I feel the need for a bit of a project.

After crashing out of the FC last week with my Frogs munched into little Clawed up Mighty Blow Piled On pieces, I’ve now had both of my favourite teams cast onto the ‘rebuild job’ pile. To be honest, it’s not a pile I look to and think it’s going to be much fun beginning that particular journey. I’ve never had much drive to rebuild teams once they’ve been slapped down (well, except League teams), it’s just not my thing as a rule. On-top of that, my week hitting Amsterdam hard is still with me I think, 9 games of BB across 3 days and an awful lot of beer thrown in has meant that I’m a bit topped up with Blood Bowl for now. I tend to walk past groups of people in the street and criticise their formation – that’s an awful cage for a bus queue to be arranged into. I’m in there for 2D. N00bs.

I think it happens to us all every so often. BB, of course, has no off season. January is much the same as July in terms of there always being something to play in, always something to build to. Any rest we grant ourselves is rest we choose to take. I think resting is really important sometimes, it’s really very easy to slip into the ‘just one more game’ cycle, and three months later, you forgot what you were pushing for, and the joy of the game has gone, it’s more like watching the Matrix drift down past your eyes as you robotically insert non-descript pixel a into square b (and don’t joyously Dodge a Wardancer next to Morg). It’s important that even though we’re lucky enough to have our hobby on a 24 hour, continuous free drip feed, we don’t overdo it to the point it’s a job and not something to enjoy.

So I’m having a bit of a recharge of the old FUMBBL batteries for a couple of weeks, but I think when I return, I’d really benefit from engaging in some sort of project.

I’ve never been the sort of coach to really give myself a direction. I’ve found the sport of a one off R / B game enough for me, that competition doesn’t need an over-arching goal or story, the game is glorious enough on it’s own. But I don’t know, perhaps a bit of a push in some direction or other may be good for the old grey cells, might put the pazazz back into BB. How many of us with thousands of games can really still claim to get excited when the ball kicks off, rather than just praying that Blitz! doesn’t happen?

I got to thinking how much I’ve enjoyed the Majors I entered this year. It’s unlike me, I think (as my previous blog mentioned) LRB6’s greatest FUMBBL triumph may have been elevating Majors from pointless cheese expresses to worthwhile endeavours. You may as well delete the history of them up to 2011, as far as I’m concerned, but we now live in an era where such competitions are relevant, for all sorts of reasons. Also, I’ve not really enjoyed my last few games. I’m not up for opening a Claw / MB / PO debate, but my own feeling is that I’d rather a guy try and thoughtfully out-Guard and out-block me with a bash team than engage one or two kill machines and click through an hour without thinking. So, perhaps making a run at the R Major circuit might be a nice route back into the addiction in a couple of weeks. I think Darkies are excellent in the ruleset, I’m yet to build what I’d consider a DE team I’ve fell in love with, and I think I’m unlikely to play that much in terms of Claw / MB / PO (although I’m not up for deliberate avoidance). I’ve never really had a proper go at a Ranked Major, so it’s untested ground.

Although, that does strike me as a pretty bland project. I mean, it’s not the genius that is Evolution of Undead Pixels, is it? Boy, when ideas like that pop up, you have to be jealous you weren’t the brains behind the soon to be legend.

Has anyone had a genius idea lately? Anyone part way through an awesome project I can rip off? What direction is interesting and a bit ‘out-there’ to add a bit of spice to proceedings? I don’t think 16 Snotlings is really my cup of tea, but I’m certainly open to some genius new way of looking at BB that elevates the spin cycle of play, play, play to something loftier.

Of course, BB never really ends once you’re in it. You never break free, you chase the Dragon, along with everyone else. I’m co-running a tournament this weekend, buggering off to Belgium next week to get drunk / play TT. And the WIL is back soon for another glorious season I can’t not play in. So when I say ‘break’ I probably mean ‘blink’. Plus, all of those things are more socially than BB driven, to one extent or nothing. There again, a ‘blink’ is better than nothing at all. :)