Hey folks! Totally serious for-real here. I need to design Blood Bowl for D&D.
My players recently lost a battle against a group of pirates. The pirates took them back to their Pirate Conclave at the Sunken Isles. At these Sunken Isles I figured that the pirates had built a coliseum-type battle ring where they could pit prisoners and over-eager pirates against monsters and beasts and each other. I did some thesaurus lookups so it wouldn't be called a Coliseum, but something cooler. So I saw a cool name; the Gridiron. I then have fun telling my players this, and one of them says "Football?". I'm like, "what?". "Football. A Gridiron's the name of a football field," "Really? Oh. Okay." So we continue with their mission, and they're given a choice to either go and aid the pirates in pushing out some Merfolk that live too close for their comfort, or to fight in the Gridiron. The players were enthusiastically saying "Yeah! The Blood Bowl!" Thankfully, the players themselves opted to go on the Merfolk side-quest.
However, one of the players was sick that day. I said that the other player, plus the rest of their crew, plus the important NPC that knows stuff, are going to still be thrown into the Blood Bowl. So, when the other players get back from their side-quest (where they protected the Merfolk instead of attacking them, and so it'll be suspicious that they're coming back on their own), they'll find their Gnome Wizard (lvl 10), 3 Crew Members (stats are the as Bandit Lords - they used to be pirates themselves!), and Grimble the Archeologist Gnome (NPC with important info) in the Blood Bowl.
My players and myself only have off-hand knowledge of Blood Bowl; we know it's violent football where players can die, but we've never played the game. As such, I have a lot of leniency in designing this, but I would like it to be a single, interesting match! Any ideas?
Too bad you've got a football-like game to try and model. Penny arcade's C-Team game did a wonderful job of modeling a side-game of Mario Cart for D&D called "Wizard Cart."
With some trappings changes, like replacing the carts with various monstrous animals to ride like displacer beasts and owlbears, and the power-up boxes replaces with overhead chains that dangle helpful objects like small explosives or whatever, you'd really have yourself something of an event. Tomb of Annihilation's Dino Racing rules might be helpful here as well. D&D just does better at racing games than team sports....
Football's a bit harder to model. For that, I'd maybe try to take inspiration from that one Mayan Stick-ball-like encounter in the Shrine of Tamoachan adventure in the Tales from the Yawning Portal book and maybe also fill the field with traps and areas that allow for special actions. The goal should be to not have this encounter devolve into a straight up fight between one side or another. Make getting the ball from one end of the field to the other the main prize and maybe make some items for the party to use that allow for special actions along the way instead of their normal gear. Stuff that pushes or trips so that the party can move enemies into dangerous traps, or gear that allows players to do cool maneuvers around enemies and obstacles . Of course, give that gear to the enemies as well.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I don't have access to those resources, but I like the idea of traps on the field. Here's my current thinking for "rules".
160' x 360' field. Players must get the Blood Ball into the other team's endzone to score a point. If a creature takes damage, they make a Reflex Save with a DC = to the damage taken or else fumble the ball, which then bounces to a new square (need to figure this system out) and can be picked up by another creature. The creature with the ball can't move backwards. If they do, on a roll of 6 or better the Ref's call a penalty (don't know what this penalty is yet). If a creature dies, the play is reset while a new creature takes that player's place, so long as there are team-mates still waiting to play. If no one's left, the play still resets, but no new creatures come on the field. The teams start with 5 players per side (so the heroes' team is already working with no team-mates in the wings until their friends get back from the side quest!). First team to 3 points wins!
I'll add some traps to the field for sure; that's a great idea. The bad guys will also try to cheat a bit I'm thinking.
Well doing a cursory Google search yielded a surprisingly large number of Reddit posts and other bits from people who have done Blood Bowl conversions for just about every version of D&D except 5th Ed. Maybe you can find some guidance in those?
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Well, this took MUCH longer than a week to end up having our game, but I got some rules that made it worth the wait! Here's what I came up with:
Rules:
- A dragon egg (aka, the "egg" or "ball") starts in the middle of a field.
- A field should be at least 100' x 200'.
- The final 10' of each short end of the field is the goal line.
- A team is made out of at least 3 players.
- A player on the field must have one of the following positions:
Goalie (maximum 1): This player must remain at least partially behind a goal line at all times. A goalie may pass the egg to other players.
Defenceman (minimum 1): This player must remain at least partially within their team's half of the field at all times. A Defenceman may pass the egg to other players.
Captain (minimum 1): This player may pass the egg to other players. A Captain may signal a judge that a misplay has occurred if the judge did not spot it. A Captain may also call for a single "time out" during the game once the "stop play" whistle has been blown.
Forward: This player may not pass the egg to other players.
- If a team has fewer than 3 players, that team forfeits.
- A team may not have more than 5 players on the field at any time.
- A team may not have more than 8 players.
- A team may replace slain players with new living players.
- If a player leaves the field, no players from that team may return to the field until the "stop play" whistle is blown.
- While the stop play whistle is blown, players from a team may leave the field and be replaced with new players.
- A player entering the field must call out to a referee their position. That referee will then give a "thumbs up" to indicate that the player is allowed to play, or "thumbs down" to indicate that the player must leave the field.
- If a player slays anyone during a game, or causes two or more misplays, that player is banished from the game.
- The game takes place over four or five rounds of play.
- After a coin flip, the Captain of each team chooses which goal line they want to start behind.
- All players must begin the round at least partially behind their goal line.
- A referee will blow the whistle to indicate the start of play. Players may now move freely, with restrictions as per each player's position.
