You have made it to the locker room, so cong rats. After getting through this guide you should be on your way to the easy road of a blood bowl coach. You need to download some programs and read up on rules, team races, build a team, register yourself with OLBBL, publish a team, and familiarize yourself with simple commands. Might seem difficult at first but after playing around for a bit it's simple and addicting
Download BBowl client. This client is the replica of the exact blood bowl tabletop version. Each team has up to16 players, knockout boxes, seriously injured boxes, and death boxes for the two different coaches. Any of the coaches or commishes will help you figure out the ins and outs of the program. Details will follow. Link Below http://www.olbbl.com/bbirc/download.htm,When opening this program you will need insert a nickname, then put, “//irc.librenet.net/#Channel1” into the chat server box (top one). On the bottom box (data server), put, “//chat.role-play.net/#Bbowl1”. This will connect you to the game channels, there are 8 different rooms.
1.) Download Team Editor, this is what program you will use to set up the initial team sheet. After setting up your team (team name, colors, names, stats, skills, ask someone if you are unfamiliar with blood bowl team set up). After setting up team sheet, save it. Open it up from where you saved it; right click on the page for view page source. Copy the codes (html). They will be inserted into the next program, Halfling Scribe. This should be the only time you will need to use this program until you create another team. Link below is for Team Editor. http://www.oocities.org/TimesSquare/Castle/2757/teamedit.htm
2.) Download Halfling Scribe. After downloading, open this program and click the view html option. Paste your team’s page source that you copied here. Now click view team to see your team. This program was made to make it easier to update your team’s player points, names, skills, etc. The following link is for the different teams you can choose. http://olbbl.com/olbbl/races.shtm Any new team will start with either 100,000, or 150,000 (Big Guys teams) in money to design a starting team. Within the money cap, you will need to determine how many players you will have. They cost money and you need to start with at least 11 players, Fan Factor (higher the better (9 max to start), re rolls (good to get a few now, they will cost double after 1st game), and possibly an apothecary (good in case a serious injury hurts one of those pricey players you just bought), the Halfling scribe totals moneys and updates to your team automatically. You can add up to 4 allies to your team, everyone after the 1st will cost you a fan factor point (some races have exceptions, check the website under rules). Also in game play you will have to roll a 1d6 for each ally on the team, on a 1 roll you loose a team re-roll for the half. An experienced coach can show you how to add team photos and where you can store your team (like yahoo geocities), feel free to ask questions. Halfling Scribe Link Below
3.) http://www.olbbl.com/olbbl/scribe.zip.
4.) Now you will need to sign up for the league. Go to the link, http://olbbl.com/olbbl/newcoach.asp. Fill out the information then contact a commissioner in the MIRC locker room (they have @ or + before there names). They will validate you and your team (after reviewing it).
5.) If you already know the rules of 3rd edition, it is helpful. Most who have played blood bowl on the board game. We have a rules, (please read http://olbbl.com/Olbbl/Rules/rules_index.htm, and races http://olbbl.com/olbbl/races.shtm , and reference table link http://olbbl.com/olbbl/tables.htm, on the olbbl.com page. These are very helpful, as well as watching a few games between experienced coaches. Also a good reference point for some information is the living rule book available in PDF online. http://www.specialist-games.com/assets/CompHandbook.pdf
6.) To use the BBowl client for games, it will respond to certain commands because you will not be using dice but bot's. Examples are nb, kb, fb. A Dice is considered 1d6, 2 dice is 2d6, a block dice which has skull, push, POW, POW/Skull and POW/Arrow is 1db. In blood bowl you are only allowed to have up to 3db, to make some rolling easier when you have multiple dice to roll and you would like to see each individual ersult type say "nb 16d6 v", it will give you the results of all 16 dice that you rolled. You would type nb 2d6 or nb 2db to execute these commands in game play. In starting the game, you need an opponent (get one in the locker room or play around by yourself). You need to roll weather, type (nb weather), after weather you will need to determine the gate, how many fans show up. Each coach types the teams fan factor times d6 as such (nb 13d6 gate) to get the total number of fans that attend for there team. Add up the two amounts and that is the total gate. Next you will decide whether there is a handicap between the two teams, if one team has a higher team rating than the other they might get additional cards and/or MVPS for their team. This is done by typing (nb handicap “lower team’s rating”, space “higher teams rating”, such as (nb handicap 223 345)). After that is determined, each coach rolls 1d6 to determine how many cards for the game they get. A roll of 1 is one card, a roll of 2-5 is two cards and a roll of 6 is 3 card then add modifier if any from handicap. Here is the link for the cards, http://olbbl.com/olbbl/cards.shtm. There are pre-game cards, mid-game and post-game cards, make sure you read them. Now you need to decide who goes 1st, usually this is