Overview:
Under all previous rules since 3rd edition came out in 1994, Fan Factor has been quite important with regards to how much income a team generates. As a result it was imperative to start with as much as possible for a team playing in any league of reasonable length. If you didn’t then you were likely to find it hard to generate cash to buy/replace players, rerolls or anything else, though you perhaps had an edge on the pitch in your first few games. This was never the original intention of how Fan Factor should affect teams and therefore games, which led to the rules changing and the introduction of FAME.
Winnings:
While previously winnings was dependant on how many fans showed up for a game (which was generated from Fan Factor) compared to your team rating. Now winning the game is more important, or at least not losing the game. Both sides get D6 winnings from a match, with an extra 10k bonus if you either drew or won and the winning team gets to reroll their D6 if they wish, but must keep the roll on the second attempt. The other bonus that is available is from the FAME roll at the start of the game, instead of a bonus from the gate.
FAME:
Fan Advantage ModifiEr is what is generated from your Fan Factor at the start of the game, both coaches rolling 2D6 and adding their Fan Factor to the roll. Beat your opponent and you get +1 FAME for the match, which will give some bonuses on the Kick Off Table and an extra 10k winnings at the end of the match. If you get at least double your opponent that you get +2 FAME which as well as affecting the Kick Off Table, will grant you an extra 20k in winnings.
Fan Factor:
This may still appear as though it is important to have a lot of Fan Factor to get those bonuses on the kick off and the extra winnings, however the way Fan Factor gets higher or lower has changed which has made it not as important or indeed worthwhile to spend money on at team creation.
Previous rules your Fan Factor would more likely go up if you won the game and scored two touchdowns and caused two casualties. It would be more likely to go down if you lost and had at least 10. This made it fairly tricky to increase the fan factor no matter what you started it at as it was dependant on getting those bonuses.
Now however if you draw or win your game and roll over your current Fan Factor, then it will go up. So if you start with none, it will increases fairly quickly. If you draw you get to roll 2d6 and if you won you get to roll 3d6. This means that just winning the game is the most important and you don’t get any bonuses based on the performance. If however you lost or drew the game and roll under your current Fan Factor using 2d6, then your Fan Factor will drop down by one. This mechanic means you can only get a maximum of 18 Fan Factor (though it is unlikely and won’t stay that high for long), your low Fan Factor will climb up to an average, and your high Fan Factor will also get pulled down fairly easily to an average.
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I pretty much see it the same way. For 1 off games I will usually have only a few points of fan factor for any left over cash not spendable any where else (10-20K). For Leagues I generally start with zero and save the cash.
Fan Factor in BB is a joke since LRB5.0.
In our local League, my mate and I have made FF count with a House Rule.
For more info, see http://www.fenris.bloodbowlleague.com under Miscellaneous called Fan Factor and Winnings Table.
I was also apprehensive of the changes to Fan Factor but having played a full season using the new rules the changes are actually really good. You get far more variety in starting line ups under the new rules. You don’t get coaches refusing games in open systems because your team has a low fan factor. There is also less reason to retire or restart a team if your fan factor drops too low. Of course the rules are written to allow leagues to house rule as they see fit, though I really encourage coaches to give the changes a go. Some things aren’t as great under LRB5, such as losing the referee roll, but this is a change for the better imo.
The necessity for starting off with a high FF is indeed no more present, though after having started some teams in leagues with FF0, I have begun squeezing in at least a couple of points of FF in my teams… Despite the points in this article being quite true in regard to FF, one point that I generally experience is that once team rating goes up due to gaining skills or stat increases, you tend to face progressed teams (who generally have been in leagues for far longer) with a much higher FF.
Then again, for tournaments I never bother to take FF and instead try to max out on cheerleaders/ assistant coaches with any left-over cash.
A fair point, depending on the type of environment you are playing in and how your matches are determined can affect starting team strategy.
I have found that starting with 0 FF is risky, because even if the opponent has 0 FF too, either one might get FAME +2, which is makes them more likely to benefit from the Kick-off results Throw a Rock and Pitch Invasion. Especially in Pitch Invasion, FAME +2 leaves, statistically speaking, on the average, *half* of the opposing team stunned. I’ve had the pleasure of being the kicker with FAME +2 in that situation and robbing the ball and making a 2-turn touchdown from their receive was rather enjoyable. I’m sure someone can come up with one of those handy probability tables which show on columns the FF of one team, on rows the FF of the other team, and in the cells at the intersections the probability of getting FAME 0, +1 and +2.
That is just poor luck though, first one team needs to get +2 FAME, then you need to roll those events on the kick off table which are some of the less likely ones to come up. They also need to happen at the start of a meaningful drive, they could also come up on the odd last turn of a drive where they won’t have any affect on the match.
In every other game for most teams you are generally better off spending the money on better players or more rerolls, as statistically they will be more useful more often. That isn’t to say that you can’t start a team off well and get a lot of Fan Factor as that is what every team used to do under the older rules. The first few points of Fan Factor are easy to get as well now if you start with a low amount.
I created several of my early teams in the Cyanide game with a full 9 Fan Factor (because I hadn’t realized that it had changed since earlier editions), and I can tell you, while watching half the other team get stunned from a pitch invasion is awesome, I don’t think it makes up for the lack of Blitzers and key positionals those early teams have suffered.
Buy the key players, and let the Fan Factor earn itself.
My local Gaming Club (Bristol Vanguard) have decided to give everyone 5FF for free at the start, we found no-one was buying any and it works well, it has been in force for about a year now and no-one has found a down side to it, we all get the full 1,000K on our teams and our FF is at that point that it usually takes 5-6 games to get to, it just a nice starting point for everyone.
While I can see starting with 5FF might look appealing to some players, having everyone start with it for free has no effect on the game at all. You may as well start at the 0FF.
That isn’t true, it minimises the odds that someone will get +2 FAME for the match compared to starting with zero. It is harder to double the score if you add five to each. For example if one coach rolls 4 and the other rolls 9, if they both have zero Fan Factor then the second coach will get +2 FAME. If you add five to both this becomes 9 against 14, so this time the second coach only gets +1 FAME for the match.
is there any way to see the Roll for FAME at the start of the game in the PC game? and also, the roll for the Income at the end of the match?
I assume as of LRB6 you can’t buy fan factor anyway?
You can only buy it when you create your team which has been the case since 3rd edition in 1994. It’s just not as important as it once was with regards to determining your team’s income so you can spend more money on players or rerolls which was the original intention.