The DreadBall blog with sugar & spice!
Welcome to our DreadBall blog. We are fans of the futuristic sports game DreadBall and always look forward to our next match! Please look around. Read posts about the hobby, tactics, or events. Come back often, or better yet – follow us!
May all of your sixes explode,
Geoff, Andrew, and Lee
Konrad Castle continues cooking chocolate. And he’s pleased to report the C-4 will return in 2019! Curious Coaches may need a reminder;
C-4 = Cocoa Castle Corporation Cup
If any competitive Coach needs a cause to attend a North American DreadBall Circuit (NADC) contest, the C-4 is the cream of the crop.
…because the trophies are chocolate. Dates to be announced. TEASE!
Meanwhile, Happy Valentines Day.
Home Pitch Advantage: A Different Crowd
As I’ve talked about previously, I love the idea of DreadBall taking place in different venues and on different worlds. These are not only thematically interesting, but can also pose unique tactical wrinkles to the game of DreadBall as well. While far from perfect, the 1st edition supplement Challenge Cup, was on the right track for the sort of experience I’ve been looking for.
One of the elements that could be paired with the Global Rule suggestion from Franchise Mode, is the concept of A Different Crowd. Not only can the venue itself pose different conditions, but the crowd can also potentially impact the game as well. This could add some thematic home field advantage.
The premise is that not every crowd expects the same style of play, or appreciates the same elements of the game as another. For example, the Long Rock Lifers home crowd may be much more interested and excited in seeing players carried off in body bags or getting one over on the Ref than seeing skillful passing plays develop deep down the pitch. However, the fans of the Pelgar Mystics may have the exact opposite sentiment.
For now, let’s assume there are broadly four types of crowds to start. The Typical Crowd, the Brutal Crowd, the Finesse Crowd, and the Demanding Crowd. The Typical Crowd is the same as the standard Fan Check conditions already described in the rules, so there is nothing to examine here. But let’s check out the other three:
The Brutal Crowd
These folks LOVE violence. They can’t get enough of it. Often the result is of little consequence to these fans, as long as someone gets pasted. Instead of the normal Fan Check conditions listed in the DreadBall rules, only the following triggers Fan Checks for a Brutal Crowd:
*Inflicting an Injury
*Committing a particularly successful foul
*Win a Distract test
*Any cards, cheerleaders or special rules that generate fan checks work as normal.
The Finesse Crowd
This type of crowd loves the fancy plays and seeing the high level of skill professional players possess. They actually care about points being scored! Instead of the normal Fan Check conditions listed in the DreadBall rules, only the following triggers Fan Checks for a Finesse Crowd:
*Doubling a Strike
*Catches a 9-hex pass. Once per Rush.
*Any cards, cheerleaders or special rules that generate fan checks work as normal.
The Demanding Crowd
There are some fans that just won’t be pleased with regular, run of the mill play. These folks need to be wowed, and only exemplary effort and skill move them to cheer. Instead of the normal Fan Check conditions listed in the DreadBall rules, only the following triggers Fan Checks for a Demanding Crowd:
*Catching a scattering ball.
*Dashes 3 or more times in the same Action without falling.
*Evades 3 or more times in the same Action without falling.
*Tripling an (X) roll with 3+ successes.
*Any cards or special rules that generate fan checks work as normal, but the Cheerleader Ability Work the Crowd has no effect.
In league play, a team could pick which type of crowd best represents their Home fans and use the modified conditions for Fan Checks when they are the Home team in a match. Or, if the game is more of a Neutral site affair, or you just don’t “know” what type of crowd is going to show up any given match, you could roll for it! Before the match begins, the Home coach rolls a dice and consults the following:
1: a Demanding Crowd
2: a Brutal Crowd
3: a Finesse Crowd
4-6: A Typical Crowd
Of course, there could always be more types of crowds…and maybe some support staff that could modify or interact with that as well, but alas, that’s for another time. Now get out there and get those fans on there feet!
EVENT HORIZON is a wrap, and all Coaches have returned to their locker rooms. Wounds must be mended.
