Quirkworthy

The Calm Before The Storm

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Quirkworthy

At least, that’s how it feels for me. Later today the beta rules for DBX go up, and if experience is anything to go by that will rather increase my time answering emails and comments.

The Mantic podcast I recorded on monday will also go up today and that’s got some explanation and some tease as well.

With DBX, as with any other new game, there is a lot to explain. And, me being me, I’d like to explain the why as well as the what of the thing. I always think that understanding the background to a rule helps you understand and remember the actual rule itself because it’s less abstract. There’s a reason things are the way they are.

Once you guys have the rules to read and play with then we can start talking details. That’s when the real fun starts 🙂

Posted in DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game | 13 Comments

DB FAQ Format Change

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Quirkworthy

I’ve been fiddling with the DB FAQ and have changed it to a pdf as I think this is more convenient. The Q&A themselves are not different enough yet to worry about. I’ll let you know when that happens. Still working on an updated version offline 🙂

Posted in DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game | 2 Comments

No God of Battles Day in March

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Quirkworthy

Like the title says, we’re skipping a month. This seems to be the start of the convention season and Foundry are away for several of the weekends in March at one gaming event or another. No staff means no venue for us to play in, hence the postponement. You can, of course, continue to slaughter each other in the privacy of your own homes. I for one will be playing God of Battles at my local club tomorrow, so don’t let this lack of an event at Foundry stop you 😉

I’m trying to sort out some confirmed dates for later in the year and will let you know when they’re more solid.

Posted in God of Battles | Leave a comment

Hypnotic Kickstarter

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Quirkworthy

It can’t be just me.

It isn’t only when I’m involved in the project.

Whether I write the game or simply pledge for it, the same thing happens. Every time I’m near a device with a net connection I feel a powerful urge to check the current total. Repeatedly. Even if I did this 5 minutes previously, and I know that it will be pretty much the same, I’ll have to stamp down the urge to check. Just in case. KS is amazingly addictive.

I find watching myself do this quite bizarre, and if I was wearing a hat I’d take it off to whoever invented this cunning form of long-distance virtual crack. Kicktraq only makes it worse.

Now if you don’t mind, there’s something I’ve got to do…

Posted in Kickstarter | 17 Comments

DreadBall Xtreme Kickstarter Funds

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Quirkworthy

I went into the Mantic office at lunch time to watch the KS go live along with the assembled staff. Once again, thanks to the amazing support of you lot it very quickly reached its initial funding goal, which is both very cheering and a touch scary all at once 😉

Posted in DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game, Kickstarter | 11 Comments

DBX Rules Questions

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Quirkworthy

The rules are here.

Any questions, ask away 🙂

To try and keep things sane(ish) I will delete comments once they’ve been incorporated into the digital rules, discussed in an article, or added to any FAQ below.

Sponsors, Teams & Team Building

These have been left out of the Beta for the moment. Please use the two starting teams provided. The idea here is to get you playing the game so you know how it works from personal experience. This stage also helps us to clarify any fuzzy rules points.

Once everyone is clear on this then we can move onto the next step and have a close look at how teams are built. Yes, this will be well before the end of the KS 🙂

Board Notes

The board art in the downloadable pdf (above) is not final yet. It will be updated in due course. Until then, note the following:

There is only space marked for one deck of cards. There should be space for 2 decks and their discard piles. This is because I split the deck quite recently and the art hasn’t quite caught up.
The kill 3+, etc part of the board is not used in this version of the beta. It’s for betting and applies only in league games.

The Future Of DreadBall

A few people have asked if the different rules in DBX are going to be taken back and dropped into DB.

Many of the changes in DBX reflect the difference between the two games. That said, some of the new rules may well make it to a future 2nd edition of DB (if we ever do one), but none are currently planned to port across before that point.

Posted in DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game, Kickstarter | 74 Comments

Two Days…

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Quirkworthy

The DreadBall Xtreme Kickstarter is all ready to roll, launching on the 21st. I have, as you might have guessed, been quite busy in the last week, though oddly it’s not been the DBX that’s occupied most of my time. Deadzone and Mars Attacks went through the KS process last year, but this is only one early step in the process of getting the game made. I’ve been finishing off the ends of the DZ rules and tweaks, and having completed the MA core rules I’ve got the expansion books to get ready and get tested. So, as is often the way, I’ve got bits of all these games on my desk at the moment, all in very different stages of completion.