- If a player is slain during play, or if a misplay occurs, the judge will blow the whistle again. This will indicate to the players to "stop play". Points can no longer be scored until play resumes by the referee blowing the whistle again. Players return to being at least partially behind their goal lines, and the egg is placed again in the middle of the field. The egg is then moved five feet further from a team that caused a misplay, and five feet closer to a team that had a player slain. These effects are cumulative.
- If a Captain calls a "time out", then play is paused for five minutes.
- If the egg is behind a team's goal line, and that egg is touched by a player from that team, that team scores a point.
- Once a point is scored, the referee will blow the whistle to indicate to players to "stop play". Point cannot be scored now until a new round begins. The two teams swap goal lines, the egg is returned to the centre of the field, and a new round begins.
- If a team scores 3 times, that team wins.
- A misplay occurs when a player from a team performs an action that violates these rules (for example, a goalie is no longer at least partially behind a goal line). The following are also considered misplays:
A player ignores a referee's "stop play" whistle.
A player attacks a referee or someone that is not a player.
A player moves higher than fifteen feet above the field.
A player performs an action "unbecoming of the game". This is left to the referee's discretion. (An action that is unbecoming of the game, for example, would be using a Wish spell to change the rules of the game.)
Additional:
It's a good idea to have some "trap zones" or natural hazards that impede a player from being able to traverse the field, however, these are usually only incorporated by the most bloodthirsty crowds. ;-)
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Hey folks! Totally serious for-real here. I need to design Blood Bowl for D&D.
My players recently lost a battle against a group of pirates. The pirates took them back to their Pirate Conclave at the Sunken Isles. At these Sunken Isles I figured that the pirates had built a coliseum-type battle ring where they could pit prisoners and over-eager pirates against monsters and beasts and each other. I did some thesaurus lookups so it wouldn't be called a Coliseum, but something cooler. So I saw a cool name; the Gridiron. I then have fun telling my players this, and one of them says "Football?". I'm like, "what?". "Football. A Gridiron's the name of a football field," "Really? Oh. Okay." So we continue with their mission, and they're given a choice to either go and aid the pirates in pushing out some Merfolk that live too close for their comfort, or to fight in the Gridiron. The players were enthusiastically saying "Yeah! The Blood Bowl!" Thankfully, the players themselves opted to go on the Merfolk side-quest.
However, one of the players was sick that day. I said that the other player, plus the rest of their crew, plus the important NPC that knows stuff, are going to still be thrown into the Blood Bowl. So, when the other players get back from their side-quest (where they protected the Merfolk instead of attacking them, and so it'll be suspicious that they're coming back on their own), they'll find their Gnome Wizard (lvl 10), 3 Crew Members (stats are the as Bandit Lords - they used to be pirates themselves!), and Grimble the Archeologist Gnome (NPC with important info) in the Blood Bowl.
My players and myself only have off-hand knowledge of Blood Bowl; we know it's violent football where players can die, but we've never played the game. As such, I have a lot of leniency in designing this, but I would like it to be a single, interesting match! Any ideas?
Too bad you've got a football-like game to try and model. Penny arcade's C-Team game did a wonderful job of modeling a side-game of Mario Cart for D&D called "Wizard Cart."
With some trappings changes, like replacing the carts with various monstrous animals to ride like displacer beasts and owlbears, and the power-up boxes replaces with overhead chains that dangle helpful objects like small explosives or whatever, you'd really have yourself something of an event. Tomb of Annihilation's Dino Racing rules might be helpful here as well. D&D just does better at racing games than team sports....
Football's a bit harder to model. For that, I'd maybe try to take inspiration from that one Mayan Stick-ball-like encounter in the Shrine of Tamoachan adventure in the Tales from the Yawning Portal book and maybe also fill the field with traps and areas that allow for special actions. The goal should be to not have this encounter devolve into a straight up fight between one side or another. Make getting the ball from one end of the field to the other the main prize and maybe make some items for the party to use that allow for special actions along the way instead of their normal gear. Stuff that pushes or trips so that the party can move enemies into dangerous traps, or gear that allows players to do cool maneuvers around enemies and obstacles . Of course, give that gear to the enemies as well.
I don't have access to those resources, but I like the idea of traps on the field. Here's my current thinking for "rules".
160' x 360' field.
Players must get the Blood Ball into the other team's endzone to score a point.
If a creature takes damage, they make a Reflex Save with a DC = to the damage taken or else fumble the ball, which then bounces to a new square (need to figure this system out) and can be picked up by another creature.
The creature with the ball can't move backwards. If they do, on a roll of 6 or better the Ref's call a penalty (don't know what this penalty is yet).
If a creature dies, the play is reset while a new creature takes that player's place, so long as there are team-mates still waiting to play. If no one's left, the play still resets, but no new creatures come on the field.
The teams start with 5 players per side (so the heroes' team is already working with no team-mates in the wings until their friends get back from the side quest!).
First team to 3 points wins!
I'll add some traps to the field for sure; that's a great idea. The bad guys will also try to cheat a bit I'm thinking.
Well doing a cursory Google search yielded a surprisingly large number of Reddit posts and other bits from people who have done Blood Bowl conversions for just about every version of D&D except 5th Ed. Maybe you can find some guidance in those?
Well, this took MUCH longer than a week to end up having our game, but I got some rules that made it worth the wait! Here's what I came up with:
Additional:
It's a good idea to have some "trap zones" or natural hazards that impede a player from being able to traverse the field, however, these are usually only incorporated by the most bloodthirsty crowds. ;-)