or defense equally well.
REPOSTING:
I have a question about Zee Free Agents.
According to Rulebook 3 if you roll 1 on the 3rd free agent table you get 2x Zees as they always travel in packs.
Does that mean they take up 1 “slot” on the roster or 2?
Would a team with 12 players on their roster not be able to hire anymore free agents (assuming they still had the underdog funds to do so) after getting the 2 Zees or would the Zee free agents only take up the one slot and allow for another “purchase”?
Also, assuming the Zee pair counts as 2 “slots”, what if the team already has 13 players? it would take the team to an illegal 15 players so would they have to reroll the free agent or would they only get 1 zee instead.
thx
Hi Jake,
I have a couple of questions, hopefully they haven’t been answered above already (there’s a lot to wade through, as I’m sure you’ve noticed!)
1) If a Jack rolls a 6 on the Season One advance table, can they choose advances from any other table, even those in Season Two? I have read it as ‘yes’, but as the advancement rules were written when there was only one table, it’s worth checking.
2) With Runaround, both Run actions must be taken together (immediately after each other). If your first Run generates a free action (for example, picking up the ball), this must also be taken immediately. Does this mean that you lose the second Run of your Runaround? I have been playing it as ‘no’ but on reflection, feel like the answer should be ‘yes’ as you can’t do two things immediately together. Especially given that if you’re very lucky monkeys, your free action cold be Throw which generates a free action on the Catch, which could be Throw again to generate a free action on the Catch…
3) Is there really no way for Zees to roll on the Extra Coaching table? I can’t find a legal one within the rules.
I can answer question 3
No because they can’t buy coaching dice.
But mostly because they are mental bloody cheating ( but somehow loveable) monkey clones that are totally uncoachable
1) If you roll ‘Choose X’ on a given table in a given rulebook/season book, then any such choices have to be from the same Advancement Table set. i.e. If I choose to roll on the Season 2 Jack table and roll a 6, then I get to choose from the Jack, Guard, Striker tables in Season 2 and nowhere else, because I rolled that 6 on the Season 2 Jack table.
2) Just finish with the first Zee first, and if that first Zee doesn’t do something that would end the Rush, then the second Zee gets their free Run after it. For example if that first Zee (and the potential catcher on the other end) failed any of their Pick Up The Ball/Throw/Catch attempts and the ball stops moving out of Zee possession, then you forfeit the free Run for the second Zee.
3)What Rob Clarke said. 😉
Hi Jake
Firstly thank you for dreadball
My friends and I found dreadball through the beasts of war dreadball acadamy videos about six months ago. It soon became the game of choice for are weeklys games and beer nights. Overtaking Blood Bowl in the process
Were are currently nearing the end of the third season Of 4 team league play. Jed’s,FFs bugs and greenskins playing 6 weeks of games with an ultimate game halfway in just for giggles. Some of the best gaming we have ever had.
But I have a few questions if you don’t mind. I used to bug James Hewitt with this kinda stuff in the early days of learning the game but having found this site I thought I might ask you instead.
1. When rolling for team revenue do 6s “explode”?
2.When starting a new league season should we reset all players to rank 1. If not is there any good reason to do ever so?
3 Are there any plans to allow teams made up of different races ?
4 Are there any plans to change the man of the match rules?
5 When a ball is scattered and hits someone why doesn’t it injure them?
6 Any tips on demoing Dreadball to people who have never played a tabletop game before? We are thinking of getting our wife’s/ DB widows involved.
And a mad idea we would love your feedback on…
Its possibly total mental and unworkable but here goes.
THE ALLSTAR GAME
At the end of a league season the top two coaches have one more game. They choose 8 players from any team that took part in the league. Players chosen must be rank 2 or above. If there are not enough rank 2 players remaining roster spots are taken by MVPs. Coaches take coaching dice ,cards and staff for the team the played in the league with them into the all-star game. Any underdog bounus can be spent on coaching dice , cards or staff.
We think that would be a metal game of Dreadball.
At the end of the game the man of the match becomes an MVP for the next league season. The team this player comes from is his full value to replace him.
1. Revenue rolls aren’t “normal rolls”, so no they don’t explode, as much as some of us would like them to.
2. I think that’s a Coaches decision, yo. New teams would get some terrific revenue and MVP Auction bonuses though.
3. Dreadball Xtreme encourages this plan, as they’re glad to be able to get what they can get for their roster, considering it’s underground highly illegal nature.
4. That’s a definite Jake Thornton q, but I probably doubt it, citing the ‘ain’t broke, don’t fix’ reason.
5. Another Jake Thornton q. Probably because it would use the Throwing the Ball at other Players rules and lead to single Rush wipeouts or something.
6. Just sit them down with the vanilla teams (Marauders and Male Corporation) and get playing. Play hands of cards open handed, or don’t even bother using the deck at all. I’ve just played it full rules and to educate rather than beat someone unfamiliar with the rules and it’s won over everyone I’ve shown it to. Just get it in front of someone and say ‘Want to try this?’ and go from there. Don’t expect everyone to want to try it, but those that give it a chance and play it will probably like it, especially if you start by telling them the joys of exploding dice.
If a player already has 360 vision and rolls Alert on his next Level up is Alert; though a different skill trumped by 360 vision, allowing the player to pick?
As the rules stand, no you’d get both abilities even though Alert wouldn’t actually help. You may want to house rule otherwise though. That would seem reasonable.
In the new Digital Compendium, there was a bit on one of the new MVPs, a Striker with Even The Odds. How does this work? As a Striker, he can’t Run Interference, since he can’t slam, but with Threatening and a full Run action, he can certainly mess up an opponent’s plan. Is his “class” wrong?
