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Shepherd |
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Post subject: My PBBL hopes
 Posted: Oct 04, 2005 - 01:02 PM
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Joined: Aug 11, 2005
Posts: 34
Status: Offline
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An e-mail I haven't sent yet to my BB league members... wouldn't mind some feedback from you lot before I ship it off.
Hokay! Hello players new and old.
I'm pretty sold on the Vault, but I understand not everybody is.
Here's the thing: I'd LOVE to have a regularly scheduled Blood Bowl night every week, regular players, teams, championships, etc.
The problem we've been having (as I see it) is that every six months or so, we lose some players and/or gain some players, and then we need to "reboot" the league because the new teams at TR100 are no match for the teams at TR150-160, even with handicaps.
I think (I don't know for sure, having never done it) I could do a MUCH better job as League Commissioner if it were 'guaranteed' (as much as possible) that we wouldn't be resetting six months from now.
I HOPE (but again, I don't know) that the Vault will help with that. The intention behind Vault is to create rules for "perpetual blood bowl," with "inducements" taking the place of handicaps.
Ideally -- and playtesting seems to have borne this out to some extent -- inducements are more flexible, more fun, and more equalizing than handicaps. They do NOT compensate 100% when a less developed team plays a more developed team (if they did that, why bother developing teams?) but they DO, according to the playtesters to date, give the less-developed team much more of a fighting chance than the handicap roll did.
As Bob pointed out in a conversation the other day, there will still be ridiculous matches -- a 100TR High Elf team is doomed against a 180TR smashy Orc team, even with lots of inducements.
The key to Vault and "perpetual" Blood Bowl is (a) inducements make it easier for new teams to "climb the ladder," and (b) spiralling costs make it necessary to keep "trimming" seasoned teams so they don't just go through the roof.
What I'm thinking about, with some suggestions from Bob and looking at other leagues, is the following. It's a lot of writing, but it's a pretty simple concept.
1. We start fresh in November. This will be the last "whole-league reboot."
2. We have a fixed number of weeks to play a fixed number of games: one week and one game per player. If there are seven of us, there will be six weeks. Every player has to play every other player once. How you schedule it is UP TO YOU, but my place will be free one night (or weekend afternoon a week) with space for two boards; I'm not sure if Josh is in a position to host again, but his place was a great meet-point too. If you're worried that your High Elves will have to face the Orcs... try to schedule that match early!
3. After that round-robin cycle, we have ANOTHER x weeks, x=players-1 (six weeks for seven players, in this example) of open challenges. You DON'T have to play every other team, but you can't play the same team twice. You can ONLY CHALLENGE UP AND CHALLENGE DOWN BY A FIXED DIFFERENCE. So 180 TR teams can't just arbitrarily pound on 120 TR teams.
4. Then we have championships! Playoffs according to league standings to date. That'll take four weeks, according to my math.
5. November + 6 weeks + 6 weeks + 4 weeks - Christmas ... we should be finished by mid-March.
6. THEN ... it's REFRESHER TIME. We invite new coaches to join the league, and current coaches can EITHER keep their old teams rolling, make FRESH teams, or BOTH.
7. The cycle begins anew! Any coach can run two teams simultaneously in this league, but only two teams. You can reboot a team anywhere in the cycle, but you're committed to finishing all your games for the "first round robin."
So this is what I'm hoping will happen with this... I hope this is articulate.
New teams go through the cycle and become old teams. The old teams keep playing each other as "Old League" while the new teams battle it out in "New League."
By the time New League gets to their championships, they should be capable of duking it out with Old League teams. So New League teams become Old League teams.
I bet that coaches will get kinda tired of their Old League teams after a while, and retire an Old League team every once in a while to start a New League team.
In more concrete terms...
THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS
Adam starts a Chaos team. He plays through the first season, and his Chaos team wins the championship, and he keeps the Chaos team for Old League. Adam can keep playing Old League games with his Chaos team.
THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS
Adam also, after the championships, starts a New League team of Orcs. He plays the Old League season with his Chaos team while playing the New League season with his Orcs. After THAT Old League season, he loses the Old League championships.
THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS
Adam is a little tired of his Chaos team, and his Orc team is finished New League with a good TR and great skills. Adam can either (a) keep both teams in Old League, or (b) keep one team in Old League and start a new team in New League. He's a bit tired of his Chaos team, so he retires them, keeps the Orc team in Old League, and starts a Skaven team in New League.
AT THE END OF ONE YEAR...
Adam has an Orc team in Old League and a Skaven team in New League, and memories of glory from his Chaos team.
IN SUMMARY...
What I'm hoping is that with this system, we can both keep going AND invite new players into the league consistently. Blood Bowl becomes a four-month commitment that you can step away from, and then get back into.
Coaches who have time for two games a week can play two games a week; coaches who only have time for one game can choose which league, old or new, they want to play in.
The Old League will see a consistent influx of "new league" graduates as time goes by.
The New League will let us keep recruiting friends and new players without having to re-start our old teams. And we can always retire an Old League team and "jump down" to New League every once in a while.
I'll stop now -- but I hope you can all see why I'm so enthusiastic!
- Matt |
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Paul |
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Post subject:
Posted: Oct 04, 2005 - 01:17 PM
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Joined: Feb 18, 2005
Canada
Posts: 424
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
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Its a good idea to have an old league/new league stuff. It really sucks to develop a team over a season and then just scrap it.
You also might want to look at implementing some rules like The Crush. We use them in the TBBF and they help a bunch in keeping the big teams form spirling out of control. http://www.tbbf.org/articles/TheCrush.pdf theres a link to the article from our leagues site.
Good luck with the season. |
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Khaine |
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Post subject:
Posted: Oct 04, 2005 - 01:56 PM
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Joined: Sep 06, 2003
Posts: 193
Status: Offline
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| What I was going to implement was the same way baseball is done in the US. A "Minor" League and a "Major" league. Any new teams beat eachother senseless in the "Minors" and once they reach 150 or the ed of the season they get bumped to the majors. It is also an excellent way to allow newer players to play against eachother and the seasoned veterans that are in the Major league but still want to play a minor league team. Using a tr graduation point also ensures that if a team lags has major injuries what have you they will be able to stay in the minor league and rebuild or have the option to advance to the majors and take their chances. Just my 2 cents although your system is well thought out and will work well. This also allows for the "MONSTER" teams to beat on each other and allows the coaches to still be a force and have lots of fun. |
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Touch my Mini's and Pull Back A Stump!!!!!
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