League Rules

 

The Short Version – If you don’t wish to read this entire document, here is your one-page summary.

• The new league will be using the LRB5 rulebook, which can be found here - http://trollserver.com/bb/docs/rules/LivingRulebook5.pdf
• The purpose of the new league format is to HAVE FUN! And to try to keep things enjoyable and relaxing for everyone participating. The new system will allow coaches to play as much or as little as they want, with the new rules helping to balance the large Team Value differences we may see in some games. The express intent is to make this something that many people can play in and enjoy doing – if we are falling short, please let the Commissioner(s) know and we’ll see what we can do for you & the group.
• We will be using an “Open League” format – which is to say, no more fixed schedule! The only time we will operate on a fixed schedule is during the yearly tournament.
• Coaches may have up to two teams initially, and may create more as their original teams play more.
• Teams may not face the same opponent again until they have played at least two other teams in the league before the rematch.
• You must accept challenges from any team with a lower TV than your own – you must also accept any challenge from a team with a TV up to 20 points higher than your own. Past that, play nice and please try and accept all challenges as they come, even if the challenger does have more than 20TV on you.
• Cards may be purchased as inducements.
• Limited house rules are in effect – 4-minute time limits are not being used, MVP’s are random and may be given to any player on your roster who did not die during the course of the match (Mercenaries, Journeymen, and Star Players MAY receive the MVP). Everything else (IP rule, teams start at TV100, all cards are available, etc) works the way it says in the book.
• IMPORTANT - There are MANY changes to the new rulebook from LRB4. Please read the document thoroughly and note certain changes like Team Value calculation, no more ageing, Apothecary use, Secret Weapons rules, the new Inducements system instead of Handicaps, the (re-) introduction of Cards to the game, Throw Team-Mate changes, and perhaps most importantly, changes to skills (both in how many skills are used, the introduction of new skills, and the removal of a “skills/traits” system) – as well as others! If you would like to go over any of the changes to the rulebook, either with a question on how something works or perhaps a more detailed description of many of the changes, email dmchale@gmail.com for a list.

 

Objective: To create a perpetual BloodBowl league utilizing the LRB5+ rule set that coaches may join in an Open League format, with yearly single elimination bracket-style tournaments to determine which team is the Champion. The hope is that this format will provide flexible and fun enough to allow coaches to play either very little or as much as they want and still allow the league to thrive.

 

Rules: The rulebook for this league will be the LRB rules beginning with LRB5 or any official versions of the rulebook from that point forward. House Rules can and will be used where we deem it appropriate, and these rules may under extreme circumstances be added/removed from the league at any point in time after a group discussion/vote.

 

Guidelines: These guidelines are meant as a general means of mediating how the league will operate. While the overall goal of the league is to operate in a relaxed atmosphere, we need to establish certain rules the coaches must follow in order to maintain a fair & effective league.

 

• Number of Teams – Each coach is allowed to run two distinct teams at the same time after joining the league. You are of course free to field only one team if you wish, but in an Open League format we feel it will help keep things interesting for the participating coaches by allowing more than one team to be played at a time.
• Coaches may, at any time, retire one of the teams under their control. When a team is retired, it is PERMANENTLY discarded - this is to try and help ensure that coaches in the league do not keep creating/discarding teams, while still allowing the flexibility for a coach to dump a neutered team or simply create a new one when he realizes he doesn’t like playing as a certain race.
• Coaches may exceed the two-team limit if and when both of their current teams have played enough games to qualify for the season-end tournament.
• Coaches may also create a new team for “free” after they have finished playing in an annual tournament (either through elimination or after successfully winning the event!)
• The one restriction on the “multiple team” rule is that you may not have more than one team of the same race – you can’t end up having 4 Orc teams under your control, for example.

