Another DreadBall team. As with many of these later teams, they have an unusual twist that provides a unique style of play.
Edit: I’ve removed the original file as it has been updated. Please post any further comments there. Thanks.
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The Ada Lorana
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Quirkworthy 
Need clarification on Phaser:
“When a player with this ability is not active…” Does this mean that when active and substantial that they don’t get the penalties? If so then how would +1 evade come into effect?
I’m guessing that it is not the case, which means that Ada Lorana Jacks do everything but throw/dodge on 2 dice? I’m sorry but I don’t see these guys being popular. You have really poor odds at achieving anything compared to even a basic human team.
Nope, I think you read it wrong (I did too the first time). They are basically always “substantial” and gain the +1 to Evade and -1 to all other tests listed. When they are “insubstantial”, then they pass through players like they don’t exist at all. Basically, you can move around the pitch as if there are no threat hexes from opponents so long as you don’t have the ball. Not too bad an ability, actually.
I don’t see them being as OP as some of these new teams and actually should be quite competitive. Out of all the new teams shown so far, I actually like these guys the most.
Which is what I assumed in my second paragraph, but the quoted wording is important to change, for clarity.
My problem is this: The players have a penalty to every aspect of *actually playing the game* and no penalties to surviving the game. In other words you will constantly be cursing your blanket -1 penalty, but at least you won’t have to pay for new players? Does anybody enjoy feeling like you have to overcome your own team deficiencies no matter who your opponent is? Guess you should ask some DZ rebs players or DBO FF players.
Strikers cant catch inaccurate passes, Guards are no better at slamming than human jacks (bar moving further) and jacks will spend a lot of time testing on 1 or 2 dice. If you ever succeed at a test you almost certainly won’t double making the team quite slow. Basically you will fail opposed tests 33% more often against a human team. Ada Lorana guards will be better off dodging than slamming back…
They aren’t OP, but they won’t be popular either.
Again, I think you lose the Generic Ada-Lorana Modifiers when Active… so your Guards Slam at normal… they just Slamback at -1… your Jacks aren’t worse at throwing or picking up the ball, they just are completely horrible at catching it (and Strikers also aren’t any good sadly)… I don’t think it’s possible that Jake would make a team with negatives to more than half the modifier in the game as a base =p… that would be silly… IMHO…I hope!!!
I’ve posted why I think you have misunderstood below, but basically 5 of the 8 situations cant physically occur without taking an action, so it MUST always be ‘on.’ Or Jake needs more sleep. I hope you are right, but I’m not convinced till Jake says one way or the other.
Am I missing something or is it going to be highly, highly unusual for a “not active player” to be making Evades (at +1), Picking up the Ball (at -1) (you double a Dodge and get to move 1 hex to the ball? you get Steady in a League and get Pushed onto the ball?), and Stealing the Ball (at -1… not even sure how that would happen) …
certainly -1 to Catch the Ball if it scatters to them means not much of a chance for even Ada-Lorana Strikers to be benefiting from dropped balls AND IT REALLY reduces the ability of the team to pass at all… which raises a question if you get “A Safe Pair of Hands” on your Striker… if the ball scatters to the Striker, is it -1 for Inaccurate Pass, -1 for Insubstantial, +1 for Striker, +1 for Safe Pair of Hands so still no chance to catch unless you have Coaching Dice? So no point in getting Safe Pair of Hands? or is it -2 down to zero, then +2 so you get 2 dice to Catch an Inaccurate Pass if you are a non-active Ada-Lorana Striker with a Safe Pair of Hands SA?
and the -1 to Slam/Slambacks/Stomps I guess is okay as they are going to be pretty good at Dodging on 3+… and I guess the Guard could Slamback against the right opponent… and then when the Guard is ACTIVE it doesn’t have the -1 Penalty anyway, right?
and with only 6 team members… seems like you are quickly going to be down a model if you have one bad Dodge roll…
then again, the Insubstantial Phaser rule means you can get to where you need to be pretty easily as long as you have another Activation Token, Card, or Offensive Coach ready to help out with that attempt at picking up the ball and trying for a Strike… but you are going to have to use another Activation to become Substantial in order to pick up the ball… hmm… so “Sprinting to the Ball while Insubstantial” doesn’t really help as far as conserving activations… so you are going to need a double success or a card or an offensive coach… yeah.. these could be tough to use…
And interesting that you lose the bonus/penalties for Evade/ Pick Up/ Catch/ Steal/ Slam/ Slamback/ Stomp when Active…
I’m having a tough time (as if you couldn’t tell by the rambling post) getting my mind around these guys.. lol…
Yeah, I’m with everyone else on this. How can steal and evade be penalised when ‘inactive’ unless this is intended to be their ‘ground state’ of being? Which means that Jacks are slamming/picking up on 2 dice, and Guards and Strikers essentially lose their respective specialisation and have the level of human Jacks.
Okay, so the insubstantial thing let’s you cheese it up the pitch with a striker, but then, whoops, butterfingers, -1 dice on the catch and it’s all gone a bit swirly. And with only 6 players (and at a penalty to Slam back at that) you lose one guy and it’s a gaping hole in the game plan.
