DreadBall Historical Matches

Hello, it's Rob here - the UK's best DreadBall player called Rob (that includes you, Rob Taylor). For a while now I've wanted to do some sort of free content for DreadBall - an update to the game that gives you an excuse to dig out those old (or new) models and get them back to the neodurium.

In fact, this desire to release regular free content for DreadBall dates way back before the global lockdowns kicked in. After all, I know there are a lot of you out there playing DreadBall and you're looking for new ways to play the galaxy's greatest sports game.

NEW WAYS TO PLAY

First up, it's probably worth saying that DreadBall is my absolute favourite game. I love the mix of fast-paced gameplay, simple rules, risk versus reward tactics and those beautiful, unpredictable exploding dice. It's the game that dragged me back into hobbying and I've never looked back.

So, with that in mind, I'm keen to keep DreadBall current with new content. Whereas for other games, this might be the release of a new faction or new models, for DreadBall that's a little more tricky, IMHO. We're up to 29 teams, 28 captains, 30 MVPs and nine giants. The thought of adding more teams or even MVPs fills me with dread, to be honest. We've already got enough 'stuff' - again, my opinion.

That means the current plan for 'content' has to be something that's based on what's already available. For example, as some of you may have seen, I've been working on some very alternate rules for a game called DreadBall Arena Wars. This uses the DreadBall Xtreme core set and has giants as the players. It's a totally different experience to DreadBall but it feels strangely familiar.

Of course, the rules committees are always a bit nervous when I come up with one of my 'ideas' - something the members of the Deadzone RC will no doubt attest to as well. However, I basically nagged them into submission :p and now I'm proud to announce the first of our content updates: Historical Matches!

WHAT ARE THE HISTORICAL MATCHES?

One of my favourite experiences with DreadBall is playing through a league. Each of your players gains new abilities, ups their stats or maybe loses a limb or two along the way. The difference between a team at the start of the league and the end is leaps and bounds.

However, the issue is that, although we may love playing with those alternate league teams, we don't always have the time to play a league or make a full roster with alternate stats for a quick one-off game. And that is where Historical Matches come in.

These are some of the greatest games in DreadBall history - the ones Elmer and Dobbs talk about in holocasts, the games constantly repeated on DBPN Classic (DreadBall Programming Network Classic) or the matches kids want to play on their Super VirtuaStation 64. They typically feature teams at the top of their game - with all the upgraded stats and abilities to prove it. In other words, these Historical Matches give the feeling of playing a league game without actually having to play a league or even think about creating your own roster.

TRONTEK CORE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP L

The first Historical Match available to download is the 50th Trontek Core World Series Championship - created by the wonderful Andrew Wodzianski. This was a tightly-fought clash between the Draconis All-Stars and Ninth Moon Tree Sharks.

Although the outcome is now written in the annals of DGB history, this is your opportunity to replay the game to see if you can do better... or if the outcome will remain the same.

The PDF (which you can download here) contains a little bit of the history behind the match, along with the team rosters for each team. We've stuck to the core set for this match, as we hope most of you will have all the components required.

WHAT NEXT? AND A CHANCE FOR YOU TO GIVE YOUR INPUT INTO THE FUTURE OF DREADBALL!

Well, first up, I hope you enjoy playing this historical match. We realise it's tricky to get your game time in at the moment but I wanted to release this now, firstly so DreadBall players didn't feel left out as we give out freebies to other games and, secondly, to inspire you and see what we're up to behind the scenes.

If you really want to give it a go and don't have someone at home to play with, I can heartily recommend Ciaran Morris' excellent Vassal module, which allows you to play using a computer. You can download it here.

I also want this to be the first piece of new 'content' we release for DreadBall to help keep the game fresh. Ideally it would be great to even pull a compilation of all these historical matches together into a supplement, similar to Clash of Kings or Containment Protocols.

I'd also like to hear from YOU! Take a look at the questions below and email your answers to [email protected].

Make sure you have the heading 'DreadBall Feedback'. I'll randomly choose one person that emails in to win a £25 voucher for the website too.

• Do you like the concept of historical matches? Are they likely to encourage you to pull out some teams you might not normally use?
• Any suggestions for historical matches? You can include a little background and the team roster, if you want. Stick to around 2,000pts.
• Would you be interested in a supplement of more historical matches and other content, like matches on different planets with alternate rules? A little like the old Challenge Cup.
• Do you use Captains in your games? If so, do you use the Captain Cards? If you don't use Captains, why not? What would encourage you to use Captains?
• Do you use MVPs in games? If not, why not? What would encourage you to use MVPs?
• Would you be interested in annual game updates for DreadBall? For example, a new event deck that would be used throughout the year, an annual update to Captain cards, a new MVP, a supplement with new abilities to learn during a league, etc.
• When considering playing in a tournament, do you prefer 'vanilla' teams or do you prefer to create custom lists (a little like a league) by spending credits on upgrades and abilities?

Thanks in advance for all those that respond. Please bear in mind, these are just general questions and don't necessarily mean that any of them will actually happen :D