Talk:Blood Bowl

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Contents

[edit] Broken external link

External link (http://www.games-workshop.com/fanatic/sp_games.asp?systemid=bb) does not work - page not found —Preceding unsigned comment added by Knutux (talk • contribs) 07:27, 3 May 2004

Fixed. (I'm not much impressed by Games Workshop's site navigation: it took far longer to find the new location of the page than it ought to have done.) --Paul A 04:11, 26 May 2004 (UTC)
I very much agree, is hopeless trying to easily find stuff on their sites. Plus their content seems to differ slightly from country to country, so sometimes you can find what you are looking for if you try all over again looking through a different country's site. Mathmo 06:13, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Akin to American football?

I don't understand the line "akin to a very violent version of American football". Blood Bowl has little to do with American Football and is much closer to rugby. Arctic.gnome 21:34, 15 June 2005 (UTC)

Blood bowl is very similar to American Football, (which is of course, not all that different from rugby in the greater scope of things) but some specific differences are in the nomenclature of the game, the turns being dubbed 'downs' and the scoring arena 'endzones'. Also note the role of forward passing. I do agree however the flow of play is much more akin to rugby, but the game is styled after American Football. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bigmacd24 (talk • contribs) 03:33, 27 August 2005
Jervis Johnson designed Blood Bowl as a parody of American Football. The "god" of Blood Bowl is NUFFLE, a parody of NFL. neoliminal 01:33, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
Remember a lot of people who play this are unfortunate americans who have no clue what rugby is (although on the other hand GW is a british company and rugby is a british sport so maybe it really is from rugby....). Mathmo

[edit] External Links

Is it appropriate to spam individual league's links here? If so, I will add but if not, most of the links could be deleted. MLA 13:21, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Re-drafted Blood Bowl page

I have substantively re-written the Blood Bowl page on a slow day at work and it is now closer to being a wikipedia article than previously. Wikipedia is not for specialists/insiders only. My version addresses Artic.gnome's issue - Neo, your answer doesn't resolve that query. Also, I've removed all the leagues that were spammed here (I took advice on that and it was a large number of links for such a small page). I would be happy to discuss any part of this edit. The purpose of it was to have an article that looked more like a wikipedia one and less like a fanboy/insider article. MLA 15:00, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

I will not add again the link to the LABB league, but this league is not a local league of any kind is a online league opened to all spanish speakers that could come here by chance. DarthBLU 23:39, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
I can understand why you might want to put up the links to leagues but wikipedia isn't really the place for that. There are plenty of available spaces around the internet for league advertising including the BB forums, TBB, the many fansites, the webring. I haven't added my league and the only links that are currently on the page here are resources of some kind. MLA 15:22, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I see your point, I will not add LABB league (by the way, LABB is not my league is a league for spanish people). But what I don't understand is why the NAF url is there, it is a pay site, what you can find on the NAF site can be available in TBB. DarthBLU 06:11, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
Perhaps if this is the spanish wikipedia we should have included LABB? Mathmo 06:13, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
Happy to remove links, feel free to do so yourself. I don't really know what the NAF site is about and if that link is basically also just advertising then scrub it out plus any others that shouldn't be there. I've tried to leave the ones that provide access to info such as the GW sites, Galak's site etc. MLA 08:31, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
The NAF site, while requiring paid membership, is the official players society for Blood Bowl and was suggested by Jervis Johnson and created from the ground up by myself (John Lewis,BBRC) to facilitate the growth of the game. It's as close to an official site as you can get without being an official site. The fact that it requires a membership fee doesn't invalidate it's authoritative tournament ranking of all the major tournaments, nor it's close ties to GW. The site is non-profit.neoliminal 18:26, 6 October 2005 (UTC)
Why has the link to the NAF site been given as a citation, rather than directly linked to (either in the text or in the External Links section)? Joemanji 10.28, 20 August 2006 (GMT)
Added 3 resource websites (Travellers mini's, Narkotic's pic archive and Ithilkir's fluff archive. Also added a sentence listing the 4 main PBeM leagues (but didn't add any links). Darkson 19:46, 30 November 2005 (GMT)
Took out that section - would be useful if you could put back a link to the tool or to rework the section so that there's an elite list of leagues as currently there seems to just be one and its not the one that I have heard of. Previously this page was pretty much a link depository and there's a risk that it could become that again. MLA 17:22, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
Good job on the rewrite. I would like to see a removal/rewording of the FLUFF section as that's an RPG/Warhammer buzz-word with some pejorative connotation. Why not just call it 'background' instead as it makes more sense to the non-gamer. Also, we need a picture and I think it should be of the best player in the game: GRIFF OBERWALD.--littlemute 17:00, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Monsters of Midway

Can anyone confirm that BB was based on Monsters of Midway?neoliminal 00:47, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Based on the way the wikipedia works, it's up to the anon user who added that entry to site a source to show that and I would doubt that they can. MLA 09:50, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Also I confirmed with Jervis Johnson personally that this item was not true. He had never seen Monsters of the Midway when he developed Blood Bowl. GalakStarscraper 13:58, 21 January 2007 (UTC)GalakStarscraper

[edit] Tournaments are not new

Who thought tournaments were a new phenomenon? Games workshop sponsored tournaments might be new... but the game has always focused on tournaments. The very name "Blood Bowl" is a tournament. As are the Chaos Cup etc. Mathiastck 17:15, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Tournaments are not necessarily new, but I believe the suggestions pertaining to tournament specific rules are new in the rulebook, since tourny play is now different to league play. I haven't read the new rules yet though to be sure.--Herbjunkie 21:18, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Online Blood Bowl

