The Laughing Ferret's recent tournament experience here and Kasper's post about Blood Bowl resources here, got me fired up to play again. That, coupled with a discussion about a THW game for football on the forums may have pushed me over the edge.
Now I just have to decide if I use the over sized football figures I bought my son, paper figures, 28mm proxies or 1/72 proxies.
You may recall said plastic figures and the Football dice game "Go Long" that we got for Christmas here and here. We haven't gamed with either much, the dice game was too abstract for my son and frankly it didn't capture my interest as much as I thought it would.
Speaking of dice,
 |
| I still haven't found my d10's |
The Science of Dice with Lou Zocch (1 of 2)
The Science of Dice with Lou Zocch (2 of 2)
He actually rolls the dice at around 3:30 of the second video. He makes some very interesting points and what it all points to is are your dice actually misshapen or poorly made so that they effect the out come?
Quote of the day. "Fresh oats cost more than used oats even though the used oats have passed through the horse only once."
(I still seem to be having an issue linking embedded videos into my blog, the old way tells me there is no video. The share feature on youtube want's to make an individual post. I'm not sure what's going on.)
I've always clicked on embed and copyed that code straight into the HTML (you know, using the compose/HTML button) tell me if that doesn't work anymore and I will look into it.
ReplyDeleteBlood Bowl is a great game, a lot of people put it in their top ten best game mechanics ever list.
Thanks WP, I'll try that the next time. I've always used the little add video icon and pasting the exact url of the video just watched doesn't come up with the video anymore.
DeleteHave never played a sports type of game yet, not even a buddy's great air race games he holds all the time here. Maybe someday. Best, Dean
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean, apparently both of us are missing out.
DeleteI met Col. Zocchi at DragonCon this year - he is quite the showman, and not coincidentally, quite the salesman. I walked away with a module I had never heard of thanks to his patter.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere out on the interwebz is the testing done by some unfortunate grad students that does confirm that Game Science dice roll closer to true than Chessex, over some 10,000 rolls.
Still, the videos have convinced me that I want a pile of casino dice for christmas!
Hi John, it begs the question how much would machined dice cost? Just curious.
DeleteHi Andrew, could be. I have many dice with rounded edges etc. I think I gave my brother all my old gem dice.
ReplyDeleteI've never played Bloodbowl myself, though I've heard good things about it. However, I found out that OG Games (UK) had a summer sale that included a fair amount of Dreadball stuff, so now I have some of that to paint. Sigh...
ReplyDeleteAs for dice, I find it hard to believe that any variation really matters for most gamers. After all, many rules deliberately require high rolls in some situations and low in others so as to even things out.
Hi Hugh, you are right about most wargames. The thing that interested me about these videos was the explanation of the mindset of D&D palyers having favorite dice. When I played we used the dice of the kid whose house we were at. Although most of us had our own dice we didn't think to carry them around.
DeleteI agree with Colgar6. Wargamers tend to use multiple dice (singular; die - tell the Colonel)so, given that all the dice are 'corrupted', the results should be equally inaccurate and the overall effect minimised.
ReplyDeleteCourse, there is always the chance that a person could just be a crap gamer, perfect dice or not :O)
Absolutely Gary, but to me the argument that an essentially spherical die could be egg shaped and thus "weighted" to certain faces was something that I had never even considered. Although it makes perfect sense.
DeleteI love Blood Bowl. It is a great game, just the right amount of odd & silly with solid mechanics, and in league play you scratch that 'role playing' itch just a little seeing the team advance, get new skills & players. That said, I actually dislike football. but that should indicate how great a game Blood Bowl is since whatever association it might have with something I don't like does nothing to prevent my enjoyment of it.
ReplyDeletere: dice, even if some dice are low or high rolling, that still means it is luck: tournament organizers randomly give you dice, so whether it is my bad luck to roll low or bad luck to draw low rolling dice, either case it's my bad luck that is at fault ;)
Hi Laughing Ferret, differing levels of luck. Boggles the mind. I always felt that Blood Bowl was really more like Rugby or Australian rules football, but maybe that's because I know nothing about how they are really played, except for the fact that they're really violent and the don't have all the pads and helmets.
DeleteI played Bloodbowl frequently, in the '90s, through my time as a GW retail store manager (I left GW in 2003). I love the game and still own it. My team is an undefeated human team
ReplyDeleteAlso, my humans endured 3 leagues and suffered a few deaths, but I did retire a couple star players.
DeleteI think my ex room mate bought the game and we got together once and played it after I got my own apartment. So that would be 1990 maybe. I think I rationalized at the time that I was having too much trouble getting players and an army together for Warhammer and so couldn't commit to more outlay for another game. Foolish really.
Delete