In 2018, I started playing bloodbowl at a local club, I took to the game quickly as it scratched a lot of my favorite things in gaming - Miniature panting, not painting a lot of miniatures, developing as much or little fluff as you want and risk management. Bloodbowl is undoubtedly a dice game and for its detractors, I'm sure they consider it only that. However, the skill of the game is managing the dice, a great representation of the "fog of war" that can happen on the field. Upsets happen in real life as they do in games, fortune can be fickle but if you do your best to mitigate misfortunes, you don't need to be fortunate to win nor a poorly timed statistically improbable die roll to lose. Nuffle (the god of the sport of bloodbowl) giveths and he taketh away! My dice screwed me they cry out! I cant argue that rolls will go bad, maybe a case could be made that people exist who are a statistical anomaly, people who the dice truly hate. If those people exist, their favorite game is bloodbowl.
To an outside reader I will try to keep the rules of blood bowl brief. Its effectively football where you resolve a majority of actions by rolling a six sided die. There are ways to reroll the die, which can be done once per roll. Any die result that is a 1 will end your turn in addition to other possible bad things. In its simplest form, every time you roll a die, theres a 16% chance you turn will end.
This is where risk mitigation comes in, some times you can roll two dice and pick which die to use. To play well you need to prioritize actions that are necessary, in addition to trying to reserve riskier actions for the end of the turn. Bloodbowl rewards this type of play, in my opinion more than rewards, it also punishes the opposition. Having one player take actions that are statistically more likely to succeed, will have that player making more successes, these successes can remove the opposition from the game, which allows the player who is doing well to take even statistically better actions because they now have the majority of pieces on the board. From this, a player who isn't taking the best course of action, who has players down or out, is now forced to take more and more improbable actions, leading to more failures on their part. Bloodbowl in my theory, is rewarding steady play that takes the route mitigating risk and punishes the bold. Obviously, there is a lot more depth to the game, positioning, screening, knowing when and why to take riskier actions. If two player both play their best game, unfortunate rolls are definitely a factor in deciding that game. However not all unfortunate rolls are bad luck. I remember the day I got decent at bar room pool, which is surprising cause I also remember being really drunk. I knew that pool is about making all your shots, but during this game I realized if there is a shot you cant make then you need to make sure they don't have a good shot either. In pool you aren't just sinking balls, but you're also trying to leave the cue ball in an advantageous spot for your next shot, and poor spot for the opposition. If an opponent fails rolls that you forced them to make, do the dice hate them?
Sportsmanship
Bloodbowl as a game played correctly will have one player making statistically better rolls while another player will either be making less probable rolls, or in the case of some players, make no rolls at all. When the game isn't down to the wire, then making a bad play isn't the right call. Making an unnecessary improbable play isn't something that will garner a lot of sincere sympathy from me. As a player, in a casual league but also during tournaments, I've tried to dissuade people from doing bad stuff. As a player I also like to secure my win, so if you're down, I'm going to kick you. Bloodbowl isn't won by not taking hits given and I haven't seen many people not take a hit given to them. I don't want to kick a player while they are down from poor decision making, it's not fun and it doesn't feel sporting. Sometimes, I will do it, because abstaining from securing the win may lead to a loss. I'm not a good enough player to observe when the game is securely won, so I will keep trying to win.
Dice whining isn't my cup of tea if I'm honest, I will try to commiserate with people but sometimes seeing the risk mount until it fails doesn't feel like misfortune to me, it feels like you didn't get lucky. I don't want to come off as someone who hates dice whining, I've bemoaned Griff Oberwald - the second best player in the game - roll seven 1s in one game. This dude, all he needs to do is not roll a one, and if he does he can reroll them for free! A few of those ones I rolled, maybe I didn't need to and if I did, shit happens, Fog Of War, Griff wasnt feeling it. I was having him do most of the heavy lifting that game, so its a WTF Griff and move on. I don't have great responses to dice whining during or after the game, I get it, it sucks. I wish I was born into wealth, I wasn't and I do whine about it. That's how the dice roll so they say. Whining about other peoples dice is a bigger problem for me. I don't know what to say. Historically, in tournaments I've done well in, or even in clubs, I have had opponents really upset that I beat them. I think it hurts their ego because I act like an idiot a lot of the times, I also admit my mistakes and use self deprecating humor. I've experienced people blaming luck on my win, like I wasn't participating in the match. You didn't lose to me, you lost to chance. We can play again and I can win again but after my fifth consecutive win, maybe I'm not lucky, maybe I'm just good at this game, at this moment. What is the response to "your dice are too good?"
Leaning into it
My response to repeated remarks that I'm lucky is to let people know I am lucky. It started with the phrase "TOP DECK" this is where I act like I drew the card I needed to win. Listen Homey, if our game is that close are you winning. Sometimes ill already have the card in my hand, I don't like dissuading people of their belief that my luck brought about their loss, I feel their ego is too fragile. Next was "CRITS ALL DAY" followed by my now favorite "CANT STOP HOT DICE." If I have to hear about how good my dice are and how bad yours are, can I participate? I played a game today and we commiserated about bad dice, at the end of the game however, my opponent acknowledged my good play and didn't leave the draw (which I was playing for) as a result of fate. Not to toot my horn but my opponent was about to make one of those objectively bad plays, real bad, unlikely to succeed, if it does succeed it gains him nothing and if it fails, it could turn my draw into a win. I talked him out of doing it. In a casual league versus a new player, that's sportsmanship,
I'm definitely rambling- Leaning into it pt2.
My response to cries of luck is to reinforce their belief of my blessings and be jovial about it. Some could say I'm a poor winner and that would be true but often I'm more jovial when I lose. If I'm acting boisterous and having fun win or lose, am I the poor sportsman? I've heard people say I'm a sore winner, I've played games where they've thrown cards or models, insulted me, said I was worthless or lucky, that I'm annoying and vulgar. Usually the sorest losers are the biggest dice whiners, and the nastiest opponents. As I make myself smaller, so they can have a more comfortable game, as I don't take the best plays - so I don't have to hear their cries, who's being the poor sport?
Conclusion -
In my theory - less risky plays, plays in which you take actions that are likelier to succeed, while forcing your opponent to take actions that are less likely to succeed are going to have the effect of, the player making more rolls that have a higher probability of success, which lead to more rolls that have a higher probability of success, while inversely the opposition will be making rolls with lower probability of success and due to their failures will be making less rolls. Confirmation bias will be seeing one player make a lot of successes, visible at the end of the game while the other player will have more failures. "Youre lucky and I'm unlucky." This is what happens when you are forced to make bad plays, your dice don't hate you, you just didn't have the opportunity to make the best plays. The action of continuing to cry foul about these dice is asking your opponent to play worse. If I want you to not be upset that you don't have the opportunity to make good plays, then I need to play worse and give you good plays to make you happy. For everyone to have fun, I need to play bad, That's why I don't like dice whining. This isn't for casual bemoaning about shit, this is for the dudes that lean into that bad behavior. Also, I guess it's for people who don't know how to get better. Don't make objectively bad plays!
I'm not going to proof read this, see you in 7 years!
