to this?
- 1 SPP for throwing a completed accurate pass
- 2 SPP for an intercepting a pass
- 2 SPP for inflicting a casualty in a block
- 3 SPP for scoring a touchdown
- 5 SPP for winning the MVP award (more on this in a moment)
Underworld throwers can take a skill from the Passing, Mutation, or General categories on any roll, or from the Strength or Agility categories if they roll double on the improvement roll.
Treemen, meanwhile, can only take Strength skills on a normal roll, but have access to most others on doubles. However, they can never get a skill from the Mutation category.
In addition, if the roll is 10 or higher, the player can forgo taking a skill entirely to gain a stat point instead. On a 10 the player can take a point of AV or MA, on an 11 he can take a point of AG, and on a 12 he can take a point of ST. Obviously, it's almost always correct to take a stat over a skill if you have the option because of how powerful the stats are, but there are exceptions when the stat isn't useful (such as +AG on a 1 AG big guy, for example).
Building the Perfect Murderer
Playing for the win is important in any game, but it's also important to think long-term. Part of this is funneling SPP to players that desperately need improvements and protecting valuable improved players. The latter is self-explanatory, but let's talk about the former a bit.
One of the most common sources of SPP is inflicting casualties. A player receives these points when involved in a block that injures an opponent, regardless of whether he was the attacker or defender. Unfortunately you don't have a huge amount of control over this due to the randomness of the armor and injury rolls, but there are still ways to increase the likelihood of scoring a casualty (see the "Fighters" section below).
Another common (and far more controllable) method of getting SPP is scoring touchdowns. It's difficult to get a big guy like a troll or ogre to pick up the ball and run with it, but it's not unreasonable with most other players, meaning that touchdowns are a reliable way of directing SPP to the players that need them (contingent on your ability to score, obviously).
The other big source of SPP is the MVP award. Every game, a random player on your team will receive 5 SPP for being the MVP. This could be any player that was on your team during the game, even one who died or a temporary one like a mercenary or star player. The MVP award can be a big boost if it lands on a player who normally has trouble gaining SPP (like the aforementioned troll or ogre).
Finally, while passing is risky for most teams, high-AG teams like elves can use easy short passes as a constant drip of controllable SPP to level up their important players. Of course, the penalty for failing a pass is pretty severe, so it's important to be careful with this strategy.
Playing to Your ST
So what do you do with all the SPP once you have it? There's no simple answer. The best skill choice for a player depends on his position and role on the team, the rest of the team's makeup, and your plans for the team's future. That said, here are some common choices for improving your positionals:
Fighters
Many players on your team contribute primarily by knocking opponents over. As previously discussed, Block is a very powerful skill for this sort of player, boosting their knockdown odds and reducing their odds of getting knocked down in return. Big guys want this more than anyone since their obvious fighting role on the team is hampered by Loner often preventing block dice rerolls, but unfortunately they usually only have access to it on doubles. If you roll doubles on a big guy, Block is almost certainly the right pick.
Another big concern on bashy players is SPP generation. These players often make good cage corners and ball carrier defenders, meaning that they don't get to score a lot of touchdowns themselves. Fortunately, there are a few skills you can take to improve your chances of inflicting a casualty. Mighty Blow is one of the best of these, allowing you to add a +1 to either the armor break roll or the injury roll. Let's take a brief look at how that affects the injury math that we did in a previous post:
The Claw skill also significantly increases a player's lethality. Claw causes armor break results of 8 or higher to be treated as a success, meaning that even your toughest opponents effectively have AV 7 during your blocks. Obviously, it combines favorably with Mighty Blow: every time a player with Mighty Blow and Claw knocks an opponent down, he has at least a ~14.35% chance to inflict a casualty and, in doing so, gain 2 SPP.
If you find your fighters frequently going up against enemies with Dodge, Tackle can be invaluable. A player being blocked by an opponent with Tackle cannot use the Dodge skill to turn Defender Stumbles into Defender Pushed. As a nice side effect, a player with Tackle prevents adjacent enemies from using their Dodge skill to get a free reroll on dodge rolls. In short, Tackle is as effective as Block for increasing your knockdown chances against Dodgers, but it comes with an extra little bit to make their lives even harder.
