Blood Bowl
Nuffle must be Appeased
“Do you want to join us in some game?” I will sometimes ask one of the regulars at our store.
“Nope,” he’ll answer, “I’m about to play the greatest game of all time.” And then he will pull out his copy of Blood Bowl. Sometimes he’s playing a league game. Sometimes he’s teaching someone else. I’ve probably played hundreds of different games with this person, over more than a dozen years. He’s a fan of Knizia and others. But his Number One? Numero Uno? Ichiban? Blood Bowl.
I get it. Three decades ago I (and over a dozen like minded people) had a blast in our local games stores league (which lasted for several seasons).
Jervis Johnson’s Blood Bowl is many things, but mostly it is fun. This isn’t fantasy football like a Rotisserie League, this is fantasy football in that it has Orcs and Dwarves and Spells. The pre-cursor to Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 was Warhammer Fantasy Battle, where you’d match up various armies and duke it out. Fantasy Battle might still be around (although 40K is much bigger), but at some point it disappeared. This off-shoot removes the Grim-Dark “There is only war” from the setting and asks how these murder-minded minions might spend their day off1. “What if they had a football league?”
Well … The sport mixes between Football, Rugby, Soccer and Rollerball. There are touchdowns, but only a point. Tackling can be followed up with a shiv and players can be murdered on the field. That’s why you have subs.
As a game … it works reasonably well. Played strictly by the rules, a player has four minutes to make all the decisions he wants as to how to move his people, when to block, pass, tackle, foul, etc. At four minutes, the turn is up.2 Kind of a simple “touch-move.” And more importantly, when its your turn and you have to roll a die, if you fail you might get to re-roll once, but if that fails, your turn ends. And a “one” always fails3. So anything you do has a 1/36 chance (if not more) of ending your turn.
Sudden Death, on and off the pitch.
And if you play in a league, players accumulate skills (and injuries!) from game to game, and you’d handle finances (to buy replacement players) and fans (more fans means more chances that they might attack the opposition). And of course all the players would trash talk incessantly during the season. The league rules provide inducements for weak teams4 to play stronger teams, so even “unfair” match ups could be fun.
And visually? The game (can) look great.
30 different teams means you can build one with a play style you enjoy. Elves are finesse ball handlers that can score well and move fast. Dwarves are slow, but resilient. Orcs try to murder enough people (not necessarily opponents) then gently nudge the ball across the line. Coming to grips with the various opponents you’d be presented with was also part of the fun.
Blood Bowl has been in-and-out of print for forty years, with computer adaptations (some licensed, others just very similar). Do I think it’s the Greatest Game of All Time (like my friend at the game store?) No. But it’s a blast with the right group and a reasonable candidate for inclusion in the 100 Most Influential Games in the 20th Century.
Praise Nuffle.
In fact, the game leans into its humor/camp. Players pay the game to appease the god “Nuffle,” a not so subtle nod to the NFL, and plenty of other jokes are strewn throughout the rules and event cards in my edition.
For teaching games, this is not enforced, but in a league.
A simplification, but not by much. And (as is the case of most miniatures games), plenty of model-specific rules exist.
Like those who had recently suffered a higher mortality rate than normal.