There is nothing in the rules to say that you have to slam as part of a Run Interference, and with Threatening just putting a threat hex on the opponent can be a major problem.
Hey Jake, how does Teleporting work with Giants (Dozer)?
a) Do you count out the move as if she was running (using Giants rules obviously). Means that she doesn’t really get to teleport very far, she can teleport forwards further than she could backwards and facing is a major consideration during teleport. I’m also worried that given how much this limits the number of valid moves it may end up with no valid choices for a defensive teleport.
b) Pick one of her hexes, move that hex one to four away, then set facing. Bit like pivoting in basketball.
c) Make sure any one of her starting hexes is one to four away from any one of her finishing hexes. Simplest but gives the greatest teleport distance and the most freedom, so may be a bit OP.
Our league has our first use of her this weekend so be good to have an official ruling. In the absence of anything else our commissioner has gone with option a but with a free rotation at the end.
Any official ruling on Teraton Guard Slam(or if they existed, Teraton Striker Throw) vs Running Interference? I know the Run as-part-of would be RI Immune, but then there’s the fact there’s other stuff (Slam/Throw) in there as well. Does a RI Jack get to RI versus the Slam or Throw element of said Slam Throw action?
Tom Ballou
Junior Member
Join Date
Feb 2014
Location
Boston
Posts
3
Robot Transformation
Is possible to use the free action gained from rolling a double on standing up to perform a transform. And if there are other situations where a free action can be used to transform.
Yes they can transform as a free action. The only action you cannot perform is a sprint. This applies to all free actions. If you double check the double result it will tell you the actions that you are or are not able to do, eg catch where you can either Run or Throw with the free action.
Hi Jake,
last game we had one of my Jack Teraton was trying an strike when my opponent made RI to hit me from behind, so I Moved my Teraton 4 hex, then I ended in a position where I can still make an strike attempt, but I’ve moved 4 hex and a Jack can’t throw if he moves more 1. After a bit of discussion I made the attempt because the RI says you can finish the action. Also in the same situation, my Jack Have not moved prior to make the Strike, then the RI teleported me, if I’m able to throw I have -1 dice to the attempt because I have moved?
according to the teleport rule only a Striker can teleport and throw as if counts as a full move action, as a jack cannot make a full move action as part of a throw in this instance it would be unable to do so.
The thing is that the action my player was performing was a throw not a run action and the Running Interference says that when the RI is finished the actions you were doing continue to resolve. So I think i’m allowed to do the throw, but I could be wrong.
However, the limitations on the Throw action are clear. The RI has triggered the defensive teleport, which counts as a Full Move, this means that as a Jack means that you would be unable to complete the Throw action and instead gets a Full Move action as according to the Teleport rule the only player that may make a Full Move and Throw is a Striker. In essence your action has been successfully interrupted just as if they had have been able to perform the Slam/Sucker Punch and knocked your Jack over.
While I see where Rob is going with this, there’s another element to this. Normally Teleport is an optional replacement for the Teraton’s regular Run. This particular instance however it is a Defensive Teleport, which is usually exactly that, a reflex or reaction rather than an action. So the real question here is, does the Defensive Teleport count as part of the Teraton Jack’s declared Throw Action? If it does, then darn, no throw for the Jack, another Running Interference foil discovered. If it doesn’t, then feel free to say ‘in your face!’ to those with Running Interference, and then promptly fail your throw test after all this debate. 😉
This was asked before:
“Chris Bburn says:
November 26, 2013 at 6:51 pm
Problem with Zees and sneaking. Description for a sneak says decide the player sent off at random after the ref check. Zees rule says decide which way to avoid the foul before the ref check and seen as you need to know who is accused in order to see if you can pass it to a friend.
Which way is it?”
But didn’t get any answer. The way I have been playing it:
1. Call the foul
2. Roll the Ref check
3. If there is a result, draw for random player
4. If the random player is a Zee, make It Wasn’t Me decision
5. If trying to argue it, roll It Wasn’t Me.
The reason I have been playing it that way, is that if you do it the other way around, free agents or MVP’s without It Wasn’t Me would get the benefit of It Wasn’t Me. And since it is a player ability, not a team ability, that probably shouldn’t happen. It’s also difficult to make a decision when you don’t even know which player is getting called off.
A clarification would be good, as the two rules contradict each other. While I would normally say, “Well, It Wasn’t Me is a specific rule, and the Sneak Foul is a general rule”, it’s difficult to argue for it to work one way versus what I’ve detailed above.
Y’know, word for word, this actually raises an interesting point. All the existing fouls bar Sneak are based on a single player committing a foul… except the Sneak foul which is based on the team violating the rules rather than a single player. Does this mean that Zees powers of It Wasn’t Me! are useless versus Sneak Foul Ref Checks?
Hello Jake,
Having started up a league, and getting back into Dreadball, I would like a clarification on the ball scattering, and in particular when the ball starts adjacent to the side wall.
I have posted a thread on the Mantic Forums here:
http://forum.manticblog.com/showthread.php?7436
This includes a diagram, which hopefully you can just say “correct” to – or if not, then a clarification.
Regards
John
P.s. You many remember me from the “Launching the ball thread” here:
http://forum.manticblog.com/showthread.php?4252
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Keepers: instead of their current Punt action, how about giving Keepers a way to modify the scatter of balls entering their hex to simulate them just whacking the ball away?
Keepers seem a bit of a liability over normal Guards in that they’re obliged to try to pick up the ball (which risks ending a Rush) and can’t do much with the ball except give it away when they do have it.
