Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl is a tabletop fantasy football game, set in the Warhammer world. produced by Games Workshop, introduced in 1986. It was created by Jervis Johnson. There are several teams available to play, including all manner of elves (wood, high, dark), dwarves, orcs, hobbits (genericized as halflings), men, and ogres, to name a few. The rules have varied over the years, ranging from a close approximation of the parent game's rules to the current sports simulator. Coaches are able to play one-off games, play in tournaments or even set up their own league, under the guidance of the commissioner. In this game, the rules of the game and the rules of the setting are not always in accord; you are allowed to cheat by bribing the ref or hiring wizards to wreck havoc.

Gameplay

Blood Bowl is played by two players (described as "coaches" in the rules to distinguish from the pawns). Players, team staff, and other characters are represented as 28mm miniatures. The game takes place on a playing field, called the pitch. Much like in football, the teams attempt to carry the ball over the goal line while on offense while preventing their opponent from doing so on defense. Players have various statistics that represent their playing ability. A player with high agility will be able to move more spaces in one turn, while a strong player will be more likely to successfully perform blocks. Various actions, such as running and using skills (passing, catching, blocking) , are available to players in a turn.

Electronic Versions

There are many other ways to play Blood Bowl beyond the original table top incarnations, such as via the FUMBBL client and the Blood Bowl video games. There are several different sorts of matchmaking formulas, such as black box and ranked.