Last Post Of 2024

Going to be pretty busy today (mostly cooking and cleaning) as we somehow managed to invite 10 people over for New Year's Eve dinner. 

*sigh*  So much for my relaxing holiday.

Ah, well, I'm sure it'll be fun. Plus, I'm not driving anywhere so I don't have to ration my fuel intake (i.e. alcohol consumption). The wife is doing "dry January" this year, and I'll probably join her...want to lay off the liquid calories for a while, not to mention rest the liver.

ANYway, I'm going to keep this one short.

Item #1: if you plan on submitting something for Ben Gibson's Adventure Site contest, this is your last day to do so. Or contact, Ben...I don't know, maybe he'll be lenient with late entries depending on your time zone. I'm going to be one of the judge/reviewers and I look forward to reading everyone's entries. Good luck!

Item #2: our revised Blood Bowl rules have worked great. I lost my first game against the wood elves 6-0 (we have not yet instituted extra points), but it would have been a lot closer if the blizzard conditions hadn't stifled any field goal attempts from my orks. I am now playing the Amazons and am leading 6-0 in the first quarter...although the ladies are driving. 

A couple/few notes:

• The 2E NAF rules calls for four, eight turn quarters (each turn being a "down" of football). This is too many (i.e. the game would take far too long), and so we've cut this time in twain (so that each half is eight turns long). Worries that this would make the game feel less like "real football" proved to be unfounded, especially given A) that the 2-minute rule is in effect the last two turns of each half, and B) a turnover (i.e. a fumble recovery or interception) does not run time off the turn clock. The game still feels like gridiron football (with pressure to score within four downs), and yet it's still Blood Bowl...by the end of the game, both sides were down to ten men on the field (due to horrific bloodletting).
• When it came to roster building we ignored all the price values and just said: everyone has a full team of 16 plus two team re-rolls (that's two re-rolls per half). We also said we weren't going to worry about star players or SPPs...just play with the skills on your roster (5E with regard to orks and wood elves, 4E with regard to dark elves and amazons). Turns out the teams are still pretty well-balanced! Diego needed (and got!) some pretty good rolls to injure as many orks as he did, or I would have really ground him down in the attrition battle. Except for those damn war dancers...those guys are dead-hard to bring down (knocked out his treeman, though).
• We've added the gridiron football rules regarding the line of scrimmage. For those who don't know, this boils down to three basic additions:

1. There must be at least seven players on the line of scrimmage
2. Only the players on either end of the line are "eligible receivers" (in addition to players in the backfield).
3. Only eligible receivers may advance beyond the line of scrimmage on a passing play.

In practice, this has meant that the five interior offensive linemen (the center, two guards, and two tackles) can throw a block to start the down but cannot "follow-up" if the opponent is pushed/knocked over. After the ball is passed (beyond the line of scrimmage), these players are allowed to advance.

2nd Down at the 50 yard line. The orks are
set up in a 4-3 with a safety in the box.

Anyway, it's worked great and we're already considering ways we can spice it up, including calling 'audibles' or pre-snap adjustments, and implementing time outs and play clocks (i.e. time limits on setting your team). So far, though, it's working great. I'll post some photos when I have a chance.

Item #3: I am looking forward to the New Year, but there's going to be quite a bit going on in January/February including getting Diego's high school nailed down, selling my mother's house (which I've decided to do), and coaching volleyball for the kids.  I suspect posting will be rather light, other than ASCII reviews and my (planned) 2024 retrospective. I am working on some D&D stuff (mostly adventures), but I don't want to post about that until after I've had a chance to do some play-testing. My dive/analysis of the Unearthed Arcana is all-but-over, and I'm quite happy with where I ended up on that one. 

All right, that's it for today. Happy New Year everyone!

: )

A closer look at the Amazon team; painted
in the Bills color scheme (very patriotic).