A given.
However I think one place where we all lack from time to time is embracing a little bit the world that it's actually taking place in. Sure it doesn't have the 30 years of intensive story development that Warhammer 40,000 has... but it still occupies it's own crazy little corner of the gaming multiverse, and between slapping together your latest power list for the next tournament (maybe even pushing that "3 colour minimum" rule to the limit!), crowbarring in a tired NFL reference (MY TEAM ARE THE KILLEDELPHIA SHMEAGLES) or even just going for the ha-ha's, naming them the Poo Pants Brigade and naming your noble Saurus Warrior "Joey Mc Joe Joe" because although you could rattle off a 30-page epic backstory for your homebrew Space Marine chapter on Bolter and Chainsword, putting 5 minutes of thought into player names is a bridge too far... I think we fall short on giving the Blood Bowl world the credit it deserves.
For many years I've been as guilty of this as any, although I do usually try and give my teams relatively generic yet thematic names - "Ironhelm Anvils", "Goldenvale Gliders" etc. Sometimes I wasn't hot on player names, and I never gave two thoughts about actual backstory for my teams.
So here's what I've started doing - and it's a challenge I put out there to the rest of you. Any team roster spreadsheet I now produce has not only space for a team logo, but space for at the very least a short paragraph for a little fluff. I'll give you a couple of examples.
My human team - the Blackvalley Union - "The affluent industrial town of Blackvalley used to have two teams - but the town's governing body opted to merge the two sides in order to better unite the townsfolk in support. Thus the Blackvalley Union was formed."
My Lizardmen team - The T'Latoc Totems - "It wasn't long ago that T'Latoc had only enthusiastic Skinks to call on for a Blood Bowl team, but after the arrival of some veteran Saurii that had each been recently "retired" from their respective teams, the Totems were born!"
As you can see I don't exactly go into much detail and neither one of the above backgrounds required any real knowledge about the setting of the Old World in fact. But, I think it adds a nice little bit of additional thought to the creation of your teams and I hope that some of you will take the challenge to add a little text like this to your team sheets