I’ve also got what is for me a very big personal project underway, though I’ll refrain from going into details till I know it’s confirmed. All this has kept me away from posting much over the last week. I have, however, been composing things in my head for DBX, all of which have been biding their time until the KS goes live. So I’ve got some design articles on that to come at the appropriate time in the KS process. What goes when depends on how well the KS goes and where it gets to. The core things like pitch design can go out at the start. We may or may not get to all the more esoteric corners so they’ll have to wait and see.

I’ll also be intrigued to see the Guild Ball KS campaign and what they’re up to. This launches tomorrow (20th), and it’s hard not to see them as going head-to-head with DBX for the same sports fans. Well, we shall see. From the little I’ve seen the games look pretty different and will scratch different gaming itches. Each will suit different folk better, and I’m sure a few people will back both. Personally I’m most interested in watching their gameplay videos to see how it looks on the table 🙂

Posted in DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game, Kickstarter | 26 Comments

Latest DreadBall Xtreme Playtest

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Quirkworthy

I’ll just leave this here…

Posted in DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game | 35 Comments

Not Sure…

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Quirkworthy

It’s not always easy to know exactly how much I can say here. However, with the Mantic blog mentioning that DreadBall Xtreme was “just around the corner” the other day I don’t think anyone’s going to be surprised that I’ve been doing quite a bit on that project lately.

So far, it’s been a tricky one. Some games come easy and others less so. In general, this doesn’t seem to actually have any bearing on whether they’re any good or not when they’re finished. As long as you go through the whole process to the bitter end (and don’t just give up and release it anyway) then they can be of any quality. I’ve pondered the why of that at some length and still don’t think I entirely understand it.

Obviously I can’t go into specifics on DBX yet, but I thought I’d drop one idea into your minds. Because DreadBall is well liked as it is, the real challenge with designing DBX has not been the violence, nor the changing arena. Instead it’s been balancing doing something new and exciting against not messing up a great game. The good news is that I think this last iteration has cracked it. Some considerable changes to what I had in order to make it all more streamlined without sacrificing the depth and difference of tactical decisions. That, at least, is the plan.

Got another demo at Mantic tomorrow to see if they agree.

Fingers crossed 😉

Posted in DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game | 20 Comments

The Bigger They Are…

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Quirkworthy

Yesterday was quite quiet, which was sort of expected with the late change of date. In the end this turned out quite well for me. I had the time for a couple of games as well as a good browse around the racks. I even rattled a few blisters and bought some more to add to the tiny collection of miniatures I have already.

Both battles were against the same chap who had played a bit, but not recently, and had come up for the game. He’d got a mercenary amy that he’d made up from whatever he could find, which included some ogres. These are always a challenge to fight, especially in smaller battles (we played once at 24 and then at 36). Being so tough they are an expensive unit, and a classic demonstration of the problem that having such elite troops gives you – not much of anything else. I fielded my normal, basic Orc Warlords army, replete with 4 units of gobbos to back up the orcs themselves. They didn’t much like the look of the ogres.

In the end I hope I demonstrated the way you fell these problem units by using positional play. Both times the ogres were wiped out, with the first time being relatively straightforward. They ate a goblin uint, as expected, but had been faced with two orc units as well and couldn’t avoid them. These included my shaman (who fought like a demon) and were carefully blessed in expectation of the fight. In the second battle I did something similar, with a one-two from the pair of orc units being enough to finish off the ogres. Only just enough in the second game though, as the first unit (with the hero in) got ground down (to make their bread¹) after nerfing its charge. However, a combination of blessings and careful sequencing of actions allowed the orcs to carry the day.

Both games were very entertaining and showcased a lot of the aspect I was aiming for in God of Battles, especially the wealth of hard choices that constantly evolve during the game. My opponent is clearly going to be rather dangerous when he’s had a bit more practice and has finessed his army. Will he bring ogres next time? Possibly not. He said they were the quickest way to make up the points when he was packing the army for the day, which is fair enough. We’ve all done that. I think they’re a fun thing to take on occasion, but not something to rely on as any regular opponent will work out how to neutralise them.

Naturally I forgot to take pictures…