Tweaking 7s

[PercyTheTroll]

There are a couple of grey areas in the 7s rules on the NAF site that I thought would be good to clarify.

The Kick Off Table
The KO Table Riot currently reads (my emphasis):

The trash talk between two opposing players explodes and rapidly
degenerates involving the rest of the players. If the receiving team’s
turn marker is on turn 7 for the half, both teams move their turn
marker back one space as the referee resets the clock back to before the
fight started. If the receiving team has not yet taken a turn this half the
referee lets the clock run on during the fight and both teams’ turn
markers are moved forward one space. Otherwise roll a D6. On a 1-3,
both teams’ turn markers are moved forward one space. On a 4-6, both
team’s turn markers are moved back one space.

As there are only 6 turns per half this doesn't make sense and should be amended to:

The trash talk between two opposing players explodes and rapidly
degenerates involving the rest of the players. If the receiving team’s
turn marker is on turn 5 for the half, both teams move their turn
marker back one space as the referee resets the clock back to before the
fight started. If the receiving team has not yet taken a turn this half the
referee lets the clock run on during the fight and both teams’ turn
markers are moved forward one space. Otherwise roll a D6. On a 1-3,
both teams’ turn markers are moved forward one space. On a 4-6, both
team’s turn markers are moved back one space.

Simple fix.

Rules for Kick Off
It is not currently clear whether the area between the Lines of Scrimmage should be considered in or out when determining a touchback.

In Sevens, when the ball is kicked off 2d6 are rolled to determine
scatter and the lower result is used.

Proposed fix:

In Sevens, when the ball is kicked off 2d6 are rolled to determine
scatter and the lower result is used. The ball must be kicked across the kicking team's LoS. If the ball scatters off the pitch or back across the kicking team's LoS then a touchback occurs.

I'd be happy to amend the document on the NAF site if someone can send me the source file.

[howlinggriffon]

The original BB7's rules had the details for the touchback question :
http://www.gamingcorner.nl/rules/boardg ... bowl_7.pdf

[Purplegoo]

Hi there,

We'll be reviewing the variant documents in the new year. Hopefully stuff like this (there are a few more of this ilk) will be tidied up then. In the mean time, I probably agree with the workarounds noted.

[howlinggriffon]

Good stuff as I'm hoping to run a Sevens tournament next year. I found it a really fun format - still competitive but you can get through a load of games in one day.

Additionally, next Sevens event I go to, my team name is going to be "The Twerking 7s" as that's how I first read the subject of this post...

[Darkson]

1. The Doom Diver is possibly too good in 7s (only based off 1 event admittedly, but it did make scoring relatively easy for the Goblins).

2. I'd like to see the NAF go back to the "halve all positions, rounding up" then the flat 0-4 positions currently used.

3. Ban Leader!

[lunchmoney]

Agreed with Darkson's 1 & 3 points.

[Gaixo]

We are aware of the typos in the kickoff table!

The intent was for Leader to effectively be banned. Sometimes we forget how cavalier organizers can be with strong recommendations.

I'd like to hear more about how the doom diver is worse in Sevens than in regular BB. Because it's easier to get him in flight? Because the halves are shorter? Both?

[lunchmoney]

It's still 13 squares from LOS to End Zone, but with no opposition on the LOS it's a lot easier to get the Doom Diver in the air. And at least one less player to cover the landing area.
At the last Albion 7's I don't think I saw a single attempt fail.

[Saebelsultan]

I agree with the minor errors of the kick-off table and the clarification of the kick-off itself.
After running two 7s events (admittedly with no Goblins) we didn't run into any issues with single positions on the teams being thought of as too strong.
For the players attending our event was having fun all they cared about, which showed in the team selection as well (not a single elf team so far). Competition wasn't important. That is a strength of 7s I belive. Also, there might be different opinions for different cities/countries/gaming groups. I would pleade to leave the rules as they are (sans the fix of wording and clarification) and let the TOs handle their own crowd i.e. the Doom Diver is too strong in your tournament? Modify him in your rules pack!
Also, having up to 4 positionals (and considering their cost) compared to halve all positions is more fair for all I believe. If you halve all positions (rounding up) you have a wide variance in useable numbers of positions throughout the teams.

Amazons 3
Chaos 3
Chaos Dwarf 5
Dark Elf 5
Dwarf 4
Elf 4
Goblins 5
Halflings 1
High Elf 4
Human 6
Khemri 4
Lizards 4
Necro 4
Norse 5
Nurgle 5
Ogre 3
Orc 8
Skaven 5
Undead 4
Vampire 3
Wood Elf 5

Poor Halflings, but freaky good Dark Elves!!!

[PercyTheTroll]

We are aware of the typos in the kickoff table!

The intent was for Leader to effectively be banned. Sometimes we forget how cavalier organizers can be with strong recommendations.

I'd like to hear more about how the doom diver is worse in Sevens than in regular BB. Because it's easier to get him in flight? Because the halves are shorter? Both?

I figured it was easier to suggest getting on with fixing it rather than just point it out and wait for someone else to do something
Are there any other KO Table edits needed?

I'll add a proposed change to the kick off rule to the first post.

[Jip]

3. Ban Leader!

Leader and Pro are banned in the 7s tournaments Wobert runs down here in the South-West.

I think most of these changes have been amended with common sense, but understand the need for rules to be completely clear in written form, I s'pose.

Two max of each positional works fine in the ones we have, and I think Wobert has probably run the most this year, so that's a reasonable amount of games to gather data from. I'd say max two of each positional covers Stunties and the less vertically challenged pretty well; 'flings with one tree would be a bit rubbish.

Bloody love 7s, me. I'm hoping to get a couple of games in at EuroBowl on the Saturday evening.

[Purplegoo]

Just a couple of quick notes here. Outside of the specific rules changes for the format, we treat variants in much the same way as we treat Blood Bowl. This means that skills not mentioned in the variant rules (Pro, or anything else other than Leader) cannot be banned in Sevens, and TOs can't change the skills / stats of players (e.g. the Doom Diver, should you decide that doesn't work in the format). If this sort of thing has slipped through the sanctioning net on occasion, that's a missed catch on our part.

As alluded to above, all things will be reviewed in 2019. We'll be taking a good look at the NAF variant rules and tweaking them as appropriate, considering we as a community likely have far more knowledge of the formats than we did when the rules were written. It seems to me that banning Pro would be a reasonable rule, for instance, and there are a number of kick-off table things to check, etc. We'll be putting together an experienced team to look into and sort out all of this stuff.

In the mean time, please keep on keeping on with the current rules and finding where they fray at the edges. All good information / thoughts for 2019.

[lunchmoney]

I see no reason to ban Pro. It works even in fluff - every team has one good player that the rest rally around.

[Jip]

every team has one good player that the rest rally around.

...almost like a Leader, you might say.

[howlinggriffon]

At the Albion Coast 7s you had to pick one player at the start of the tournament who'd get the Pro skill - he was your team captain.

If I wasn't bringing my wife to the EurOpen, I'd be playing in the evening's 7s tournament. Too late to tell her to stay home now though