On January 27, 2019 – an elite gathering of DreadBall Coaches descended upon a planet Earth watering hole titled ‘Franklin Hall.’ Adult beverages were consumed. Adult words were spoken. Below is a Tournament Organizer’s account of the day, followed by some stats. Scroll past images for their hilarious captions.
Prior to the loaded transport’s departure, it was time to announce my team of the day. An Xtreme team was constructed and aptly renamed, the Pojo Pussies.
Coaches arrived as soon as Franklin Hall unlocked their doors. Tabs were opened. Rosters, Home/Visitor cards, and Tournament Score Sheets were distributed. Balls were launched before high noon.
Four rounds of mayhem ensued. Mayhem is stressed, because all games were conducted with the Event Deck. Elmer and Dobbs know how to create crazy! Blinding lights, streaking fans, and countless brawls threw the most seasoned Coach into a tailspin. Random photos from various matches are posted below.
One of the most startling events witnessed was through a Matsudan Team Captain card.
And at the end of the day, there was one Hero. North American DreadBall Circuit tournaments are equitable with sharing superlatives. Because Event Horizon was non-sanctioned, the lion’s share went to Kevin Cornell’s Marauder team – THE NUT PUNCHERS!
And… There was one zero. The BreadDoll‘s very own Miniature Master and Hobby Highlighter got the titular prize for last place.
By the numbers
Coach Name / Team Name (team type) / Tournament Points / Fan Check “Cheers” / Serous Injuries = record
EVENT HORIZON, Franklin Hall, and a BreadDoll. Good times! If planet Earth is still intact, it’ll happen again in 1/2020. Meanwhile, look for some BreadDoll editors at Adepticon.
SHAMELESS PLUG – Mantic Games is currently promoting a great DreadBall sale. Visit http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/dreadball-sale.html
The truth can be hard to believe. It was once thought that there was only one last surviving Elastopod. Truly. This is ridiculous. There are 8.
The Elastopod home world was destroyed when a starship carrying unknown alien artefacts exploded, obliterating the entire Elstopod home system. This was almost the end of the Elastopod race. Luckily the members of the Elastopod Special Forces Bravo Squad were on patrol in a ship at the far edges of their solar system. When their planet was destroyed Bravo Squad survived. Really.
Making their way to the GCPS, Bravo Squad now plies their advanced military training on the neodurium pitches of the pro DreadBall leagues. They are a team to be feared no matter what some may say. Elastopods are not all bumbling goofs as rumor would have it. It’s unclear where that rumor began but the Sole Survivors are having none of it. Match after match the last of the Elastopods teach their opponents to respect Elastopods once again.
No, Seriously.
No Pitch like Home!, part 1
So, following on about Home pitches having global rules, I wanted to take on a Hobby project to make one of my own. Now, one approach would be to simply download one of the amazing pitches designed by an immensely talented pitch designer, BreadDoll’s own Geoff Burbidge. However, I, being a glutton for punishment, opted for a more three dimensional project. This is the first part of a “behind the scenes” in my pitch build project.
First, you need to come up with a theme. What kind of pitch is this going to be? I personally find the project to be more interesting if the theme offers a more “exotic” venue in contrast to the standard arena. What kind of strange planet or pitch conditions is the project meant to replicate? For this project, I was torn between two ideas that I really wanted to develop. However, the “easier” of the two was a simple ice world pitch. All most since the inception of the game, I’ve had some home brew rules developed that I’ve been keen to get on the table. Now I’m finally making a pitch to represent it!
Now that I had a pitch idea to run with, I had to get on with making it! There are a few approaches I could have went with, but again, this time around I was taking the easy road. I pulled out the old quadrant zero mdf pitch to use as a base. Because of some of the other aspects of the pitch I wanted to incorporate, I needed to mount the mdf to a backer board. A simple sheet of plywood did the job nicely.
Once mounted, I laid down some base colors. Going for a snow and ice look, I wanted to stay with cold colors like light blue and grey. And a little white dry brushing. The grey areas would be for the more snow covered places, while the blue would be for the more icy patches….though one need not completely exclude the other.
