DreadBall 2nd Edition: Questions and Answers

The fans have spoken! DreadBall – The Futuristic Sports Game is coming to Kickstarter in late July and we recently asked what you wanted to know about 2nd Edition. Below is our question and answer session.

From Joseph Mallen

What are you doing to make it more worthwhile to bring star players? They are too expensive and unavailable during normal play, and leave your team too fast, and they eat up XP that could have gone to players you would keep.

There are a couple of suggestions to make it more worthwhile to take your star player miniatures.

The first is the introduction of Team Captains as upgrades your team can take.

We’ve effectively got one MVP of the same race as a team, and each is suitably in a unique and heroic pose, so those miniatures would be repurposed as Team Captains – meaning you actually get to play with those miniatures!

For example Riller would become a Team Captain upgrade for the Zee team.

They’ll keep their identities so all the background will continue to exist, but they’ll likely have their benefits toned down for balance's sake.

Those miniatures that don’t go on to be Team Captains, for example Number 88 or Grak, would then be our Star Players – and they will be special. We’ll rework the way they can be included in your team so that they are worthwhile.

From Joshua A. Hatch

Do you regret opening up this thread? =p j/k... I want to know if we will be seeing more teams in hard plastic or resculpts (in resin or restic or metal) and will there be more teams (stands at 25 right now if you include Martians... what about the Martians!!!???!!!)...

We regret nothing!

With this next edition of DreadBall we want to take the need to assemble your miniatures away so we won’t be doing hard plastic. Instead we’ll be using the same material as The Walking Dead miniatures and figures like the Veer-myn Brood Mother and Night Terror. The plastic is awesome and great for the take-out-the-box match ready figures we want to offer!

There will be at least 2 new teams for the new starter game in this material – but we don’t want to go crazy. We’ve got plenty of teams already.

From Matt Smith

Would it be possible to include a pdf of the pitch as it'd be great to print it on various materials? (I've a project in mind but not telling... Secret squirrel! )

I’m sure we can do something like that at some point!

From Ben Ratcliffe

Will there be changes made to cheerleaders? Currently there are of little use other than to spend left over mc on in a league.

The way Cheerleaders and Coaches are used will be looked at. The great thing about revisiting this game is we’re not adding rules – all of the ideas are in front of us. So this time we know what we’ve got to play with so we can bed it all in right from the get-go. Cheerleaders, which were originally a bolt-on, is just one aspect of the game that will benefit from this approach.

From Dan Johnson

Who is involved, who isn't, what is the overall process and timeline to get from here to release?
Will it be a transparent process as rules get finalised?

Like Kings of War 2 and Deadzone 2, 2nd Edition DreadBall is ultimately an editing and balancing job and so we’re working with our DreadBall Rules Committee – who better to streamline the game than those who’ve played it the most!

The RC have been given a brief of what we want to do to the game and milestones for deliverables, including playtest events and when it needs to be ready for public beta. We hope to have it all written by the end of the year.

From Rob Clarke

1. New teams ?
2 new player positions?
3. Deadzone style command dice ?
4 d8?
5 When’s the Kickstarter start?

1) Yep!
2) Nope
3) Nope
4) Nope
5) End of July

From Seb Jacquet

Are DreadBall Cards still there, or disappear for some Coaching Dice system - like Command Dice in Deadzone 2 (or anything else) ?

The DreadBall Cards aren’t going anywhere ☺

From Mikael Dufresne
If you could point 3 changes. What would they be?

- A new league system
- Revisit Jacks/MVPs/Giants
- Rebalance the Teams

Those are our focus as well as generally streamlining the rules so they are easier to understand and easier to find.

From Peter Mc Hugh
Will we get to beta test any team changes before they get made official?

Yes.

From Ken Layden
Will there be a single compendium with the full rules and the stats for every team? What will happen to Dreadball Ulitmate? Will there be expansions?

1) Yes
2) It is actually being revisited at the same time – there will be a DreadBall Ultimate 2 as well!
3) That remains to be seen

From Andrew Wodzianski
Are there any plans to offer conversion stats or endorsed use of the Xtreme sponsors and/or Medi-bot?

