OK, so you're new to Bloodbowl then ? Well, the concept is pretty simple - imagine American Football (Gridiron) played by teams of fantasy creatures. Except that they hit each other quite a lot, so much so that the ball can occasionally be considered secondary to the main aim of having a good fight. The game was developed by Games Workshop - the first version appeared in the early 80s and has evolved since then. Maidstone Wargames Society have played an annual tournament at the last meeting before Xmas every year since 1988. That's how sad we are. However, in more recent years the often hard-fought competition has been followed by a curry and the pub, so it's all worthwhile in the end. Although several members have spare teams, it would be great if new members provided their own models, just for variety - it would be nice to see more than just the standard plastic figures from the boxed game on the pitch. After all, you only need 16 figures at the most, so it's not expensive and won't take long to paint. 
However, all this is so much background noise, since the version we're concerned with is 1988's 2nd Edition complete with 2 teams of plastic figures and a lovely expanded polystyrene (sorry, 'Astrogranite') pitch. It's what we started with, there are at least half-a-dozen copies floating about the club and none of us really want to 'upgrade' since we've spent two decades perfecting our tactics ! Copies can occasionally be found on Ebay, but all you really need is the quick play sheet to get by. You can find this on the club's Yahoo group site, ask if you can't find it ! Eventually I'll get round to scanning the rulebook and turning it into a PDF but this hasn't happened yet ... We play a very simple set of the rules without many of the later bells and whistles. So basic teams only, no Star Players. No magic. No special abilities except for the different racial profiles for each team. We're simple folk, we don't like to have to remember too much especially since a) it's only once a year, and b) the simpler the rules, the easier it is to teach new players the rudiments of the game (ah, but easy to learn, hard to master ... just ask Trev). 
One option is to make your own - in the simplest form, a sheet of card with 1" squares marked out in pencil
would suffice - I had a pitch that wasn't much more than that which lasted for years until the garage roof sprung a leak. Alternatively, there are several websites that have some quite pretty graphics for a variety of
pitches. All you'd need would be a colour printer, scissors and glue and you could knock up a more than
respectable offering. You might need to add or remove the odd extra row of squares to get the dimensions correct, but how hard is that ? Here is a site to get you started ... Anyway, if I've whetted anyones Blue Peter DiY appetite, here are the correct dimensions for the plastic pitch:  I have had elaborate plans to make a grass pitch using model railway grass matting, masking tape and white spray paint for several years but again it has yet to happen (watch this space however, as I have been out and bought the requisite items this time). 
First, the basics ... teams have 16 players. Sort of. In fact, what they have are 16 player slots on their roster, which can be filled in a variety of ways. Most basic players (humans, elfs, dwarves etc) take up one roster slot. Big monsters (ogres, minotaurs, trolls, Treemen) take up two slots AND you can only have a maximum of two of them in a team. Mummies for some reason only take up one slot in the squad roster, but three slots in the on-pitch calculations. And lastly come snotlings, who only take up half a slot - so a full snotling team consists of 32 of the little buggers ! Only eleven players can be on the pitch at any one time, and the eleven are calculated in the same way as the the whole squad - so if you have a monster on the pitch, you can only have 9 'normal' players (but not the mummy bit above - if a skeleton team has a mummy on pitch, there can only be eight skellies). A snotling team could almost fill the pitch with 22 players. Got it ? Here are some examples, just to make it clearer ...
Each race has a different, fixed composition of their squads - that is, the number of players of each position allowed. The basic squad composition for the more common races is (I'll fill the rest of this in when I can find my rulebook ...):
In our tournaments, you select your basic team with a composition taken from the table above. You may then add one or two large monsters as permitted by race (once I've added that section !). You may replace one of your linemen with a designated kicker if desired. And that's about all there is to it. There are some exceptions to what types of monster can mix with what type of team ... summarised as
Someone is bound to ask the obvious question ... can I mix different types of player within my team ? Can I have dwarf blockers, elf throwers and human blitzers ? Simple answer - no ! Why ? Because that way madness lies ... the real reason is that if we allowed it, then everyone would simply choose a team of the best models in each position - everyone would have dwarf blockers, elf throwers and catchers and so on, so why bother ? Just about the only exception to this is that orcs, goblins and snotlings may be freely mixed to produce a 'greenskin' team. Starting with a basic orc roster, you may replace any orc with either any goblin player, or two snotlings. You may also add in two permitted monsters. Go on someone, do it, just to see if it works ... I have a sneaking feeling that an all-ogre team is permitted too - eight big monsters and nothing else. In fact I'm going to allow it ! If anyone wants to raise a team of eight monsters (all of one type), then go for it ! I'll even allow you to swap one or two of the monsters for 4 snotlings each so you can throw them (haven't I mentioned that ? Ogres can throw snotlings (possibly even goblins) that have the ball in an attempt to gain ground). We also permit the following contraptions and engines: Dwarf Deathroller, Killdozers, Pogosticks of Doom and chainsaws. Pretty much all of these have been used, and most have caused as many casualties to the user as the target, which makes them even more fun ! 
There are several types of player, each with a different rôle in their team.
This is the important bit ... stats for each team. If anyone wants to invent a team of their own using non-GW figures, let me know and I'm sure we can work out either new stats or the nearest equivalent team. These are all the official stats I've gathered together from the original rulebook, the supplements and whatever old copies of White Dwarf I can find. Note that stats for human and orc are the same, as are both flavours of elf. To save me typing an extra duplicate line per team, I haven't listed kickers - these have the same stats as the linemen for the team in question. I'd be grateful if anyone with the rulebook could proof-read these for me.
So obviously you're now inspired enough to go and purchase your own star team. But where from ? Well, Ebay is a good start. The following companies all make suitable figures : Games Workshop Shadowforge Impact! Heresy Goblin Forge Tritex Black Scorpion Conversions Blood Bowl is copyright Games Workshop in pretty much every country you can think of. The above logo was borrowed from GW's site, if anyone from there objects then tell us and we'll remove it. The current official Blood Bowl site is here. |
The first version of Bloodbowl appeared in 1986 with a cardboard pitch and card stand-up players.
Obviously no-one at GW had worked out that the money is in the metal, because it took until 1988 for the
first version with figures to appear. The game has been further developed since then and is now the responsibility of GW's Specialist Games division. If you want to see the full development history, try 
Yes, that lovely, erm,
'Astrogranite™' affair is what it's all fought over. The three-part original came in the boxed game and to my
knowledge was never available seperately. I've seen them pop up on Ebay for sensible prices (a tenner) if
you fancy a search. Pitch shortages have been an issue in recent years as one or two members have drifted away from the club, taking their pitches with them (rather selfishly, if you ask me !). The current card pitch is OK if you have one or can get one - the dimensions are slightly different but it doesn't really matter.