Quirkworthy

This follows on from the comments in my last post on Leagues. Just another Peter, Thraug and Lionel all mentioned related issues, and I thought I’d pick out the problems here as well as answer them there, to put it in front of a wider audience.

The problems revolve around the effort-benefit angle from the point of view of the organisation, especially the league sponsor who runs the league. Actually, I don’t think it’s as bad as they suggest, and there are several simple ways to make things work more smoothly. But first, a ramble…

Some Whys and Some Developmental History

Most of the playtesting done on DreadBall’s league system was done in an almost tournament fashion, with people meeting for extended periods and playing several games. This was a side effect of the playtesting process rather than a deliberate plan. It arises simply from the difficulty in getting lots of people together repeatedly over a very short space of time. Most playtesters can make once a week, but few can do every day, which is what we really needed. So we condensed things a little, and ran what was somewhere between a tournament and a leaugue. Incidentally, this is why I know that DreadBall will work brilliantly in tournaments  because we have effectively run several already, in a couple of different formats.

Anyway, testing the league rules like this was both good and bad. To take the good first, it demonstrated that with a little organisation you can play several league matches in a single session and that giving people a specific time to finish by is not arduous.

However, you needn’t make all the matches in a single session league ones. The rules include a discussion on how to deal with non-league matches played by league teams (against either other league teams or non-league ones). So you could have a gaming session with 2 or 3 games of DreadBall, only one of which was a league match. You wouldn’t then need to run an MVP auction more than once an evening, if that was worrying you. Of course, as the league sponsor decides which and how many MVPs are available in each league round they can choose to make the auction easy or hard for themselves anyway.

In a bad sense, this manner of playtesting was not entirely the same way everyone will play. To be fair though, playtesting very often isn’t exactly like real gaming, and it is plainly impossible to replicate the myriad variables possible in every gaming group. The fact that it worked as well as it does with as many people and as many disparate groups involved as there were did bode very well though.

Why It Isn’t a Problem

A couple of comments focussed on the imagined problems of getting everyone together to sort out next league games and auction MVPs. I suggested that you can use one of the many communication forms available such as Twitter, email, text, Skype, phone, etc, which is true. But what if you can’t even do that? Well, herding the happy gamers about is always the biggest problem any league (or campaign) organiser has, and there is no reason why DB will be any different as the real world humans will be the same. Even so, I don’t think there’s a real issue with DreadBall per se.

I think it’s fair to assume that you can get most of the people in the group together at once (otherwise how are they ever going to play any games?) on some sort of regular basis. Those people can go through the between matches sequence as written. Physical absentees could join by one of the comms methods mentioned. Any that could not manage that simply tell the league sponsor in advance (a) who they will pick to play against next, and (b) how much they will bid for each MVP they are interested in (remembering that this need not be any if they haven’t the cash or the inclination).

The sponsor keeps these notes to one side. When players are choosing their opponents, he reads out the relevant answer when it comes to an absentee’s slot in the league table. If they have provided no note or their preferred opponent is already booked, then they simply get the next highest ranked team available to play against as their next round opponent.

The MVP bids are exactly as happens at an auction house. The sponsor uses the maximum bid provided to bid up to, joining in the bidding as their proxy. If he wants, he could get an uninterested party to bid for each absent player, which might be more fun and would engage those who were sitting out of that bid for themselves.

Variants

Having said the above, and explained why I don’t think it’s hard to adapt the existing league rules to varied circumstances, it’s still obvious that they are not the only way a league could be run. I did consider and reject a number of other options as lacking some of the inbuilt control mechanisms that this version has. Runaway leaders is a problem faced by many leagues, and whilst this does not remove that issue entirely, it does mitigate some of the unpleasant issues that arise from it.

In DreadBall Season 2 and Ultimate I’ll come back to leagues and offer some variant styles which you could try. A more free-form option will appeal to sponsors who want less to do, though at the cost of some entertainment, a lot of story and almost guaranteeing the most prolific gamers will win (seen it happen time and again). I’m not fond of that way of running things as you can tell, but some will be so I’ll write that up.

One last thought. Meeting up between rounds is not just a mechanical function of the league – it’s a social one. This aspect doesn’t appear in the rules though it is just as important, and can provide a lot of entertainment. It’s a chance to brag and boast, to meet the other coaches and swap trash talk and tall tales. How this Coach fluked a win, or got a landslide in his second Rush. How this Striker survived 6 Slams from Orx Guards, then fell over in his first hex, why your lead Striker is now known as “Fumblefingers”. You know the kind of thing gamers do between games (and during them too), and giving them a venue for it with everyone assembled to hear the stories and the lies is just plain old fun 🙂

The league system in DreadBall is mostly a traditional campaign system much as you will see in many other tabletop figure games (not that many of them have campaign systems, but… ). I decided to stick with traditional here as running a campaign or league is a load of effort without having to remember weird rules. Having said this, I couldn’t resist adding the odd twist as you will see.

