Woo! Ok, lots of stuff. In no particular order:
* I think factoring assists into the equation might be worthwhile. I agree that the ref would have an easier time noticing a bigger crowd, but I don't think +1 per offensive assist is the way to go. It destroys the risk-reward ratio, because we're talking about +1 on 2D6 versus +1 on 1D6. And I'm trying to balance the chance to foul a player out for the match with the chance to lose the fouler to a match-ending penalty. +1 to AV doesn't really factor very heavily into this.
* PH said, "I don't think it makes sense for the ref to get better at catching fouls after he misses other fouls." I disagree! Watch any sporting event in which one team cheats and gets away with it, and try to find a fistful of refs that won't either (a) look for a chance to penalize that team at the next available opportunity or (b) ignore an infraction committed by the other team to "even things out." It's a sports staple. I'm not keen to lose the Eye, but I think the current effect (+2, solo factor, etc.) is too much. The Eye itself makes a coach think twice about fouling. Right now, the bonus for holding it is too big, so many coaches hold it by default. But in the old days, fouling was a no-brainer; I don't think any of us want to go back to that sort of play.
* If a coach is currently fouling every chance he gets, he's fighting a losing battle. Even if he automatically breaks AV, his odds of putting the player out of the game - even with a DP - are less than the odds that he'll remove his own player via penalty if the ref is watching him. PH, if you're fouling under the Eye all the time without a DP, you might be getting away with it - kudos to you - but that doesn't mean it's a good tactical choice on your part. It just means you're getting lucky if you're taking out more players than you're losing.
* PH also said:
As an orc/fimir coach in your league, I try to get 3 or more assists on every foul, and I foul often. I don't have any dirty players yet, so with Chet's change I'll be facing 5+ rolls at worst. That's true! Now look at the odds to hurt the player, and you'll see that you're still losing out. You're just not losing out as badly as you are with the Eye set at 4 or better to eject a player.
* I also think Dirty Players should simply attract attention. They're so blatant that the ref can't help but watch them, and he almost can't help noticing when this player commits a foul. These players populate all sports. They have reputations, and they're often flagged at a higher rate than the rest of the playing populace.
---
I like the idea of factoring the assists into the odds of getting caught, but it's not a very simple procedure. As I've said, the +1 per assist is too much risk for too little reward, so I think that's out.
An alternative: Add +1 to the Ref Roll if the fouler uses any plusses to break AV. So this means that a crowd draws an extra bit of attention - big crowd, little crowd, it really doesn't matter. If 2 or more players team up to kick someone, the ref notices, so it's an extra +1 to the roll.
Similarly, you could keep +1 for using DP
or add another +1 for using plusses on the injury roll. This means that if used with the "assists = +1" mod, the DP can "get away" with the +2 to AV if he also has help from the crowd, but he can't get away with adding extra viciousness to the foul by turning a stun to a KO or a KO to an injury.
So you might have a modification table that looks like this:
Code: Select all
Fouler uses bonuses to AV roll.......+1
Fouler uses bonuses to Injury roll...+1
Fouling team is under the Eye........+1
Still left unresolved is what to do about the automatic +1 bonus added for making a foul, because it will mean that a basic +1 foul is now caught on a roll of 5 or better. So perhaps the bonuses should say, "Fouler uses assists to break AV." But now the only problem is counting; the DP fouls, realizes he doesn't need assists, decides to use DP on the AV roll instead so he gets caught only on a 6, and now he's gona beyond a basic foul (used DP opn the AV roll) but he faces a basic foul's Ref Roll.
So maybe you change that to "uses assists or DP to break AV," but at this point, is it too terribly complicated to set up where I was before?
* Eye: +1
* DP: +1
If desired:
* Eye: +1
* DP: +1
* Assists: +1
That might be even simpler. If the assists won't break AV, of course, you simply don't declare them after rolling the foul. Same with DP. Easy enough, because either the foul has failed
or it was just as effective as a skill-less, assist-less foul. And I'm concerned more with the effects than the setup.
Cheers!
-Chet
