I’ve got a bit distracted today and have several partially done articles on the workings of DreadBall, but no complete ones to show you yet. Still, that means I’ll have more to post tomorrow 🙂
One of the reasons for my excitement is that DreadBall is on BoardGameGeek’s list of “The Hotness” (lower left bar on any page). Now I assume that this is a Good Thing, but I was curious as to how they calculate this. Does anybody know? Number of hits on the page? Number of posts? Simple alchemy? It’s of no real use other than to salve my tickled curiosity, though that in itself is a noble aim.
I also assume, the the higher up the list you are the hotter it is. DB has been climbing slowly over the last few days, so it’ll reach boiling point soon. I’d best be getting my tongs ready 😉
Quirkworthy 
As I learn more details about the game it is really looking like you have done some very fine work on the the development of the rules. Of course the sculptors etc.. have also done their part and the figures in the game are looking good.
It will be interesting to see how this develops over time. If I end up playing in tournaments it would be an unexpected development for me as tournament play has never been my goal. However I can see how this game could overcome most if not all of my objections to tournament play. Interesting how developments effect my view of the hobby as I did not event think about my objections to tournaments until DreadBall came out and I realized with it tournaments could be a good time.
Thanks Don.
What are your objections to tournament games then? Now you’ve said you have to share 😉
Now I have to think.. A list but not in order of importance
1) Large rule books and large number of figures with a large range of special rules to the point where you have little hope of digesting the most competitive options in a reasonable amount of time.
2) A rules environment like number 1) where the rules are changed or new figures are added on a regular bases where you have to replace your whole army from time to time if you want to be competitive.
3) Both 1) and 2) are multiplied as the number of figures in an army goes up because I like to have figures that are painted reasonably well but do not want to spend all my time painting.
4) Good looking, balanced and satisfying terrain with reasonable table space to play on. I hate large armies on small tables where you just line up and smash into each other. DeadBall solves this problem nicely as it makes more sense for a sports game and number of figures are limited to reasonable amount 🙂
5) Casual play being realistic mirror of tournament play so you are experienced before you take the time and money to go to a tournament.
6) Clear simple rules so you do not get into rule interpretation as major factor in winning or losing.
7) Cost in time (gluing, prep and painting) and money to have a tournament ready army (team).
8) Length of time to play a tournament game. This is subjective depending on what is going down. I have no problem with long games but I think everyone knows what a game that goes to slow is like.
So figure the odds that you would run into me at a 40K tournament. 🙂
Looking at your list, I don’t think most of them will be an issue with DreadBall.
1 & 2 – DreadBall has a number of planned supplements which I’ve talked about in their own posts. These will add a small number of additional rules, but very few. What will be a challenge is the additional teams, but even if we do them all we’re still only at 12 teams, and because they are sharing the same 3 player roles and have single stat lines for each race it will not be at all hard to understand the abilities of each player. I would expect that to be less of an issue than dealing with the unfamiliar playing styles of fresh opponents.
3 – in DB the maximum number of players on a roster is 14. This won’t change.
4-8 – don’t look like problems for DB
It’s their very own “secret sauce”, which they keep close to prevent it from being “gamed”.
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/41134/new-users-want-to-know-who-what-where-when-and-why
It is still very, very cool to make that list, and should definitely bring attention do DB…
That was what I expected to be true, but wasn’t looking in the right place. Thanks Lex.
It makes sense that it’s not public, but you never know with this sort of things. Some people like to reverse engineer things in their spare time 😉