The Jump Up skill can also be quite valuable. Jump Up allows the player to stand up without losing movement and, more importantly, stand up and throw a block with a single action by passing an AG roll with a +2 bonus. If the player has AG 3 or higher, he passes this check on a 2+. Jump Up is in the Agility category, though, so most bashy players will only be able to take it on doubles.
Cagebreakers
Some players specialize in knocking the ball loose from opposing cages. The most obvious example of this is the Wood Elf Wardancer, but many teams can reasonably construct one.
Leap is a classic cagebreaking skill as it allows the player to leap into a space adjacent to a ball carrier without having to make any difficult dodges. Of course, once you've leapt into the cage, you're generally looking at a single die block against the ball carrier. To make this block as effective as possible, cagebreakers usually get Strip Ball, which knocks the ball out of the carrier's hands if you hit him with a Push or a Stumble, and either Block or Wrestle to down him on Both Down. This makes for an ~83% chance of knocking the ball free on the single die.
Cagebreaking is a dangerous job, and Block/Wrestle and Dodge are very useful on a cagebreaker to help him survive the enemy turn.
Ball Handlers
Players who intend to handle the ball have a lot of great skill choices. Dodge and Block are great for keeping you standing if you intend to hold the ball in enemy territory and reroll skills (Sure Hands, Pass, Catch, etc.) contribute tremendously to your chance of success at their related tasks.
Accurate adds 1 to all pass rolls, which is the same as having an extra point of AG for throwing purposes. If you remember the math from our passing post, that's a pretty nice boost to completion %.
The Strong Arm skill allows a player to add 1 to any pass roll they make outside of Quick Pass range, making it almost as good as Accurate. The interesting thing about Strong Arm is that it's in the Strength category, which many passers can only access on doubles. This skill is a valuable pick if you want to run a passing game on a team with lots of Strength access.
The value of Diving Catch and Hail Mary Pass is discussed here.
Nerves of Steel is a great skill for players who often find themselves attempting to pass or catch while surrounded by enemies, as it negates all the tackle zone penalties for those actions.
Foul Appearance is an interesting skill. When a player wants to block an opponent with Foul Appearance, he must first roll 2+ on a d6; if he fails, his action is still used up but he doesn't throw the block. This skill has some obvious utility on ball carriers, although it's a Mutation skill so most teams won't have access to it.
Linemen and Weak Offense
A large portion of your team (at least at first) is going to be composed of a lineman-type position. These players will usually be involved in a lot of violence without being particularly well-equipped for it (average ST, no Block, etc.). There are a few skills that these players may find very useful.
Wrestle occupies an interesting space. Wrestle modifies the Both Down event so that it brings both attacker and defender down without causing any armor rolls and without ending the current turn (unless the ball carrier initiated the block). This works even if the one or both players have Block. While this result is obviously less fun than Both Downing a guy who doesn't have Block and watching him crack in half, it's also more reliable because an opponent with Block doesn't deny it. There's significant value in disabling tackle zones, especially at the line of scrimmage or in a cage. Wrestle also protects you against Block and makes opposing Blockers less eager to attack you (since you'll get up from a Both Down on the opponent's turn before they will).
Guard is also quite strong on linemen, for a lot of same reasons. In all the places where Wrestle is good because it lets you turn off opposing tackle zones, Guard is good because it lets you provide assists despite those tackle zones. Linemen spend a lot of time either struggling on the line of scrimmage or making paths for more specialized players, and Guard is extremely useful for both. It's a Strength skill, though, so many linemen can't get it on normals.
Too Much Of A Good Thing
There's more to team improvement than just getting as many levels as possible. Every time one of your players levels up, your Team Value bloats a little bit, and if you get enough of that going on you'll find your enemies coming into games with ringers and wizards and extra rerolls and all kinds of unfair things. Next time, we'll talk about managing your Team Value to provide the maximum awesome to you and the minimum to your opponent.