Apart from the rules described below, the league section also includes guidance and suggestions for running leagues that will help people who are new to this aspect of gaming. At least, that’s the plan.

Core League Principles and Overview

The idea is a simple mirror of sporting reality. Leagues are played in rounds. Your team plays a game, individual players become more experienced and at a certain point this cumulative experience manifests as a new ability. Players with more abilities are worth more, and the whole team is worth the sum of its players + ancillary bonuses (cards and Coaching Dice). This is the kind of thing we see in real world sports. Manchester United is worth more than Scunthorpe because it has better and more highly skilled players who are worth more.

Normal players sign long term contracts, but there are two other types of players in DreadBall: MVPS and Free Agents.

MVPs are, in effect, very highly paid mercenaries who work for the highest bidder and only for a limited time (a round at a time). This maximises their income.

Free Agents are normal players who haven’t yet been signed to a team. They are used by the DreadBall Governing Body as balancing factors in games to ensure that the crowds get an entertaining match and the sponsors keep paying.

It’s the Corporation – it’s all about money 😉

Organising Rounds

The league sponsor who organises and runs the league, gets together with all the players once per round. This could be face to face at the club, or it could be over phone, forum, twitter, email or text. This meeting is to organise what happens in the next league round. Each team will have one league game, and can play more games if they have the time. The league game is the only one that they have to play for the league, but they can play more if they want. All the games will affect their team ranking (for good or bad).

The twist here is how games are allocated. The initial draw for the first round is random as all teams are initially the same level. In subsequent rounds, the league sponsor starts with the team at the bottom of the league, and asks that Coach who he would like to play. The sponsor then asks the next player up the league rankings, and so on; each choosing an opponent who has not already got a game this round. In this way a Coach can choose one of the teams near his own level or can pick someone really challenging at the top of the rankings. It gives the Coaches lower down the league more control over their fates, and avoids the unpleasantries of the big boys picking on the weak teams for easy wins. If you’re playing against someone much higher ranking than you it’s because you chose to do so.

Player Experience

When a player takes part in a match they may gain experience. This is done by doing what they are supposed to do particularly well. So, Strikers earn experience by making 3 or 4 point Strikes, Guards earn it by killing opponents or injuring them for 3 turns, and Jacks get it for either of the above. There is also a Man of the Match award to give a random player a boost.

MVPs and Free Agents never gain experience.

Player experience goes in ranks, with a player starting at rank 1. You need to earn a total of the next rank’s worth of experience to advance a level. So, a rank 1 player needs to collect 2 experience to rise to rank 2. Each time you go up a level you can roll on a table to get a new ability or stat increase. There is a table for each player role, plus a separate one for Extra Coaching (with different abilities) if you want to permanently sacrifice a Coaching Dice to roll on it. if you roll a result you already have then you get to choose from the remaining opions. If you have them all then you get to pick from any of the other role specific tables. In this way the advancement is a mixture of choice and luck.

Team Revenue and Worth

A team is worth the sum of its players’ values, its cards, Coaching Dice plus any spare cash. Player values start at whatever it costs to hire them, and go up by 5 million credits (mc) per rank they advance. Cards are worth 10mc each, and Coaching Dice 6mc. As a point of reference, all starting teams are worth exactly 100mc.

With a simple way to reduce the value of a team to a cash equivalent, the teams can be ranked in order to see who is winning the league. It also serves as a way to compare the relative potency of the teams and allow the DGB to step in and help even things up if one is seriously outclassed. This is where Free Agents come in. What is particularly interesting here is that these extra players are assigned randomly, and are not necessarily the same race as the main team. In play, this is really interesting, and has given our playtesters some very memorable games. A random player can completely change the dynamic of a team, and this is partly why they are added this way by the DGB. Whereas an experienced team might be easily able to take apart a standard opponent, they may find a unique combination a bit trickier to deal with. Any edge like this is a massive help to the underdog, never mind having additional players.

Between Matches

After a game a Coach collects his winnings in cash, sorts out his players’ experience and rolls for advancements if they apply, and then buys extra players, dice or cards if he wants. All of these changes are recorded on a team roster and copied to the league sponsor (as the chap running the league is called). When everyone has returned their rosters the sponsor can work out the new league rankings.

MVPs

Another thing that happens between matches is that the services of the MVPs are auctioned off. Yes, auctioned.

Each MVP has a minimum that they will work for, so the bidding starts here. Unless, that is, someone paid more last round, in which case that value is the minimum they will work for now. In this way the cost to hire an MVP for a round goes up and up until people refuse to pay, when it starts to tick down again at the rate of 2mc per game they sit out.

A league sponsor must choose which MVPs are available in his league, and I would strongly advise him to be selective. Less is more in this regard. The relative availability of MVPs has a big impact on the teams, and too many causes them to be cheap and Coaches will start to rely on them at the expense of developing their own players.