• Order of Play – An order of play is in effect as a preventative measure of the league becoming too “stale” and coaches playing the same teams against each other over and over again. All we ask is that each team play two unique teams between every rematch. For example, if Coach A and Coach B play an Orc/Human game, both the Orcs and the Humans would have to play two games apiece before they could play each other again. Of course, if one or both coaches has more than one team under their control, then you could switch teams and play the same coach multiple times in a row.
• Maintaining Your Team Rosters – We hope, by now, that most of the people playing in the league can handle maintaining their own rosters. The LRB5 rules change many things from LRB4, but there are still many things that remain the same about them. If you ever need help figuring out your roster, or want the Commish to hold onto your latest roster for you, shoot an email to dmchale@gmail.com  - To find a template spreadsheet you can use for maintaining your roster, you can look here: http://bloodbowl.meowhiking.com/lrb5_template.xls
• Reporting Match Results – Especially in an Open League setting where we will very likely have less “formal” BloodBowl meetings, it is extremely important that all match results get reported back for record keeping. We hope in time to have a website application that can handle this automatically for us: for now, you need to email the results of your match to dmchale@gmail.com and they will be posted on the website.
• The Annual Tournament – Each season we will have a single elimination bracket-style tournament to determine which team in the league will be crowned “Champion”. Rules for the tournament are as follows.
• A team must have played 8 games in order to be considered eligible for play in the tournament.
• If a team has played more than the set number of games required to enter the tournament, their 8 top game results will be used to determine their seeding for the tournament. Yes, this means that teams who play more have a better chance at getting a better seeding in the tournament. But in an Open League setting this is the only method that makes sense.
• Individual game results will be weighted based on three criteria – Win %, number of Touchdowns, and Team Value.
• Coaches may bring only ONE team that is under their control to the annual tournament. This helps prevent a single coach from owning both teams in the semifinals, as well as helps the tournament schedule when we hope to bring everyone together at once for the event. And obviously, a coach cannot play more than one game simultaneously.
• The annual tournament does NOT mean teams get discarded when they’re done! It is simply a goal for the end of each Season and meant for bragging rights only. After teams have been eliminated from the tournament they may begin playing league matches as normal, with their next games counting towards the requirements for the next season. A TEAM CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THE TOURNAMENT MAY NOT PLAY REGULAR LEAGUE GAMES UNTIL THEY ARE NO LONGER IN THE TOURNAMENT.
• Changing Rulebooks – We hope that most rule disputes can be settled easily with a copy of the latest rulebook at hand.
• If and when a new official rulebook is released, the commissioner(s) will examine the new rules and determine what, if any, new rules will be excluded from our league. When new official rulebooks are released, an announcement will be made and the new book will become our new rulebook. The possible exclusions will take the form of House Rules and will be announced so that everyone in the league will know about them – and, we will try to ensure that everyone is well aware of the new changes to the rules as well.
• If and when skills are changed, coaches will be given an option to hot-swap the skill on any player that may have taken that skill. For example – if the Dodge skill was changed so that it no longer affected dodging on the pitch but only affected the Block dice results, you as a coach may not want that skill on your player anymore. Pending approval from the league commissioner(s), you will be allowed to take a new skill for your player. This could also affect your teams if a new skill is added to a skill category – players will be eligible to remove an old taken skill and to take the new skill instead, provided it is a legally accessible skill to that player.
• The only exceptions to this rule will be if your player started with a given skill – in the Dodge example above, an Amazon coach could not remove Dodge from their player to take a new skill.

 

House Rules – The following list is both a compilation of true “house rules” as well as clarifications of what procedure we will follow concerning certain rule aspects.

• Starting Value – Each team will start with a TV of $1,000,000.
• Illegal Procedure – We will be using the standard IP rules found in the rulebook. Pay attention to your turn counter! IP’s may be called once a coach either begins to move a player or if any dice are rolled during an action.
• 4-Minute Rule – We will not be enforcing the 4-minute rule. While some coaches may take a little longer to play their turns, please remember that 4 minutes feels longer than it is when you’re on the other side of the table. If a coach does seem to be taking an excessive amount of time to take his turns, feel free to ridicule him into speeding it up at least a little bit so that games don’t take 6 hours.
• MVP’s – MVP awards are eligible to be given to ANY player on your roster for the match, including Star Players and induced Mercenaries/Journeymen. The only exception to this rule is that dead players are NOT eligible for the MVP Award.
• Fan Factor – Fan Factor must be purchased as normal: we will not be using the optional “free Fan Factor” rules. So if you don’t want to buy Fan Factor, you don’t have to!
• Cards – All of the decks listed in the rulebook are legal for use when taking inducements.  Note that cards may be purchased with inducement money or with money from the team’s treasury.
• Spiraling Expenses – We will be using the recommended limits for Spiraling Expenses to try and keep high-TV teams in check. So beginning at a TV of $1,500,000 there will be a $10k “fee” you must pay after each game for every $200k you are above the $1.5M mark. For example… a team with a TV of $1,500,000 exactly will be fined $10k after their game, as will a team with a TV of $1,650,000. But a team at $1,700,000 will be fined $20k, teams at or above $1,900,000 will be fined $30k, etc.
• This rule may change if we find the breakpoints are not working well for us. But for now, we’re going to try the “standard” rules.
• More rules will be added to this section as they arise.

 

Making/Accepting Challenges – While it would be nice to believe that people would have no problems scheduling matches in an Open League, the temptation will always be out there for some teams to “cherry-pick” teams in the league who look like easy targets. We sincerely hope that coaches can be gentlemen about challenges and will simply play anyone who issues a challenge, no matter what the two teams look like – but just in case, here are some official guidelines.

• Overdog teams MUST accept challenges from underdog teams – If a team with a TV of 120 challenges a team with a TV of 170, the 170TV team must accept the challenge. You’re the overdog for god’s sake, you should have the advantage! No declining challenges simply because you’re worried about giving away “too many” inducements.
• Underdog teams MUST accept challenges from <= +20TV teams – If a team with TV 120 is challenged by a team with a TV of 140 or lower, the TV120 team must accept the challenge. No being a wimp and complaining that the other team has a higher TV – that’s what you get inducements for.
• Extenuating Circumstances – With the Open League format, we figure that most people will try and issue challenges only if they are within close proximity of each other. Since some of the league members may not be within easy driving distance, please do not try and abuse one of the two rules above in order to pressure another coach into accepting a challenge, and perhaps wait for the next time you know you will be at a get-together or something with that person and issue a challenge for that time. These rules are merely here to prevent coaches from abusing the system: with luck they will never need to be used.

 

 

Conclusion – While this may seem like a strict set of rules to follow, as the Objective stated in the beginning we only want to establish a set of guidelines for running the league. If you have any questions/concerns about anything included in this document (or perhaps anything that isn’t included in this document, but you feel should be) then email dmchale@gmail.com to submit the comment and it will be given with very serious consideration. This league is meant to be FOR THE PLAYERS, and we want it to be fun!!

 

GOOD LUCK!