Post by Paul Waters on Feb 23, 2014 7:02:03 GMT
So my obsession for wanting to know things so I have been asked to give Guild Ball the Dreadball Xtreme treatment and go on the hunt for details around the game . I have been following Guild Ball since it was first announced, so I will share what I can. There has been quite a bit released around concept art and the models but less on the gameplay but the developers have mentioned that there may be some videos soon as they are filming at Smogcon. Guild Ball plays on a 3x3 tabletop like any other wargame rather than the more typical grid/board based approach for games of this nature.
So what has been released around gameplay. I've editied this from some of the developers blogs -
At its core, Guild Ball uses a D6 dice pool system…what this actually means is that the active player grabs a number of D6 based on their relevant skill plus any applicable bonuses and this forms their dice pool. They then roll this dice pool and all the dice that hit the Target Number (or better) counts as ‘Hits’.
To calculate the dice pool, each character has three key stats. The first is the relevant Player Stat of the active player…this is the number of dice you roll (plus any relevant bonuses from skills or situational stuff like charge attacks etc.).
The second is the defence stat of the target model…this is a target number ranging from 2+ (easiest to hit) through to 6+ (hardest to hit). The last is the armour stat of the target model…this is a low-ish number generally between 1-3.
The flow is simple and very easy to pick up:
The Butcher’s defender wants to attack the skinny Fisher forward. He knows his Tactical stat is 4. He asks his opponent what the Defense and Armour of the Fisher forward is. Answer comes back 4+ for Defense (he’s a slippery bugger!) but only 1 for Armour (lightly armoured for speed).
The Butcher’s player charges (giving him a +2d6 bonus on his attack) and therefore rolls a total of 6D6. Average dice means he should get 3 hits but he goes one better with 4 dice showing 4+ or higher.
He now deducts the Armour value from the roll and nets 3 hits on the Fisher forward. He can then go on to spend those hits on raw damage, or push back, or knock-down, or even tackle the ball off the forward, all worked out using his unique playbook on his card.
The playbook is critical piece in this design framework. It allows you to use your ‘net hits’ to generate a wide variety of different in-game effects. How? Well, let’s start with the character card. Boar is pretty much the Butcher team’s tank. He’s great at soaking damage and dealing a consistent amount of damage back…don’t get stuck in a protracted fight with him!
There’s a bunch of obvious stuff on the card such as the Stats and the Health blocks across the bottom but right there in the middle of the card, that’s the character’s playbook. Each one is unique to each character but all are used in the same way.
Essentially you read it from left to right…each ‘hit’ you generate as part of your action allows you to move one space across your playbook…all effects are cumulative and stack. So the greater the number of hits you generate, the better the results…pretty logical right?
It gets better, from a game design and a player’s point of view, as the playbook branches to allow access to different types of effects. Looking at the card shown, you will see a bunch of different numbers, letters and symbols, what do they mean?
Numbers are damage…and are cumulative. So an attack with 4 hits will deal 3pts of damage. Doesn’t sound much but Boar is awesome at generating hits through the Momentum mechanic (aka this article’s design teaser!) so don’t worry, he can out the hurt out if he wants to!
MP means Boar generates a Momentum Point…like I said earlier, this will be explored further in the next article.
The Guild Ball logos represents triggering a unique ability or effect on the character...so, as an example, Boar’s first ability is called Smashed Leg which reduces his victim MOV by 2” for a turn.
KD means knock-down. So to knock his opponent down Boar needs at least 3 hits on his attack. With 3 hits he’d deal 1pt damage and knock his opponent down.
T means tackle, so if the opponent he’s attacking has the ball, Boar needs 5 hits to take the ball from him, also generating a knock-down (Boar’s not subtle when he wants the ball) and 1pt of damage in the process.
The single arrow is a push…we’re trialling a few options here, currently deciding between a push equal to the amount of damage dealt or a fixed number of say 1”.
The twin-arrow is a push and an evade…your opponent goes one way; but you also get to reposition Boar afterwards. This is obviously pretty powerful in the right hands and so why this is 8 hits in…at least for Boar, on other characters it’s much easier to get to this effect.
