Old newb wants to say hello and ask questions :)

[Stonekloud]

First I would like to say hello and say thanks for letting me into the community. I would like to say from age 13-25 I played Blood Bowl 2nd ed atleast once a week. Me and my friends had a league for years, then well life happened. Now I find myself wow 5-6 years removed from a game I loved, one night wandering around wikipedia, and I type in Blood Bowl thinking yeah this game is so dead .... and to my suprise... I have spent the past couple of days trolling the forums, reading it all soaking it in like I was at the Library of Alexandria on a weekend pass. I have no gaming supplies at all, I have an ebay acct and a full watch list


Now some questions

1. How should I start, is just buying the 3rd ed boxed set, and using LRB5, good enough to start and learn the game again?

2. There is an online version of BB, I dont understand how this works. is it like a playing Live moving peices like chess or is it more Madden?

3. Will there be any new boxed sets coming out? I know GW gave the rights for a video game to the makers of Chaos League.. last I heard.


Thanks for any answers, also grammer isnt my friend.

[Noctis]

Just a quick reply, I'm afraid it's pizza night so I'll quickly try to answer some of your questions.

First off indeed BB is around and proberly will be for some time to come

In regards to the game itself, l have the pitch because well you need the board, unless your very creative and make your own.

The online rulebook is as you know the LivingRuleBook (LRB), it's free and contains updates of the rules used in general we are currently on version 5 (LRB5), thats with updated errata etc etc..
Some people still use the older versions and that naturally is up to you and your friends.

Ok l smell food... *run's blitzer style downstair*... damn failed my go for it ... ouch.

Noctis

[ravyn]

online there is PBEM (Play By E-Mail) and Java Blood Bowl. PBEM is a lot like playing chess by email. Java BB is more like the tabletop game with all the remembering of tables removed. There is a large group of players on FUMBBL (http://fumbbl.com) but the downside is that they are still using LRB 4
Vern

[Darkson]

1. Yep, but if you can get the dice, templates and pitch cheaper seperately, go for it, as you don't need the rulebooks and cards from the boxset.

2. There's 3 versions of online BB, all unofficial.
PBeM - Play By eMail - using the tool, you take your turn, zip the resulting file, and send it to your opponent. Great if you don't have hours to spare online.
FUMBBL - JavaBowl - played in realtime (as if you were playing across a board). Can be damned addictive, but is currently not upto date on the rules (uses LRB4 rules, which are different in quite a few ways to LRB5).
ORBBL - the oldest online BB, but I've no idea how it works, as I've never tried it.

3. Probably not.
The plan was for there to be a new boxset this year to celebrate BB's 20th anniversery, but with GW almost killing support to Specialist Games, it's not likely.
Since the annoucement that Cyanide was going to make an offical BB game, there's been no news.

[ZanzerTem]

1. How should I start, is just buying the 3rd ed boxed set, and using LRB5, good enough to start and learn the game again?

Yes. The box set comes with two teams and all the pieces needed to play. Then download the LRB and run to your nearest copy shop and print it off. Bam, ready for carnage.

2. There is an online version of BB, I dont understand how this works. is it like a playing Live moving peices like chess or is it more Madden?

They both play like chess with moving pieces. You basically have two options. PBeM (Play By eMail) or FUMBBL/JavaBowl. PBeM is more for casual players that dont have an hour to sit down and play through a whole game. Basically you play one of your turns, send the results to your opponent, they play a turn, then send the results to you, and this process continues until the game is over. JavaBowl is a program written in the Java language for BloodBowl. It currently uses the LRB4 rules (but we are hoping for LRB 5 sooner or later). It is mainly used for the online league FUMBBL. Basically the FUMBBL site maintains your team and automates a lot of things for you so you can focus more on playing games. However, unlike PBeM, you have to be able to play through an entire game (usually about 45-60 mins) at one sitting.

If you choose to play either, try to find someone willing to show you the ropes per se, but once you get the hang of it its pretty easy. I personally think PBeM has a steeper learning curve. However, you may have a different experience.

They are both pretty much a matter of personal preference, so I don't recommend one of the other.

There may be more online options, but I have not explored them.

3. Will there be any new boxed sets coming out? I know GW gave the rights for a video game to the makers of Chaos League.. last I heard.

I personally have not heard of when a new box set will be released. GW is notoriously fickle when it comes to BloodBowl. One minute they are excited to support it, the next, not so much. Just be glad the LRB is free, and will continue to be free.

As far as Cyanide's version of BloodBowl, it will probably be more like BloodBowl Lite. It will have at its heart the essence of BloodBowl, but I doubt it will be a direct conversion of the game itself. Besides, when the agreement was made, LRB4 was out, so it may even have that ruleset, if it has a LRB ruleset at all. It may even have its own rules that have nothing to do with current LRB's. Only time will tell.

[Stonekloud]

Thanks guys, Im looking for a game, and I am going to try FUMMBL.

[Gumbo]

ORBBL - the oldest online BB, but I've no idea how it works, as I've never tried it.

Thats OLBBL, heres the link www.olbbl.com