Throw Opponent Characteristic

[WhatzaMadderYew]

I would like to get feedback on the house rule our league is trying out. For the first time a coach is fielding a Choas team and he wants to use a Minotaur on the team. He was concerned that the Minotaur would never have a chance to use the “Throw Teammate” trait, becaue there are no Choas players with the Right Stuff (although Narkotic pointed out in another post that the coach could use goblin star players).

Anyway we came up with the following house rules. Any thoughts on how it will play out would be appreciated.

THROW OPPONENT CHARACTERISTIC:

To allow a Minotaur to make full use of all his characteristics, we will use the following house rule. First, replace the Throw Team-mate characteristic with a new one called Throw Opponent. The Throw Opponent description reads: “The player can throw players from the opposing team that have the Right Stuff”.

Throwing an opponent is an action similar to throwing team-mate. The player must take a Pass action, may move before throwing the other player, they must end up in a square adjacent to the other player, and both players must be standing. Just like throwing a team-mate, throwing an opponent causes the passing range to be one band higher. However, before throwing an opponent, the Minotaur must first see if he is able to pick the other player. Players with the Right Stuff naturally are afraid of the other team’s Big Guys and will never just let a Minotaur grab them without trying to squirm away. To see if he grabs the opponent, use the Minotaur’s agility and roll on the Agility table. The following modifiers apply:
The opponent is carrying the ball….. + 1
Per enemy tackle zone on the Minotaur…. – 1

(The reason for the plus modifier when the opponent is carrying the ball is due to the fact that the player can’t swing their arms wildly to keep a Minotaur’s hands off them; they are trying to protect the ball.)



If the final modified roll equals or beats the required score, the Minotaur has succeeding in grabbing the opponent and must attempt to throw the player. If the roll fails, the opponent has managed to “side-step” the Minotaur’s grasp, that player’s coach may place his player to any vacant adjacent square (just as if the player with Right Stuff had the Side Step skill). A roll of 1 before modification always fails and a roll of 6 before modification always succeeds.

If the Minotaur has grabbed the opponent, he must first overcome his desire to eat the opponent. This is handled as covered in the Always Hungry rule. If the Minotaur tries to eat (or does manage to eat the player), the opposing coach gets to roll to see if the referee spots the foul. The foul is worked out as detailed in the Foul Spotting section in the BB Handbook. A + 2 modifier is added to the roll if the Minotaur actually succeeded in eating his opponent. This modifier is cumulative with other Foul modifiers. In other words, if the referee has his eye on the Minotaur’s team already, due to a pervious foul, the modifier would be +4 (+2 for the “I-Got-My-Eye-On-You” rule and +2 for the “My-God-He-Ate-Him” rule). Even if the Minotaur is not sent off, eating (or even just trying to eat) an opponent is a turn-over.

Now then, if the Minotaur has grabbed the opponent and has not tried to eat him, finally the Minotaur may try to throw the little runt. The Minotaur’s coach selects the target square to where the opponent will be thrown. Use the same modifiers as outlined on the Throw Teammate section to see if the throw is accurate. If the throw is accurate, the opponent lands in the target square. If the throw misses, roll for scatter 3 times to see where the opponent lands.

Landing after being thrown by a Minotaur is handled a little bit different than the normal landing rules. When being tossing their team-mates, the thrower wants players with the Right Stuff to land on their feet, not their head. The opposite is true when a Minotaur throws an opponent. Here an accurate pass means the little guy is likely to come crashing down right on his neck; a missed throw mean the opponent had time to twist around in the air and hopefully get his feet under him. To reflect this, use the following modifiers when working out a landing after being thrown by a Minotaur.

Attempt to land after an accurate throw ….. - 1
Per the Right Stuff player TEAM-MATE’s tackle zones on the
square the player is thrown to…………..….. + 1

(The plus modifier for the team-mate’s tackle zone is to reflect the thrown player’s friends trying to break his fall).

If the final modified roll equals or beats the required score, the opponent has landed on his feet and is yelling so much about be thrown his coach gets to make a standard Foul Spotting roll, to see is the Minotaur is sent off the pitch. If the landing roll fails, the opponent has fallen over and the Minotaur’s coach makes an Armour roll to see if the player is injured; no Foul Spotting roll occurs, the opponent mouth is full of dirt that he can’t get the ref’s attention.

Also to use this Throw Opponent rule, there needs to be a slight addition to the Wild Animal trait. Simply add “OR attempt to throw the opponent” to the sentence “…and throw a block at an adjacent player.”. In other words, the Wild Animal must block or attempt to throw an adjacent opponent, to not have to make the 4+ WA roll.

