Based on the great effort by Irgy, i gave the LRB 6 skill implementation another thought. This is a blog cause i cant open a forum thread from work and also cause i thought irgy would open a forum post as it was his effort to start with.

there is still something to revise in this post which i will do later.

Idea is to provide Kalimar with a suggestion that is kind of thought through and possible to implement (from a digital noob s point of view) so that he can either do it this way or get some inspiration for alternative possibilities.

This is, after Irgys first effort, a second base for discussion.

Things to keep in mind are:

- Being as close to the rules as possible
- Keep it playable
- It is possible to program it for Kalimar, the less effort the better


Optional skills, LRB 6

1. Skills without any conflict

Negatraits
So many of the "Extraordinary" category of skills are so clearly not optional that I am currently wonderwing whether this entire category is intended to be not optional. For instance, all the following are penalties, and surely you can't get out of them by "not using the skills":
Always Hungry, Anomisity, Blood Lust, Bone Head, Decay, Loner, No Hands, Really Stupid, Secret Weapon, Wild Animal, Take Root.

Not optional
The following skills are not penalties as such but are also quite clearly or quite explicitly not optional:
Ball and Chain, Chainsaw, Frenzy

Choose to use
The following skills are all ones which you have to actively choose when to use in the first place. So they are already implicitly optional.
Bombardier, Hypnotic Gaze, Throw Team-Mate + Right Stuff, Stab, Stakes, Hail Mary Pass, Pass Block, Multiple Block, Leap, Piling On, Pro (pop-up), Sprint, Jump-up.

Always want to use
The following are skill for which I cannot think of a reason why you wouldn't want to use them:
* Fan Favourite - I'm not even sure this is optional, but would you not want +1 fame?

* Dauntless, Guard (when blocking), Horns - Higher strength in a block gives strictly more choice for you (or less for your opponent), so even if you were trying to knock yourself down these skill will help you do it.

* Leader - You don't need to use the reroll if you don't want to anyway. I would also assume the client should always use the leader reroll first by default.

* Nurgle's Rot

2. Skills with conflict

2.0 Makes sense to always use it if your opponent is not a complete noob
* Tackle - There are times when you want to not use tackle, but in those cases your opponent could simply choose not to use dodge, so we might as well make this compulsary.
* Safe Throw - The opponent could have chosen not to intercept.
* Tentacles - Your opponent could have chosen not to move away. The only forced movement I can think of are via frenzy and ball&chain, and tentacles do not work in either of these cases.
* Foul Appearance - The opponent chose to block, so invoking optimal play working assumption you would want to deny them.
Sollution: Leave those skills “always on” or move them to other categories further down

2.1 Active skills or active skill parts, decision can be done before dice/action

Skills
* Claw, Mighty Blow – There are moments when you want your opponent down, but not off the pitch (e.g. to set up a surf, happened to me several times) (note: very unlikely: you may want to wait for the AV roll and then maybe not use MB on injury roll)
* Strip Ball - Sometimes you might want the ball to be dropped from a certain position, so you let them hang on to it for now. You'll know that before you make the block

* Big Hand, Sure Hands - Normally if you move the player onto the ball, you don't want fumble it. However, imagine you are going for a throw team mate one turner, and none of your players have quite enough movement to pick up the ball and hand off to the thrown player. It might be possible to fumble the ball to a player near the ball, who will then effectively have two extra movement to get the ball and handoff to the player about to be thrown. However you know in advance that you might want to fail a pickup

* Sure Feet - You may wish to fail a GFI to put a prone player in a specific location.
* Two Heads
*Dodge (while moving part), Stunty (ignore tackle zones when dodging part), Titchy (+1 to dodges part) - There are rare scenarios where a prone player on a specific square is desirable. Prone players are harder to move away than standing ones, and may be used to block key squares from the opponent's movement.

