Guildball: First public playtest!

Last night at the bunker i got to take part in the first public playtest of Guildball with Mat Hart, one of the designers. It was a rough and ready game with cardboard print outs of the players and stand in warmachine tokens. We also had print outs of the playbooks and damage grids for the players of the Butchers and Fishermen teams.

Going through the teams and checking over the playbooks

 

Game set up and kick off

 

 

Early game, the Butchers have the ball but my Fishers are closing in!

Grayscale the Fisherman has stolen the ball from Brisket and is trying to bug out

 

 

1nil to the Fishers and a big ruck develops over possession midfield haha

 

 

Grayscale scores again but the Butchers have really done a number on my team and have killed 3 of them... Kraken, Angel and Salt the Seal are paste, most of the work done by Boar!

 

 

 

In the end, after a hard fought match my Fishermen were 2-1 up when we had to call time. During the game we talked a lot about their plans for the kickstarter, further expanding the game after the initial release and fine tuning the rules as they are. Much of this I cannot divulge but I have been given the green light to give out the following:

 

 

Fishermens Guild players names:

- Shark, The Captain

- Angel

- Siren

- Grayscale, The Elder

- Kraken

- Salt, The Mascot

 

 

Butchers Guild player names:

- The Captain

- Boar

- Brisket

- Shank

- Princess, the Mascot

 

 

Sorry but I have forgotten the remaining players names d'oh, i will have them all in the next update.

 

 

 

Other releasable information is in regards to the special abilities. Each player has a number of them that they can use allocated "influence" to activate. They vary in nature such as "One to the Guts" which cases additional damage to the wounded player when next they are attacked, and "Fish Legs" which Shark has to allow him to move an extra 4 inchs! That one in particular is very powerful as it, when stacked with other buffs etc, allow him to sprint a hell of a long way across the pitch to do a hit or go for goal!

 

 

In one play I had Shark activate (near salt for a speed up), buff his own speed by two and then charge 13 inches to hit a butcher, get a big hit in, sea legs for 4, hit another butcher, sea legs away to cover Greyscale before he scored in my next activation haha. All this was possible through the playbook, you allocate out your successful hits, doing damage and picking up bonuses such as momentum and free ability use. Clever use of the playbook is really central to the game, it opens up a lot of possibilities and strategy, one game has shown me that and with more under my belt I hope to uncover a lot more of the hidden depth to Guildball :-D

 

 

 

More next time!