So what this gives us is a flexible system as game designers…we can ‘flavour’ and balance all of our characters to feel unique and special whilst retaining the ability to always have access to tackle, knock-down, push etc. as the game requires.
Thanks if you have made your way through all of that....but more to follow
So what has been released around gameplay. I've editied this from some of the developers blogs -
At its core, Guild Ball uses a D6 dice pool system…what this actually means is that the active player grabs a number of D6 based on their relevant skill plus any applicable bonuses and this forms their dice pool. They then roll this dice pool and all the dice that hit the Target Number (or better) counts as ‘Hits’.
To calculate the dice pool, each character has three key stats. The first is the relevant Player Stat of the active player…this is the number of dice you roll (plus any relevant bonuses from skills or situational stuff like charge attacks etc.).
The second is the defence stat of the target model…this is a target number ranging from 2+ (easiest to hit) through to 6+ (hardest to hit). The last is the armour stat of the target model…this is a low-ish number generally between 1-3.
The flow is simple and very easy to pick up:
The Butcher’s defender wants to attack the skinny Fisher forward. He knows his Tactical stat is 4. He asks his opponent what the Defense and Armour of the Fisher forward is. Answer comes back 4+ for Defense (he’s a slippery bugger!) but only 1 for Armour (lightly armoured for speed).
The Butcher’s player charges (giving him a +2d6 bonus on his attack) and therefore rolls a total of 6D6. Average dice means he should get 3 hits but he goes one better with 4 dice showing 4+ or higher.
He now deducts the Armour value from the roll and nets 3 hits on the Fisher forward. He can then go on to spend those hits on raw damage, or push back, or knock-down, or even tackle the ball off the forward, all worked out using his unique playbook on his card.
The playbook is critical piece in this design framework. It allows you to use your ‘net hits’ to generate a wide variety of different in-game effects. How? Well, let’s start with the character card. Boar is pretty much the Butcher team’s tank. He’s great at soaking damage and dealing a consistent amount of damage back…don’t get stuck in a protracted fight with him!
There’s a bunch of obvious stuff on the card such as the Stats and the Health blocks across the bottom but right there in the middle of the card, that’s the character’s playbook. Each one is unique to each character but all are used in the same way.
Essentially you read it from left to right…each ‘hit’ you generate as part of your action allows you to move one space across your playbook…all effects are cumulative and stack. So the greater the number of hits you generate, the better the results…pretty logical right?
It gets better, from a game design and a player’s point of view, as the playbook branches to allow access to different types of effects. Looking at the card shown, you will see a bunch of different numbers, letters and symbols, what do they mean?
Numbers are damage…and are cumulative. So an attack with 4 hits will deal 3pts of damage. Doesn’t sound much but Boar is awesome at generating hits through the Momentum mechanic (aka this article’s design teaser!) so don’t worry, he can out the hurt out if he wants to!
MP means Boar generates a Momentum Point…like I said earlier, this will be explored further in the next article.
The Guild Ball logos represents triggering a unique ability or effect on the character...so, as an example, Boar’s first ability is called Smashed Leg which reduces his victim MOV by 2” for a turn.
KD means knock-down. So to knock his opponent down Boar needs at least 3 hits on his attack. With 3 hits he’d deal 1pt damage and knock his opponent down.
T means tackle, so if the opponent he’s attacking has the ball, Boar needs 5 hits to take the ball from him, also generating a knock-down (Boar’s not subtle when he wants the ball) and 1pt of damage in the process.
The single arrow is a push…we’re trialling a few options here, currently deciding between a push equal to the amount of damage dealt or a fixed number of say 1”.
The twin-arrow is a push and an evade…your opponent goes one way; but you also get to reposition Boar afterwards. This is obviously pretty powerful in the right hands and so why this is 8 hits in…at least for Boar, on other characters it’s much easier to get to this effect.
So what this gives us is a flexible system as game designers…we can ‘flavour’ and balance all of our characters to feel unique and special whilst retaining the ability to always have access to tackle, knock-down, push etc. as the game requires.
Thanks if you have made your way through all of that....but more to follow