That’s right, we have even more rules for you!
Today marks the release of two brand new booster teams: The Headliners, and the Mighty Madcaps. They’re chock full of awesome models with great new rules.
And if that wasn’t enough, there are 2 new Superstars in the form of Scrapheap & Puggy, and Porcelynn. So much new stuff!
But actually, we weren’t content with just that. So how about updated rules for your current wrestlers?
That’s right! We’re taking this opportunity to update some existing wrestlers.
Every time we do a new booster box, we’ll revisit that team and give them a bit of a balance pass. This won’t be complete rules changes most of the time, just simple clarifications of rules or changing a few things around to make each wrestler a bit more useful and balanced.
I’m putting this bit in bold because it’s important. All of these new cards are optional. The original cards are still perfectly valid.
You don’t have to use these new rules at all, and we’ll still be sending out wrestlers with their original cards. But if you want a slightly fancier looking card to match the newer wrestlers, and feel like you’ve played enough games that you could do with some things being tweaked a little bit, that’s what we’re here for!
So without further ado, let’s get into it!
The Heavy Pounders
We’re starting off with your basic team, and the template from which all other RUMBLESLAM rules are based. It may not surprise you much to learn that these haven’t changed much!
We playtested both the Heavy Pounders and Green Bruisers quite a lot before first edition launched, as they are most people’s jumping off point, and the Pounders are some of the most beginner friendly wrestlers. When we get into further teams you’ll find some more changes, but these are mostly little tweaks.
Halflings
In fact, other than a swanky new card with the moves on the front (hallelujah), the Halfling Brawler is unchanged! You’ll notice that there’s a fun “Did You Know” on the back of each card, so not only do you get nicer cards, but more fluff too!
The Halfling Grappler, well known as one of the best wrestlers in version 1 of the game has already seen a bit of a nerf in version 2. You see, with Pinning rules brought in and Throwing being a Dirty move, his crazy Crowd Pleaser is not quite the instant win it used to be.
Still, the Halfling Grappler has seen a little nerf: his Crowd Pleaser now costs 2AP. Nice and simple!
Humans
The Human Brawler like his Halfling equivalent, has just got a fancy new card, and some intriguing info about ropes and rings in Kaiser’s Palace.
Meanwhile the Human Grappler has had a tweak to his Crowd Pleaser. Rather than spending 1AP to gain 1AP, he now is able to give a +1AP counter to any friendly wrestler, which makes it a much more useful ability!
Ogre Bully
The Ogre Bully has had a name upgrade (so that he fits with the new Ogre Flattener), but also a few tweaks all round.
This WEIGHT 3 has had his abilities changed a little. Choke Slam remains that same, but Bulldoze has been reworked. Rather than having 2 moves that cause Knockdown, Bulldoze now does DAZED instead, and costs 1 less AP as well.
Belly Bomb Bonanza is still a fantastic move, and gains an extra square of range, so watch out enemy wrestlers!
Finally, Getting Bloody is the Ogre Bully’s Crowd Pleaser, and it’s seen a rework. You now place 3 Copper dice on this wrestler’s card, and can add 1 of them to any roll a friendly wrestler is required to make until the end of the round. It’s a little shorter lived than his previous Crowd Pleaser, but gives you a lot more flexibility.
The Green Bruisers
The angry residents of Rolling Bones have also had some updates, and there’s a few things to go through here, so let’s waste no more time.
Goblins
First thing, and it’s a big one: both the Goblins are now HEELS! We figured that their whole deal was annoying other wrestlers, and they no doubt would want to annoy the crowd too! So let’s see some BOOS!
Otherwise, the Goblin Brawler’s Crowd Pleaser now only costs 1AP, which is nice!
One thing that’s been changed is Antagonise. The skill still does the game thing (give an opponent +1 ATT and -1AP), but now it’s a little more likely to happen. A roll of 1+ (instead of 2+) on a Copper dice will get it working now. However, to do so, the Goblins have to be within 3 squares of their target. No more hanging out across the ring dealing out -AP counters. You’ve got to get close, and with that comes a little danger of retaliation!
The Goblin Grappler has had a couple other changes too. Snot Drop has been reworked. It’s now less effective overall, but also only 2AP, which means you could potentially do 2 in a round with some careful setting up! It’s similar in effect to his standard Turnbuckle attack. Do you take the 1G 1C dice, or trade it for 3C? A potential higher score and more chances at good numbers, but a bit riskier!
He’s also gotten a Crowd Pleaser boost! It’s 1AP as well, and now gives him a massive THROW 6, making it a lot more worthwhile!
Oh and finally, the humble Goblin Grappler has had a price reduction, down to 150K!
Orcs
The Orc Brawler was subject to several FAQs over time, so it should come as no surprise that he’s been changed round a bit!
The Brawler has gained a DAZED Running Headbutt, and gotten a handy +1 to his Da Splat Turnbuckle ability.
To Waaaar! used to be a Rope Ability, but has now changed into a Passive. It does a similar effect, but on all standard Rope Attacks, and hopefully it’s explained a little better now!
The Orc Grappler has also seen some significant changes!
First (and simplest) his Crowd Pleaser is now only 1AP. Nice.
Jaw Dropper now does less damage, but also only costs 3AP, which means he can climb a Turnbuckle and do it in a single round.
The biggest change though, is to Headlock. With a generic Grapple attack in the game, we found Headlock less useful than ever, seeing as the Grappler’s poor ATT means he rarely got a Beatdown, it was always better to just do the regular Grapple. So now, we have a Headlock that really feels like a Headlock! It’s still mostly the same, except the target is in a Headlock until either this wrestler or the target wrestler moves out of base contact.
Put your opponent in a Headlock and then let the Troll punch their lights out! Speaking of which…
Troll
The Troll has had some buffs and nerfs!
Spinning Spinebuster – one of the best grapples around – now costs 2AP instead of 1AP.
Troll Toll has gained 1 Range.
And the big one: Regeneration is now automatic, and happens twice per round. You replenish 1 Stamina at the start of the Troll’s activation, and another one at the end of each round. That means he can potentially regenerate 10 Stamina in a single game! That’s much more fitting to what he should be doing.
Phew! That’s a lot of new stuff to go through. We’ve played a lot of RUMBLESLAM games in the past few years, so we’ve got a pretty good idea of how we wanted to change these Rookies. We’ve already started making plans for future teams too, but we’d love to hear your input! Are there wrestlers you think aren’t pulling their weight? Or wrestlers who are a little bit too good for their Dosh cost? Let us know!
You can find all of these new cards in the Resources section of the TTCombat webstore, so head over there and check them out. It’s as simple as downloading them, printing them out, and sticking them in a card sleeve. We put the old card in the sleeve to provide a little more weight to it!