A game I have been enjoying a lot (again) lately is the current incarnation of Blood Bowl, officially called the Official Rules, but is commonly known as the BB2020 rules after the year of it's release.
And which can be found in the second season core box of the edition.
The book follows the traditional Games Workshop lay-out of rulebooks, starting with the lore, then the rules, additional rules and match styles, and more of that fun stuff like Star Players. The lore kicks off with the history of the game and how the Old World got to invent the noble game of fantasy football. But like any succefull sport, eventually corruption and corporations got more and more of a hold, resulting in the eventual collapse of the governing sports body, the NAF.
In the aftermath, new leagues where formed, and while various sub sets of organisatorial rules existed, they all came down to the loveable game of beating your opponent to a pulp, and if bothered, actually score a touchdown here and there.
We take a look at the layout of the pitch and the dug-outs, and move to the core rules of the game. Grid driven, it explains movement, but also how to block (aka, attack) your opponents players, with a good risk of your own players getting bowled over if Nuffle, the god of Blood Bowl, doesn't favor you. Every player has 16 turns in a half, and a game consists of 2 halves. A regular match of Blood Bowl tends to take between 2 to 3 hours in my experience, so that is a good evening filling game.
The rules for drafting your standard team are then explained, which is basically your "army roster" that you create. But there is more to a game then a field and two army lists, as various results on random tables influence your game: the weather table, the kick-off table, any prayers to Nuffle, and inducements all add to the fun, and give benefits to the underdog teams in Leagues. Once all that is out of the way, we take a look at the actions happening during a team's turn, which lasts until either all players have activated on your team, or something went wrong, causing a turn-over. The eventual goal is to score more touchdowns as your opponent, either by beating his line up, dodge through it with nimble models, or even throw one of your teammates over their heads and hope he doesn't land on his...
Next is the whole post-game sequence, where you earn your winnings, tally your scored Star Player points for any advancements and skill gains (for Leagues, whom are the hard of the game for the full experience), and add or replace new players. The skills list, which is quite extensive, is then looked at in the book. The next set that is regarded are Inducements, bonusses for teams that are out classed in team rating from their opponent, granting access to one match hirelings, wizards, and more of the exotic stuff.
Talking Leagues, that is the whole next section of the rulebook, on how to set them up and run them. Of course, you can ahve one-offs called Exhibition Play, either with fresh basic teams or your league team.
Then we get the teams listings, at how they stood at the time of release of the rules. That means most teams are playable just by having the book, while others released later can be found in their Spike magazine supplement or Blood Bowl almanac books. The same goes for Star Players, while a lot of these later released also have their rules for free download on Warhammer community.
And there we have it, an overview of the rulesbook of the most noblest of sports, Blood Bowl, a great fun game and one you will love for not taking itself to seriously!
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