Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl

Third edition box art
Manufacturers	Games Workshop
Designers	Jervis Johnson
Publishers	Games Workshop
Years active	21
Players	2
Setup time	1–10 minutes
Playing time	45-150 minutes, depending on rules version
Chance	Low (Dice)
Age range	10+
Skills	Strategy, Probability
Website	http://www.specialist-games.com/bloodbowl/

Blood Bowl is a Fantasy Football game created by Jervis Johnson for the British games company Games Workshop (but now under the aegis of their Specialist Games division) as a parody of American Football. The game was first released in 1987 and has been re-released in new editions since. Blood Bowl is set in a fantasy universe similar to, but not the same as, Warhammer Fantasy, populated by traditional fantasy elements such as human warriors, goblins, dwarfs, elves, orcs and trolls.

The most recent purchasable edition of the game contains a printed copy of Living Rulebook 1.0. However, the latest edition of the game available is the Living Rule Book 5.0 (or LRB5, also known as Perpetual Blood Bowl League or PBBL).

Game basics

Blood Bowl is a two-player, turn-based board game that typically uses 28 mm miniatures to represent a contest between two teams on a playing field. A board containing a grid overlay represents the field. Using dice, cards, and counters, the players attempt to outscore each other by entering the opponent's end zone with a player who possesses the ball.

The "Blood" in Blood Bowl is represented by the violent actions available to players. Game play is based on a hybrid of American Football, Rugby, and ultra-violent fictional sports events such as Rollerball. Players may attempt to injure or maim the opposition in order to make scoring easier by reducing the number of enemy players on the field.

The player races are drawn from the ranks of fantasy races and have characteristics that reflect the abilities of those races. Elves tend to be agile and good at scoring, while Dwarves and Orcs are more suited to a grinding, physical style of play. Players are also divided up into positions suited to their role on the field, including Throwers, Catchers, and Linemen.

In league play, players gain additional skills and abilities based on their accumulation of experience points. Players face potential injury or even death on the field throughout their careers. Teams improve by the purchase of off-field staff such as cheerleaders, assistant coaches, and apothecaries.

Rules

Teams consist of eleven to sixteen players, of which eleven are allowed on the pitch at any one time. Each player is represented by an appropriate miniature and has statistics and skills that dictate his or her effect on play. There are four player statistics:

• MA (Move Allowance) indicates how fast the player is.
• ST (Strength) indicates the player's basic fighting ability.
• AG (Agility) indicates how well the player handles the ball and evades opposing players.
• AV (Armor Value) indicates how difficult it is to injure the player.

In addition, players may have special skills that affect any number of circumstances in play. Some of the more commonly used skills are Block (for fighting), Dodge (for avoiding fights), Sure Hands (for picking up the ball), Pass (for throwing the ball), and Catch (for catching the ball). These skills are not necessary to perform their corresponding actions, but will give the player an advantage.

In his or her turn, a coach may have each player take one of the following actions:

• Move - Move the player through empty squares (opposing players may try to trip the moving player if he or she moves close to them).
• Block - Fight an adjacent opposing player who is standing.

In addition, the following four actions may be taken by one player per team turn:

• Blitz - Move and then Block an adjacent opposing player who is standing (or Block and then Move).
• Foul - Move and then foul an adjacent opposing player who is prone (or just foul an adjacent player who is prone).
• Pass - Move and then throw the ball (or just throw the ball).
• Hand-Off - Move and then give the ball to an adjacent player (or just give the ball to an adjacent player).

Some skills also allow for special player actions.

If a player action fails, the team turn ends immediately (with some minor exceptions). This defining game mechanic is called the turnover rule. The turnover rule makes every action tense for the coaches, and together with the four-minute rule (a team turn must be completed within four minutes) it can make the game very fast-paced. Some rules such as the eleven player limit may be broken as long as the opposing coach does not notice; other rules are strictly off limits. (For example: Failing to move the re-roll counter in order to get a free re-roll)

Teams

Each team represents one race (with lesser allies) typically equivalent to the armies in Warhammer Fantasy Battle. The game box supplies the coaches with players enough to field Human and Orc teams, which are also the teams recommended to newcomers for ease of learning.

The different races progress at different rates, so not all teams start at equal strength. Some become more dominant only after they accrue some experience. Certain teams, such as the Halflings and the Ogres, are designed to provide more of a challenge for experienced players due to their built-in weaknesses.