* Very Long Legs – Leap part: Very unlikely: You want to land prone in a certain square
*Grab

2.1.1 Special case

Block (may collide with a 2nd frenzy block)
Wrestle (may collide with a 2nd frenzy block)
Juggernaut (may collide with a 2nd frenzy block)
Some testing needed: normally, if you have more than one skill, you will know in advance which one to use in your turn . exception: combined with frenzy on 2nd frenzy block

Solution:
Let them all be “on” on default in your own turn. Give option to “turn-off” until end of turn by selecting the skill in the player card.
Advantages:
- No more annoying pop-up waiting, the active player uses his 4 minutes to turn skills off
- You can laugh about your opponent as he forgets to turn sth off
- You can read people whining in the forums about that they forgot to turn sth off
- Since all these circumstances are very unlikely, most players and new players don’t get confused by pop-ups and can play with all the skills on all the time
Note: For Block, Wrestle and Juggernaut default would mean Juggernaut>Wrestle>Block if nothing is deactivated – or auto-ask if a player has 2 or more of the skills -> also problem with 2nd frenzy block may need to be adressed


2.2 Passive Skills or skill parts: Pop-up

2.2.1. These skills could use a pop-up or are using it

* Diving Catch (for catching nearby balls)
*Pass Block

* Sidestep
Normally it's strictly more choice for you (or less for your opponent in the case where these two meet each other), so no need to ask. The exception comes with chain pushes and crowd surfs. In these cases it may be desirable to turn off grab or sidestep to force the chain push or crowd surf.

* Diving Tackle, Shadowing - No change from the lrb4 client.

* Dump-Off - Plenty of cases where using this might be a bad idea.

* Kick - The biggest benefit this skill gives is a choice between two landing locations for the ball.

* Kick-Off Return - Fairly clear cut to me.

* Stand Firm - I think there's a lot of situations where you might not want to use this.#

Question: Use a timer on all or leave all the pop-ups open indefinitely?
My suggestion: Use a timer – when timer is up active player has the option to continue?
Advantage: No delay. Problem: Possible conflicts.


2.2.2 Further consideration:
Not decided yet

2.2.2.1 Would pop up too often
* Dodge (block dice part), Block, Wrestle
Most of the time you don't want your player to go down. However, if you're defending against a chain-push one turn touchdown attempt, in danger of going into the crowd, or in danger of being pushed next to a claw + might blow + piling on monster, then you're better off going down. Or, if you have jump up (and high armour!) you may prefer to fall somewhere that's in the way for your opponent. Although most of these examples involve a pushback, and therefore apply more obviously to dodge, they can apply to block if you're worried about a second player pushing you into a bad position when the first one failed.
If the opponent is trying to get out of a bad position (e.g. on the sideline) and would prefer to go down than stay standing where they are, then you may choose not to use wrestle, even though they have block and you don't. While you do then have to make an armour roll yourself, you also force them to either stay standing, or make an armour roll themselves as well - and cause a turnover if it's their turn.

2.2.2.2 Rare Pop-up skills – worth it?

* Regeneration - If your last player on the pitch gets Badly Hurt, you may prefer not to regenerate that result, to avoid the player landing back on the pitch where it could get gang-fouled and killed instead.

* Thick Skull - Similar to regenerate, sometimes it's better to leave the pitch. I'm not sure if this skill is meant to be optional anyway though.

* Disturbing Presence - Any situations where one player wouldn't use a skill like Accurate or Big Hand and the like, their opponent similarly may not want to use Disturbing Presence for similar reasons.
* Prehensile Tail - The opponent may in rare cases wish to fail their dodge in order to place a prone player in a specific location, as prone players are harder to shift than standing ones.
* Fend - The opponent always has the option not to follow up anyway except vs Frenzy. So only pop-up vs frenzy?


2.3 Skills you want sometimes to wait for the dice or play
Active:
a) Passing skills: * Accurate, Strong Arm, Nerves of Steel (when passing) - Sometimes a fumble is better than an inaccurate pass. Also there are rare circumstances where you might want an inaccurate rather than an accurate pass - for instance a desperate play to get a ball further than the maximum passing range. Both of these situations are known in advance of making the pass
Pass: You can only reroll passes that are inaccurate or fumbled
Rerolls: Note that you can use a reroll on a succesfull pass (if you want it inaccurate)
Pro: ?

b) Dirty Player and assists when combined with sneaky git (send-off)
Dirty player when armor is broken but you don’t want a ko…. (very very unlikely)

c) Catching skills: Diving catch (+1 part), extra arms, catch, nerves of steel: Sometimes you don’t want to catch a bouncing or even passed ball (happens when you hit someone and your assist catches the ball e.g.) Note that you can by the rules use a reroll even on a successful catch, while catch can only be used on a failure
Catch: You can only reroll failed catches
Rerolls: Note that you can use a reroll on a succesfull catch if you want to fail it
Pro:?

d) Mighty blow, stakes ! worth it?


EDITED:

*'Nurgles Rot as F_alk said