So perhaps their Punt could be turned into something like a Clearance or Wild Throw: whenever a Keeper and the ball are in the same hex (whether they move onto the ball, it scatters to them or is Thrown to them), roll for scatter as normal (for a Guard) but the Keeper may choose to add or subtract one from the scatter direction. In addition, perhaps, the ball scatters an additional D6 hexes. Players inbetween the Keeper and the final hex of the scatter do not affect the path of the ball and they may not attempt to catch the ball (it arcs overhead).
(Alternatively, keep the Punt action but remove the requirement for the Keeper to Pick Up the ball and disallow them from ever carrying the ball.)
Keepers still goon the ball away and they can’t predictably pass to other players, but they don’t risk ending the Rush with incompetence. Being obliged to Pick Up the ball can be bad: being obliged to Pick Up with -1 dice is too bad when the reward for success is to be able to give up possession a little bit later.
Simple one yes no question.
If a Teraton Jack teleports ONE hex can he throw the ball?
Reading the Teleport rule in S3 it says Guards are able to slam afterwards so to me that implies that you can act appropriately after the Teleport. The only restriction I can see is that you can not dash as part of a Teleport move.
Teleport states that “if a player with this ability could make a Run action then they may choose to use Teleport instead.” This means that a Jack cannot throw or slam in conjunction with a teleport as in the Slam entry in season 1 it states that “a Jack cam move up to 1 hex before he makes a Slam” this is not a Run action as the Run component is clearly stated later where “a Guard can make a full Run action as part of a Slam”. The wording is the same in Throw just exchanging Throw for Slam. This is backed up further in the Teleport entry where it say “that Guards my Teleport as part of a Slam because the Slam allows for a ‘full Run action’ and the Teleport may be used instead of a Run. The same would be true for Strikers and Throw if the Teratons had any.”
That seems to correct interpretation to me.
Jacks cant teleport and slam or throw.
There’s a discussion (just starting) on Facebook regarding the S3 launch rules. If a player is down in one of the DB hexes are they hit by the the ball, or does it pass over them?
The question arises because everywhere else the rules say a ball passes over prone players (unless thrown at them), but the S3 launch rules don’t make any mention of prone or standing.
Any clarification would be great, especially if there is a page reference (and just to point out, I’ve no bias either way, I’m just asking here).
I’ll clarify the question a bit more since I’m the one that brought it up on Facebook. If I have a downed guy on DB 1 and I launch the ball to DB 5, does my guy at DB 1 get hit by the ball or does it fly over him to DB 5?
An answer to this question would be nice before the next bought of weekend games is upon me.
Thanks Jake!
In the Season 3 Rulebook, it said that “if a player (regardless his role or his facing) is on one of the hexes into which the ball needs to travel, the ball hits the player”.
A prone player has no facing (regardell his facing), and is on the way of the ball, so, there’s a hit! And because he has no facing, he can’t dodge (no success – Ouch!). That’s a full hit!
I’ve got the same in my last match, and i’ve asking myself the same question. For me, that’s clear, the rule said what to do. So, the ball hits anything on the way of the ball.
My poor human Jack was hit like that, and was injured for 3 turns (on the first DB hex, that’s hurts!)
Whatever, the launching ball reminds me the launching system in “Rollerball” (the original, not the crappy remake 😉 ). A ball thrower not so high proprelling a speed ball onto the pitch. God bless the poor player on the way! ^_^
Anyway, dear Jake, what do you think about the possibility of Interception. I thought about a Ability (Interception) that could give a player (Striker, Jack) the possibility to move one hex on the way of a pitched ball to try catching this ball during a throw action of a opposing player (like Interference, but against a throw).
Maybe give this possibility with Interference…
I think you ever think about this in your creating process, and I wondered if this could be interesting or completely avoided. What do you think?
I hope my english is understandable ^_^
I agree with you Seb, but I can see why others see it the other way, hence the reason I’ve asked the question. Really needs an “official” answer from the man himself.
I can understand that you wait for Jake point of view ^_^
But I would like to help you with this point of rules, I would say these :
– “Launching ball” is not a “scattering ball”.
So not the same rule (the point that the ball doesn’t hit a prone player is for scattering ball, not for launched ball – I imagine that the ball is bouncing on the pitch and goes over prone player ^_^ ).
– The rule says that:
“Treat this as if the ball had been Thrown at the player as per the normal rules on page 39 of the core rulebook”.
A player can throw the ball at a prone player.
The FAQ said about that :
“Q: Can I Throw the ball at an opposing player who is on the floor? If so, what modifiers (if any) apply?
A: Yes. The target cannot Dodge, and the normal modifiers apply to the Throw.”
I hope that it was helpfull.
Seb
Well, I reiterated your question on the forum, and one of the forumers was nice enough to ask Jake at Salute: http://forum.manticblog.com/showthread.php?7876-Dreadball-balance-a-letter-from-some-enthusiasts/page7&p=101243&viewfull=1#post101243
1. If the ball is targeting another hex, it’ll just pass over the prone player.
2. If the ball lands in the hex with the prone player, it’s resolved as though it was thrown at them.
Interesting ! Thanks Thawmus for your help ! ^_^
While I appreciate the answer (and now thinking about it think that makes sense) it still doesn’t clear it up – anyone can say “I asked Jake, ad he said x,y,z”, it still needs the “man” to comment.
That’s not to say I think Thawmus is lying or making it up, just a post from anyone other than Jake isn’t going to be “official” for many people.
Thanks for asking this question Darkson! An official ruling would be much appreciated Jake.
Gorim Ironstone has Steady, an ability listed as Guard or Jack, and he’s a Striker. How can I deal with this? Thanks!
Jake mentioned ages ago, that MVPs can have abilities that regular players rolling on experience tables can’t normally get. It is a testament to their awesomeness, and makes certain MVPs such as Gorim Ironstone that much more appealing perhaps to the discerning Coach who might want to bid on them.