One of the clever bits about it being an auction is that it can hoover up any excess of cash in the league. Hiring players is finite as you only have 14 slots on your roster. Buying cards and Coaching Dice is capped too, but you can spend whatever you like on an auction.

And So On…

There’s lots more description and detail in the wrinkles, plus rules for playing against non-league teams, playing one-off games with league teams and suchlike. But this should give you a general impression.

Yesterday I was talking about Ultimate DreadBall and how this was the end of the first cycle. What I mean by that is that DreadBall, Season 2 and Ultimate DreadBall all focus on the official game, run by the DreadBall Governing Body (commonly known as the DGB or “Digby”). But DreadBall has a darker, unsanctioned side. This lacks the glitz and glamour of the stage-managed spectacle in the big arena. In its place it has more grime and sweat, and a lot more blood.

These days, Digby has enough political clout and certainly enough money to be able to influence governments, and for this reason it is actually illegal to hold unsanctioned DreadBall games. Technically even a pick-up game of Street DreadBall is illegal, though in  the case of kids the rules are often waived. The real target of the laws were the underground circuit of games at which vast amounts of cash change hands, both as hiring fees and as bets. The aficionados of this version of the sport want their blood too, and the illegal status of the games makes player casualties murder victims. At least in the eyes of the law. So the players are often masked, or otherwise disguised.

Games are held in hidden locations, organised secretly by shadowy figures who only release the information at the last moment. Digby’s own security forces fight a constant battle of infiltration and skullduggery to prevent these matches, with far less success than they would like. This has led to a huge campaign of media suppression in an effort to deny the existence of DreadBall Xtreme, even if it cannot actually be stopped.

So, we have a different, but related game. Current thinking is that this will be a completely self-contained boxed game. I say current thinking as I am writing this when the DreadBall Kickstarter is still running, and I have no idea how well it will be supported. I’d love to get all the way to writing DreadBall Xtreme, but that depends on the fan support. If there’s a demand, then I’m way ahead of you 😉

How will it play?

Well that’s not entirely nailed down yet. As I’ve mentioned, we’ve been focussing our playtesting on ensuring that the core game was as solid as possible. However, I’ve got some ideas and have tried a few out which looked promising.

Whatever happens it will be fast and furious, just like normal DreadBall. It will also be guaranteed to have more casualties.

The main features of the game as they stand in my head now are:

• No Ref, so no fouls. Do what you like. There is one exception to this to avoid complete anarchy, which is the maximum number of players in the arena at once. Apart from that, I can see a lot more injuries and deaths.
• Less armour. Another likely cause of major casualties is the lighter and more makeshift armour. Digby controls the manufacturing of official armour and there is no real incentive to fabricate major protection when what the crowd wants is blood. Xtreme will be a lot more gladiatorial than official DreadBall, though you should never lose sight of the fact that you still win the game by scoring Strikes.
• Fancy holographic Strike targets is a bit beyond the ad hoc nature of most Xtreme arenas, so the arenas themselves are laid out a bit differently. I am also toying with the idea of every Strike Zone being usable by both teams, but with a different points value for each team at each Zone, if you follow me. For example, in the Zone nearest my end of the pitch I can score for 1 point, but you get 3. This may not work as I envisage, but I’ll give it a go.
• Teams and team building will work very differently. In the secretive and illegal huddle of DreadBall Xtreme, teams are more fleeting and variable than normal. They form around a Backer who can pay for the hire of enough players. This is usually just for a single game. As players get injured or killed (or arrested) they come and go from the line up. In reality, what happens if that a Backer will have a large pool of players that he knows, and he will hire whichever ones he can find or wants for each match on a per match basis. This single match contract is the basis for the difference between official and unofficial teams. Normal DB players sign up for years, and so the teams change only slowly. In the board game, this means that you (the Backer) buy your team from a much wider selection of players and races than normal, and most Backers have a similar set to draw from (though I need to work on this to add more variety – I’m not happy with that yet). Regardless of the details, it’s a very different team set up from normal DB.
• The core moving and action system will remain the familiar one from DreadBall. It’s a violent parody of the same game, so there’s no need to fix what’s not broken. However, I’m toying with the idea of only 3 Team Action Tokens per Rush to reflect the lack of coordination in these temporary teams.
• The card deck will be replaced with a heavily revised version to better suit the different character of Xtreme.
• The league system will be modified to accommodate the different team system. It is possible that league hiring will all be auction based, like current MVP hiring. This might be a bit slow though. We’ll see how it goes.

New Players?

The player types you will see in DreadBall Xtreme are the scrapings of the barrel. They include all manner of cutthroat scum, ex-convicts, disgraced big league players, military deserters, criminal enforcers (not the combat unit), mutant aberrations as well as all manner of alien dregs.

Should be a laugh 😉