Very quick note to say that Mantic have made a nice big chunk of the DreadBall rulebook available for you to read 🙂
Enjoy!
Recent Comments
Very quick note to say that Mantic have made a nice big chunk of the DreadBall rulebook available for you to read 🙂
Enjoy!
Quirkworthy 
Have read through once and so far what’s caught my eye is:
– a JACK’s “Running Interference” ability .. which I like very much -AND-
– some of the wording in the “Steal” ability description refers to GUARDS which I don’t quite understand as they cannot pick up the ball, so how could it be stolen from them ?? Should the term be replaced by KEEPER perhaps ??
Keepers always count as Guards when the rule doesn’t specifically mention them as separate. It probably says this in the bit on Keepers in a later section.
Righto, thanks.
From the single example of “Special Cards” made available I can already see the disadvantage of playing a team that isn’t made up of GUARDS, JACKS & STRIKERS which has made me not so keen on the Judwan anymore ..
You’re right that not having some of the player roles will limit their use of the cards. However, that will be taken into account as part of the balancing when they’re playtested, so it won’t be the end of the world. The Judwan are one of the more unusual teams in terms of tactics, and so will require different tactics. Card usage is just part of the tactics 😉
Thank You Jack!
What happens if an opponent parks a player on your Sub Bench entry hex and then proceeds to beat the snot out of your team? Are subs blocked from moving onto the pitch?
Blocking that hex is a foul, so the player risks being spotted and sent off.
Excellent. I was worried about that being an underhanded tactic… turns out, it is! 🙂
🙂
Also, there is a typo on page 34. 2nd line from the bottom, first word, “off” is missing it’s “o” and is spelled, “ff”
Yeah, I know 😦
Just curious – what’s the rationale for the Armour Check table order on p36? Wouldn’t it have been a bit clearer if the players were in alphabetical order, or ordered by save value? I know there’s only 4, but…
I don’t think there is a right answer. Alphabetical is just the agreed way to avoid deciding on a sequence 😉
Here, I’ve gone for the order that made sense in thinking about armour. At least, it dod to me. So, a Guard is all about fighting and has the best armour, and it seemed appropriate to start with them. It is, in a sense, part of their speciality. Strikers were next because they are the favoured prey of the Guard, and get to roll their armour often. Keepers are rare and had to go last, which meant that Jacks were third.
I could have used a number of other sequences, none of which I think are really more or less right than this one.
You make a fair point – though I’m not sure I suggested/implied there was a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way… 😉 And you answered my first question – the rationale is ‘whatever made sense in your head at the time’. Though I’d argue that going for Guard because they have the best armour (technically, Keepers do, but as they’re Guards too I’ll let it slide) then following it up with who rolls more checks is a rather quirky (no pun intended) method of ordering! I still come back to the second question; ordered alphabetically or by save order whilst would be no more right or wrong, feels like it would have made the table a bit clearer for reference purposes. To each their own I guess…
You’re right that it could have been tidier. I guess quirky was in the ascendance that day.
There’s a layout error on p38: the table of Throw ranges is too far up the page by two paragraphs.
There’s also no indication of the number of successes required (that I could see). I’m guessing that “The throwing player rolls a Skill test” should be something like “The throwing player rolls a Skill (1) test”.
I hope this helps!
We’ll be giving the rules a run out this weekend, but it’ll have to be Minor Leagues, Corinthians rules. 🙂
You’re right Jon, the table is a couple of paragraphs adrift.
The throwing successes is less straightforward than 1 being a success because you can throw an inaccurate pass and still have it caught by your teammate. This is why it isn’t listed as a (1) – because I thought it was more misleading than clarifying.
Let us know how you get on with them!
It’s a cracking game!
We liked the very positive vibe of the rules: you play to achieve positive things, not to mitigate against what can feel like eventual, inevitable failure!
All games went down to the buzzer and in one case could have flipped from seven-point shutout to a loss in the last rushes.
A couple of rushes into one game I thought I wouldn’t enjoy playing a no-striker team at all, but I did get into them, once they’d flattened a few of the opposition!
Even without coaching dice and cards we were getting dynamic games that felt fast paced. I can see how dice and cards are going to radically open up possibilities. We also guessed at the scatter rules and treated them as inaccurate passes: if they scatter further or are easier to pick up then games would be even more open.
Facing added real strategy to the game, both for defensive covering and catch-and-throw offence.
Free actions are genius.
Thanks Jon. You’ll make me blush 🙂
Sounds like some exciting matches too. Even without the fine tuning, your comments come across as recognisably DreadBall.
Looking forward to the full set now?
😉
Hi Jake,
I would like to test the core rules with a couple of friends, where can I find some sample stats for a human team? I understand that having the sample rules plus some stats would be enought for a very simplified version of the game right?
Thanks!
Hey lb, nice idea. They are kicking about on the net already, but I’ve also put them up here: https://quirkworthy.com/2012/09/22/dreadball-design-notes-stats-in-detail/
I have a copy of the demo game and did not receive the pdf detailing the cards. Is there any way to help me out with that? I would like to demo the game at an upcoming tournament(Spike Magazine) this Saturday and Sunday(tomorrow) but cannot find any card details..
I’m afraid I don’t have a pdf of the cards to send you. You’ll have to contact the chaps at Mantic directly with this one.
I have received a dropbox file that should clear things up on my end. Thank you for your quick reply and here’s to hoping the demo is rousing! I feel an incoming sense of Dread…ball! 😀
Yay!
Heya, just played my first game, loved it! I’m sure it’s in the rules somewhere but for the life of me I can’t find a mention: can a ball carrier simply run into a strike hex, scoring touchdown-style? I.e without the need for a throw? If so, would that make fast teams like those rat-guys extremely difficult to beat?
It’s page 13. You can only score when you’re in the Strike Zone attached to the Strike Hex you’re aiming at. Since the Strike Hex isn’t in the Strike Zone, you can’t score when you’re stood in the Strike Hex. No touchdowns for you. 😦
As Jon says, no touchdowns.
Hi could u just clear up what is brush aside that the coming through skill helps out with
Hi Matt, it might be better to post this in the FAQ section of the site. (https://quirkworthy.com/2012/11/03/living-faq-dreadball/)
Having said that brush aside works like an Evade, if you fail you fail to move the opposing player, if you succeed you can push the player back and then move into the hex that he has just left. If you double its as if you win just your opponent is knocked over but suffers no damage. Coming through will give you a bonus dice when performing a Brush Aside. So if you are a Jack with Coming Through you will get 3d +1d for brush aside.