This simple site documents the Uber-Roster project which I've been toying with for a few years (two anyway). This Uber-Roster is basically a tightly integrated, multi-page, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which I've developed to aid in generating, keeping track of, and playing Games Workshop's Blood Bowl, tabletop fantasy football game.

The Uber-Roster has gone through through many iterations over three football seasons (my local league runs from December to early spring) and I've finally updated it to include Games Workshop's latest (December 2003) rule changes (via the Blood Bowl Rules Committee (BBRC)).

This simple web page is meant to simply "get out there" this full featured Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, largely because I'd like feedback from the great BB community on what should/could be added/subtracted, or other suggestions! I think it's a really useful tool for automating team construction and it also helps sort out the now, somewhat confusing skill/trait rules.


What It Does...

1. Automated Team Roster

 This is the first page of the spreadsheet. This lists your team roster. Click the picture for a larger image. You'll note that there is a bunch of pull-down menus and that there are actually two different sections for player skills/traits and stats...more on these later. And don't worry, the pull-down menu graphic doesn't print out, only the work prints out for a cleaner finish.
The roster page contains quite a few automated sections to make generating your team faster and easier without having to look for any references, and to prevent errors (such as the wrong MA, etc.) from occuring. I've highlighted a few areas on the small picture at the left which, will help understand what the spreadsheet is doing. The following describes these highlighted areas:

Highlight 1 - Team Pull-Down Menu

 The first highlighted section is really where you start using the spreadsheet. At the top of the Roster page, you enter your team name, coach name, and (as shown in the picture) you use a pull-down menu to select which team you're building. All of the 2003 BBRC official teams are included. I'm sorry, but I haven't included any experimental teams.

Highlight 2 - Player Pull-Down Menu and Player Data

The second highlighted area shows where you pick the player position for each of the 16 roster player slots from more pull-down menus. There is a separate pull-down menu for each of the 16 player positions. These pull-down menus will only list those types of players available to your team, including Big Guys. This is all automatically sorted out in the background when you pick your team type (i.e., if you pick the 'Goblins' team, you'll only see 'Goblin' and 'Troll' as player choices). As soon as you pick a player, the remainder of the default data (MA, ST, AG, AV, Stock Skills, and Cost) for that player is autmatically entered into it's row on the spreadsheet. You're free to return to the pull down menus at anytime to make changes to your roster on the fly.

To the immediate right of the player position pull-donw menu, you'll note that there is a double stack of rows for each player position. the light blue squares under the MA, ST, AG, and AV sutomated (stock) values is where you may input increases or decreases to each player's stas, based upon ageing, etc. To increase the stat by one, simply input a 1 into the light blue square below the stat. Similarly, to decrease the stat by one, simply input a -1 into the light blue box below the stat.

The Skills section fo the roster also has a double stack set of rows for each player. The upper row is where the stock skills are automatically input when you select the player position formt he pull-down menu. The lower row is where you may manually enter new/acquired skills and traits during the course of play (the example at left shows Block and Dirty Player manually input for one of the Black Orcs).

Highlight 3 - Additional Team Info (Re-Rolls, Fan Factor, Apoth, Roster, Freebooters, Treasury)



This image shows the complete bottom portion of the roster sheet. The bottom left area of the roster lists Re-Rolls, Fan Factor, Apothecary, Assistant Coaches, and Cheerleaders. I've automated the cost of Re-roll and the availability of an Apothecary based upon whichever team you choose up top. (A little less need for referencing the LRB is a good thing). All you need do here is input the number of re-rolls, fan factor, etc. that you wish your team to start with. Note that I previously had a separate line for Extra Re-Rolls bought during the season and listed them as costing double the normal rate. I have chosen to eliminate that section with Uber-Roster version 1.5. sinc, they only cost double but still only count normally towards your Team Rating, there's really no need to separate them out.

In the central portion of the bottom section you'll see two areas. The top area automatcially lists what players are permitted on your team roster, and how many of each (including Big Guys). Below that, new to Version 1.5, I've created an automated list of freebooters and their stats which can be a helpful short cut during set-up for a league match.

At the top right of this bottom section are spots that simply list the totals of SPP items that your team currently has (total # of Completions, TDs, etc.).

Also, unmentioned previously, is the Team Rating is at the top of the page, at the right. The TR is automatically calculated as the roster is modified.


2. Generic Match Record

 The second page of the Excel spreadsheet is a simple, match record form. There isn't any automation here since this data is all external (i.e., determined by hand at the end of each match. It's here so that you may enter the data into the spreadsheet, for safe keeping, after your matches, and simply reprint the page for use in your next match. (click the image for a larger picture, if you like)

3. Automated Skills & Traits Listings

 (Click for larger picture)

If you click the above picture, you'll see that each available player type (Gobo to Troll for this Orc team example) has a listing of what skills and traits are available to him. As you know, the recent BB reviews have divided out Skills from Traits, and you need to roll doubles on an SPP roll to obtain traits for those skill classes ('Strength', 'Agility', etc.) which are normally available to each player position. Also on a roll of doubles, your player may take a skill from a category which they normally cannot select from. A simple example are Goblins who can, on a normal skill increase roll, only select an Agility Skill. However, if the Goblin did happen to roll doubles, they could then select either an Agility Trait or a Skill from one of the other categories. Pheew, with that said, this spreadsheet actually completely automates sorting out what skills and traits are available to each position on your team roster. Looking at the bigger picture of the above link, you'll notice two columns under each player position. The left column lists what can be selected from a normal skill increase roll of the dice, and the right column indicates what the player may take if doubles are rolled. This can be very helpful to a coach, especially those new to these newer rules. Unfortunately, the sorting performed for this table does not take into account a few things like the fact that Goblins can never use Might Blow because they only have a ST of 2. As you'll notice in the example, Mighty Blow is still listed under the Goblin. This is something I may try to work on in the future.

That's it!


4. Download it!

Now, if you'd like to try this spreadsheet for yourself, you can download it right HERE.
NOTE: Do to varying Excel versions, I've reverted to issuing an un-locked version of the spreadsheet so that coaches can again freely edit the sheets (except for the all-important Reference sheet). This is mainly so that coaches can highlight or bold text or change font sizes, etc. The file is still Read Only, to ensure that you'll always have a good copy in case some embedded equations and such get botched.

Current version is 1.8.

I'd welcome any feedback on it right HERE. Best wishes, and maybe we'll see you on the pitch! And special thanks to mtn_bike of the BB forums for helping troubleshoot this thing.


UPDATES

12/08/03 - Version 1.2 posted:
12/09/03 - Version 1.3 posted:
12/13/03 - Version 1.4 posted:
12/18/03 - Version 1.5 posted:
12/29/03 - Version 1.5 minor edit:
01/02/04 - Version 1.6 posted:
01/12/04 - Version 1.7 posted:
02/09/04 - Version 1.8 posted: