Electronic Blood Bowl board

[blinky465]

I remember playing Blood Bowl back in the 80s on a polystyrene pitch and some plastic minis. I even spent quite a bit on the 2nd ed miniatures and got quite good at painting them (and am gutted that they have disappeared during one of many house moves over the years!)

Anyway, as part of our hackspace expansion, I'm hoping to get involved in a weekly board-games night. And figured that now was an ideal time to get back playing tabletop Blood Bowl.

One thing I found frustrating with the old rules was the dice-rolling, re-rolling, looking up results in tables and so on, and while the 3rd edition helped a great deal, I still found it painful to try to remember which characters had which skills, which meant adding which modifiers etc etc

Anyway, the long and short of it is I'm a bit of an electronics whizz now so am thinking of putting together an electronic board (early progress can be seen at Nerd Club: Intelligent board game (Blood Bowl) development)

For anyone wanting to make their own, the board design is at Nerd Club: Electronic board game - Blood Bowl clone and a very basic mock-up discussed here Nerd Club: Using 2 PIC micros for a huge input array

Now I'd love for the board to be intelligent enough to do most of the decision making - I've already got it to recognise which piece I've lifted off (and replaced back onto) the board - it's only a small step to display the character stats on a small LCD. I'm still stuck in the 80s and table rolls and look up tables but what I'd like is to pick up a player, move them into position then press an "action" button and have the board work out all the modifiers, pick the random dice roll values and just report the outcome.

You can imagine how it might work -
Pick up a blitzer, move them into an oppopents line, press the "block" button then pick up the player you're blocking. The board then does all it's clever stuff and reports the outcome of the action.

Likewise you might pick up the player with the ball, press the "throw/pass" button then pick up the player to pass to. The board works out the distance, applies all the modifiers (since it knows where everyone is, tackle zones and the like) and reports the outcome, where the ball landed, scattered to etc.

My biggest problem is, I'm not all that familiar with the rules of the game any more. Where would be a good place to start? And are there any forum members who might be interested in helping out on a project such as this (to provide explanations of how the rules are applied in particular circumstances so I can code them into the board?)

[SorroW]

I think that rolling dice is a big part of playing TT.


That said I would so like to get one of boards to help me out. Sounds awesome!

About rule questions and so on. On this site and these forums there are some wickedly smart and insightful people. And any question you have that cant be answered by them can't be answered.

That said, maybe use one thread of Q&A type to make it easier.

To bad that the Microsoft Surface is so expansive, that would make the BB Table easier to make.. Like this D&D table: D&D + Microsoft Surface = Unheard-of Levels of Radness | GeekDad | Wired.com

/SorroW

[Netsmurf]

Originally Posted by SorroW

D&D + Microsoft Surface = Unheard-of Levels of Radness | GeekDad | Wired.com

/SorroW

That link crash my PC every time.

An idea for the board is also to have a dodge button

[SorroW]

Originally Posted by Netsmurf

That link crash my PC every time.

An idea for the board is also to have a dodge button

Ok... Lets try the Youtube version then: Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough - YouTube

:-)

Anyway. dodge button wouldn't be neaded? Surely it will roll dodges automatic when moving figures. Right? Or atleast a warning for "You need to dodge! Still want to move?" One feature I miss in Cyanides version... :-)

/SorroW

[Coach]

Wow, this will be impressive if you pull it off, good luck! If we can help in any way let us know.

[Greegronk]

This sounds really fun and interesting! I don't know that I can be as helpful as most of the people here, but if you need help answering basic questions, I'd be happy to help out.

One thing I'm curious about is the input at the beginning of the game. How does a player get their team and stats into the board? How will it know, before a kickoff, which pieces are standing where? These probably aren't tough questions to deal with; I'm just curious about what ideas you've had.

[Netsmurf]

I would use an online roster and just put in that player #3 is starting at A23 or where ever, then the board should have all his skills and stats - perhaps

[blinky465]

I've got to try a few ideas to try out, to iron out the wrinkles, but to date the idea is:

1. each player has a 20x4 LCD display on their sidelines. When it's your turn, it lights up.

2.You download your data onto the board via USB - so perhaps I'll make all the stats etc. online, so you can make all your changes at your leisure (using a nice interface) then you plug in and download (I did a similar thing with my miniature guitars project at Micro Band - rock out from your desktop! Miniature instruments, micro guitars, synths, basses and drums)

So now your board has two teams of players downloaded into it (including MA, ST, AV, AG and any special skills). I'll have some up/down/select type buttons, so you can cycle through your players and their name and stats appear on the LCD screen; select one then place him (or her, for all you ShadowForge players!) onto the board. This is how the board will keep track of who is in which square.

I'll try to get that bit working first and post some videos in a week or so (I'm away to Berlin this week and will be hunting down boardgame geeks at the many different hackspaces over there).

The bit I need help with is interpreting the rules so that during play you can simply lift a player (to select him/her) press an action button (block, throw etc) then lift a target player and the board will look at the stats, tackle zones of adjacent players, apply modifiers for skills, ignore downed/stunned players etc. then roll the "dice" and report the outcome of the action on the screen.

There may be some scenarios that need special interaction - I can't think of any at the minute, but thats (hopefully) where you guys come in! I wouldn't want to put a board together will all this intelligence, then the main players of the game not use it because "it doesn't handle X well" or "there's no allowance for Y".

(the pcbs/plans etc will be posted on my blog and freely downloadable for anyone who wants to make their own!)

[Netsmurf]

Regarding pass actions:

1, You must declare that a pass is to be player A´s action!
2, Does A need to pick up the ball?
3, Does A need to move?
4, Any opponent with pass block able to get into range?
5, Any opponent able to try and intercept?
5a, Roll intercept attempt.
6, Any tackle zones modifiers? (Including Disturbing P.)
7, Make the pass

As I can remember the action

[SorroW]

Originally Posted by Netsmurf

Regarding pass actions:

1, You must declare that a pass is to be player A´s action!
2, Does A need to pick up the ball?
3, Does A need to move?
4, Any opponent with pass block able to get into range?
5, Any opponent able to try and intercept?
5a, Roll intercept attempt.
6, Any tackle zones modifiers? (Including Disturbing P.)
7, Make the pass

As I can remember the action

I think it is easier and more streamlined if the button PASS means: I am now in the right spot with the ball and want to pass, Calculate what happens please.

So you can remove the 1-3 (or 4-5 aswell if you do those separate, but really shouold be together with the pass)

Just my thought. No idea if it is easier or harder...

/SorroW