After laying down some base color on the pitch itself, I used some insulation foam to build around the pitch. I simply used the score track mdf pieces as a template to get the edges right, lining them up half way onto the edge of the foam, then tracing the edge of the hexes as a template for cutting. Using a knife, I carved out the hexes.
After cutting out the foam, I then glued the pieces into place around the exterior of the pitch. Once glued, I began putting some more paint layers on and the project begins to take shape.
Now the reason for the mounting of the pitch, was that I could do some decent sized ice patches this way in the recessed areas of the pitch. After getting the strike zones and launch lane painted, I used a hex and silver paint pen to trace the hexes in those areas, since there was no mdf pitch placed there. I also added some extra designs, some silver glitter glue snow flakes in the strike hexes and some white card stock snowflakes of a different design placed on the launch hexes.
With these extra decorations added, I then poured some water effect into those areas. I didn’t worry about doing it in separate applications, as this represented ice, cracking and splitting as the “water” hardened would actually be a desirable effect and add to the ice look.
We will look at the final result in the next article!
Attention sports fans! It’s time for a tournament! On Sunday, January 27 2019 – a few Coaches will meet one other, throw strikes, and distract refs. During their matches, a few events may occur. It’s EVENT HORIZON!
EVENT HORIZON is a unique tournament offering. Not officially endorsed by the North American DreadBall Circuit (NADC), EVENT HORIZON is taking advantage of the distinction in order to expand the traditional tournament settings.
event horizon 2019 tournament rules
dreadball tournament scoresheet
For Coaches unfamiliar with NADC rules, EVENT HORIZON is allowing:
and…
How will Coaches spend their 1200mc team building allotment? An upgraded Team Captain? A transferred Matsudan Guard? Alpha Simian?
Regardless of team composition, all participating Coaches are showered with swag. The BreadDoll wouldn’t sponsor a tournament without goodies for all.
Superfluous, but super handy – the Home & Visitor cards return for 2019!
EVENT HORIZON also welcomes an additional deck to the fray; the Event deck! Consequently, us bread bakers thought it would be funny to add a new card to the mix:
Coaches can use their three cards during DreadBall play, or for any number of alternative uses; house-of-card building, carving cocaine, low-end lock picking, etc.
The top three Coaches receive certificates of accomplishment, while the last place Coach is bestowed the tasty BreadDoll itself.
Along the way, there is a set of BreadDoll dice to award AND Mantic Games has generously donated a copy of the DreadBall Event Deck. Elmer and Dobbs ROCK!
Come one, come all! If any Coach can travel to the Washington D.C. area at the end of January, they should witness EVENT HORIZON. If any Coach wants to organize a tournament, but doesn’t know where to start – ask in the comments below. Meanwhile, review the attached PDF tournament pack and score sheet. Lastly, visit DreadBall.com and register.
I painted my Z’zor a few years ago now. I was living in Vancouver Canada for a month for work and it happened that a pretty nice game store there happened to be starting a league at that time. Here is how I painted the Hiveworld 8 Warriors.
I went with a green and orange color scheme. I tested it out in Photoshop before starting.
As always I use primarily Army Painter paints.
I used a grey spray can primer to prime the minis and then applied a Goblin Green base coat. I used Green Tone as a wash and then used a series of drybrushings from Goblin Green up to Vallejo Line Green. Finally on the green parts I did a highlight with Lime Green and White.
The orange bits I started with a Secret Weapon Sewer Water wash over the green base and then Vallejo Light Orange. I thinned the Light Orange down with water and applied multiple coats the achieve a bit of a blend. I highlighted further with Vallejo Pale Yellow.
For the torso/stomach plates I also used Pale Yellow but here as the base color. I washed it with Vallejo Sepia wash but you could also use Soft Tone, they’re very similar. After the wash I did a touch-up highlight with the Pale Yellow again and then with a mix of the Pale Yellow and White.