Exactly so. The MVPs are not normal (in a good way)!
But, can a Striker use it? Someone like a Robot in Striker form? You can’t use the Keeper ablility if you aren’t a Guard. (I know is a terrible example) 😉
Can a Jack be turned into a keeper?
As a roll of 6 says pick from striker, jack or guard table.
So i could pick guard table and choose keeper.
Does this mean i get a 4 dice 3+ armour and the ability to punt, but can no longer throw, or since i started as a jack can i throw as well.
Or do i just get the armour and not the punt?
No. Even if he can roll on their table, he can still only take abilities which list his actual role in their header. Keeper is Guard only.
What does the Stubborn ability do in Season 4. Couldn’t see it listed in the ability section anywhere, and Galdo MVP has it.
Stubborn was an ability that was removed during play testing the new teams, I am sure something will be out about it or Galdo soon.
DBX ability question (I assume this is a good place for this). Tongue – lets the player with this ability make a Slam or pick up the ball from 1 Hex away. Can a Jack with Tongue move towards the ball, and pick it up from 1 Hex away with that Move, or do they need to move onto the ball to pick it up? Is picking up the ball an action unto itself with this ability? Are the spaces a player can reach with its Tongue all in its Threat Zone (8 hexes instead of 3)?
picking up the ball is not an action, an attempt to pick up the ball must be made when a player enters a hex. Tongue allows you to pick the ball up without needing to move into the hex with the ball if you choose to move before hand is up to you but it would require a token to be spent to activate the ability.
The Pile-Driver ability: since it replaces the effects of a Slam, it would appear not to inflict damage (hence would be of questionable utility), but the second paragraph of the rule speaks of a penalty to damage. So what does Pile-Driver do exactly? Does it simply thrown down a player in the hex he’s in instead of having him move backwards 1 hex, damage being calculated the same way (except for the penalty)? Thanks for the precision!
according to the rules for action limits and free actions, theres nothing that prevents a player from getting 3 or more action in a rush via 2 action tokens, 1 dreadball card, and any free actions generated?
Correct.
I have some problems with in translatiing the card “Can you keep the Noise down?”
The card says:
“Last night’s team party is catching up with a random opposing player. They lose 1 dice from each roll.2”
Well, Who is intended to be “They”?
Thanks for the precision!
Whenever you have to determine a random player for an Event like Noise Down, you draw another card. On the right edge, you’ll notice tiny numbers in hexes in a line down the side of the card. Start at the top number and see if a member of the affected team has that number. If yes, then he will be the target of the event until it goes away (another Event is played – since only one Event is ever in play at a time). If the top number doesn’t match a player on the affected team, move down one until the number on the card matches a player’s number on the affected team. He will be affected. Page. 49 of S1/Core rulebook covers this process.
So only one opposing player is affected by the event, am I right?
Yes, in this case “they” means “he, she or it”.
Thanks a lot!
Can I make a steal with one of my players on another of my own players? If yes do I have to dodge or just need to roll for this kind of risky hand over?
No, as a team-mate is not an eligible target: “This must be a single standing opponent with the ball”.
Hi Jake,
In DBX, Does the Uncontrolled ability give +1 to the test and limit the Ref to 1 dice for all stomps, or only those made mandatory by the ability?
Thanks.
The Uncontrolled ability isn’t in DBX yet – but in DBO, you can only choose to Stomp when a player is in one of your threat hexes at the start of an action anyway which is exactly when Uncontrolled would trigger. So there’s no situation where the player could choose to Stomp where they wouldn’t also be compelled to by the Uncontrolled ability.
Having said that, if the player also had Does This Hurt?, they could run into the Stomp so your question is still valid (the situation is just very rare). In the case of running into the Stomp, they would get an extra dice for not starting adjacent anyway… I’m inclined to read that it’s only the mandatory Stomps that get the bonuses, since it’s easier to slip the boot in if you’re not also running about…
In fact, rarer than I thought because the only player with Uncontrolled is an MVP, and MVPs can’t take new abilities like Does This Hurt? – so the situation cannot arise in the game as it stands at the moment 🙂
Hi there,
It says p. 21 of the S2 rulebook that improvements in robots stats only apply to the Jack form… is it the same with stats decrease (when revived using the 4mc device)?
The stat changes (both positive and negative) only apply to the jack form (from Jake’s post in this FAQ on May 25th, 2013.) https://quirkworthy.com/2012/11/03/living-faq-dreadball/#comment-23704
-Zorblag R`Lyeh
Thanks 😉
Hi Jake! Probably you´ve answered this before but my search powers can´t find the answer. Will try to be brief.
a) Freeze Burn (aka “Cheap resurrection”). Does this “stuck” a robot in his jack form (forever and ever) or in the “form” it was in when he “died”?
b) Where is the “Stubborn” rule for Galdo? (Season 4) I had all the seasons and can´t find the rule (probably because i´m dumb, but better ask 😀
Of course, I found the answers just when i posted this questions, so thanks for actually answered them before XD
Just to confirm my understanding of the MVP bid: let’s say Nightshade is currently under auction. Can an Asterian Coach bid for it, and if he wins, get the MVP that will remain on the subs bench (because NS does not play for Asterians)?
It says he sits it out on the sidelines. I personally wouldn’t have him such an MVP in my subs bench anyway to avoid accidentally fielding him as well as to go with the fluffy reasons as to why they won’t play for said team, such as animosity and all that.