Background

The Blood Bowl universe has its own fictional background story which establishes the tone and spirit of the game. Additional background exists to describe the demeanor and character of the Blood Bowl players with frequent reference to rule breaking and excessive violence in a lighthearted manner. The over-the-top nature of the game is reflected through the game's mechanics, including the use of stylized secret weapons, the ability for large teammates to throw small teammates down field (even while they possess the ball), as well as in-game effects like fans throwing rocks and injuring players prior to kickoff.

Blood Bowl includes numerous tongue in cheek references to real life products and companies. The deity overseeing Blood Bowl is Nuffle - a pun on the pronunciation of NFL. The game spoofs at least three real-world companies, including McDonald's (McMurty's), Budweiser (Bloodweiser), and Adidas (Orcidas). Many team names in the game's background are spoofs as well such as the Orcland Raiders (Oakland Raiders) and the Darkside Cowboys (Dallas Cowboys). Famous sporting personalities are parodied as well, with the most famous (and oldest) coach in Blood Bowl's background being Tomolandry the Undying (Tom Landry), and one of the most recently added stars being the Ogre thrower, Brick Far'th (Brett Favre).

With the advent of the 3rd edition, Blood Bowl moved closer to the traditional Warhammer Fantasy Battle world by changing the miniatures to look more similar to their Warhammer Fantasy Battle counterparts. Jervis Johnson, designer of the game, has admitted this was not the best direction for the game, and has since stated that the Blood Bowl world is similar to, but definitely not the same as, the Warhammer world. Recent changes to the rules reflect this, and newer miniatures for the game look more sporty in nature.

History

Blood Bowl has evolved through a series of rules revisions, boxed set releases, and electronic media.

First Edition

Released in 1987, the first edition of Blood Bowl was a simple game that used many of the elements of Games Workshop's existing tabletop games. Players in the first edition boxed set were represented by small pieces of cardboard illustrated with their likeness. Citadel Miniatures did release 13 metal miniatures to represent players for 1st edition, but this covered only a small portion of the available races.

Second Edition

The second edition of Blood Bowl, released in 1988, began to move Blood Bowl away from the battlefield mechanics of other Games Workshop systems and toward more brutal sports-oriented play. The game was played on a pitch represented by a polystyrene board, and the boxed set included plastic 28 mm miniatures of Orcs and Humans, with another set of metal miniatures available from Citadel Miniatures to represent most (but not all) of the other races. Games Workshop later provided two source books, Blood Bowl Star Players (1989) and the Blood Bowl Companion (1990), which added to the basic rules, creating games with greater variation which could easily last several hours.

Third Edition

A new edition was released in 1994, radically changing the game play from the complex, lengthy second edition game to the simpler, more dramatic third edition game. Key changes were a set number of turns and the turnover rule. These changes increased the pace of the game and allowed it to be played within the span of around 2 hours.

The third edition also featured a completely new range of miniatures, including new versions of plastic 28 mm humans and orcs in the boxed set. The new range closely resembled Warhammer Fantasy Battle miniatures. Combined with the newly-available races mirroring Warhammer armies, Blood Bowl moved much closer to Warhammer Fantasy Battle. In 1995, the Third Edition Blood Bowl won the Best Miniatures Rules of 1994 Origins Award.

Fourth Edition

Jervis Johnson produced a new official Fourth Edition of Blood Bowl and presented it in the Fanatics Game's Official Blood Bowl magazine issue 1, with follow-up rules presented in issue 2. The new rules were a large departure from the previous edition with numerous changes, and Johnson later admitted that, "some of the changes would have benefited from rather more rigorous playtesting". In 2001 the 4th edition rules, with corrections and retitled 4th Edition Gold, were placed on the Games Workshop website as a downloadable pdf file, and Johnson announced that the rules were now "experimental" and announced the creation of the Blood Bowl Rules Committee (BBRC), a group of Blood Bowl players, some GW staff, some not, that would look at the rules once a year and produce new official rules changes and experimental rules for possible inclusion in the future rules changes. The BBRC would meet in October each year, and their first release was the Living Rule Book 1 (LRB1).

Living Rulebook

Since its release, the third edition of Blood Bowl has experienced many changes, largely driven by the large and vociferous player base. These changes have been combined into the current version of the rules, known as the Living Rulebook. The majority of Blood Bowl is now played by these rules, though variants do exist due to house rules or the transition to online play.

The Living Rulebook, currently in its fifth edition, is available from the official Blood Bowl site. Originally there were plans to release a printed version for Blood Bowl's 20th anniversary, but this has since been cancelled. Work on this fifth edition, known as LRB 5.0, began in March 2004. The final product, based on roughly two years of player testing, was released on August 1, 2006.

