Tuesday 18 March 2014

To Keep or not to Keep?

Lets take a look at Keepers



I have been trying to write this for a while and keep forgetting. There has been some talk on Quirkworthy and the Kickstarter comments about the pros and cons of Keepers even going as far as Jake himself saying that he wishes he never wrote them into the game. Well never fear, The Daily Punter's here to try and give the Old Keepers a spot of TLC and see if we cant think of a few ways we could get them working again.

Problems with Keepers

To me there are two problems with keepers at the moment.

Firstly, if they pick up the ball they can only Punt it, which counts as losing the ball and so ends your rush. This means they only really want to pick up the ball when you have a comfortable lead.

Secondly, the Punt is in-accurate and pretty impossible to predict and form a game plan around. This leads to Keepers just being used as Super Guards but with the proviso that players have to make sure they are aware of the ball and how it may land in a keepers lap.

How they could Improve

Give the Keepers some way of handing off the ball. Now I am not suggesting they can pass the ball around like normal. Maybe Dreadball should include a hand off mechanic and having seen some of the beta rules from DBX you could just say that Keepers can Pass (and shoot if you want) but limited to a distance of 1 Hex or.........

You could develop a new action like below. (Only a starting point)

Hand Off

A player may Move up to 1 Hex before Handing off a ball. But must end a greater distance from the opponents 3 Point strike hex than they started. They may dash if they want. For a hand off to succeed the handing off player must move into a Threat hex of a the player they are handing the ball too. (They do not have to be facing this player). If they don't reach they drop the ball and it scatters from the hex they are in this counts as losing the ball.  If they do reach the receiving player then rolls the following test.

Hand off: A 3 dice Skill test (1)
*-1 per opposing player threatening the hex you are in (maximum -2).

*+1 if the receiving player is a striker
*+1 if both the handing off and the receiving player are in each others threat hexes.

Hand Off Succeeds: Receiving player safely takes control of the ball.

Hand Off Doubles: Receiving player safely takes control of the ball and can take a free move or throw.
Hand Off Fails: Receiving player drops the ball and it scatters from the hex they are in. This counts as losing the ball.

Secondly Punt needs to be looked at some what. The easiest solution that I can see is that Punt doesn't count as losing control of the ball and so ending your rush. you still cant predict where the ball is going to end up but it is now an option to try and get the ball down field and score.

Thirdly I would go a little bit further to try and get Keepers to act more like the name suggest with the following addition to the Keeper Skill.

Keeper - Guard Only

Gains a 3+ Armour, Ability to Punt (see above) and Ability to Intercept. (See below)

If an opponents strike attempt would travel through a keepers Threat Hex the keeper may attempt to intercept the ball. The opponents strike attempt become a 3 dice Skill (X) test instead of a (1).

Intercept: a 3 dice Skill test (X)

*-1 per opposing player threatening the hex you are in (maximum -2).
*+1 If the Keeper is in a hex next to a strike hex.



Keeper Wins: Keeper punches the ball away and it scatters from the hex they are in. This counts as the passing/striking team losing the ball.
Keeper Doubles: Keeper catches the ball and can immediately Punt the ball.
Draw or Strike Attempt Wins: Striking team scores as normal.
Strike Attempt Doubles: Striking player scores and showboats as normal they may also place the Keeper prone in any of their threat hexes. (To simulate the keeper falling over)

Have at it in the comments below!!!!!

1 comment:

  1. Not sure how i feel about this. A keeper can "intercept" the ball if you have run interference. Anything extra could make it a bit ott.

    ReplyDelete