Issue with Martians and their Jacks’ Illegal skill. I know that using Illegal with Sucker Punch causes two foul separate foul rolls and the results of both stack. Question is if an injury trip to the Sin Bin also stacks with a foul caused by use of Illegal? Situation is Martian Jack using Illegal to slam an opponent Guard who will slam back. Martian Jack completely whiffs his rolls, opponent does not and causes a 2 turn injury. Then the ref rolls for use of Illegal with a 2 result. Does that mean the Martian Jack is out of the game (2 injury + 2 foul) or does the foul kick in after the Martian completes his injury?
DO they stack? SHOULD they stack?
I could see a better argument for the worse of the two results taking precedence, After all it’d be pretty rude being KO’ed for 2 and waking up to discover you’d been told to stay off the grid for the rest of the game just because you also had a 2 round Ref call.
Or worse, get sent off for 3 turns but get sent off just for 1 turn being KOed was considered being even cheatier.
I don’t think they stack at all, and I can’t recall seeing anything in the rules to suggest otherwise.
If you (for example) injured for 3 and sent of for 2 turns, then the player is out for 3.
They are two separate tests and so will not stack and you apply the result that would result in the most time off of the pitch.
I’d say you apply both results, but not added together, so if a player is injured for 3 turns and sent off for 4 the Slam Back player gets the Exp and the player is still going to miss the rest of the game.
so no “official” answer on this from quirkworthy?
Why would injuries and sending offs stack? They’re different things.
I’m not saying they do. I’m hoping they do not. But my league won’t consider otherwise unless there’s “official” word on this, which affects almost only my team.
Can we make a jump during a slam/steal/throw action? It says Jump is allowed during a RUN or SPRINT action, but since a slam by a guard (enforcer) include a run… confusing 😉
As you say, a jump is allowed during a run or sprint, and a slam includes a run. So, during the run portion of the slam you may Jump.
Ok, super thanks 😉
Another question regarding the end of the rush… When the event saying you loose 1 random fan check card is in play, does it happen before drawing a card for the ref? To state the situation we had: does an event triggered by the ref card replace the “loose a card” one before we actually loose a card?
Pretty sure ‘Get On With It!’ occurs first, as you should already know by the end of the rush whether you’ve achieved a fan check or not already.
So random fan check card goes bye bye if there was at least one from a past rush, then the Step 5 End of Rush minutae checklist begins.
About season 4 and the fans…
You must take an action to interactive with fans(slam,evade,autograph) and what happened if you have already a player adjacent to a fan?
Because the rule says that if you move adjacent to fan you may interactive with him
I’m thinking that should be amended to say “moves adjacent or is already adjacent to a Fan” personally. I mean if they’re annoying you enough, and they’re right next to you, you’re going to slam them/sign their autograph or evade them anyway, right?
Just to be certain does the Hobgoblin ‘Stench’ ability effect rolls by teammates in adjacent hexes? Does it also effect the opposing team when the Hobgoblin in question is the target of the action? (Normally a models threat hexes do not effect actions that target said model)
1. No, it’s a threat hex and threat hexes don’t affect friendly models.
2. Yes, this is what is meant by “the player’s Threat hexes always modify a test if the modifier is listed at all” (the same as Threatening).
Probably just me being fluffy, but… Should players with the Stench ability be immune to opposing players who also have Stench? If Hobgoblins face other Hobgoblins for instance, surely they wouldn’t be bothered at all by the same smell seeing as it wouldn’t be all that different from their own. Just my five cents.
There are many different bacteria infested sewage sites in the galaxy to smell like. Your attunement to one does not defend against the offensiveness of the other!
See, that just sounds like anti-Marauder persecution, lol. Just cos they smell like a burst sewer main doesn’t mean they all live in them. 😉
Another question on Stench. Does it work when a player is knocked over? Normally you don’t generate threat while knocked down but you don’t smell better because you are laying on the floor.
They would be that much further from the nostrils! ;-P
Yeah… Prone players don’t project Threat hexes, so don’t apply threat penalties. When they’re down I guess they don’t stink people out, or perhaps just not enough for it to still be a penalty would be the better explanation. While standing up, those adjacent get the full stink barrage I suppose.
DBX launch rules: if a player is on the launch point hex can they always roll to Dodge the ball? That is, is the ball considered to be coming from the player’s front arc? (p29)
If the player is beaten by the ball, does the opponent simply choose which hex the player is pushed into? (p37)
Hmmm. According to how Arcs are defined, and how the wording for Throwing the ball ar other players words it, I’d say that the player does get a chance at dodging the ball if he’s on the launch hex in DBX, as
a) The ball is being launched from above/within the same hex the player is standing in.
b) The rules about the imaginary dividing line for hexes A and B in the arc description seem to suit the launch hex too in this case.
Not sure about direction, I think when I played this last, I just lay them down in the ball launch hex, but it’d probably make more sense for them to be smashed into any one of the adjacent hexes, winning player’s choice. At least then you don’t have to lie there prone for the next one if your opponent scores again before you can get to your feet/recover from your injuries.
Otherwise you must really regret ending your movement in that launch hex… or soon will…
It’s perfect time to make some plans for the long run and
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This has caused a bit of debate.
If the ball scatters onto a jack/striker who is facing the wrong way does that end that coaches rush because they cannot catch it?
No, it does not. It’s treated the same way as a ball scattering onto a Guard.
It only ends a Rush if you roll dice* and fail to score any successes.
*Rolling dice even includes if you would “roll” zero dice, because of penalties. (Essentially, if you _could_ have added a Coaching dice, whether you have one or not, you end the Rush if you fail to catch. Irealise as I type this that this may not be helping to clear things up…)
To be clearer, the above example of a jack or Striker facing the wrong way doesn’t ahve a chance to catch it as the Catching rules need him to be facing the direction the ball came from. Scattering off the model who never had a chance to even try to catch it isn’t the same as seeing it coming, trying to catch it and having it ricochet off your dreadball glove in a clumsy attempt to grab it.
