Playground Giants for the Cup! (Let's Play Blood Bowl)

[potatocubed]

Ah, Blood Bowl. Ritualised warfare between men and orcs and dwarves and elves and a bunch of other things, with an inflated pig's bladder bouncing around somewhere in the middle. The glory! The violence!

And now I, veteran coach Mad John Potato, am offering YOU a chance to participate in the fortunes of my latest Blood Bowl team. As head coach I shall try my best to steer us to glorious victory and an overflowing trophy cabinet in our first season. I am counting on you, my volunteer players, to do all the hard work and get punched in the face by creatures from all over the Old World.

No! Stop walking away! You'll get paid, too! More gold than you'll ever see in your lifetime provided you live long enough to spend it.

So what do you say? Are you game for a game?

- * -

Clean Cup
Game 1 vs. Humans
Game 2 vs. Wood Elves
Game 3 vs. Lizardmen
Playoffs vs. Lizardmen (again!)
Final vs. Humans

Aerial Cup
Game 1 vs. Wood Elves

- * -

I find the Blood Bowl PC game kinda easy even on the hardest difficulty setting, so I thought I'd try something different. This LP will cover the trials and tribulations of the first season of a team made up entirely of bog-standard human linemen - at least to start with. We'll see how they develop as the LP progresses.

So sign up! Have a player named after yourself and choose what sort of direction you want him to go (general role, skills you want to pick up, that sort of thing). I'll stick as closely as possible to your instructions in-game and post the results here. I'm also accepting applicants for one (1) apothecary, and any number of cheerleaders, assistant coaches, and general hangers-on.

Oh, also:

• What should the team be called?
• What should its motto be?
• What colour armour should we have?

[Narazil]

Totally signing up, fast runner / dodger / catcher. Agility, and loads of it.

I vote for the simplest of team-names: The Giants!

Motto.. Erh.. Get Rich or die trying?

And red armour. Then the opponents can't see us bleed. Clever eh?

[chiasaur11]

I would like to play, but I can't. Promised my mum I wouldn't.

Can't break a promise to your mum.

[Joran]

My character:

The Honorable Spencer "Knuckles" Montagu, the 28th Earl of Sandwich.

Just give him all the talents to injure players. I think dirty player first and from there you can pick whatever you want, depending on rolls. Have him foul constantly.

I'm no good at names; my friend has the two best names:

Oh Noes: Dinos! (Lizardmen)
The WAAAGHinston Greenskins (Orks)

The best I could come up for a bunch of boring humans is: The Mundanes

[Jibar]

I would like to sign up as completely useless character who sucks at everything.

As for names...

Team Asskicking in the Playground!

[Johnny Blade]

Oh yeah, sign me up.

(In case I don't get any stat increases, I'd like to be a simple line grunt. Block, Guard if you get a lucky doubles roll.)

I would like to play, but I can't. Promised my mum I wouldn't.

Can't break a promise to your mum.

So, head cheerleader?

[Narazil]

Looked up some Blood Bowl rules:


Narazil "El Fuerte" Johnson The Third.
Right Stuff
Side Step
Dodge
Sprint
Catch

A small, fastmoving man with a mask, Narazil mocks his opponents as he dashes past them, jumping up, pivoting mid-air and catching the ball.

Picture (spoilered for size)

Spoiler

Show

Shamelessly stolen from Street Fighter IV, obviously.

[Johnny Blade]

Well, you can't get right stuff unless you start with it.

(Oh, and you'd need to roll doubles all the time...when you can really only expect one before you die. )

[potatocubed]

Ach, I'd forgotten that human linemen only get the most boring selection of skills. Perhaps I can find a cheat that'll let me get around that for one campaign. Watch this space.

EDIT: Well, that was quick. Found a neat hack for it. To prevent rampant abuse, I'm going to select one category (strength, agility, passing) for each player that counts as 'normal' based on the concept you have and add that to the standard skill list. To get anything else, you'll need doubles as normal.

No mutations though, because adding mutations to characters without the right animations causes the game to roll over and die.

[Anonomuss]

I'd say "The Giants of the Playground"
For the team name.

Motto: "Some come to play, others come to slay and we come to stay!"

I'd like to be a lineman who develops to be a throwing piece.

Skill Group: Passing

Skills:
Pass
Kick
Accurate
Nerves of Steel
Sure Hands
Kickoff Return

Colour: Maybe Orange or Green

[Johnny Blade]

I'd like Strength access, then.

And I also suggest orange as the team's color.

[Vitruviansquid]

Team name: Ostland Reiters

Motto: "We play Blood Bowl and get in fights"

Color: Black

I would like to be represented by Heinrich "NOT IN THE FACE" Carmine. Give me skills that keep me from dying.

[Istari]

I'm in
Someone who is agile and takes shorter passes or as best as you can model that.
As for the other stuff.
I got nothing

[Domochevsky]

So how will this work? Is this video based? Screenshots? Are there any links in need of clicking to understand what's going on?

[Johnny Blade]

Are there any links in need of clicking to understand what's going on?

The rules, probably.

(I assume the tabletop rules will be used, necessary skill cheating aside.)

