Okay so I busted my deadline for posting the whole thing in one week. However I am going through with the project!
Part 1 and part 2 of this series introduced the Dungeon Reality Show.
Part 3 was where I started to describe an example of DRS based on Blood Bowl and presented the 1st scene of the Bloodbowl 4e adventure.
Today I’m tackling scene 2, which covers the actual game.
Scene 2 – Play Da Game!
Goals
- PCs must play and survive a game of Bloodbowl
- Explore creative ways to use 4e combat rules
- Try to pull a few fast ones on the Ref!
Place the Bloodbowl game board on the table (or place/draw another appropriate battle map).
The opposing team is composed of:
- 2 Kobold Hurlers (Replace Stealth with Atheltics+5)
- 3 Kobolds Dragonshields (Replace Stealth with Athletics +8)
Feel free to modify the composition of the team to reflect the party’s level and your personal preferences.
The Ball is a Kruthik Hatchling affected with a permanent slow effect. Take note that it deals 2 points of damage whenever a player finishes its turn adjacent to it (or when it’s being carried).
Place a referee on the board (non-combatant, 1 hp, move 6, initiative+5) near the middle line. During play it stays out of the way but remains on the board.
Flip a coin, the loser starts as defense and sets up on the board first. All players of a team must be placed on the same side of the board, behind the middle line. Once the defensive team is deployed, the offense sets up.
Roll initiative for all individual players (including monsters), the ball and the referee.
The goal of the game is to score the most points within one hour of real time playing or scoring 3 more goals than the opposite team. A point is scored when a player crosses the goal line with the ball in hands or catches the ball when standing behind the goal line.
The game is played like a combat encounter with a few variants. Here are the various game-related action that players can do during their turns.
Picking up the ball = Minor Action, Dexterity or Strength attack vs Reflex of the ball (15).
Running with the ball: Move Action. No rolls necessary, ignore the “drag a grabbed creature” rule.
Passing the ball (i.e. landing it in the targeted square): Std Action, Acrobatics/Dex check vs DC equal to distance thrown squares. On a miss, ball lands in a random (1d8) square adjacent to target, roll again if square is occupied.
Kicking the ball: Std Action, Athletics/Str check vs DC equal to distance thrown squares. On a miss, ball lands in a random (1d8) square adjacent to target, roll again if square is occupied.
Catching the ball = Immediate Reaction: Dex attack vs ball’s reflex defense (15), on a miss, ball tumbles in a random (1d8) adjacent square, roll again if square is occupied.
Intercepting an in-flight ball = Same as catching except: must be in path of ball and have immediate action available.
Dropping the ball: Free Action. When a ball drops, it tumbles in a random (1d8) adjacent square, roll again if square is occupied. A carrier automatically drops the ball whenever it is immobilized, Knocked Prone, Stunned and Dazed.
Opportunity Tackle: Whenever a player could make an attack of opportunity, a tackle attack (Str vs Fort, Hit: Target falls prone) can be made instead.
Running Tackle: Like a Bull Rush, except that tackler has the choice of pushing target 1 square or knocking it prone.
The Ball: On its initiative, the ball will attack its carrier. If free, the ball will move (max 2, it is slowed) toward the center of the field.
When a goal is scored, the scoring team gets 1 point, becomes the Defensive team and sets up as described above.
Also, the scoring team chooses one of the following scoring bonuses:
- One player spends a Healing Surge
- One player recovers an Encounter Power
- Star Power! One Player gains a +1 bonus to all d20 rolls until another goal is scored or the game ends
While armour, weapons and implements are allowed on the field, using an attack or a power against an opponent is not allowed during the game…
…unless you can manage to slip one past the ref!
Whenever a player decides to make use any attack powers (including any basic attacks), the Referee spots the attack and calls for a penalty (see below) unless the attack roll is higher than 15 (including all rolls of an Area effect, those are hard to hide). The use of ‘aid another’ is a good way to help a teammate land a good one on an opponent without getting spotted.
The Referee can also be distracted with a Bluff check or any creative use of other skills (DC 15). When distracted, the Ref will ignore fouls until the end of the distractor’s next turn.
If a penalty is called on a player, that player is instantly teleported off the field and appears on the sidelines. The player is allowed to talk to teammates, argue with the ref, spot fouls from the opposing team, etc. However the player can’t return to the field (the chronomancers freeze the player in place if need be) until the end of his next turn. At that point, the player is teleported back on its original square (or an adjacent one if occupied).
Killing the Ref sends the offending player off the field as described above except that the effect is ended by a saving Throw. The referee is instantly replaced. The next ref’s perceptions are sharper so DC to sneak a foul play becomes 17 (each successive Ref have a DC that’s 2 higher than the last one) .
Feel free to invent your own fiendish penalties.
K.O. or killed players are not replaced.
After one hour of play, or when one team takes a 3 point lead, the first half of the game ends. Move on to the next scene.
Designer’s Notes
Initially the Bloodbowl game allowed attacks. While my players spent a lot of time playing the game, it rapidly became evident that it was more efficient to just get rid of players than play around them to score points.
Making attacks forbidden (but with a way to cheat) makes the encounter into something more than just a combat with football elements. It creates a mini-game that’s interesting and showcases how strong 4e can be as a task resolution engine.