Hi,
a question regarding the DBX boxed set: a “basic” convict team (with coach Warten) includes 4 cons… but only 3 are in the basic box… is that a mistake?
You can use 3 Cons and 3 Runners, reducing the leftover Mc to 6Mc, which still lets you detonate two explosive collars in the game. Not sure whether the example Convict Team was based on having the doubled teams option from the kickstarter, but it’s easily rectified for those who only got the basic lot, as an extra Runner instead of Con only costs 1 extra Mc for The Warden.
Hi,
another question from DBO : does a player looses 1die because of the event “can you keep the noise down” when doing it’s Armour Check?
I think that no, but better an explanation 😉
Yeah, not sure that it applying to Armour was the intent.
Yes it does because it is all checks.
Can a Gaelian Jack make a Running Interference with Charge!?
Hmmm… Might have to kill them before they get Running Interference. Or the card that lets them do it in a game. Screw that. Regular Jack Run Interference is bad enough.
Yes they can as per the wording of Run Interference in the S1 book
What happened if a Fan is hit by the ball?
Based on what I’ve read of the Fans pages from Season 4, it looks like they would have to dodge a ball thrown at them on 2 dice 5+ just like for a player choosing to Slam one. If it’s from a ball launch, then they dodge or get knocked out and the ball scatters off them, as for a failed Dodge.
This raises a Q though… do they have a Front Arc and Rear Arc, yet threaten all hex sides (like Stench), or do they count as having all sides as a Front Arc, (like for 360 Degree Vision)?
I get the feeling it’s more likely to be the 360 Degree Vision.
Played a game with one of the season 4 MVP’s yesterday but we couldn’t find what Stubborn does. Is this anywhere in the books or just forgotten in the Season 4 book?
Stubborn was an ability removed late in the playtesting (jut before it went to print) and was missed on the MVP. Someone posted what the ability was, but I can’t recall if it was here or on Facebook.
Hi, Is this true?
“You can sprint onto the pitch from the bench. The first direction you face is either immediately left or right of the yellow arrow. Your choice, but no other direction is allowed.”
thanks
This is real interesting. I’ve seen and played in probably over 200 games at this point, and you are the first to bring this up. I had to look at the board, but that sounds technically accurate.
You must enter into the Yellow square coming OFF the bench, so if you are sprinting, those are the only two directions you could be facing, since if you were to be facing the other directions, it would have required a move from a square on the field.
“This costs a movement point to enter, just like any other hex” pg 34 from the Dreadball rulebook.
A nasty rules lawyer could argue this I’m sure, but I feel it’s best to go with what is the most natural and moving onto the board “just like any other hex” would force you to be pointing “away” from the bench on a sprint since facing matters.
That was how we initially played it, but a club-mate said that was incorrect, and he’d seen that in a FAQ. I’ve not been able to find it though.
Not seen this mentioned anywhere before now. Is there any reason why the Martian team in Season 4 has a total value of 104mc? Is there an error in the cost of one (or more) of the player positions?
It is an error, if i remember right it is the Jacks that are 1mc to much
Thanks, that makes sense. Has this been addressed anywhere else? It seems like a fairly simple (but important) errata but I couldn’t find any mention of it anywhere.
if a player slams your striker, who then dodges onto the ball can he pick it up and if double, throw a strike? if so does the slamming players rush then end?
Yes to throwing the strike, no to the rush ending. P.32 lists the 4 ways a rush ends, “opponent scoring in your rush” isn’t one of them.
So it works as an interrupt then and what about the ball. Who ever scores it is a rush end?
No. YOUR rush ends with any of the 4 reasons listed on P.32.
If your OPPONENT scores on YOUR rush the ball is relaunched and your rush continues.
About fragile, quick recovery and xp gained in a league….
What happened if a fragile player was knocked out for 2 turns but cause of fragile ability will knock out for 3 turns instead… the opposing player does get the xp or not?
And what happened if a quick recovery player should knocked out for 3 turns but cause his ability will knock out fot only 1 turn….. the opposing player does get the xp or not?
I think you are a little bit confused.
From the season 3 rules about fragile:
“The player counts as rolling 1 less success on each Armour check. Work out the check as normal and then reduce the final total of successes by 1, to a minimum of zero.”
Fragile only decreases number of successes from armor check. To my best knowledge, fragile does not increase level of injury if the resulting armor check is below 0.
So if guard has doubled your fragile player with difference of 2 and on your armor check you roll 0 successes then you should apply -1 on number of successes so technically its -1, but the minimum is always 0, so the player is injuered for 2 turns. And no XP gained for 2 turn injury.
Ad second question:
Look closely tu rulebook season 2:
“If a player is damaged and fails an Armour check then they are removed from the pitch. A player with Quick Recovery follows all the normal rules for damage and Armour checks with the exception of where they are placed once a final damage value of 2 or 3 has been calculated. In both these cases the damage is treated as if it were only 1. The effects are therefore:
0 damage: the player remains on the pitch as normal.
1-3 damage: place the player in the 1 area of the Sin Bin.
4+ damage: the player is dead as normal. Remove them from the game.”
So after injuring a player with Quick recovery for 3 turns XP are gained (fan check is also drawn). The only difference is, the injured player is put in the 1 area of sin bin, not in the 3 area of sin bin.
I hope my rambling makes sense to you and may your Asterians live long and happy life 🙂
Just got the season four book and it seems the Martian team don’t add up to 100? I worked it out as 104.
I assume either every player is worth 9 or the Jacks are worth 8? Would appreciate a clarification before we start our league, thanks!
