Blood Bowl 2020 Throw Team Mate Flow Chart & Questions.

Blood bowl is one of the coolest games I have ever played and I am completely enamoured by it. As my progress on translating the rules continues to slowly plow forward, I have come across the reality that the throw team mate action has changed somewhat…

Why throw balls when you can throw players holding balls?

Well, for one reason, it is a tremendous pain in the ass to sort through the throw team mate action if you don’t know what you are getting yourself into. So much so that I remember being almost too intimidated to attempt the action just assuming it would be too complicated to be worth it stealing precious time from my already pressed schedule.

Then I came across this glorious flow chart
(Available on the NAF website in their rules clarifications section. A goldmine of its own accord.):

https://www.thenaf.net/blood-bowl/rules/clarifications/

Charting for success

After seeing this ridiculous flow chart I was convinced that throw team mate was out of control. I still had to try it. After going through a few throws, laughing the whole time as traveling down each path and finding my answers and getting ever closer to the truth that is Nuffle’s grace, I loved it. This flow chart saved my bacon more times than I’d care to count and I refer to it every time without fail. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, nameless(?) chart creator.

New Rules, Updated Action, Updated…Chart?

The translation project has me reading and thinking about rules in great depth. That is part of translating rules for board games and wargames similar to blood bowl. You need to be very very careful about language. While I consider myself to be a very ‘rule of cool’ style player and tend to give plenty of leeway with the rules if it keeps the game going smoothly and smiles on the faces of friends and opponents, then who cares. Let the dice fly, let’s keep this wagon train rolling and play some pretend plastic football mans. But, I will admit that I am a classically trained rules lawyer, if only for the purpose of arguing on the internet and a desire to understand the processes intended by any game’s creator. This is a skill which has come in very handy for me while translating and making handouts for myself and my gaming group.

I wanted to make a new chart and add my own personal flair to it somewhat. I made version one, got some feedback from the internet, and made a second version and the ‘OCD Friendly’ version of that. I like how open and clear the chart for BB16 was, but there was so much open space and I wanted something that could be neatly printed on an A4 of B5 size sheet. I typically have the TTM chart on the back of my league play aids, alongside other things like skill lists, modifier charts, inducements and prices, etc. So I prefer when my content is more compact.

Blood Bowl 2020 Throw Team Mate Flow Chart! V2.0

Here is version 2.0

Here is V 2.0 OCD Friendly

Throw Team Mate Questions

The new flow chart has garnered primarily positive response from about 50 people which may not be much, but what can you do. I made a few tweaks to it. There are still a few small things that could be done, but I will deal with that after the rules are released and there are a lot more ‘official’ eyes on the product and I also get the real book in my own hands.

But looking over the rules I came across two main issues, one of which has been brought up in the context of passing the ball as well.

1. Throws modified to 0 or less.
A natural one will always fumble. A throw that becomes 1 after modifiers is considered a terrible throw (Something I am greatly looking forward to seeing in action on the pitch.) What about 0 or less? A crappy roll and a few tackle zones are all it takes to bring that value to less than 1. Are we talking a terrible throw? Does less than one after modifiers count as a fumble? I haven’t found anything noteworthy in the rules detailing modifiers that go to 0 or negatives so there is only speculation.

Personally. I think a fumble is a kind gesture compared to the potential disaster of a terrible throw. The throw player deviates from the thrower’s square (Behaves like the kickoff ball) instead of fumbling a single square. I think the potential for chaos is much higher with such a result than a simple fumble, bouncing the player a single square. Although even a bounce is more deadly than the previous scenario where they return to the square they started in allowing for potential of falling and knocking down their own nearby teammates adjacent to the big guy making the throw. But the majesty of failing so hard into the negatives that you manage to throw the stunty FURTHER than you could have (diagonally, if you roll a 5 or 6 that is.) potentially in the general direction you were hoping to send the player brings a tear to my eye. Of course, the potential for throwing them into the crowd or even back to your own goal line is also a very real possibility.

Until an official ruling comes out, I would decide it at the table or just say that that 0 or less results count as terrible throws. A terrible throw also has a -2 to the landing roll, while a fumble only has a -1. Speaking of landing, the second issue that came up involved that dastardly glider gobbo and the swoop skill.

2. Swoop in context of fumbles and terrible throws.
If a player is thrown superbly or successfully, the reach the target square, and then scatter. Scatter means roll a D8 three times and move them in the scatter template’s direction that many times. Swoop effectively replaces the scatter by allowing the controlling player to move the gobbo D3 squares in the direction of the throw in template. This almost guarantees a landing slightly closer to their goal destination or perhaps out of harms way to some extent. Fun fact, swoop doesn’t give a +1 to landing anymore from what I read.

But how does swoop factor in to terrible throws and fumbles? If we take the language from the skill ‘If the player is thrown by a team mate as described on pg 52, they do not scatter before landing as they normally would”. This sentence is all we have to go on. If I were strict, I would say that fumbles and terrible throws don’t count towards such a skill usage. First off, terrible throws aren’t mention on pg 52 at all. Fumbles are mention in this light, “A throw team mate action that is not fumbled, will always scatter before landing.”. I think that also clearly explains that a fumbled swooper won’t be able to use their swoopy goodness. But the terrible throw is in limbo, either that or I cannot seem to get the idea about a halfling deviating a great distance out of my mind.

I would guess that the Superb and successful throw would allow a goblin glider to effectively use their gliding equipment and gain those extra squares since they weren’t chucked willy nilly. Whereas a fumble isn’t really enough distance to warrant the ability to put the equipment to use. But a terrible throw can consider a great distance. Is it enough for them to unfurl their gear, catch a little wind, and swoop at the end of the terrible throw from the new target square? Or is a terrible throw so terrible that any such gear was destroyed or tangled and that poor gobbo is going to be eating turf for lunch? I can see a case for both and the rules (And my instinct) lean towards swoop being usable for superb and successful throws only.

But it is still a question I have and a clarification that I will wait for in the future. Until then, let’s hope nobody uses the crappy glider goblin and gets into a scenario where they are thrown terribly! (Nuffle is no doubt already plotting such an occurrance to happen at least 11 times.)

Thanks for reading and hopefully my throw team mate chart and discussion of the questions brought up by my research can aid you in your blood bowl play in the future. Feel free to drop a comment or question if you would like.

tRM