Outland's introduction to Blood Bowl

roysorlie · Post by **roysorlie** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:22 am

The local gaming store here in Stavanger will be open till 24:00 today.
The theme they've got going is introductions to games, to which I will be introducing Blood Bowl. We'll be setting up 2 boards, and start off playing. We're to try to get new people to play the game. I will of course be reqruiting for my league. Also I plan to give out some info about NAF, and such. I will probably mention www.talkbloodbowl.com too.

Any suggestions about how and what I should do when dealing with a bunch of rookies?

Or any other advice?

narkotic · Post by **narkotic** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:26 am

Don't win the match!

narkotic · Post by **narkotic** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:28 am

Ok, some serious advice:

play Orcs vs Human, use painted minis (if possible), play with the basic rules, use your black block dice and don't foul!

narkotic · Post by **narkotic** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:29 am

oh, almost forgot: don't pretend that you are someone important over here

Zergo · Post by **Zergo** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:30 am

I did some intro games at my local GW store a little while ago. There are two important things to do when showing the game to a newbie:

Be enthusiastic.

Be loose with the rules.

A lot of shouting and jumping up and down is good. The idea is to make it seem like the most exciting game is taking place, no matter what. With the rules, don't use any of the advanced rules unless the other person mentions them. Like assists, handoffs, the kickoff table, etc. Let the person see the basics of the game, and realizes its coolness on his/her own.

Hey, Bloodbowl oughta sell itself.

-Zergo

narkotic · Post by **narkotic** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:35 am

Tell them that you can build up your team, it gains experience, new skills and a "memory" unlike one-shot WFB armies full of nameless fools and forgotten after one battle.

Write a chant and repeat the Chorus whenever you have to roll important things!

roysorlie · Post by **roysorlie** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:36 am

Narkotic..

Well now, obviously, I'm very important on this board, as my wealth of knowledge and experiance is a boon to you guys.

No, Seriously, We have a few painted teams, but most of them are sort of, half finished. I have a Helf team, where half the mini's are painted. So some of the figs look good. I think we should try to show some randomness as well, different teams.

As for the rules, it's important to go easy on newbies.

Just need to preach this to my helpers.

Any other advice?

narkotic · Post by **narkotic** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:39 am

I wouldn't start with Elfs, they can do everything on a 2+, a rookie will most probably think that the game is broken because Elfs are "so much better in doing everything", ignoring the long-term aspect.

Redfang · Post by **Redfang** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:45 am

Play elves vs Dwarfs then, and let them see that elves maybe good at something, but only when they are still standing
(

+

=Evil-grin-smiley)

R

roysorlie · Post by **roysorlie** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:48 am

I think maybe we'll start off orcs vs humans.

But I absolutely abhorr playing with AG3, as I fail more than often enough with AG4.

Sigh.. ah well, guess I'll be fielding humans.

BlanchPrez · Post by **BlanchPrez** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 4:01 pm

The most important pice of advice I can give you is to play your demo games only with the stuff that comes in the basic boxed set. This is a selling point, as this what most rookie's are going to start with.

As you're using two boards, have different teams on the second one just to show off the different looks. Try to make all the teams as basic and roster-inclusive as possible. In other words, try to include at least one of each position type on each team. Remember, you're trying to show off all the different things posible with the game, not win a league or tourny.

Also, as someone stated before, stick to the basic rules. Mention that this is what you are doing, but that there are more advanced rules that include assists, fouls, etc.

And, remember the most important rule of demoing any game. Have fun! If you have fun, the people trying out your game will have fun as well.

Chris

Grumbledook · Post by **Grumbledook** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 4:18 pm

Also try not to whine and moan like a school girl when your playing, I know you might find that hard roy but its not going to convince anyone to take up blood bowl ;]

Joking aside if you just use the stuff in the box like others have said the 12 man orc and human teams then there are those orc and human team cards in the box that have all the target rolls and stuff. Kinda a newbie quick reference, those are good for teaching people how to play. You can give them to people watching to help explain stuff as they see you play. That is if those cards are still in the box set.

Post by **Dave** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:47 pm

1 make it fun
2 make it easy
3 make it a lot of fun

Zombie · Post by **Zombie** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 3:50 am

I disagree with most. Whenever i teach the game to a newbie (that has probably happened close to 20 times by now, so i have some experience at this), i always teach them all the rules, including fouling, assists, and such. This only takes about half an hour if you're good at explaining rule. Then we play a test half, where i don't let them bend any rules, and try to tell them if they're e.g. trying to blitz with one die when they could easily bring an assist, you know, the basic things. That way, people pick up the game really, really fast. And the complexity doesn't turn them off, on the contrary.

But then, i'm playing with a crowd of university students, so that might be different.

Redfang · Post by **Redfang** » Fri Jun 13, 2003 8:27 am

That's a good way to teach people BB who are already interested, Zombie, but not a good way to get people interested, as is the goal of the Demo, I believe

R