Reduce Jacks by 1mc.
A couple of questions on Season 4 abilities. Stench is listed in the DBX Player Manual as stacking with the Hobgoblin’s normal Threat zones. Is this something that should be applied to a DBO team? For models with Trailblazer, they can use Brush Aside, which was previously only on GIANTs. Since GIANTs don’t need to Evade when leaving the Threat hex of a non-GIANT it never came up before, but would the Hulk need to Evade after a single-success Brush Aside?
Pummel question: when Slamming a player on the ground (Stomp in DBO), does a player with Pummel get to make two attacks? They did not slam the player to the ground, so it reads like they get to make two attacks – perhaps not if the Slam doubles the prone Dodge.
Teleport question: a prone Teraton is Slammed by another player. Since a prone player has no Threat hexes, and Teratons automatically teleport when hit in their rear arc (i.e – non-threat hexes), would the prone Teraton teleport? Is the only way to hurt a prone Teraton throwing a ball at them?
So is the FAQ ever going to be updated?
Absolutely. I’ve just been busy doing other things. Not forgotten though.
If a hobgoblin is slammed in a simple 1 on 1 attack, does his Stench affect the slammer? On the one hand Stench says it will ‘always modify a test if the modifier is listed at all.’ On the other hand the threat zone modifier on slams is quite specific that it does not include the target.
Found the answer to this myself by cross referencing with Threatening which uses the same wording and has an example. Yes Stench does apply here.
About Achievements: when I roll zero sucess, every sucess is a triple? I know that in Deadzone is yes, but in DB I don’t know
Is there a limit to the number of free actions that can be chained together, this happened in a game last night and just wondered if it is as intended:-
Actions 1 – 3 were some slamming
Striker Sprints (action 4)
Striker Moves and picks up with the ball with a double (action 5)
Gains a free throw or move, as a striker he can move as part of the throw so he moves 5 and throws the ball to another striker.
Striker 2 doubles on the catch so gets a free action, he moves 5 down the pitch and throws to a 3rd striker who also doubles on the catch, moves shoots and scores.
So action 5 involved 3 activations, 20 hexes of walking, 6 hexes of throwing and an end to end movement. Is this how it’s supposed to work? (Granted there were some good dice rolls in there as well.)
Yup. That’s the play you see on the news that night 🙂
It’s tricky to pull off, and requires skill as well as luck. Exciting to watch though, just like watching a perfect play from real top-end sportsmen, which is the idea 🙂
Cool, thanks for the quick reply 🙂
‘The Hate is Strong with this one…’
Hey Jake, these questions are in regard to two similar things, one if from Dreadball Original, and the other is from Dreadball Xtreme.
1. (DBO) Genetically Pure Humans Only – Rules as written, the likes of Wildcard and “Lucky” Logan seem only worried about whether the base team is Corporation or Void Sirens. They don’t have any qualms about the team hiring any other MVPs, especially non-genetically pure humans, aliens, robots, mutants and so forth at the same time as them?
My best guess is they don’t seem to care about what other types of MVP they hire.
2. (DBX) Hates [insert Group here] – Rules as written, a Sponsor can’t ever hire an MVP that Hates one of their listed Groups. e.g. Kraato Gon can’t hire Wyn Greth’zki because Kraato Gon gets along with the Tech Guys Group, which Wyn hates. That’s understandable.
But does this also carry over to working alongside players who have that Group listed? If I have a Sponsor who doesn’t have Tech Guys as one of his favored Groups, hires Wyn Greth’zki, but also wants to hire the Robot Jacks from the Dreadball Robots team (who have Tech Guys as one of their Groups) does this mean I can’t have both Wyn Greth’zki and a Robot Jack on the same team? Or that A Sponsor who doesn’t have Striker as one of his Groups can only hire Dozer (Hates Strikers) as long as I don’t also hire a player that includes Striker as one of its Groups?
It would seem to be this way to me, but perhaps clarification would be nice.
Kind of weird that Wyn Greth’zki can be an MVP on the DBO Robots team, but may not be able to be on the DBX Robots Team if they are bought by the likes of Kraato Gon or any Sponsor with Tech Guys Group. Certainly fluffier considering Wyn’s nod to Mass Effect games though.
Hi Jake, in the first 2 seasons, we got skill tables for player advancements, but I didn’t see any after this. I was just wondering, is there a plan to introduce more skill tables for the newer skills, as I think this would keep a level playing field, I also think it’d be an ideal way for Jacks to close the gap on Strikers and Guards as it could make them truly versatile (there are a couple of skills that would really help them that I’ll mention below) without changing the rules for them. I looked through Seasons 3-6 and the Challenge cup and put together some new skill tables (only one for strikers but many feel they have a head start anyway), I understand not all these skills are intended for all players to get, but what do you think?
Striker
1. Slippery Customer
2. Taking A Dive (you could say teams have been learning from the Asterians)
3. A Safe Pair Of Hands
4. Shove (listed as an ‘any player’ skill so could give Strikers a none damage ‘slamback’)
5. Skill
6. choose
Jack 1 Jack 2 Coach
1. Taking A Dive 1. Uncontrolled 1. Adaptable
2. Ram 2. Backstab 2. Fan Favourite
3. Mighty 3. Threatening 3. Crowd Puller
4. Piledriver 4. Trailblazer 4. Vigour
5. Charge! 5. Adaptable 5. Str/Ski/Spd
6. Choose S/J/G 6. Choose S/J/G 6. Choose
Guard 1 Guard 2
1. Uncontrolled 1. Shove
2. Threatening 2. Pummel (unsure if this would be Rin only)
3. Backstab 3. Mighty
4. Trailblazer 4. Piledriver
5. Ram 5. Str
6. Choose 6. Choose
I think Charge and Adaptable would make for an incredibly versatile Jack and it could potentially make a player go from a nobody to a superstar which can happen in real life. Giving Shove to strikers could potentially help the FF Strikers and perhaps they could even have it as a starting skill. I realise that there are a lot of attractive skills on here so perhaps not having them all together and mixing them with the season 1 & 2 tables may work better. But, yeah what would your thoughts be on extra tables such as these and are extra skill tables planned for any upcoming updates?
