How is GravBall?
Hutnik, Richard
I forget who published it, but has anyone ever played a boardgame
called GravBall? It is a futuristic sports game. I saw it for sale
at a hobby store and I was interested in picking it up, so I was
wondering if it would be worth it.
Curious...
-Richard (email: ab...@maristb.marist.edu)
George Fagin
Hutnik, Richard <AB...@MARISTB.MARIST.EDU> wrote in article
<20MAY97.23...@MUSICB.MARIST.EDU>...
I played it a few times and wasn't thrilled. I would sell my copy for $10
plus $5 postage (don't have any idea what it sells for retail).
George Fagin
Michael A Hayman
Mine got destroyed in a flood but it was a fun game. The umpire is a
robot that just comes out and randomly mauls the nearest player when a
foul occurs (and not necessarily the fouler or even a teammate. Made for
some interesting dirty tricks.) Game, if I remember, needed a lot of
tweaking. Rebound off walls were some what simplisticly handled. I
remember making some angle templates to change it. Some nice 15mm figures
of floating players but you will want to make more stable bases. (I still
have old Heartless Huey the Umpire.) This game should be played in the
spirit of "Rollerball"!
Mike Hayman
New Orleans
George Fagin
Richard asked for a bit more info, which I emailed him, but I thought I
might post it as well:
It's been more than 10 years since I played it (yikes), and I haven't
re-read the rules, but I'll give it a shot. The game is basically a
futuristic form of hockey. There is a lot of 'storyline' that tells you how
the game is played in a 3-D weightless environment, the 'puck' is a 6-pound
steel ball, etc., but when you play, it's just hockey. The components are
nice: a mounted mapboard, small lead figurines (which I painted reasonably
well), and miscellaneous record-keeping counters and charts. The figurines
are on little pedestals so they play 'above' the mapboard, but EVERYBODY is
up there (no 'altitude' rules), so the '3-D' is entirely hype. This is what
put me off.
Rules: each player has an agility rating. They also have different armor
types, by position, i.e. the goalie is slow but hard to damage, while
forwards are fast and fragile. There is considerable mayhem, with players
able to 'take out' other players in several ways, and the (robotic) referee
(Heartless Huey) can, and does, attack players in some circumstances.
Players spend movement points to perform actions
(move,shoot,catch,check,assault,etc.). If the action is illegal, roll a die
to see if you are caught and sent to the penalty box. Play is 3 periods.
There is a red line and two blue lines. Play starts with a face-off. Did I
say this was like hockey?
George Fagin
Kuhlmodee
I remember playing league games of grav ball with a group of friends back
in the 80s. Normally I only play military style games, but that was the
one exception. It could be a blast. Of course my preferred style of play
involved incapacitating the other guys players so bad that by the end of
the season, the quality of their uninjured players remaining (due
primarily to the poor quality of farm team replacements) was marginal but
it was a load of fun!