Without advertising specific leagues, a section mentioning the web based communities and ways of playing the board game might be worth including.In particular the Pbem (play-by-e-mail) client developed by Galak and Skijunkie's (at the time of writing outdated) java-client have helped keeping the community of addictet fans grow.[from heinz] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.72.240.7 (talk • contribs) 15:08, 9 September 2006

Agreed ... I'll work on adding a section that discusses the online community because the LRB 1.0 through 5.0 have been greatly impacted by the online community and to leave it out completely is a mistake. GalakStarscraper Sept 11, 2006
I used to love the OLBBL. It worked well over mIRC. Mathiastck 18:21, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Online Living Rulebook

If the Living Rulebook is 'now online' like the entry states, could a link be provded to it? The Kinslayer 11:42, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I have edited things a bit to make it more explicit that the LRB can be downloaded from the official site. Personally, I don't think a separate link is necessary, but I'm open to other views on this. Cheers --Pak21 11:58, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
Cool, thanks for that. TBH, it was mainly for my own benefit! I found my old copy of Blood Bowl whilst cleaning out my attic the other day, and looked it up on here out of curiosity. The LRB is similar to something I did for my own benefit a few years back, when I started collecting house rules all over the net, but gave up in the end! The Kinslayer 12:07, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bloodbowl setting

Reverted to a previous edit, as a user had changed the setting to the Warhammer universe, whereas it's been commented by Jervis Johnson (the games creator) that the direction that it took closer to Warhammer Fantasy Battle with the release of 3rd edition was a mistake, one they're now changing. He also confirmed, on more than one occasion, that Bloodbowl is now set in a world similar to, but not Warhammer. Darkson 23:46, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What elements still need to be rewritten?

I think the tone of this piece is pretty solid overall. What elements need to be redone to remove the tone note? ZargonDDG 10:00, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there's anything egrecious, though it's still exceedingly un-stylish. Chris Cunningham 14:43, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Online Play

The article should mention online play. 6 years ago I saw an active community called OLBBL playing with a client over IRC, and today I see http://fumbbl.com/help:Overview doing the same. Mathiastck 23:37, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I've added this in the external links section, as it is a very active league (100+ players available most of the time), though not limited to league play and open to all for free.
If people still object, I would suggest we at least give a link to the client used, as it is certainly a useful resource for the average person who wants to find out about Blood Bowl... Odd bloke 20:02, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
Looking through the history, I've changed the link to point to the client myself. I still think a link to an online league would be valuable. Odd bloke 21:05, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Recent edits

I see no evidence for the things which are being un-deleted. Personal claims of knowledge aren't acceptable for Wikipedia. Chris Cunningham 20:17, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Then accept the interview file that Darkson has linked where the creator of the game says this material. This removes the claim from personal to quoted. GalakStarscraper 19:23, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
Done. As I say, the problem was with it not being sourced originally. Chris Cunningham 19:28, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

The pop culture references probably need cut down. There are dozens throughout the literature, and only two or three (the teams, Nuffle) are really notable. Chris Cunningham 20:17, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

But the pop culture stuff is what makes Blood Bowl SO different from any other board game that would be similar. I've played a lot of games in my life ... the pop culture and story behind Blood Bowl is what kept my interest. Not many board games have fan fiction written for them. For that reason I believe these to be important. GalakStarscraper 19:23, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
Meh. The point was to try to keep it to a rational length. Lord knows too many Wikipedia articles end up consisting of little more than OR observations that the subject spoofed some object in popular culture. Chris Cunningham 19:28, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
Willing to conceed this point ... I'll delete a couple of the least know (like the TV networks). GalakStarscraper 19:30, 23 April 2007 (UTC)GalakStarscraper

[edit] Rules section

I think there should be a rules section. The Wikiproject Board and table games (I placed the template on this page) says: "A brief synopsis of the rules, sufficient only to show what is notable about the game or to distinguish it from other similar games. Lengthy sections and separate rules articles should be avoided -- after all, Wikipedia is not an instruction manual." That would IMHO mean something about player stats, player actions and turnovers at least. I'll see if I have time to start it. -Mattiasr 12:58, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

OK, I went ahead and created a "Rules" section. Hope I did not step on any toes or violate any copyrights. Hope also that I kept the information general enough. (This is my first major edit to an article.) That section could look better, f.ex. I'd like a picture of the player cards from the box next to the "Players" part. -Mattiasr 13:49, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Strategy section

I think there should be a "Strategy" section, outlining the two overall strategy choices available - bashing v. balling, or whatever you want to name it. I'll try to get started on that as well. -Mattiasr 13:53, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I've written a strategy-section, but as I can't provide sources for it now, I've left it on my user page for now. Original resarch is a problem for any strategy section, perhaps Galak or Darkson (whom I've seen around here) would know some good sources for it? I'd go to FUMBBL for it myself, if that page wasn't blocked from my workplace... Perhaps a better way to do a strategy section would be to first find the sources and then write the section, instead of the other way around? Comments? -Mattiasr 13:42, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
Unfortunately, I can't think of any sources that describe those strategies that would pass Wiki's verifiability, which will mean it would be classed as original research. I know of a few web articles, but nothing that could be used here. :(
Oh, and the oppisite of "bashy" isn't "balling" within the BB circles, but I'm having a brain-fart at the moment, and I can't think what it is! Darkson (Yabba Dabba Doo!) 17:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

I think elf ball is the term you're looking for.Gilbertine goldmark (talk) 02:37, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Thx for answering, and i agree with the verifiability issues. The general articles on the specialist games website ("The Art of Blocking" et al) have some interesting content, but aren't really dealing with overall strategy. Perhaps this will have to be mothballed for now. The opposite of "bashing" has many names (agility, speed, elf-balling etc), no? -Mattiasr 13:53, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Video game

I added the video game section, but am unsure of your formatting. Fix as needed. JAF1970 00:16, 15 November 2007 (UTC)