Blood Bowl is a fantasy football game that has been around for years. No, I don’t mean the one where you sit around and hope the team on television does well. I mean real fantasy football with elves and dwarfs, ogres and trolls. The one that is so steeped in history and lore that even when Games Workshop pulled the plug the community rose up and kept it going strong. It is based on some familiar conventions like kicking off the ball to your opponent and scoring touchdowns, but you aren’t limited to even being forced into scoring. You can also win by beating the crap out of your opponent (arguably not the best strategy, but I have seen it happen).

To me the rules weren’t hard to learn. Players have four separate ability scores and a skill list encompasses things that affect how certain aspects of the games work. It is based on a variety of d6 and 2d6 rolls and there are some special dice used for blocking. The random elements can be daunting for a starting player and bad dice can cost you the game. Before making a risky roll, you have to be sure that you’ve managed your other resources accordingly, as the “turnover” mechanic causes your turn to end when you fail any critical roll. It could be the first roll you make or the last, so there is definitely a strategy to the order in which you activate your pieces. This somewhat abstract mechanic speeds up game play, which is a necessity given that each team takes 16 turns over the course of a game.

Blood Bowl’s league rules are among the best out there. Unlike most miniature games, there is a perpetual system in which your players advance and skill up. There are handicapping rules that offer a host of tools for when the sides aren’t balanced, and these actually make for entertaining games even in leagues where one side clearly has more skilled players than the other. You might be fielding a named special character in a match, but this Star Player is mercenary who willing to play for the highest bidder. Many shops in my area host leagues in which people get together and play once a week. Teams can progress through multiple seasons, earning gold and developing better players.

In tournament play you are generally given a specified amount of gold crowns to build your team, and depending on the organizers of the tournament, a few bonus skills to distribute among your players. Since Blood Bowl revolves around teams competing for a trophy, the meta lends itself to playing in a tournament just like regular sports teams. It’s not as awkward as Space Marines showing up to fight several battles using Swiss scoring. Individual tournaments vary, so be sure to read over the specifics for any in your area. The NAF is a privately funded player organization that keeps statistics for organized play (link). Sanctioned events are a great way to get involved in the community and meet other players.

If I have piqued your interest, then you are probably asking, “How much is the rulebook?”

Um… why not download it for free – here. The competitive play document has grown out of what was the Living Rulebook. The game has undergone a few changes over the years, all at the behest of the community. I don’t want to imply that it is perfect, but it does a great job of accurately defining anything that can come up in the game.

If reading through the rules leaves with a few more questions, then try out Blood Bowl Tactics. The site was a boon for me when I was starting out. Blood Bowl is a lot like that trip down the rabbit hole. It starts out as a pretty simple rule set, and builds from there. The game has been around for more than twenty-five years and spawned a number of variants. One of those lets you play the game in a dungeon with the ball hidden in a chest and teleporters allow your players to move quickly around the board (or in the case of a bad roll, be disintegrated on the spot). Others allow for games in the street or on the beach, or even games featuring four teams playing at once.

So even after handing you the free rules and some advice on how to play, I know some people still might say, “I don’t want to play a game that requires me to buy, paint, etc. all of these little soldiers.”

Well, if you aren’t that into painting and could care less about modeling, converting, etc. I can direct you to a few good video games, including the digital version of Blood Bowl. One of the reasons why I love the system is that I don’t even have to drive to the store to play anymore. Having logged in over 300 hours on Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition (the most recent version of the PC Game), I am looking forward to the next edition, due out this year. I have been in digital leagues with players from around the world, I have been in digital leagues with locals with championship matches hosted at our FLGS, and I have enjoyed random pick-up games just by spinning matchmaking over the game’s online platform.

But in terms of an investment, it does involve fewer models than most tabletop games. Each team can never have more than 16 players, so it isn’t nearly as daunting as building an army for Warhammer or even Warmachine. People go off converting models, painting unique teams, naming them, so that the level of customization and personalization dwarfs most everything else. Plus, I love that I don’t have to carry around a huge miniature case when I head down to the store the store to play.

One of the first things you notice when you start hanging around the Blood Bowl circles is people are less inclined to say things like, “Wait, those aren’t Games Workshop Miniatures!”

We know, and quite honestly that is half the fun. When Games Workshop changed the web store this year, they made the decision to no longer produce or sell any of the miniatures for their “Specialist Games” product lines. Luckily, there are tons of companies producing alternate sculpts for the different teams and there are some really good ones out there. When I decided I wanted to play skaven I always used a different set-up than the models in the old Games Workshop boxed set. I knew I wanted a lot of linemen, a pair of gutter runners, and a rat ogre. To me it was easier to convert some plastic skaven clan rats and a rat ogre from the Fantasy line. I did shell out a little extra cash to use Deathmaster Snikch for my gutter runner, adding a few parts I had lying around from the plastic Blood Bowl human catchers.

Companies like Comixininos have a huge range of manufactures they work with. It is a good site to start with to see what is out there. From conversion kits, whole teams, and even some GW boxed sets, they carry everything you need. We all know eBay is always good. The bits stores are especially good for building a Blood Bowl team. Remember when I said I needed one rat ogre, and I decided to stick with the Games Workshop line.

If you are smiling and saying, “I already know all of this about Blood Bowl!”

Dust off the team you’ve got sitting on the shelf. Get involved in your local league. Play a game with me on the Steam version. Or best of all- show up at the next tournament and win a trophy. I got better at this game by playing other people. That is true across the board. It is awesome when you show up to a tournament and there lots of players competing. I have made some great friends since I started attending events, and that is why we play these games anyway.