What’s this new edition all about?

There are some big changes coming to RUMBLESLAM! Did you see there’s a new edition of the rulebook on pre-order right now? You didn’t? WELL STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND CHECK IT OUT!

Sorry, RUMBLESLAM gets me shouty.

For those in the know, you’ll have seen a few tidbits about new rules. The new edition makes a fair few tweaks and adds a few big things to the game as well. All week we’re going to look at some of the new rules.

Grappling

Grappling is here, and it’s going to happen a lot more in this edition!

Grappling is now an action that anyone can perform!

A generic Grapple attack is something that Rumblefans have been asking for for a while, and we were happy to oblige!

This useful attack means that when your Grapplers have used their special attack that costs 3 of their 4 AP they still have something left to do without opening themselves to a Reversal with a Brawl action. No more wasted AP is always a good thing!

Otherwise the attack works very similar to a Brawl attack, simply dealing a single point of damage to your opponent. If you want any extra special rules, you’ve got your special Grapple Abilities on the cards to choose from.

Turnbuckle Attacks

We love leaping off the turnbuckle here at RUMBLESLAM HQ. I even had one installed next to my desk for when someone does something wrong. Diving Senton onto anyone that’s late!

With the new edition we wanted a generic Turnbuckle attack too. The tricky bit was making it balanced well with every other character’s specific Turnbuckle Abilities. It took a while to get right, but we think we’ve got it!

For 2AP you get to make an attack with an extra GOLD dice on your ATT value. You may recognise this mechanic from Rope Attacks! You might also recognise it if you’ve had a TTCombat demo of RUMBLESLAM in the last year – we’ve been low-key testing it for a while now!

This attack only does a single damage but with the extra GOLD dice there’s a really high chance of getting a Beatdown – even with otherwise underwhelming characters like Shadowlings or Halflings. This attack has a range equal to your wrestler’s MP (total, not remaining), so the smaller wrestlers will be able to fling themselves far while the larger ones will have to get their opponents up close.

Speaking of larger wrestlers, this new attack means that most WEIGHT 3 wrestlers will finally be able to perform Turnbuckle attacks in one turn! Their special Turnbuckle Abilities often take a round to setup and another to deliver the attack, but now they won’t have to wait! More WEIGHT 3 Diving Double Axe Handles and more WEIGHT 3 Crowd Pleasers – nice.

While we’re on the subject, a WEIGHT 3 no longer takes up 4 squares while on the Turnbuckle. They’re just up there same as everyone else. It means they lose a little range, but gain a lot of protection. It was a common event (at least in office games) that a WEIGHT 3 would climb the Turnbuckle then get immediately knocked out of the ring. With generally low DEX they were very prone to it! Now all you need is one other wrestler in base contact to stop most attacks and protect you big monsters!

Smashed Against the Turnbuckle

What a great segue into our last little tidbit today!

Not only have we made big changes like the two above attacks, but there have been loads of smaller tweaks to help the game flow better and easier.

Smashing Against the Turnbuckle received one of these tweaks, swapping from Dazed to a flat +2 Damage. It also now only works with a little momentum behind it, so hiding your wrestlers in the corner isn’t such a dangerous tactic anymore!

You’ll find that there’s a lot more damage being dealt out in your games of RUMBLESLAM, but there’s a good reason for that, which we’ll go into tomorrow! Until then, don’t forget to pre-order your copy of the RUMBLESLAM rulebook today!

Are you excited about the new edition? What are you looking forward to? What’s on your wishlist? Let us know!