I’ll reserve full judgement until I hit the pitch with them (hopefully this week) but right now, I’m not a massive fan…
Yeah, I do think they should be getting +1 to Dodge as well as Evade. I mean, it only makes sense right? They aren’t going to hurt anyone being in an incorporeal state, but they should have a bonus to Dodge any Slams. At 3+ Speed, even Guards are going to be tough to keep in one place.
and @ Ice, Evade isn’t penalized… you get a bonus die on Evades… but only when you are Inactive which is the part that confuses me… and I think that you lose the Ada-Lorana generic modifiers when you are Active… so you aren’t worse at picking up the ball or throwing it… the problem is you throw it to an inactive player, that player is bad at catching it… and as others have said, it is strange to get +1 to Evade, -1 to Slambacks, but not +1 to Dodge.. unless that’s just because a 4 dice base 3+ Dodge is too good =p
Another question:
A player (say striker) sprints while insubstantial onto the ball. Ends his action, becomes substantial, as he now shares a hex with the ball he must immediately pick up, with no penalty for having sprinted? (Bar the blanket pick up penalty.) Seems likely.
Specifically says you can’t end your activation on the ball or another player…
Whoops, missed that. That was potentially a redeeming feature. Phasing seems like it isn’t worth it. The team actually gets much better by losing the ability altogether. I would actually play them with just the speed 3+ and no abilities.
I actually think the insubstantial becomes more powerful to set up Slams and Steals (but sadly, not passes!!!)… your opponent can’t protect a model by guarding them… you can Sprint your insubstantial jacks or guards or strikers up to 10 “moves or turns” away and get behind someone by 1 hex.. then use another token to slam them or steal the ball..
oh, and funny.. can an Insubstantial Active Player Fall Down if they fail a Dash Test… now, yes you are speed 3+.. but it could happen if trying to Sprint 12 or 13! hexes … that’d be pretty funny.. falling ghosts…
Maybe you give the opponent is supposed to get some of those modifiers?
It looks interesting and not too over the top as a theme (which is nice, cause the last two previews…..), just a little confusing at this how those penalties actually work.
That is part of the problem I have too, the Ada get a penalty to hit someone because being solid is hard to do, but some joe schmoe jack can hit an energy being like he was made of flesh and bone? Makes no sense.
Again, you I think (and hope I’m not reading this wrongly!) don’t get penalized when YOU are Slamming.. only when you are Slamming BACK.. and yes, they are not good at Slambacks because of that.. but you can likely DODGE like a mongoose at 3+… but I do have reservations as I said about the # of models.. you lose a Jack or Striker early due to a bad roll (they throw 2 threat hexes on you, you only roll 1 or 2 dice, get creamed and off the Pitch for 3 Rushes or Die (again?).. and now you are in trouble… might have to set up in the back of the Pitch to start with =p
I thought the same when I first posted. The problem is this:
+1 Evade (can’t evade when you aren’t taking an action, this never comes into effect)
-1 Steal (can’t steal when you aren’t taking an action, this never comes into effect)
-1 slam/stomp (can’t stomp when you aren’t taking an action, this never comes into effect)
So either over half of the rules listed NEVER come into effect, or they are always on. If the first is true, Jake needs more sleep because that is a serious blunder. If the second is true then Ada Lorana suck badly at sports and should spend their time watching from the stands.
In some ways, the phasing benefit is fairly similar to the Teraton’s teleportation – movement that ignores threat hexes.
It would make more sense if those modifiers are supposed to apply to opposing players. +1 to evade away from a ghost; -1 to slam a ghost; that kind of thing? Otherwise, it seems like a strictly worse version of Teleport, which is odd.
As much as everyone has a point that the modifiers seem odd in some places, I feel like it is even more unusual to give the entire team -1 to slam and pick up the ball and catch the ball at all times… the wording “they are as solid as they can be” however does give me pause… but it clearly says “when a player is not active” as well.. so .. and if there is one thing Jake tends to cover with some rules it is unusual circumstances… like Stealing the Ball on your opponents turn… or maybe that will come up in a new special rule or something .. dunno… but yeah, as it’s like 2 am in the UK, I guess we’ll all have to wait with bated breath till tomorrow =p… lol.. damn you GMT!!! =p
Yeah, looking at it again it doesn’t make sense to apply to the other team’s players either. It’s a very strange rule at the moment. Hopefully Jake can shed some light on these soon; give some substance to the mist. 😀
Ok, just checking that I have this right:
The basic default state of the Ada Lorena is substantial, where they get +1 dice to evade and -1 dice to catch, pick up the ball, steal, slam, slamback and stomp.
On each action they can choose to “phase out” where they are able to pass through all obstacles and players for the duration of that action, and they “phase in” once that action is complete, becoming substantial again.
While they are “phased out” they are unable to interact with other players in any way and are unable to manipulate the ball. They are also unable to end their action in the same space as another player or the ball while phased out.
Correct so far?
If this is the case, then the evade wouldn’t come into play unless the player was carrying the ball since you would always choose to “phase out” in order to get past other players. A bonus blanket die to dodge seems more appropriate as it would reflect the difficulty of trying to slam a creature of dubious substance.
Also, since moving onto the ball ends a player’s action, the ada lorena should be able to move onto the ball, become substantial at the end of this action and attempt a pick up.
Also, none of the phaser modifiers should apply if they are interacting with another player with the phaser trait.
Strikes me that a lot of confusion over this is down to wording.
Some good points here. Rather than deal with the comments individually, I’ve read them all and have rewritten the Phaser rule accordingly. I’ll put that up in another post so it’s clear which version the comments apply to.
New version here.