If you have any suggestions or comments I would appreciate it. I’m thinking of packaging the whole thing into one big blog post over at Chatty Studios (yeah, it’s still there) and possibly start practicing my PDF-fu by creating one and hosting it.
Up next: The Dreaded Half-Time Show Skill Challenge!
I love this approach to DnD.
Using the mechanics for other types of games is great fun! Also, this approach allows for making the game more accessible to kids without making the game too violent or too mature.
Here’s an example of how my daughter and I used the DnD mechanics to have our characters run a marathon: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/411203
@Toxidyne: I was amazed at how well the experiment worked when I first tried it. Now I’m thinking of making this adventure a Convention event 🙂
I saw your Formula D post over at Boardgame geek. This is a great way of sharing D&D goodness with your daughter. I may just borrow the idea!
Thanks!
Awesome! This is really amazing. When you talked about writing about this, I had no clue what you were getting at, but I totally see where you’re going with this.
Now I completely want to drop my zombie encounter and do this!
@coolcyclone: I’m really happy that you dig it. I’m having a blast writing it and I find it good practice for describing complex encounters. I really like to explore what can be done with the game.
Plus it’s a freaking blast to play!
very cool.
I must play this.
wonderful! i remember playing the original blood bowl, and the confusion we all got when the minotaur player fails his willcheck (or something) and starts to eat other players ^_^
Actually, in a campaign i took part of we had a similar game, with the small difference that you were actually allowed to hit the player with the ball. The field was built up with bridges over waterfilled ditches(?) and stones where you could hide… kinda great when you pass the ball to an opponent just to get the chance to knock’im one over the noggin’ ^_^
Hi there welcome to the blog dar and Burt.
Thanks for the kudos!
@Burt: Having a game where the ball can be used as a potential weapon is also a great idea, at least for high Dexterity characters. I reader of mine spoke about using similar rules to re-create the Speedball 2 computer game of the early 90s where killing your opponents with the ball was as much fun as scoring points!
Oh yeah! Speedball 2, was one hell of a fun computer game in its time! 😉
Created by the Bimap Borthers. I liked that name, I find it catchy.
I love this idea. It would make for a great one-shot adventure.
Some thought. First, I would stat the Chronomancer and the Referee with skills (Insight, Perception) and use them to determine whether they see things.
For the Chronomancer, you seem to be treating him as omnipotent and omniscent. I would suggest you treat him as a powerful but mortal force in the game. Rather than assuming he automatically moves people in and out of penalty, I would instead treat this as powers. When a penalty is called, he uses his You’re In Timeout power (standard action; when a penalty is called on a creature ; +XX vs. Will; the creature is teleported to the sidelines). If a PC tries to leave the penatly early, he uses his I Said Sit Down Now! power (immediate reaction; the creature leaves the penalty box early; +XX vs. Will; the creature is teleported back to the sidelines and is dazed (save ends)). Of course, PCs can try to sneak back onto the field – Stealth vs. the Chronomancers passive perception.
I would also create a base set of stats for the Referee. Then for each referee, give them a quirk, much like familiars in PHB2. Referee Talbot loves the shiny new Product Placement items (effect: -4 penalty to all checks to spot a rules violation involving product placement items). Referee Jailal thinks summoning help violates the spirit of the rules (immediate reaction; a creature uses a power with a Conjuration or Summoning keyword; the creature rolls a Charisma vs. the Referees Will; on a miss, the Referee calls for a penalty on the PC).
Are their any adjustments when attacking with a Product Placement magic item work? It seems to me that the people running the game would want their item to be used. So if a the product placement is say a +2 vicious weapon maybe they get the following power
Keep the Sponsors Happy
Minor Action, Encounter
Effect: The Referee automatically fails to spot the PCs next attack with a Product Placement weapon or implement.
Special: In order to use this power, the PC must plug the product being used as part of the minor action.
Some thought might need to provided for conjured creatures. If a PC conjures a creature (a fire elemenal, for example) and the conjured creature attacks an opponent, who gets put into the penalty box? Summoning a creature like this is a Utility power and wouldn’t necessarily trigger a penalty automatically. This line of thinking needs to be applied to PC “pets” as well – familiars, animal companions, etc.
@BradG: The intent behind the concept is to make it into a one shot adventure. As usual your suggestions are excellent and would definitively help spruce up the weaker parts of the scenario. I particularly like how you propose to weave sponsored weapons in the Bloodbowl game by having the ref look the other way when product placement is done.
In fact, instead of an Action Point, I’d probably say that you can use the sponsored item once without getting a penalty.
@ChattyDM :
Maybe a penalty if you use sponsored equipment and fail…
After all, the Bloodbowl nearly lost the Feroze sponsorship after that fiasco with Wallice.
Thankfully, I heard he made it up to them and is now actually the official spokesperson of Feroze and could even star in commercials for their new like of Tuning Blades.
I hear there’s nothing like shredding using one of Feroze’s “stay sharp” line of tuning blade.
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I think the “roll again if square is occupied” bits are a missed opportunity. If the square is occupied, give the guy in the square a free shot at catching the ball (picking up the fumble). This even gives the potential for a missed pass to be flubbed by an adjacent opponent, who drops it on the square of the guy it was intended for in the first place, who picks it up and runs with it. Sudden turnabout = Excitement! 🙂
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