4E is primarily a tactical skirmish game to me and I always wondered why didn't they do a module like Blood Bowl?
Blood Bowl 4E would take every strength of 4E and package it in a sports-related parody that could have easily been used to attract fantasy football types to try D&D in what can only be described as a "Beer & Pretzels" environment.
Does it have to be American football? No, I actually do not think it could be without really pissing all over Games Workshop IP. However, imagine a Blood Bowl version of Soccer called Sorcerous Soccer. It could have been done.
I just do not see why WotC staff failed in the imagination department on this one because it looks obvious to me. Hell, it looked obvious to me when 4E first came out.
We've actually been playing 4e as a tactical mini game if we can't get enough people together to play our normal Labyrinth Lord game.
Here's what we do:
- bust out a map with terrain features and squares
- we decide on a "level" and then spend the XP for that level of encounter to build an army out of the various monster books
- we then field the armies against each other in a skirmish brawl using the cardboard counters that came with the Monster Vault or whatever minis we've got hanging around
It's actually pretty fun; quicker than Warhammer Fantasy Battles and it works pretty well because, at heart, the combat system for 4e is a miniature war game.
Y'know, that's a pretty awesome idea.
Another would be to create Time Trial and Boss Mode runs just like video games. Or to have Street Fighter duels of two competing parties. Or perhaps a Wrestlemania Royal Rumble last man standing tournament.
There's a lot of little things you could do once you rip away that D&D RPG monicker that saddles the game with so much expectation. People who are duelist minded, i.e. most Magic the Gathering players, would totally jump aboard a competitive format. They'd just need to cut down the battle length by using smaller squads or something, like battle team duos or trios. Throw in player ratings and storyline tourney play and they could've had a hit.
Again, such a wasted opportunity...
Edit: I'm now thinking of how to structure a King of Fighters "D&D Tactics" tournament with Dead or Alive interactive terrain... I mean, create your own Street Fighter and design your own arena hazards? Sounds shit for an rpg, but I KNOW I could get a line up of players for a tourney for something like that. Seriously, they could've tapped into something really interesting.
Quote from: Opaopajr;503645Y'know, that's a pretty awesome idea.
It is, I agree.
Blood Bowl 4e would have been awesome. To answer your question, there isn't a Blood Bowl 4e because WotC hire lazy, uncreative hacks.
This topic is heresy, as Blood Bowl is for Warhammer only. Ceas it immediately or face consequences of Inquisition's wrath.
But seriously - GW still may sue, actually. Remember Chaos League, that PC game? GW sued and they won if I remember correctly.
Quote from: jeff37923;5036124E is primarily a tactical skirmish game to me and I always wondered why didn't they do a module like Blood Bowl?
Blood Bowl 4E would take every strength of 4E and package it in a sports-related parody that could have easily been used to attract fantasy football types to try D&D in what can only be described as a "Beer & Pretzels" environment.
Does it have to be American football? No, I actually do not think it could be without really pissing all over Games Workshop IP. However, imagine a Blood Bowl version of Soccer called Sorcerous Soccer. It could have been done.
I just do not see why WotC staff failed in the imagination department on this one because it looks obvious to me. Hell, it looked obvious to me when 4E first came out.
Lol. Good idea.
They could have done a 'blood bowl' campaign setting as a lighter setting book for roleplay.
Quote from: Rincewind1;503963This topic is heresy, as Blood Bowl is for Warhammer only. Ceas it immediately or face consequences of Inquisition's wrath.
But seriously - GW still may sue, actually. Remember Chaos League, that PC game? GW sued and they won if I remember correctly.
depends how you do the game. What is the nature of GW's license?
If you base 4e Fantasysport on baseball or cricket or kabbadi then are you breaching their license of a fantasy football game?
Chaos League was very much Bloodbowl with the serial numbers filed off.
Quote from: Rincewind1;503963This topic is heresy, as Blood Bowl is for Warhammer only. Ceas it immediately or face consequences of Inquisition's wrath.
But seriously - GW still may sue, actually. Remember Chaos League, that PC game? GW sued and they won if I remember correctly.
To be fair, pretty much the biggest change difference Chaos League made was in the title. And we got a decent official BB game out of it, although I'd still like to see BB Championship Manager.
A D&D4 sports game would have to play vastly differently to BB, due to the way the rules are designed; you couldn't strip it down to something as simple as BB without losing it's distinctive feel. But something like, say, Team Fortress 2 style CTF, could work really well.
Fair enough, but then again, what sane mind would desire to play real - life football (screw you, America) or cricket, let alone it's fantasy tabletop version?
And if you went ahead and did rugby/American football style game, it'd risk pulling aggro on GW's lawyers - of course, in this case GW'd be on a lost ground money - wise, but then again, Hasbro might have wanted to just avoid bad press and troubles of lawsuit. And GW's solicitors are quite known to be trigger - happy.
Isn't this just D&D Minis?
Quote from: two_fishes;504103Isn't this just D&D Minis?
No, that was 4e. :D
:rolleyes: You just can't help yourself can you?
Quote from: two_fishes;504123:rolleyes: You just can't help yourself can you?
Sorry, but that one I really couldn't. :)
Quote from: two_fishes;504103Isn't this just D&D Minis?
Yes and No. D&D Minis had a lot of possibilities and could have done a fantasy sports parody as well, but this would be capitalising on the strengths of the 4E game in a way that try to appeal to new and casual Players.
As Ladybird has suggested, getting sued by Games Workshop over using a similar idea as Blood Bowl, actually would be a selling point in my mind because the lawsuit would have brought attention to the game.
Quote from: jeff37923;504154Yes and No. D&D Minis had a lot of possibilities and could have done a fantasy sports parody as well, but this would be capitalising on the strengths of the 4E game in a way that try to appeal to new and casual Players.
As Ladybird has suggested, getting sued by Games Workshop over using a similar idea as Blood Bowl, actually would be a selling point in my mind because the lawsuit would have brought attention to the game.
Well, their mass-market push for 4E has been the D&D boardgames: Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and Legend of Drizzt. Legend of Drizzt is apparently quite successful - it is currently the #54 board game on Amazon, on par with Monopoly and Candyland.
I'm not sure how a parody game would do compared to these. It seems to me that parodies are more of a niche market that appeals more to people who are already fans rather than to people who aren't already into the genre being parodied. i.e. Bloodbowl appeals more to fantasy fans than to football fans.
Where the hell is this idea coming from that GW has a license for American football?
They don't even use real American football rules in Blood Bowl for fucks sake.