A Blood Bowl Rules question

Are there any differences between the Blood Bowl Handbook (rulebook) included with the boxed set that GW sells on their website and the most current edition of the Blood Bowl Living Rules that I should be concerned with?

Across both version is the core gameplay the same when just doing a regular matchup?

I understand there are differences in the league rules, but i'm not really concerned with those (yet).

The real question is why the hell isn't there a F:AT league up on FUMBL?!?

The rules are practically the same.

(Really the living rulebooks have grown annoying, I spend more time replacing pages than playing. I've been trying to get my game club to freeze on a year since living rulebook 2.)

Well, practically the same sounds good enough to me.

Core play is basically the same...but skills, team makes ups, kick off charts, handicap rules, injury rules and many others are quite different.

I say get 5.0 and stay with the times. Or maybe freeze on 4.0 so you can hang out on FUMBBL.

Bah!

Time to print off the Living Rulebook.

It's a shame really since the rulebook that comes with the boxed site is of a rather nice quality.

Shit - bit of BB support at the Fort. My small club is made up of a lot of minis players, and when they have their damned BB leagues that means fuck all boardgaming going on unless all the remaining non-BB guys turn up on the same night ... actually I moan to much, it does give me and the other keen-as boardie a time to get the 2-player games out (Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit, War of the Ring).

LRB5 is what drove me away from Blood Bowl. As far as I'm concerned it's "Blood Bowl for Dummies" and is NOT the game I used to love to play. Many pundits oput there will argue for the fact that LRB5 fixed many of the problems with league play-- well THE most important problem anyway: the fact that experianced teams would literally destroy fledgling ones.

Other than that, I don't see the point to any of the LRBs beyond or 4.0 to tell the truth. I was involved in the BB tourney scene for four years, helped my friend with the logistics side of running the DEATHBOWL tourney in Montreal, and I can honestly say that a definitive ruleset which eliminates all of the little problems that are inherent in the game of BB is impossible. All any of these rulestes ever proved was that every different ruleset saw players finding new and inventive ways of taking advantage of exploitable mechanics-- something that is still true today according to my friends still involved in the BB tourney scene.

And LRB 5.0 was supposed to be the end all be all of rulesets, benefitting from ungodly amounts of playtesting through FUMBL and PBEM leagues around the globe.

So, to reiterate was Ozjesting said, if you wanna hit the tourney scene- learn LRB 5.0.
If you wanna do the FUMBL thing learn LRB 4.0, and if all you want to do is build a league- you can use the plain, old, vanilla ruleset that comes with the box and houserule whatever you think is broken.

The truth of it is it doen't matter. Nothing beats the experinace of a reliable BB league. Nothing.

Now wich one of you bastards can teach me how to instal and play FUMBL on my computer so we can get the F:AT league rolling?

fumbbl client is easy. What sort of problem are you having?

Basically download it...install it. (then get fancy and use my Loony Toons sound pack replacement)

home.roadrunner.com/~javabbowl/

I'd still like to know what the differences in the rules are.

Are the rules limited only to league play or have other fundamental aspects of the rules been changed such as how you pick up the ball or throw it?

I bought the Blood Bowl boxed game to have an Ork vs Human fantasy football game. I'm looking at it from the viewpoint of it just being another 2 player boardgame that I own.

If you just want to have a one off game with the humans and the orcs...ANY rule set from 3.0 forward is completely acceptable.

I certainly won't be listing every change as they are many!

Many of the changes are only league and as such won't bother you.

But there have been many changes to the skills..HOW certain skills work has been changed, and teams are different for many races...but if you only want basic Blood Bowl you are right to go ahead.

I had a lot of fun with 3.0 and so should you.

Some sample changes: Stand Firm no longer allows you to keep the square you move to if the dodge roll fails. Diving Catch is changed. Claw is different. New skills have been added such as Wrestle and Fend. Mutations are now more common but have been altered somewhat. etc

But as said...ANY rule set will do if everyone uses that set.

All up I am a big fan of 5.0. Many complain...but I rarely see their point. It still has shortcomings, but goes a long way to making league much better. Plus I think many of the new skills and/or definitions are better than people give credit to.

I am a tournament player though...one off games are not my thing with BB. To me this game only shines in league format. But I hope you have a great time with it. Still my favourite game after 20 years playing!