On the joints I used Hydra Turquoise with a Dark Tone wash, highlighting back up a bit after the wash using Hydra Turquoise again.
I used Black on the eyes with a purple highlight.
Happy New Year BreadDollers! Last time I was let out of the bakery, I rambled about Leagues and radical rule suggestions. After receiving “treatment”, I’m back to continue talking about Franchise Mode! But no rules this time, just “ideas”….for now.
Home and Away
Anyhow, I’ve always been smitten with the idea of Leagues having a Home and Away schedule. In other words, the schedule dictates which matches you will be the Home team for, and for which ones you will be the Visitors. One way to approach this is, for each match up, to schedule a Home and Away series. You simply play the same opponent twice in consecutive matches, once as the Home team, once as the Visitors. This is easy on scheduling, and makes it simpler in real life for opponents to get together once and play both matches at once if convenient. It’s one way to easily double the number of matches in your leagues without adding a lot of extra weeks to your campaign.
However, I am more of a fan of the matches being split up on the schedule. This way, if you get taken to task by your opponent in week one, you some time to circle the next meeting on the calendar, nurse a grudge, and gear up your roster for sweet revenge in the rematch later in the season. But to each their own. It does have the draw back of adding more time to the campaign, but this can be ameliorated in one of two ways.
One, if you tend to meet as a group to play your games, you could still attempt two matches in an evening, albeit with different opponents. Or, probably more amenable, is depending on the number of players in the leagues you simply subdivide in to smaller conferences or divisions. The teams in the same divisions play a short schedule against each other with division winners qualifying for the playoffs. As always, though, there is more than one way to skin a….er, peel a banana, so simply do what works best for your group.
Global Rules
Now, Home and Away is all fine and good however you handle it. BUT, what a Galaxy spanning sport like DreadBall REALLY needs is a variety of interesting venues to play the game in. To add more immersion to the difference between a Home match underwater for the Nemion Oceanics, as opposed to the reality bending experience of playing at the home stadium of the Wu-Ling Wanderers.
The sort of thing I envision is akin to Azure Forest or the Challenge Cup. The rules for playing at a particular venue might include one or two simple “global” rules that are always in play. These may represent some of the particular nuances of playing DreadBall in such a unique environment. The same environment may also have a small specialized event deck, to further add to the character of the venue.
I have a handful of venues in mind, some with house rules that have been played with a bit. I’ve finally gotten round to building a pitch for one of them and have much more grand plans for another. But in parting I’d like to ask, where in the world(s) do you want to be able to play DreadBall?
As mentioned in my last article “The Law” there were rules in 1st Edition DreadBall for an alternate referee: Ref Dredd. It’s a small change that can be made when playing the game that can add a bit of variety and a lot of fun. Along the same lines I present a few alternative DreadBalls:
Rules: If playing with the Adepticorp DreadBall any player that takes damage from being hit by the ball is treated as Fragile when rolling their Armor Test. Additionally if the Ball Shatters card is played all players in the same hex as the ball or adjacent hexes must make a Dodge test vs 6 dice (4+) or be hit by shards of the ball.
Rules: If playing with the Mark 2 DreadBall, the Ball cannot shatter. If the Ball Shatters Special card is played ignore it’s effect. Instead the player that played the card may look through the discard pile and take any 1 card they find there into their hand. The Mark 2 DreadBall is not only more durable, but also more aerodynamic with advanced gravity generators. When throwing the ball farther than 4 hexes treat all distances as 1 hex less.
Rules: The Bumper DreadBall bounces. If playing with the Bumper DreadBall, after a the ball is launched roll to scatter it. The ball can be caught on this scatter. The Bumper DreadBall allows a Bounce Pass. When throwing the ball to a player on your team or at an opposing player it can be bounced off the wall of the pitch. Any time the Bumper DreadBall scatters (other than after launching), always scatter it an additional time.
These alternative DreadBall and their associated rules can be swapped into any game of DreadBall for a bit of flavor and extra fun.
Rules Reference Cards:
Here are STL files if you are so inclined to print a ball to play with using these rules:
