Orrible Newz! After just one Matchday the San Diego Corrupt Cheaters had to unregister from the XXXL. Rumours are that corruption was the reason. All exclusively hired Star Players from the Cheaters enter the Free Agent pool again. And the wicked Erratic Eccentric Entertainers will join Division Tailz to fill the group u back to seven.
While writing these lines we are eagerly expecting their debut game against the Bogan Picnic Hamper Stealers, a game with two Pogoers on each side, promising too be a fast paced game with great GFI leap fouls.
The Entertainers are already known for their mischief by trading while still being an unregistered team. By gud coincidence special reporter happy Amateur already interviewed their Coach to give you a better impression of the league's newest member.

The sun shone down on the pitch as the Mad Moon Mischiefs took on Possibly the most Knives in a violent game. It seemed as though there were a dozen trolls lumbering around the pitch. High in the stands, the Commissioner was enjoying the hospitality of the best box seats. Next to him the syphocantic coach of the Night Goblin Nasties™ was busy telling him just how great a job he was doing and how everybody loved the league more than life itself. There was a knock on the box door and a security Gobbo leaned through.

Security Gobbo - Dere's a koach ta see yu boss. Loopyloo.
Mekutata - What!? Who does he think he is coming up to the Commissioners box? Bloody peons! Send him away!
SG - Yes boss!
Happy_Amateur - A millyon pardins mi leeje, but i fort i mite envyt hem up ta do an intavew wiv hem abowt hiz entre too da leeg.
Mekutata - Did you now, you grotty little prole? Fine. I was bored of this game anyway. And the copious amount of treasury coinage I have fraudulently wasted betting on the Knives appears to have been squandered... once again.
H_A - Fank yu boss. Let 'im in den!

The security Gobbo waited, watching the boss and ignoring the horrible fat little coach.

Mekutata - Yes, yes! Bring him in.

The door was opened, and a distinctly rat-like Goblin entered the Commissioners box.

Mekutata - By Nuffle it's funny looking! Furry even! And no doubt incompetent! Happy... remind me to do something about the standard of coaches in the XXXL. This one doesn't even look like a Goblin.
H_A - Ov kors mi leeje.
loopyloo - I am 100% a goblin, yes yes. Definitely shouldn't question my goblinness. I am one of you, yes yes.
Mekutata - Hmmmmm....
H_A - soooo loopyloo.... tel me somefink bout yurself as i iz gunna rite a peece abowt yur entre inta da leeg.
ll - I run the EEE circus yes yes.
Mekutata - How drool.
H_A - Pleez Mista Komishina. Feel free ta asq hem da firs kwestion.
Mekutata - Of course as is only good and proper. So tell me you horrible little toad.... What is your favourite team in the XXXL and why is it the Black Tooth Ripz?
ll - me like the Mean Green Bogey Machines. Good business yes yes. Much shinies to come.
Mekutata - This one would be offended were I not suffering a severe case of the care-nots. I am tired of this already. Happy.. ask your questions so that this woeful creature can be gone from my sight.
H_A - Iz it tru dat yu ar, Mista Loopyloo.....
ll - Yes, yes.
H_A - Plees let me finnish! Iz it tru dat yu ar, Mista Loopyloo, in faevor ov alowin bloks on ane refz dat taek da feeld for teems in da XXXL?
Mekutata - Appalling!
ll - hmm... targets for stabby stabbings
Mekutata - Outrageous!
H_A - Dat's tru boss! Me so owtrayged dat i kud puke! Do i misundastand yu 'ere. Yu kant meen dat yu fink dat refz shud be stabed an 'urt?
ll - much mean. Dirty dirty trick.
H_A - But... but why!? Why wuld yu treet da refz liek dat? Wat 'av dey eva dun ta yu?
ll - Refs are friends
Mekutata - Well... that doesn't even make sense. It's like this interview has been terribly edited just to incriminate another coach.
H_A - Ar yu sayin dat yu hav freends insiyd de Refz Asociaton dat wil inflewens da outcum ov gaems in yur favor?
Mekutata - Shocking!

Suddenly a roar went up from the pitch. (remember there was a game on) Ripper had been smashed into the ground and was being surrounded by a gang of vicious little Goblins.

Mekutata - Foul him! Foul that blue bastard!
H_A - Wy ar dey not foulin hem!?

The little green swarm moved past Ripper, leaving him unbroken on the ground. There was a palpable sense of disappointment amongst the three coaches in the box.

H_A - Ee's avoydin da kwestion boss!
Mekutata - Is he!? Answer him you snotty little weasel!
ll - nono
H_A - Ansa me yu barstid! Ar yu sayin dat yu hav freends insiyd de Refz Asociaton dat wil inflewens da outcum ov gaems in yur favor?
ll - no no, me play with rules. Me have strong good good respect is all
H_A - Ar yu saeyin dat yu plae wiv da ruuls? Ar yu saeyin dat yu hav a blaetint dizregard for da sanktitty ov da XXXL handbook az writtin bi da greytist Komishina ov eny leeg eva?
ll - nonono, rules me follow-follow. You twisty twisty the words
H_A - Wun last kwestion for da reedas..... Wy do men hav nippels?
Mekutata - Ha ha Happy! You are an amusing little creature! To give milk... obviously! But I have one last question.
H_A - Pleez mi leeje. Go ahed!
Mekutata - What corruption event would fill you with the most terror? In short, which corruption card might give you the vapours?
ll - New CEO would be spooky spooky.... much change
H_A - What!? Iz dat sum sort ov fret agaynst da Komishina?! Gard! Gard!
ll - no no, current CEO needs good strong strong company yes yes?
Mekutata - I do believe this horrible little scrote is trying to seduce me Happy!
H_A - Me iz al da luv dat da Komishina needs! Gard!

Thankfully the security Goblins swiftly entered and began to drag loopyloo from the box. His pathetic shrieks of protest were nearly drowned by the booing of the crowd.

H_A - Well. Dats al we hav tiem for. Tanks loopyloo. Now ta go an edit mi kwestions so al hiz ansas seem terribel an kompleetli out ov context.
Mekutata - Perchance you could also edit the interview so that my grammer is perfect and I sound highly intellegent.

Some rule discussions going on in the discord and in my head.
One thing that can be said by now is that if something can be clicked, people will click it.
It's gud they don't let everyone come close to the red button otherwise we'd be already living in nuclear wasteland, if you can call that "living". Can I be better than Trump?

And I must admit, I already made several mistakes (filling in TVs wrong for gambling odds, lowering one Free Agent's starting price too much, forgetting to adjust a team's TV). So my solution? More automatisation with automated Excel Tables, and we need more Snitches!

The upcoming paragraph takes a look at a couple of rules and their mechanisms in XXXL.
Also a couple of changes.

Briberies and illegal legal Team Management

The basic idea of mine was that the Briberies represent an illegal activity happening after the official and regular Team Management. So the teams are basically done for their next game, and it's only those bribes that still happen team management wise.

Because Fumbbl won't let me as league admin add players in other Coaches' teams I have to unready their teams after Briberies and let Coaches do their additional hirings and firings based on bribe results.
But some regular hirings and firings happened during this phase to optimize accoridng to the opponent's TV.

This is problematic, it can lead to a disadvantage for the Coach who sticked to the rules. And I fear it will happen again as long as Fumbbl lets Coaches do that. We have so many additional house rules, it can happen that someone forgets some of those in general.

So what to do?

Based on the "red button" logic and the meta of cheating, scheming Goblins I propose following:

Everything can be done until it gets snitched! Teams are still not allowed to but can try to hire and fire regular players between briberies and their upcoming match, be it because they forget about it or because they are gits. But if their opponent notices they can snitch the "illegal activity" to the league officials. To reflect this option Snitching will become its own section in a handbook update for Matchday 3. If no complaints are made this rule will be active from now on.



We already use this logic - that a rule gets only enforced if noticed by the opponent - for sponsors, and have seen it used once. The table top version of Blood Bowl uses a similar mechanic (moving turn markers, and the option to field 11+ players with upcoming BB2020). Coaches can use the latest Odds table from Gunther the Gobbo to compare expected TVs to have an easy indication of illegal activity.

Legal Trades

The legal trades mechanic started very open in what Coaches can trade and how they can trade, and has already been limited after one match day.
I sense the need to limit them even further, at the same time I feel that any Coach to Coach activity in XXXL should work as organic as possible. So we will keep this one for now until the Play Offs.
One thing that will probably be added next season though is a minimum amount of money taken by the league (so if the 20% for the league can not be below 20K etc). Also a fixed transfer window that doesn't last through the whole regular season.

The option to hire additional Trolls or Secret Weapons (or Fans!) with this mechanic was not originally intended, but seemed natural to most Coaches, so I let it just go to see what happens. The crazy team builds coming out of this seem to benefit the league, but we tame them slightly:



Meaning if a team has 5 looneys due trading (or stealing) they can't hire a new one until they lose all 5 of them. The position will be unlocked as soon as the numbers of players in said position falls again below the regular numbers. Rule will be active starting next matchday.

Specialists Analysis


☆ Bribed Ref.
His house rule of not getting blocked must be enforced more strictly, otherwise keep the same for now. Lead to hilarious moments in the first Knives – Apples game. Needs more games to be evaluated.


☆ Fan
Sees much use... especially because of the Mean Bogies.
I tend to change them slightly for next season:
They will pay only after a game, full price of 1d6 if they were fielded at least one turn and came through the game alive.
Nothing if they were not fielded.
If they die a 1D6 must be rolled, on a 1 the relatives of the dead fan sue the team for 1d6*10K!

This way the admin work becomes a bit more efficient with roll and payment in one step, and the usage of those players becomes a bit more challenging with the consequences of a dead player costing potentially money. Still a gud deal for a free player who costs no TV.


☆ Filcher
The filcher seems to do his job well, being used by many teams and the cards lead to hilarious moments. But it might be fair to lower his price down to 70K. Also worth to rethink the rule of having a team keeping the TV when a player is missing a game due a rolled 1 on the Filcher Roll or on a failed card activation, making them a tad more attractive.


☆ Shaman
Has not been used much yet, but was already worth the price for the Test Tickle Testers who has both their players being saved by their shaman. I think this player can become valuable, especially during later season stages when Coaches try to keep injured Stars from leaving.


☆ Cheerleader and Player-Coach don't see much use.
My intention to change them in the upcoming season - or already in this season when Coaches are in favor - is that any gained free assistant coaches, cheerleaders or re-rolls through these players remain after the game, but gain their regular costs and raise a team's TV accordingly. That way they become much more powerful potentially adding to the amount of valuable re-rolls over the progress of a season.

This in combination with a general buff for teams with staff during Great Briberies should make them a more valuable option for some coaches:

☆ If two teams gave the same offer during a Great Bribery the more professional team with more staff members (including regular staff and specialists) gains advantage.


☆ Gark and Squig Tamers: Gark's Special Roll is currently broken, too risky with too little reward.
I'd like to change it to:
Tame Roll 1d6 before the upcoming match: 1 Gark/Tamer gets injured and misses next match 2-5 may re-roll upcoming Squig Movement rolls for Squigs in his team 6 may re-roll upcoming Squig Movement Rolls and add +1 to the dice result

I guess this might be stronger and make Squigs for teams with Mad more interesting.

☆ Riotous Rookies (not counting as staff)

Adding the Rookies as players and Inducement has been proven to be very useful for the Mean Green Boogey Machines, but their low TV is very special. Due having dodge they are insanely annoying meat shields. Needs more games to be evaluated.

Star Players

I am very curious how the dynamic prices of Star Players will change their usage in upcoming match days. Some overpriced players will become soon cheap enough that they might become more useful longterm.
Big Lunky and Gotrek Larson are prime candidates for being replaced after the season. Maybe some regular Trolls will end up there instead..

Sponsors

We have the first teams losing their sponsor. This was to be expected, the intention was to offer an additional payment that can also get lost easily. Very harsh moment for NickNutria's Grünhäute who were able to succeed their given PR strategy by scoring with a Star Player, but they where snitched for not promoting their sponsor on the team's biography page.

So is the effort to keep a sponsor worth it? A quick check on the teams that passed 3 matches with a sponsor.

☆Focus on Popular Players☆
*Bad Apples, failed in 2 of 3 games, earned 70K in 3 games. Lost their sponsor.
*Black Tooth Rips, succeeded in 2 of 3 games, earned 120K in 3 games. Rerolled same strategy.
*Mean Green Bogey Machines failed in 3 of 3 games, earned 80K in 3 games. Lost their sponsor.

Verdict: doable, the Bogey Machines focuses on other methods of payment (Fan Spam).

☆Promote a new Drink☆
Broken Nose Nibblerz succeeded in 2 of 3 games, earned 140K in 3 games. Rolled Raise Rage as new strategy.

Verdict: doable, but costs valuable profits (only 40K compared to two induced Babes)

☆Fan Interaction☆
Two teams with this strategy, both currently with 1 in 2 games success.

Verdict: With the recent Rule of 7s game this was tougher than expected, but still very doable.

☆Raise Rage☆
One team currently on course with 1 in 2 games and a Corruption Card already activated to make it 2 in 3 games.
Two other teams who never came close to a Corruption Card yet.

Verdict: This one was included to provoke more Corruption Events, one team spend 245K to get those cards and earned 120K so far with one game yet to play. So they did not profit at all.

☆Dominate Social Media☆
Possibly the most Knives succeeded in 2 of 3 games, earned 120K in 3 games. Rerolled the same strategy.

Verdict: Winning CAS war, simple and doable.

☆All Or Nothing☆
Mad Moon Mischiefs succeeded in 2 of 3 games, earned 100K in 3 games. Rerolled same strategy.

Verdict: Not playing for a draw, simple and doable.



These changes are now open for discussion, as any sponsor changes will be implemented not before the next season.

Next issue!

Leeg Petty Cash!!

How will the leeg spend their money and what will the Headz vs Tailz competition mean goldwise? Also: new cards? Stronger use of fan factors? Tune in at the next issue of unfluffed1

Free Agent Pool and hired Star Players

Card Decks

Induced Free Agents