Online Play

For a time, the longest continuously running Blood Bowl league was the OLBBL or Online Blood Bowl League, but on November 29, 2009 the league officially disbanded. Started in 1996 with an IRC based client that was easily adaptable to new rules sets, they supported both the latest Living Rulebook 5 rules and the printed 3rd edition rules. Coaches were able to create teams under either league rules version and find opponents over IRC for discussion or playing. The service and the client were free. The league's disbandment was announced over IRC by the commissioning staff with an official post on the league's website on December 1, 2009.

An unofficial website known as fumbbl offers a comprehensive online Blood Bowl experience, where coaches can create and maintain teams, run leagues, find opponents online, and use the discussion forums and private messaging system. Actual gameplay takes place through a java-based client. The service and the client are free, and play is very close to Living Rulebook 4 rules. There are also various play by email sites dedicated to Blood Bowl. Although the experience changes somewhat because the game is put away for a moment again after you finish a turn, this does not mean the experience cannot be at least equally enjoyable for a lot of coaches. A website for this kind of play is midgardbb.com, containing the MBBL and MBBL2.

Another unofficial website also offers an online way to play Bloodbowl using the Vassal Engine, Vassal40k are currently producing a detailed module for the Engine to make battle reports and support online play. Vassal40k.com

Video games

Games Workshop first announced a series of video games based on their properties in 1990, to include a conversion of Blood Bowl by UK company Tynesoft. However, Tynesoft went into bankruptcy before the game was released.

In 1995, an MS-DOS version of Blood Bowl was developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and released by MicroLeague, featuring the base teams as well as many of the free agents.

Cyanide Studios released a new version for Windows computers on June 26, 2009. On November 14, 2007, the Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox 360 versions were announced.

Leagues and tournaments

League play is the foundation upon which Blood Bowl games are based. There are many kinds of league activity, but they all tie in to a general campaign where teams battle each other over a period of time, developing new abilities and suffering injuries or worse while attempting to earn the crown of league champion.

Tournaments are one-off events where large numbers of Blood Bowl teams gather to play against each other and try to become the tournament champion. This form of play differs from a recreational league. Games Workshop holds four major tournaments across the world each year. The Blood Bowl is held at Warhammer World, itself at Games Workshop's HQ in Nottingham, England in the spring and attracts around 200 players to play in the two day event. The Dungeonbowl is held in Germany, the Spike! Magazine Trophy is held in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada in August, and the Chaos Cup is held in Chicago, Illinois, USA in October. Numerous other events are held throughout the world at Games Workshop stores and events or independently. In January 2003, a website was opened for the purpose of helping people organize their own Blood Bowl tournaments, to promote Blood Bowl to the wargaming world, and to rank players' performance at tournaments. The organization took the name NAF, after the fictional rules body in the Blood Bowl history.

In October 2007, the NAF held a "World Cup" Tournament in Nottingham, England over three days, with teams coming from as far afield as the United States and Australia. 272 players attended, making it not only the largest Blood Bowl event ever held, but the largest Games Workshop related event in history. In the end, victory was awarded to a team from France, whilst a German coach won the individual coaching award.

Chaos League

In 2004, French-based Cyanide Studios developed a game called Chaos League (and, later, a subsequent expansion Chaos League : Sudden Death) which bore a heavy resemblance to Blood Bowl in its style and rules, even though it was a real-time game (rather than turn-based, like Blood Bowl).

Games Workshop sued over the similarities, but later announced that Cyanide Studios had been granted a license to create computer games based on Blood Bowl, and that "Any differences between Games Workshop and Cyanide have been amicably settled for an undisclosed sum, and as part of the settlement the Chaos League title has been assigned to Games Workshop". This settlement led directly to Cyanide's 2009 release of an official Blood Bowl game (with both "classic" turn-based mode and real-time mode).

Monsters of the Midway

In 1982, TSR published a game called Monsters of the Midway which was very similar in concept to Blood Bowl but significantly different in game play. Discussions with Jervis Johnson at the Chaos Cup tournament in 2006 revealed that he had never seen Monsters of the Midway until after Blood Bowl was published and that the concept of a fantasy football board game was simply a concept whose time had come in the 80s.

See also

• Rollerball (1975 film)
• Speedball (game)
• Mutant League Football
• Chaos League
• Jugger
• Brutal Sports Football
• M.U.D.S. - Mean Ugly Dirty Sport
• Grand Monster Slam

References

{{Reflist|2} Crush! Deluxe (1997) [1]}

External links

• Rulebook home page
• Strategy and tactics for the current rules