| Blood Bowl is a light-hearted tabletop board game created by Jervis
Johnson for the British games company Games Workshop. The first ever
competitive game took place between Jervis and Stewart Parkinson in Nottingham, England at the end of 1985 (when still in its
developmental phase) and it is still going strong today. The game is set in the fantasy universe of Warhammer Fantasy, populated by traditional fantasy elements such as human warriors, goblins, dwarfs, elves, orcs and trolls.
Blood Bowl depicts a turn based game of 'fantasy football', akin to a very violent version of American football. It is played with a collection of 28mm models
(Citadel Miniatures)
representing the two 'football' teams. The board represents the field, and, as with most board games, gameplay proceeds using
dice, cards and counters.
The aim of the game is, like in football, to score touchdowns. However a secondary component of the game is to try to
injure/maim the opposition (thus making scoring easier).
The game is purposely light-hearted in its approach - making allowances for such things as fouling the opposition and bringing
weapons (such as bombs, chainsaws and steam rollers) on to the pitch.
Each team in the game is based on a particular race, with each race having their own advantages (Elves tend to be fast and
good at scoring, whilst Dwarfs and Orcs are more suited to trying to grind the opposing team into the ground).
The game also allows teams from one game to be carried over to the next, so that players gain gain skills or injuries as they
gain experience.
Strictly speaking, Blood Bowl is not a 'tabletop wargame', though it is probably closer to other Games Workshop inventions such as Warhammer
40,000 than it is to traditional board games such as Monopoly.
In 1995, Blood Bowl third edition won the Origins Award for Best Miniatures Rules of 1994. Blood Bowl is presently in its fourth edition, with
the current rules revision called "Living Rulebook 3.0", short LRB 3.0.
External links
|
