Talk Fantasy Football

Hi All, in preparation for a day's bloodbowling with a few friends I've revisited three of the variant games from the second ed. Blood Bowl Companion, with very minor tweaks to the rules to bring them to the modern-day BB field. This is just a first draft (I've already had a number of very useful comments over on the BB Facebook page) and I'd welcome comments etc as to how they might be tweaked to ensure smooth and relatively fair play.

For information, the teams we've got playing are:
Dwarf, Orc, Human, Dark Elf, High Elf, Norse. I'm a little concerned that the Dwarf team may struggle with Multi-ball!


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Game One: Pit Traps

Before the first tournament match ups are determined each coach places six pit trap counters (3 nothing, 2 pit traps, 1 spiked pit) face down on one of the three pitches (without looking to see what is on the other side!). Once this is done determine first round match-up and pitches. [NB - I'm thinking that players should now place their own pit traps so that the slower caging teams aren't at a disadvantage here].
When a player moves onto a square containing a counter turn it over. Nothing: Discard 'nothing' counters. Pit: Fall in, make Armour roll to avoid injury. Spiked pit: roll D6. On a 1-2 roll another D6 (1-4 = SI, 5-6 = Dead). On a 3-6 = make armour roll to avoid injury.

Players in pits lose their tackle zones and can't move, block or tackle. They can't be blocked/tackled.

Climbing out. Make an agility roll with +1 for every friendly player adjacent to the pit and -1 for every opposing player adjacent to the pit. If a player fails they remain in the pit. If they were attempting to climb out of a spiked pit roll a D6, on a 1 or a 2 they are seriously injured. Falling back into a pit does not cause a turnover.

Players with the leap skill can attempt to leap over pits (whether they are revealed or not) but not if they are contain a player. If the leap roll is failed they fall over in the square they were leaping over (not in the square they were leaping to). If the square contains a pit trap they fall in.


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Game Two: Spiky Death Ball

Throwing ranges increased by one category. No Longbombs.

Catch/intercepting is dangerous. Make AG roll (with a +1 modifier), if failed make armour roll. Hand-offs are unaffected.


The ball can be thrown to empty square without causing a turnover.

The ball can be thrown at opposing players (quick/short pass only). If the pass is accurate the player must make an armour roll. If the armour roll is passed the player may roll to catch the ball (with no modifiers for accuracy). If the armour roll is failed roll on the injury table: if this results in the player leaving the pitch place the ball in the square they occupied. If the player remains on the pitch scatter the ball from their square as if they had failed a catch roll.


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Game Three: Multiball...



Simple - there are two balls in play. Either can be used to score, once a touchdown has been scored set up the teams for the next drive (i.e. don't play on with the remaining ball).

1.Both teams, beginning with the kicking team, place a ball in the opposing team's half.
2.Scatter both balls.
3.Roll on kick off table.
4.Resolve result (if High Kick is rolled apply the result to both teams).
5.Bounce/catch/touchback both balls.

For variant three I would suggest if you can score with both in the same turn get 3 TD's instead of stopping after the first score.

Intriguing! I imagine the dwarf coach might not like that so much! Seriously, ensuring the slower teams don't hate multiball is my current concern.

The double score is to try and balance it for teams like dwarves. Currently a fast team would love it, but if you secure your bal and sack the opposition you can try and score with both and make a dent on the fast scoring sides.

Ah, I see. Interesting. Though if I was playing Dwarfs and managed to get both balls I expect I'd still stall it out. I wonder if it might be possible to come up with a 'Dwarves hate multiball' special rule of some kind to even things up. I'll see if I can get a playtest in using dwarfs before the game day to see how big a deal this is and maybe try your suggestion out. too.

Do it vs something liek wood elves or high elves. Ie excellent thrower and catcher. They would simply be putting a bunch of people deep each time after a kick off, then tossing the ball...

Punture: Any player holding a ball when another ball is in play may choose to puncture the ball. Roll a D6. On a roll of 2 or more the ball is punctured and the deflated pigs bladder is discarded. On a roll of 1 the ref spots this blatant cheating and sends the infringing player off as if he had committed a foul. The ball scatters from the square he was in.

This way you have the option of removing one of the multi-balls, probably if you have both in hand and don't want to risk losing one of them to a quick team. You could have the balls replaced at the end of the drive if you like but I'm not sure that's necessary.

Nice . I thought of something similar: throw into touch (one ball can be thrown out of play and is stolen by the fans). It seems like a good way to allow slower teams to decide what to do. Puncture seems more fun!