If you find your fighters frequently going up against enemies with Dodge, Tackle can be invaluable. A player being blocked by an opponent with Tackle cannot use the Dodge skill to turn Defender Stumbles into Defender Pushed. As a nice side effect, a player with Tackle prevents adjacent enemies from using their Dodge skill to get a free reroll on dodge rolls. In short, Tackle is as effective as Block for increasing your knockdown chances against Dodgers, but it comes with an extra little bit to make their lives even harder.
The Jump Up skill can also be quite valuable. Jump Up allows the player to stand up without losing movement and, more importantly, stand up and throw a block with a single action by passing an AG roll with a +2 bonus. If the player has AG 3 or higher, he passes this check on a 2+. Jump Up is in the Agility category, though, so most bashy players will only be able to take it on doubles.
Cagebreakers
Some players specialize in knocking the ball loose from opposing cages. The most obvious example of this is the Wood Elf Wardancer, but many teams can reasonably construct one.
Leap is a classic cagebreaking skill as it allows the player to leap into a space adjacent to a ball carrier without having to make any difficult dodges. Of course, once you've leapt into the cage, you're generally looking at a single die block against the ball carrier. To make this block as effective as possible, cagebreakers usually get Strip Ball, which knocks the ball out of the carrier's hands if you hit him with a Push or a Stumble, and either Block or Wrestle to down him on Both Down. This makes for an ~83% chance of knocking the ball free on the single die.
Cagebreaking is a dangerous job, and Block/Wrestle and Dodge are very useful on a cagebreaker to help him survive the enemy turn.
Ball Handlers
Players who intend to handle the ball have a lot of great skill choices. Dodge and Block are great for keeping you standing if you intend to hold the ball in enemy territory and reroll skills (Sure Hands, Pass, Catch, etc.) contribute tremendously to your chance of success at their related tasks.
Accurate adds 1 to all pass rolls, which is the same as having an extra point of AG for throwing purposes. If you remember the math from our passing post, that's a pretty nice boost to completion %.
The Strong Arm skill allows a player to add 1 to any pass roll they make outside of Quick Pass range, making it almost as good as Accurate. The interesting thing about Strong Arm is that it's in the Strength category, which many passers can only access on doubles. This skill is a valuable pick if you want to run a passing game on a team with lots of Strength access.
The value of Diving Catch and Hail Mary Pass is discussed here.
Nerves of Steel is a great skill for players who often find themselves attempting to pass or catch while surrounded by enemies, as it negates all the tackle zone penalties for those actions.
Foul Appearance is an interesting skill. When a player wants to block an opponent with Foul Appearance, he must first roll 2+ on a d6; if he fails, his action is still used up but he doesn't throw the block. This skill has some obvious utility on ball carriers, although it's a Mutation skill so most teams won't have access to it.
Linemen and Weak Offense
A large portion of your team (at least at first) is going to be composed of a lineman-type position. These players will usually be involved in a lot of violence without being particularly well-equipped for it (average ST, no Block, etc.). There are a few skills that these players may find very useful.
Wrestle occupies an interesting space. Wrestle modifies the Both Down event so that it brings both attacker and defender down without causing any armor rolls and without ending the current turn (unless the ball carrier initiated the block). This works even if the one or both players have Block. While this result is obviously less fun than Both Downing a guy who doesn't have Block and watching him crack in half, it's also more reliable because an opponent with Block doesn't deny it. There's significant value in disabling tackle zones, especially at the line of scrimmage or in a cage. Wrestle also protects you against Block and makes opposing Blockers less eager to attack you (since you'll get up from a Both Down on the opponent's turn before they will).
Guard is also quite strong on linemen, for a lot of same reasons. In all the places where Wrestle is good because it lets you turn off opposing tackle zones, Guard is good because it lets you provide assists despite those tackle zones. Linemen spend a lot of time either struggling on the line of scrimmage or making paths for more specialized players, and Guard is extremely useful for both. It's a Strength skill, though, so many linemen can't get it on normals.
Too Much Of A Good Thing
There's more to team improvement than just getting as many levels as possible. Every time one of your players levels up, your Team Value bloats a little bit, and if you get enough of that going on you'll find your enemies coming into games with ringers and wizards and extra rerolls and all kinds of unfair things. Next time, we'll talk about managing your Team Value to provide the maximum awesome to you and the minimum to your opponent.
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