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Sign me up. I think the motto should be "Not in the face!"

[Wraith]

Ooh, I'm definitely up for this one - I love Blood Bowl

"Sir" Alexander Leccancia; down-on-his-luck Knight Errant of Bretonnia, forced to turn to Blood Bowl after his Squire went lame and his horse was press-ganged as a 'mate onto an Empirial 'Trading vessel'.

A Blitzer who will absolutely not resort to cheating and foul play - lest the Lady of the Lake show him disfavour - and absolutely will pummel anyone he sees resort to such dirty tricks against his Team mates (That is, pick up Mighty Blow, Guard and Stand Firm ASAP and never take 'dirty'skills like Pile On or Dirty Player )

"The Giants of the Playground" (or some combination thereof - the Playground Giants, perhaps?) sounds like a great name, and "OH GODS NOT THE FACE" sound like a great motto. As for colours... Brown and Gold, like the standard Forum background?

[xp194]

I'm up for it!

Finn 'Xeper' Dandrich (Xeper pronounced Ecks-per by the way)

Thin, lanky, and a tendancy to run away when a couple of 7ft tall-and-wide quarterbacks head in his general direction :-p

[chiasaur11]

Oh yeah, sign me up.

(In case I don't get any stat increases, I'd like to be a simple line grunt. Block, Guard if you get a lucky doubles roll.)


So, head cheerleader?

How about coach's assistant instead?

[potatocubed]

So how will this work? Is this video based? Screenshots? Are there any links in need of clicking to understand what's going on?

I'll be taking screenshots of the highlights and going over the games as they're played. It'll be a mix of IC commentary and game mechanical explanations as appropriate, with as much wit as I can wring from my tortured artist's soul. I also plan on uploading the replays somewhere so that people with the game can watch the action on their own personal PC. In one season there will be about 30 or so games, so I might compress it if some games are particularly dull. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, 9 of 16 players are now taken, and chiasaur is now the official head assistant coach (if he wants to be). I'm leaning towards a sort of beige (or failing that, orange) as a team colour and 'OH GODS NOT THE FACE!' as a motto. For a name, I like 'The Playground Giants'. I'll keep the suggestions open for a while longer to see if anything better comes up, then get rolling.

[DemonicAngel]

I wanna play too. make me a Receiver, if you may. agile but fragile as hell (just like in real life... or not :) )

Anegram "long-legs" Fribin: thin, tall, and runs like a bat out of hall because he knows he won't get up if the heavier players catch up with him.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Balthazar von Zeppenbaum. An empoverished noble desperate enough to seek fortune in Blood Bowl. He then discovered that he liked bashing peoples faces in with spiked knuckles. Despite a nigh-psychopathic attitude on the field he tries to stay classy and elegant.

I don't know how the crunchy part of Blood Bowl works, just make him into a solid bruiser type.

I'm all for the suggested name and motto.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

"John" Fullbladder, AKA "Alan" Fullbladder, AKA "Maccadamia" Fullbladder, a humble guy who tends to forget his own story in the telling.

I don't know how to play and this rule book that was linked to is just confusing me more, so I'll just say make Mr Fullbladder the Strongman of this clownish troupe. Make him a Blocker.

[chiasaur11]

Would like the assistant coach job.

Could he be named Trev Likely?

(Read Unseen Academicals recently.)

[Lord of Rapture]

Dominic L. Rapture, reporting for duty!

No, I am not a mole for the glorious powers of Chaos, who will render this world asunder and claim all of creation as its rightful prize, why do you ask?

[DranWork]

Putis Bile-tongue
A fat hugely overweight slow man that will sit there on the frount lines and not budge (if there are skills for that kind of thing) also reknown for his dirty play and foul mouth

Team name: WAAAAAARHHH are we?

Colour: green.

[Johnny Blade]

Hmm...you know, I guess this will go above 16 applications for players soon.


So, guess I'll be the head cheerleader instead.

[Brother Oni]

Won't we need reserves for the inevitable casualties that'll occur during the season, or is that just how I used to play Blood Bowl?

Signing up as Onimaru, a Cathayan freebooter who wears a mask at all times, much like a luchador.
Ideally go for a blitzer role, with special emphasis on putting the boot in on the softer squisher members of the opposition.

[potatocubed]

Exactly 16 applications and 16 places on a full BB team. Coincidence? I think not.

Also, the first match is done! Results coming soon.

[Anonomuss]

Posting a background for my thrower guy (figured I might as well, since everyone's doing it )

Anonomuss started playing Blood Bowl on a bet, after his brother told him he'd never be strong enough to do so, and last more than one season. He barely made it through the team tryouts, and began to get worried when the coach didn't even ask his name, and handed out a "Standard Form-Pay the holder of this form 50,000 crowns upon survival of the season". In his first game he found himself catching the ball, and had no idea what to do with it. With the enemy team thundering towards him, he did the only thing he could think of, he threw the ball straight at them. And missed.

The ball flew over their heads, and by some miracle, another lineman was there to catch it. After the thrower got mashed into the ground by a disgruntled Ogre, he became the team's faux-thrower. In fact, he's been called the same thing the last thrower of the team was called. And the previous one, and the one before.