A History of the Development of the Stunty Leeg by EvolveToAnarchism

A short history of the Stunty Leeg and my involvement in its development.

Chaos Halflings: One of the earliest Stunty Leeg teams. As I, and others have pointed out, this is one of the weakest links in the Stunty Leeg background. The past Stunty Leeg admin (Mr-Klipp) and I both agreed that the Chaos Halflings were a big mistake. They just don't fit into the Stunty Leeg Universe. Had we been redoing the Stunty Leeg they probably would never have been created. Unfortunately, they exist and probably won't be going anywhere any time soon. It's because of this admitted mistake that I advocate so loudly against letting it occur again.

Fairies: I designed this team. The fae aspect of the Wood Elf background was played up to create a Unique team that would offer a Novel playing style to the Stunty Leeg. This team was implemented by Mr-Klipp prior to me being satisfied with the roster. I subsequently tweaked the roster to enhance its Fluff, Uniqueness and Novel playing style. I'm quite proud of how the background mixes with the rules to create a FUN team. Annoying brownies (Jump Up), larcenous leprechauns (Strip Ball), and beguiling pixies (Hypnotic Gaze) are examples of background dictating skill choices. I certainly find this much more appealing then giving a player Kick and then trying to rationalize it retroactively; all because you think Kick would be a addition to Stunty Leeg. Sure, it's possible to retroactively make up some background to justify an effect, but more often then not it just looks like an ugly kludge.

Gnomes: Cusi designed this team. The team was based on the dimininutive dwarven cousins from the older editions of Warhammer. Elements of looted dwarven technology and culture were the backbone of this team's background. I provided Cusi with lots of feedback on this roster. I also played a role in the adding of Bombers (sticking true to the original concept) once Ski Junkie coded bombs for the client. I'd love to see this team have their background fleshed out a bit more by truly taking control of their dwarven heritage. See the T.N.T. background for the direction I'd like the team to take.

Goblin: Not much to say on this team other than it has served as the baseline Stunty Leeg roster from its inception.

Goblin Cheaters: Designed by Mr-Klipp. Contrary to what others would like to believe, the goblin background supports this team design. Goblins are expert cheaters, as should be obvious from their selection of Secret Weapons Star players in the main Blood Bowl Rulebook. This team was just a logical extension of the already establish Blood Bowl background.

Halfling: The only thing, I can add to this original Stunty Leeg team is that there was a desire to give Halflings chainsaws when secret weapons were coded for the client. In fact, the Chaos Halfling Carver was a suggestion for the Halflings. The name coming from the halfling food obsessed background: electric turkey carvers anyone?

Pygmy: I mined the depths of the Warhammer Universe to design this team. The team was based on an old Warhammer army book reference. The team's positionals and big guys were based on the logical background connection between the jungle-dwelling pygmies and the jungle-dwelling lizardmen. The pygmies were conceived as slow diminiutive stalkers with the positionals being based on totemic animals that they hunt (a tribute to an earlier version of the lizardmen). Yet again demonstrating that an interesting team proposal combines strong Fluff, Unique player types that combine to create a Novel playing style.

Nurglings: I designed this team. I tried to play up the horde background that the nurgling background inspires. This was one of my earliest designs and I'm not too sure how well I succeeded with this one. Low ag, access to mutations, no TTM, regeneration and thick skull, access to daemonic mutations arguably capture the essence of the shambling horde that nurglings should be.

Skink: The skinks are a Stunty Leeg oddity. They were way too good and way to dull when they were implemented. I don't recall who designed them. MV 8 makes them way too good for the traditional Stunty Leeg team of 2 Big Guys and roster stunty "lineman". There were repeated attempts to redesign them to make them fit better into the Stunty Leeg. Eventually after I had playtested a roster with no Big Guys, it was decided that Skinks should pay for their amazing lineman by not having any Big Guys. Although the skink's background fits into the Stunty Leeg, I'm not sure if a team based on skink lineman is that great a fit into how Stunty Leeg plays.

Skryre Slaves: I distinctly remember designing this team exclusively on their background. Weak cowardly skaven slaves who only have strength in numbers. Skryre technomagic dicating their secret weapons and big guy equivalents. But I may be wrong; someone who did not design the team, may best know how I actually designed the team.

Snotlings: I played a major role in influencing Mr-Klipp's decisions for this team's secret weapon players. The Stunty Leeg teams were designed on an ad hoc basis in the early days. The only major guiding principle was that the teams should gel with their backgrounds. Some decisions were taken rather quickly. I think the Snotlings suffer from this fact. Snotling Flingers were given Poison Dagger to represent the fact that in the background materials, snotlings are known for their harvesting and use of toxic spores. Likewise the emblematic Pump Wagon was designed to represent the wild erratic rumblings of their infamous contraption. Did the Snotlings really need a Poison Dagger player? I'm not sure but with the small number of Stunty Leeg teams available at the time and the fact that it fit into their background, it was a very easy decision to make the snotlings more fun by giving it to them. Did the Pump Wagon need General access? I think Klipp made a mistake on this one, especially since the Fanatic didn't have General access. I think this case study goes to show that you can't base a team solely on Fluff. Uniqueness, Novel playing style and balance must also be taken into consideration. When you combine all of these elements you get a superbly designed Stunty Leeg team.

Squig Herders: This team was a team that was truly designed by the FUMBBL community (not to imply that the teams I designed were solely my creation, I appreciated all the feedback that many people provided). Many different proposals cirulated for this team. I tried to take the best from the various proposals to create the list that I endorsed and that was later implemented. The team list was created to reflect that background. Squigs need handlers, thus Really Stupid. Squigs are wild vicious unpredictable creatures, thus OFAB. Squig's hoping ability is legendary, thus Pogo. Blood Bowl isn't supposed to involve non-humanoid monsters, thus the penalty roll. So, again, the background largely dictated how the team was created.

Strigoyan: I salvaged this from the dreaded "-ling" phenomena that so many people hated. Building on the original idea of others, I added the Strigoyan background to the team and tweaked the roster into something more palatable. I'd like to hope that people are reasonably satisfied with this team. I haven't heard too much negative feedback. I hope that's a sign that I hit a good balance and created a FUN roster.

Summary of the Stunty Leeg and my involvement: 2 teams ported in from Blood Bowl (Halfling & Goblin) 2 additional teams that I wasn't much involved in (Chaos Halflings, Goblin Cheaters) 3 teams whose later tweaking I played a role in (Skinks, Gnomes, Snotlings) 2 teams that my version of the team was later implemented (Squig Herders, Strigoyan) 4 teams that I was the main designer (Fairies, Skryre Slaves, Nurglings, Pygmy) Countless Stunty Leeg proposals were dismissed because they didn't fit in with the Blood Bowl background

I hope this puts my comments into perspective to those of you who aren't familiar with my involvement in the Stunty Leeg.

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