decided by 1d2 where one coach calls before the roll odd or even. Each player should roll at this point 1d6 for each ally on the team, a roll of 1 will cause them to loose a re-roll for the half. The winner decided to either kick or receive. The defending coach sets up his 11 defenders with at least 3 men on the line of scrimmage, only allowed 2 players in the wing portion of the board, and the declare that his team is “set”. The coach for the offense sets his 11 men up on offense with at least 3 men on the line of scrimmage, only 2 players on the wing as well, and declares “set”. Each coach should agree to whether they are playing a fan friendly fouls game with re rolls to nasty injuries, wizard truce battle before kickoff. The defender places the ball on the offensive side and types nb kickoff, which will give a result, then after it is concluded the ball scatters by a "nb d8" direction, where 1,2,3 are the squares on top of the ball centered at 2, 4, ball, 5, are the middle, and 6,7,8, are the bottom results centered at 7. Then roll a d6 to count how many squares the ball will travel from the direction, then 1db for a final bounce. So, 1d8 direction, 1d6 movement, 1d8 bounces (if the ball lands on the defenses side of the board or off of the board, the offense may place the ball on any of their players. If the ball lands on an offense player, they may attempt catch it. The offense then begins there turn by clicking the 1 turn in front of their team name.
To throw a block on the other team’s player, they need to be right next to them. Announce which player from your team will block the other team’s player, a player can only block once per turn. Now check for assists, if there is a player from your team without an opponent’s player touching him, he may assist, this works the same for the defensive teams players as well, so be cautious when determining whether you want to throw the block or not, or maybe bring another player from your team over to help assist. Check your players strength and the opponent’s players strength, then add +1 strength for each assist you have from a player on your team, if the number of strength is equal, then 1db should be used, if the number is greater than the opponent’s player up to twice the opponent’s players strength, then use 2db. If the strength of your player is more than twice the amount of your opponent’s player, use 3db, (be careful if a player from either side has the Guard skill, they get to automatically assist for there teams player as long as they are next to the players involved in the block). After the block happens, check for a knockdown result. If you roll only a knockdown result of POW/Skull result you place the opponent’s player down in the square he fell in if he without the block skill, (note if you don't have the block skill your player will fall and it will end your turn), or if you roll a POW result or POW/Push,(note that if the opposing player has the dodge skill and your player doesn't have the Tackle skill, the result will become just a push result), the opponent’s player is to be placed in 1 of the three squares directly in back of the player from where the block is centered from the blocker and the blocked players are positioned. After placing the opponent’s player down, you now need to roll to see if you break the player’s armor, and if so, to see if they are injured from the block. Before you roll for armor you need to determine if you would like to follow up into the square that was occupied by the opponent’s player, or you may stay where you threw the block, but this ends the player’s movement when they throw a block. Once a player has finished his declared action, he may not move again that turn. Also, when you are in one of the opponent players tackle zone (when you are next to one, and haven't moved or are moving), you will need to dodge to get away from them. That happens by rolling 1d6, there are modifiers from how many player tackle zones you are in and if you are entering another opponent player’s tackle zone. A player’s agility helps determine if they succeed or fail the roll, if at any time a player fails over it will end your turn (the skill Stand Firm will prevent the payer from failing on a failed attempt, also the skill Dodge will let you re roll the attempted player dodge as long as the player you are dodging from doesn't have the Tackle skill). Some player skills like Mighty Blow, Claw, Fang add modifiers to armor and injury rolls. To check the player for armor and injury break, you need to know their Armor value. Let’s say the players armor is 9 AV(armor Value) and your player has Mighty Blow (+1 modifier to Armor rolls, and +1 modifier to Injury rolls), type nb arm9 1 1. This will automatically roll both results. If the armor breaks, an injury roll will happen, and the result will let you know what to do next. Injury rolls are either stunned result, KO (knocked out), BH (badly hurt), or SI (seriously injured) where they miss the next game, and also might lose a point stat in their MA, STR, AG, or armor permanently, or even Death. The offense team is allowed one blitz per turn, which is when you can throw a block on any player on the field as long as you can reach them from movement. The blitz does take up one movement itself from the players total movement allowance. Any player on a team is allowed to what they term GFI (go for it) 2 extra squares by rolling 1d6 for each one, on a roll of 1, they fail. This can be re roll'd from either a team re roll, which you are allowed to use once per player turn, or some player skill that they either start with or can learn (examples Sure feet