Looks official gentlemen, new toys

[Konrad]

https://yaktribe.org/community/threads/ ... post-75791

This just caught my eye. No word on the source. Should make some folks happy. I can't explain why I never got into BB. It's got simple, slick rules, tons of conversion potential and has all that tongue in cheek silliness I love about old GW.

[YellowStreak]

https://yaktribe.org/community/threads/ ... post-75791

This just caught my eye. No word on the source. Should make some folks happy. I can't explain why I never got into BB. It's got simple, slick rules, tons of conversion potential and has all that tongue in cheek silliness I love about old GW.

Me likey! Blood Bowl is still my favourite GW game for all of those reasons. Fairly fast to play, easy to learn/hard to master, no balanced and doesn't care, full of silliness from the basic premise of 'fantasy football' to players with chainsaws or riding pogo sticks, low model count.
Be happy to play a game or two with you if you're interested.

[me_in_japan]

I...dunno how I feel about this. While I definitely count myself as a fan of BB, I can't help but worry that GW (or FW, as it seems to be) getting involved again will only be bad for the game. We already have a good ruleset, and buckets upon buckets of miniature options, so what can GW bring to the table? Best case, they re-work the rules and make them even better, and attract new players to the game. That, I suppose, is good for the game as a whole, but does nothing for us personally, as we all already know the game and like it, and (by and large) have teams already. If GW change the rules, then we're up against the ol' "do we change to the new rules or stick with the old familiar ones?" conundrum. If we do change, do we pay the evil empire for the new rulebook, which will doubtless come in a big box of minis that none of us need? Again, good for bringing in new players, but that's not who we are. If we don't change, then we have the problem of splits in the BB community, with some playing old-style and some playing new.

*shrug* I realise that I'm (we're) not the target demographic, and from a business perspective I have no problem with GW doing this. But, seen from a purely selfish "what's in it for me?" perspective, I can't see any benefits, personally (or for us as a group.)

/negativity

[Primarch]

Not everyone has teams or a board to play on (I don't). Plus, the old plastics for all of the specialist games were looking pretty dated. Some cool new minis in dynamic poses could make a new version worth it. Look at the recent minis in the Dark Vengence set and compare them to the plastic marines from back when BB was released. So, maybe there is nothing in it for M_i_J directly, but for others, maybe there is. If it takes off, then that means more opponents for M_i_J in the future.

The rules do present a conundrum. Of all of GWs games, BB seemed to have the most water tight set of rules. It wasn't balanced (some teams were great for pick up games, others only started to shine once they had several games under their belt and even then needed to be lucky with injuries), but overall it was a fun set of rules. If GW change them entirely, I'd suggest sticking with the old set, regardless of what is in the box. If they simply update them, then maybe all the old school players should give them a try before passing judgement. I'd like to see the other specialist games, Necromunda and Mordheim get big rules changes before anything was touched with Blood Bowl.

Anyway, at the moment all we have is a couple of prototypes to look at and a new boxed set somewhere in the next however many months.


....it'll probably cost a fortune though.

[me_in_japan]

Fair points, all of them. I spose I'm just a bit nervous about what'll happen to a game I feel quite attached to. If it ain't broke, and all that...

I do, however, look forward to what they do with the rest of the specialist games range. A new necromunda box set with some of those uber-useful bulkheads and rules that actually work would be very welcome. Also, mordheim with actual useable beastmen gangs...ah, a guy can dream...

[Spevna]

New minis would be nice, but there are quite a few companies doing alternative stuff now.
A new board would be cool.
New rules would be pointless as it already has great rules.

As for Necromunda and Mordheim, there are already rules/minis/terrain that fill that niche (for me at least).

I revitalized Specialiast Games may have excited me a few years ago, but not now.

[The Other Dave]

I'd be surprised if they do much of anything to the rules - I'd bet on something like we got with Space Hulk, a shiny repackaging of the same game - especially since, as Prim notes, like SH, it's one of the more solid rulesets they've ever developed.

[Konrad]

Maybe there will be some rules like if you get your opponent to sing your team fight song with you, you get a free re-roll or something ala AOS.

I think Spev summed it up for me. New figures are always cool. Though I doubt GW would make anything in my price range. My latest gaming purchase was a Daiso toy truck with oh, so much Gormakmora potential. Well, that and a desktop magnifying glass. Lots of other folks have filled the niche Specialist had and the geek-community has done as good a job as GW ever did supporting the game rules.

[Primarch]

Careful with those toy trucks Konrad. It was GorkaMorka which helped get Specialist Games shut down last time around.
http://unpluggedgames.co.uk/features/bl ... eneration/
It's an interview with Rick Priestley which sheds a bit more light on GW's history. Specialist games are covered about 3/4 of the way down, but the article is worth a read anyway.

[Lovejoy]

I have er, never actually played Bloodbowl. I don't know why, I suppose the concept didn't set me alight, although everyone says how good the ruleset is. I'll keep an eye on these developments, but I would be much more excited about Mordheim, Necromunda or especially Warhammer Quest in a nice box with cool tiles, terrain bits or minis. Pleased they are doing BB though, and the word is that they're plastics.

I recently read the article Prim linked to above, and it's well worth a look. Nice that Priestley is so open about the huge influence 2000AD concepts had on 40k (the studio were all rabid fans back in the day). He's even more candid than in the notorious interview he did previously, regarding the bean counters fouling up GW. He basically states that they have no interest in creative game design any more. Well, we did know that, but still, wow.