Thanks for reading.
apologies for the way the tables are clustered together, I didn’t realise that would happen and was trying to save space, hopefully they’re still readable.
about season 5 and modifications…
I need clarifications to some critical questions…
1) does quick recovery stack with shock collar of convicts (only for 1 turn out after use of collar)?
2) does gotcha! stack with stench of hobgoblins (-2 at all around threat hexes and always modify a test)?
3) does Robots gets mutations upgrades or not?
4) does other team than mechanites get programmig upgrade or not?
I don’t have a printed copy of season 5, so I can’t be sure. My original manuscript and the final version don’t always match, so I’ll wait till I can confirm from a final version.
Please do as soon as possible… thanks
Season 6 and Hacking. Under the “Hacking” section:
A Coach can buy a maximum of one each of the six options before each match.
Option “B” (option 2)
“Only the first score will be changed. The first strike attempt in the game by either side is registered incorrectly by the scoring computer. If you made the attempt then it registers a 2 point strike, regardless of whether the attempt was successful or not. Your Rush is over. A new ball is launched and the old one removed at the start of your opponent’s Rush.If the opposing team made the strike attempt then it registers a miss, regardless of whether the attempt was actually successful or not. Their Rush is over unless they really did miss and another member of the team caught the ball.”
What happens if *both* coaches bought option “B”? Do they cancel each other out?
about season 5 and modifications…
I need clarifications to some critical questions…
1) does quick recovery stack with shock collar of convicts (only for 1 turn out after use of collar)?
2) does gotcha! stack with stench of hobgoblins (-2 at all around threat hexes and always modify a test)?
3) does Robots gets mutations upgrades or not?
4) does other team than mechanites get programmig upgrade or not?
1, Yes
2, Yes
3, Im going with no because they are robots
4, Im going with yes because it is cybernetics
Dreadball question about hobgoblins, mainly the stench rule.
In the rulebook of season 4 it says: “The player counts as projecting a threat hex into every adjacent hex. In addition, the player’s threat hexes always modify a test (up to the maximum for that test) if the modifier is listed at all.” So, this means that when you try to evade from one of the front threat hexes from a player with stench, you lose two die instead of one (one for evading out of a normal threat hex and one cause stench always modifies a test), correct? Does this also mean that when you would have to evade out of 2 front threat hexes from 2 players with stench, you would lose more than 2 die? Cause in the rulebook of season 1 it says you can lose a maximum of 2 dice, but does this change with stench cause it always modifies a test and therefore accumulates on top of the maximum of 2 dice? The way we play it now: when you have to evade out of the front threat hexes of two players with stench, in theory you would lose 4 dice, but seeing as you always get 1 die, you get 1 die to evade. Is this correct?
When you pass by a player with stench in one of his back threat hexes you don’t have to evade, but if you would try to pick up the ball, or throw, or do something that requires a test in one of the back threat hexes, you would lose one die (cause it always modifies any test). Is this correct too?
Thanks in advance!
Tom
No it is not correct you only loose one dice as your threat hex always counts. This makes Stench a combination of Threatening and 360 vision. Your dice pool cannot be effected by more than -2 unless gotcha is involved when it can go to -3. there is nothing that would confer a -4 penalty for threat hexes
Again no, Evade tests are modified by threat zones so you will need to make a role to move away from any hobgoblin player.
How does the tsudochan team push ability works in dbx? When I push another player does he get an evade for eash attempt? Does push have unlimited range?
It’s in the Xtreme Player’s Manual, page 64. But it works the same as in DBO. Pushed players do not evade, and cannot stop themselves from being pushed. It has unlimited range.
hi, does shock collar kills and injuries for 3 rounds earns experience for player which collar was detonated in DBO league?
In Season 6, Karadon have Armour 4+, although he is a Keeper, Synechdoche have Armour 5+ (he is a Jack), and about Hector Weiss, Gabe and Tycho Brahe, what teams plays for?
How does it works Harmonics when you are in the Sub Bench?
Thanks
Hi all,
I’ve tried searching through this page and the errata for an answer to my questions but I haven’t found something that seems clear to me. Apologies if these have already been asked and answered.
My group played version 2.0 this weekend and we had a couple of things come up that didn’t seem to have clear rulings:
1. Is a launched ball an attack? Meaning if a character is hit by a launched ball from behind do they take the -3 to their check?
2. Is a free action an interrupt? For example, I want to slam but scattered the ball to the guy I was trying to slam and he caught it. Do I finish the slam before his free action to run/throw? What happens to the rest of my movement? Do I have to keep moving to where my slam target was at before his free action?
Thanks!
Cory
This page is no longer used for Dreadball. You’d be better off emailing Mantic and/or using one of the various Facebook groups
Ah, thanks for letting me know. I went to the Mantic forums for Dreadball and they have a sticky there that links to this page. I guess they haven’t updated that sticky recently.
The best Facebook group to look for (if you use Facebook…) is DreadBall Fanatics.
I’m not sure about the answers to your questions but I’ll give it some thought later 🙂
Hi Cory,
as Simon mentioned, this is no longer the best place for BD FAQ answers. You’ll need to go directly to Mantic for that.
Best of luck!
Cheers
Jake