Elfball fluff

mattwakeman · Elfball fluff

I think that one of the reasons that people really got into 'the other game' apart from the whole concept of fantasy football and the miniatures (especially the 2nd ed) was the amount of fluff and fun that came with it. All of the famous players and the teams gave it a real sense that you were playing games which were part of a larger universe.

Of course this changed somewhat with the advent of the open league system and the fluff changed accordingly. But it has made me think about how we all see the Elfball universe. Do we see it as a game that is played in every village with travelling teams taking up the best players? With open tournaments attracting teams to play for a large purse? Or do people think of it as more how BBowl used to be with organised leagues and feeder teams much more akin to professional sports as we know them to be?

No real reason for asking this, I was just thinking that eventually the game will begin to attract fluff as a matter of course but before it does in our minds eye do we see games taking place in splendid coliseums in front of thousands or out the back of the village just by the swamp?!

GalakStarscraper

I've always pictured the world being one where Elfball (or variants of the game) are played throughout the world. At some point we should have rules for playing Elfball on the beach, in dungeons, and with a boulder along with the Street rules already out there. All of this is in the spirit that this is a game that is a part of the culture. Players play rough versions of it in fields on smaller sized circles. Kids use rocks to mark out an area like we used to for baseball when we were young.

Teams form and I've always imagined that those teams compete locally until you have the top two teams from each race each year win the right to represent their race in the World Championship circuit. Then random draw assigns opponents and over the course of the next year those teams travel to the home stadiums to play a series of match against the best of other races (or their own race) with the two teams with the best records (out of the 38 teams competing) playing in a neutral stadium for the championship.

While this year of World Championship circuit is happening the local race teams are playing among themselves to see who will win the top honour of the race. The winner of the local race game plays against the World Circuit team with the lesser record of the two World Circuit teams to see which team will join the higher ranked World Circuit team for the next World circuit (unless one of the WC teams retire). These contests to pick the new race representatives are held 2 weeks after the Championship game ... and then the World Circuit starts anew.

This would mean that you have a cycle of teams that come and go as the race Champion and the ability to simulate the fight for race champion as well. So if you were in a league and playing to the fluff ... each coach would pick one race of the 19 and a league would not have more than 2 of the same race. (to me this would be a nice league to play in as it would encourage diversity). Never would require this as part of the game ... its just my image. Very different from B.B. as there many multiple teams from each race travel the league circuit.

Anyway ... that's my image of the Elfball world.

Galak

Illustranger

when drawing, I always make up *backstories* in my head.
same with elfball, and mostly I see elfball not as part of culture in this world, but as THE culture.
basically everything is about elfball, its not just a sport, politicians for example are coaches etc. who done well, royalty is made of the descendants of famous elfball players of yore. crime and justice, trade, resolving disputes, vendettas even language... everything is tied to the game. and every race has its own variation of this culture. and history too.
examples :

- the deadlings once being a friendly race who specialized in supporting travelling elfball teams with cooking skills, among them one of these manlings grew up having absolutely no feeling for cooking, but rather a fond love of elfball, he tried gathering a manling team, but they didnt had the drive to play, untill a stranger gave him rings that would submit their will and increase their skills, trough this the manlings became known elfball players winning many local tournaments, in turn this made the coach ever more greedy, and he gave these magical college rings to all manlings, eventually losing all desire to supply food for others and theirselves.. most of the manling population died of starvation and others turned to eating blood and flesh in turn corrupting the land around them as meadows and forests started to wither without the manlings helpfull activities, overtime, they became known as the deadlings.

- the spread of humanity too has its source in elfball, in its early days all of humanity came from one tribe, playing elfball against much older races the Pharaohs, the Siringiti, the elves (then still united), the dwarves (then still united.) and other ancient races and teams.. some forgotten in the shrouds of time. as human population rapidly grew, but success in elfball was rather low (as in they never even reached the finals.) different coaches (then the tribe's leaders.) with different visions rose up, with these visions discord rose... between coaches that tought elfball was a mental game, and perfection was reached trough selfcontrol and meditation, others who tought elfball was a test of strength and training should be focused on that, others believed in tactics, eventually the argument was settled with a decision to spread the tribe, an the winner of an all human elfball championship was allowed to choose their destination first, naturally all current human nations claim they had won that mythical game, and that they chose the location wich was deemed best.. the Divine wind saying the island were the perfect solitary place to practice the mental game, the Desert dogs saying the desert was the perfect place to breed their young strong and tough due to its hard lifestyle, nobody knows anymore who actually won that match or were that match was held, as a matter of fact nobody is even certain that match isnt just a myth, scholars who study elfball history (and offer tactical advice for the right prize.) are debating wether humans even ever played in the time of the ancients, some claiming that back then, humanity was still part of the race of elves later evolved to humans, a species with a stronger sense of passion, something that was beneficial for elfball(even tough this is something most scholars attest to even be true.)

- It is said that long ago, before the birth of humans, dwarves, gnolls and many of the current day races, the world of elfball was consumed in an endless war between immortal races (the Pharaohs and the Elves being the only ones that remain to this day, tough alot of the present races have been tought elfball by immortals at some point in history.)
the world suffered but yet, as is the curse of immortality, war was not the solution, and thus a wise immortal (claimed to be an elf by the elves themselves, hence elfball, but this is in dispute by most nonelf races) invented elfball, a game to be played in a grand stadium, the victor receiving absolute dominance until the next tournament.
for ages this worked, and thus elfball became an essential element of culture, just as war was before it.
it is said that upon a time, a coach of a lost race used cheating rather than tactics to gain victory, a dark time was cast over the world, and many races trained extremely hard to make sure this cheater and his wicked team wouldnt win again, however, he never intended to play another match, at the day the next tournament started and the teams presented themselves in the stadium, all except 3 races (the cheater's team, the pharaohs and the elves.), he sealed the stadium with magic and cast it in oblivion, so nobody could ever regain his position of dominance, the elves who had forseen bad events, cursed the trophy wich was held by the cheater and its kind, they could change his dominant position, but by using cheating, ironically, managed to make his position powerless.. but with a huge impact on the world, as it caused mortality.
now the cheater dominated all, but controlled nothing.
Why the pharaohs never turned up is unknown even to the elves, their settlements dissapeared, as a matter of fact the elves tought the pharaohs too were sealed in the colliseum, but recently they started to awaken, their grand pyramids started to rise.. some think its an omen, others think its a curse, only time will tell.
(ps: some actually think the pharaohs are the team/race of the cheater, and he has cheated his way out of his curse.)

its all raw, badly written, and very very unofficial :D but just wanted to share some ideas.