Dreadball 2 playtesting begins...

[Darkson (Simon)]

Dreadball 2 playtesting begins...

Posted by Mantic Games (Creator)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Galaxy’s Greatest Sport enters a bold new era today with the release of the Provisional Code Amendments for DreadBall. These amendments are available now for feedback from all registered Head Coaches with Level 5 or higher licensing.

The DreadBall Governing Body has spent months fine-tuning the rules and regulations leading up to the new season of the most profitable and exciting sport ever created. In accordance with DGBY bylaw 3952.50, pursuant to GCPS-mandated transparency reporting requirements, the proposed regulations are now open to closed-comment by all qualifying Head Coaches. This provides professional Coaches the ability to have their say in the first phase of consultation for the future direction of DreadBall!

Welcome, sports fans!

The DreadBall Rules Committee is proud to present the first release in the multiple-phase public beta for DreadBall 2.0. We’ve been hard at work tweaking and fine-tuning things and are very excited to hear what you, the Head Coaches who make the Galaxy’s Greatest Sport what it is, have to say about our proposed changes.

In this first release we are going to ask you to please focus on the changes to the core rules. As there are a large number of different teams in the game, we’re going to stagger their release into the wild, so that we can ensure we get focused feedback on their performance. Please feel free to use proxy miniatures to try out a team if you don’t have the models for the teams in the playtest packet; the more games we can get in the better! The rule packet and a printable survey file can be found here. Use the printable surveys so you don’t forget any details before you have a chance to fill out the survey form online!

Here’s the highlights for the changes in this release:

New Stat: Agility

New in this addition is an extra player stat: Agility.

Agility has been introduced to enable us to draw a distinction between manual dexterity and nimbleness (Speed) versus swiftness and balance (Agility). Some teams, such as the Forge Fathers, have historically had issues with being unable to reliably get to their feet after being knocked down; while this makes for hilarious compilation info-sphere vids, it makes for frustrating play experiences.

Speed now covers Dodge, Evade and Steal tests; Agility covers, Stand Up, and Dash tests.

Like Speed and Skill tests, Strikers gain an additional dice on Agility tests.

What we need to know:

Is the extra stat easy to use?
Does this still ‘feel’ like DreadBall?

Rule Change: Keepers

Keepers were intended to be a way for a Coach to defend the Strike Zone, with limited ball handling ability to get the ball away from the home Strike Zones, and extra armour to help them survive the inevitable dog pile.

In practice, however, Keepers were usually employed as nigh-invulnerable Slamming machines, more at home down-field than protecting the home quarter.

Under the new rules for Keepers, a model Throwing a strike counts as being threatened if 1) the Keeper is between them and the Strike Hex, and 2) if the Throwing model is in the Keeper’s front arc. This means Coaches can use Keepers to protect the 3-point Strike Zone without resorting to the ‘castle’ strategy, freeing up more models to put pressure of the opposing team. Additionally, changes to the Punt action mean that a Punt no longer results in the end of a Rush, unless the ball subsequently scatters onto a friendly model that misses their Catch.

What we need to know:

Is the rule, as written, easy to understand and use in play?
Does this encourage Coaches to abandon the ‘Castle’ gambit?

The Teams

For this first release, we wanted the focus to be on the rules changes and new options. As such, we’re only asking players to use the following teams when testing the first beta test packet:

Corporation v1: Trontek 29ers
Marauders: Greenmoon Smackers
Veer-Myn: Skittersneak Stealers
Forge Fathers: Midgard Delvers
Robots: Chromium Chargers
Brokkrs: Rotatek Rockslides

Note: Some of the model abilities (such as Quick Change Artist) and play stats have undergone changes, see the playtest packet for more information.

What we need to know:

How do the teams ‘feel’?
How do the revisions to Quick Change Artist effect how the Robots play?
How does the introduction of Agility affect the Forge Fathers and Brokkrs?

Advanced Rule: Captains

From the ubiquitous and ever-popular Lucky Logan to the frankly incomprehensible John Doe, DreadBall’s history has been graced by athletes of exceptional talent, grace and ego. In DreadBall 2.0, many of these stars have been re-cast as Team Captains.

For example: While Lucky Logan will always be remembered as the first and most accomplished of the Trontek 29er’s Captains, the 29ers have a habit of having the jammiest Jacks in the game lead their teams. Coaches should feel free to use the same game statistics to represent a Captain of their own creation, and build their own legend on the Neodurium.

Each team can recruit a single Team Captain at a time. Depending on the team, a Captain might be a player type that the team might not ordinarily be able to take, or have improved stats or an ability not ordinarily available to that team’s players.

Additionally, while a Team Captain is on the pitch, you will have a +1 modifier to tests for Coaching Plays.

None of the teams start with a captain, but the rules for Captains so that you can try them out on the Pitch. Feel free to use the Captain in place of a player of the same type (Guard, Jack, Striker), or use the League/Exhibition rules from the first edition of DreadBall (updated rules for those will be included in a future playtest packet).

What we need to know:

Do you feel the costs for the Captains represent their value on the pitch?

Advanced Rules: Coaching Plays and Cheerleaders

Each type of Support Staff now has two types of play they can call, broadening their utility. Likewise, the Cheerleader system has more options available for Coaches: A single cheerleader can now be placed next to a space in the opposing team’s Sin Bin, and activates when a model is sent there by a vicious slam or as a penalty for a dastardly foul. Coaches can also activate any number of Cheerleaders to try and generate extra Fan Checks.

What we need to know:

Do the rules for Playbook, Blitz and Physio work well?
Do these extra options increase the viability of Support Staff?
Do the extra options for Cheerleaders increase their effect on the game?

How can I participate?
Play some games, and tell us about them! We’re collecting feedback via this dedicated survey, as well as on the Mantic Forums.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Anyone want to try these rules out?

[Ray]

Yes but I'm a bit busy for the next few weeks already

[Darkson (Simon)]

Up-to-date link for the rules (3.0): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... TREY1EzOUE
I've got one copy printed off (50 pages!).

[Darkson (Simon)]

Played vs Mike last night, Humans vs Elfs.

Apart from the one screw up I made (I misunderstood the Cheat Sheet and thought "Feint" was an action rather than a skill - Mike caught it before I used it a second time) and us both being rusty and having to double-check basic rules, it was a good game that eventually finished 1-0 to Mike (I managed to, in 7 turns, fall over before shooting, score twice and fail 4(!) 3dice 4+ shots! ), and the split of speed into Speed/Agility certainly made a difference - under the old 3+ Speed rule I think the Elfs would have won in 3 or 4 turns, as pretty much every roll I failed had at least one 3.

Obviously need to play-test some more but I think this is a good change to the game.

Most of the feedback we have to pass on is for missing modifiers in the beta rules and/or contradicting info in the book vs cheatsheet.