Hopefully, these rules allow for the use all of a Minotaur’s characteristics without have to create a bunch of untested ideas that would slow the game down. All the rules are really just an inversion of the thrown team-mate rule to reflect to the different nature of trying to pick up an opponent. These rules also seem to fit with a Minotaur’s personality; maybe it is just me but it seems fitting to think of a Minotaur flinging opponents down the pitch. They don’t seem to have the niceties to understand a strategy of passing their own teammates, but hurling a foe across the battlefield…that fits.

[GalakStarscraper]

Just because of the length of that post ... a possible recommendation for a skill that the MBBL2 has used for over a year ... I think you'll find it works pretty well for what you are trying to do as we have players in my league that have been using the skill for a while now:

Pitch Player (Strength Skill) - This skill allows a player to throw an opponent using the Throw TeamMate rules. However you must first roll to see if you snag the player to throw him. Make a Strength roll (ie an Agility roll using Strength instead of Agility as the stat) with the following modifiers:
+1 for each offensive assist you have (ie Blocking offensive assists)
-1 for each defensive assist the opponent has (ie Blocking defensive assists)
-x where x is the ST of the opponent
-1 if opponent has Block and you don't have Block
-1 if opponent has Dodge and you don't have Tackle
-1 if opponent has Side Step
-1 if opponent has Foul Appearance
A failed roll means nothing happened (and a roll of 1 is always a failure). A success means that the player may throw the opponent using the Throw TeamMate rules however the Landing roll will always be done with a -2 modifier regardless of the result of the Throw TeamMate pass. Players suffering casualties from a Pitch Player play count for casualty SPPs (this includes if you eat the opponent).

Galak

[GalakStarscraper]

The original version which should work fine for tabletop was:

Pitch Player (Strength Skill) - This skill allows a player to throw an opponent using the Throw TeamMate rules. However you must first roll to see if you snag the player to throw him. Make a Strength roll (ie an Agility roll using Strength instead of Agility as the stat) modifed by -x where x is the ST of the opponent . A failed roll means nothing happened (and a roll of 1 is always a failure). A success means that the player may throw the opponent using the Throw TeamMate rules however the Landing roll will always be done with a -2 modifier regardless of the result of the Throw TeamMate pass. Players suffering casualties from a Pitch Player play count for casualty SPPs (this includes if you eat the opponent).

Now why would I post this. Because I appreciate very much what you are trying to do with the rule you posted but that just a lot of rules for folks to remember. The above I've found would accomplish the same thing and be a lot easier for your players to understand.

Galak

[WhatzaMadderYew]

Sorry my post was so long, it was what we sent out to the coach in our league. I geuss I could have shorten it, but wanted feedback on the full rule. Thanks for the MBBL2 rule. It is similar ours. The MBBL2 has more negative modifiers to get the “pass” off, ours had more “fouling” consequences. We treat throwing an opponent as a special fouling action.

I’ll pass the MBBL2 rule along and let the league vote on which to use.

Thanks again for the input.

[WhatzaMadderYew]

Galak, I also like the "use a strength roll" to snag the opponent part of the MBBL2 rule. I think I will suggest that our league could have the Big Guy use his strength minus the player with right stuff agility. That would make it harder to snag the little guy. Of course, I’m the coach fielding the goblins, they're the ones most likely to be flung down the field by a minotaur…so the rest of coaches might vote for the current Strength minus Strength rule.

[GalakStarscraper]

Keep in mind that the MBBL2 rule does not require the opponent to have Right Stuff. Throwing Gutter Runners in fun.

Galak

[Goryus]

I actually like the way yours is described better than the Pitch Player version. My only complaint is that I don't really see many situations where I would rather throw a goblin with a minotaur than throw a block with one.

Quick question: could the minotaur chuck the goblin off the pitch?

[Oderus Orungus]

You should be able to intercept thrown stunties!!!

[WhatzaMadderYew]

Hey Goryus, sorry I have taken so long to reply to your post; I did not realize there had been any new posting to my topic.

I think you are right that from a strict strategy point of view, it is probably wiser just to block the little goblins rather than worrying about toss them down the field. But we added it as an option just so a coach in our league could use a throwing player characteristic with a minotaur model he bought. Our league’s coaches tend to have a silly streak (except for the coach of the human team…all business with him ), so the throw opponent is use for flavor.

As for if the opponent can be tossed off the pitch, we use the same guideline as regular throwing rules; in other words you have to aim at a square on the pitch…of course he could scatter out of bounces!!!

We did streamline the fouling rules for this house rule; it is now a simple fouling roll after throwing an opponent (with an automatic “send off” if the minotaur eats the little guy).

[Blammaham]

I think if you use the "special foul" rule then you are taking 2 actions with the minitaur. 1 pass 2 foul. A small thing to be sure, but 2 action none the less.S.

[Pardus]

i'd allow stunty interception...

of course a sucessful interception means the stunty smashes into the intercepter...

hense the stunty player throws a 2db against the intercepter and gets a +1 to land as he has his fall broken...

fair IMO since it's hard enuf for the big guy to throw him sucessfully in the first place...