skill, Pro skill, Leader re roll skill). The Blitz action must be declared and happens like a regular block. Although after the Blitz happens, the player is allowed to finish their movement and GFI, if they like. You can decide to pick up the ball at anytime, even pass it or hand it off, you must declare the action you are going to do before you move the player (a player is allowed to take only one action per turn, the team is allowed to pass, blitz, hand off, or foul once per turn). Passing, handing off (works just like a normal catch), catching, and picking up the ball is based on the players agility and modifiers. When announcing to foul an opponent’s player that is knocked down, you declare to foul, add all modifiers (the fouler gets an automatic +1 to armor when fouling), assists, modifiers and skills help determine the outcome (Dirty Player skill modifier adds +3 to armor rolls, +2 to injury rolls, also Mighty Blow, Claw, Fang modifiers can be used, only one skill can be used of the modifiers, but must be declared when fouling). You would type nb foul8 3 2 if you were using the dirty player skill with no assists on a player with 8 armor, nb foul8 2 1 if you foul a player using your mighty blow skill against a player with armor 8. Also you can use Fang with Claw skills in fouling as well, a player with just Fang would be nb foul8 1 2, just Claw would be nb foul8 3, or both nb foul8 3 2. Remember any player that gets caught fouling (rolls doubles because there are 2 separate dice used when breaking armor, (example 4,4 armor roll) they get caught by the referee. You can re roll this if you have a re roll or the player will get ejected, the foul results still happen but the player will miss the rest of the game. You can roll 1d6, on a result of one, you the coach gets ejected, on a roll of 6, the referee looks the other way and you may continue without penalty with your turn. So recap, you get to block players, one blitz per turn, one foul per turn, pick up and pass the ball or handoff if you have the ball, and of course catch the ball. Good to set up a cage to keep the ball carrier from being blocked or blitzed the next turn. When done you write “GA” (go ahead) for the other coach to start their turn. The defense starts their turn and at the beginning or anytime in their turn can stand or pick up their wounded guys that have not been stunned (they use 3 movement to stand up), the players can still blitz but not just block. Players that have been stunned can turn over; (when players are stunned you right click the player and choose the stun option) they can get up the next turn. Now the defensive coach should position his team to the strategy they prefer, whether cramming players together, dodging players from opponent’s players, to prepare for a blitz, foul, or the following turn. Same rules apply to all actions that the offense has, if you should get the ball free, you become the offensive coach. After a touchdown is scored (a player from the team that has the ball enters the opponents end zone), you will type “nb td” to signify touchdown. Both players reset their players on the field and roll for knocked out players (1d6, on a 4+ the player can join his teammates on the field, 1-3 they stay in the box), players in the BH, SI, or Dead box cannot come back unless the have regeneration skill (on a 3+ they return to help the team, 1 or 2, they fail and are doomed to their injury). Both coaches then reset with the player who just scored setting up for defense. Both coaches take players from the reserve box of their team until they have 11 players on the field, if they have no more eligible then they have just the players on the field already. Both team continue play until halftime (when both coaches have played 8 turns). At that point both coaches roll knockouts and/or regeneration rolls. The coach will reset the team re roll count, then roll 1d6 again for each ally on the team. The team that kicked off in the 1st half, now receives. The other coach sets up his defense and they play till both teams have finished 8 turns each. Game Over. At the end of the game, each coach determines the other teams MVP of the game, team handicaps grant some teams additional MVP’s (an MVP can be awarded to a player that dies that game). Then each coach rolls for a Fan Factor increase, decrease, or whether it will stay the say on 1d6 (use reference table from the web site to determine modifiers). Then each coach rolls 1d6 to determine the amount of money the get, then adds modifier from typing in nb winnings (gate) (team’s team rating), example nb winnings 148 245. The bot will tell you if you receive additional funds for the game. From there, each coach determines after counting star player points earned if they earn a new skill roll. Normal players get a skill roll at 6,11,26,51,101,151,251 points, Big Buy players earn skills at 11,21,51,101,201,351,501 points. If a player qualifies then you type in nb skill #(number of player). After that process, each player determines if will buy something for their team, such as players, re rolls, an apothecary, wizard or to give some money to the other coach. From there, you now need to go to the OLBBL page and click match reports at the bottom and report your game. Best to know the total before you go to report. Names of teams, Score, Casualties, Team rating, Gate, Winnings, Fan Factor, total in treasury, new team rating, and new skills. Then fill everything in and write some good notes about the game and list what you bought with other details such as cards you received, and player missing a game. Thanks for reading, I hope it helps.