Not at the moment.

From Sam Harris
If cards are returning, can they have full art? It's a great way to communicate the universe.

We think that’s a great idea! This is exactly the thing that Kickstarter would allow us to improve. We’ll see what happens!

From Don Squires
Will shock collars be reviewed? As it sits now they are too powerful and unbalance the game.

All of the special abilities will be revisited.

From Tristan Coulson
Will you be able to make free agents less random for those without the whole range.

That is something that will be reviewed.

From Daniel Stephen Jacklin
What steps are being taken to restore balance to the various teams?

We’re reviewing the team and defining their playstyles in more detail whilst reviewing how we can make each of them unique. We’ve some cool ideas on that (more to come) and then they will all be playtested at the same time – the thing with original DreadBall is that Seasons 4-6 were playtested at different times to Seasons 1-3

From Geoff Burbidge
All the rules in 1 book.

Kind of – with the amount of stuff the game has one book would be quite unwieldy. But there certainly won’t be more than 4 I don’t expect: 1 core rulebook, 1 advanced rulebook, 1 ultimate rulebook and 1 team book is the current plan.

From Joseph Mallen
What are you going to do to support players that already own all the Mk1 stuff? Will there be an upgrade pack? I saw mention of a bigger board. Does this mean there are more hexes, or the same number but each hex is bigger? Right now models overlap between hexes so larger hexes would be very helpful (On a cloth mat of course). If its a whole new pitch then a KS pledge level of that, any card sets, pdf and hardcopy of the rules would be very helpful.

On the Kickstarter the main pledge level will give you everything you need to upgrade from 1st to 2nd edition – we expect that when you see it, existing players will want to get the full bundle.

The bigger board will have slightly bigger hexes, much like the Grubatek pitch has slightly bigger hexes than the board in the base game. The size and shape of the board will not change.

From Sigurður Jónsson

Are you moving up to the d8 system like with deadzone?

Nope.

From Adam Laughton

I am excited about this, but have few "concern questions..." (1) Will you be upgrading to d8? Please! Gives more spread for teams... (2) Can we use all our old teams in v.2 without any extra purchases? (3) Will you be streamlining cards? (Command dice like DZ seem like an option to consider?) (4) Will you be taking your time on beta testing of teams, before printing?

1) We will not be upgrading to D8, though we recognize the need to ‘give more spread’ to the teams. We are testing a system for this and will let you all know how it goes.
2) No, you’ll need the rules and the stats for your team for a start!
3) The card system will not be replaced, the cards themselves will be updated and be made more interesting.
4) Yep! We’ve got a group of passionate DB players behind this game and lots of playtesting is planned. We hope that the community will help with this as well.

From Joseph Mallen

Are you doing anything to speed up the between games process so you can level up your team in a 1 day tournament without slowing things down? Team development is a key part of the game, as is the individuality of the players. Playing a BNIB team is not what we play for.

An app that manages your team might be a way, if it auto does all your maths, and assigns new skills, and keeps you informed what they do.

We are reviewing the entire league system including what you do between games, in part to make it quicker and more interesting. It’s unlikely we’ll totally rely on an app for this, it should be quick without one, but it’s possible there will be one as a game aid.

From Sam Rounsevell

Would be nice if Forgefathers were a bit more competitive this time. I painted them with no pants on and I'd like to show them off more. I'm not joking. It's a pretty swish white and silver centurion scheme and their captain is Glutimus Maximus.

All of the teams will be reviewed and, as far as is possible, each will be competitive in their own way.

From Michael Zebrowski

Will the STR stat finally be useful for Strikers?

It kind of doesn’t need to I don't think, a Strikers primary role is to score using its skill and agility. With such soft armour you probably don't want them to be in a position where they could use their Strength stat so I don't think we'll go out of our way to find a reason to use it.

From Don Squires

Will the new teams be given dbx stats as well?

Good question and I would have thought so – at least as digital downloads.

The 2nd Edition of DreadBall - The Futuristic Sports Game is coming to Kickstarter at the end of July. Find out more here.