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  TSBBL HOUSE RULES

These house rules are based on the ones used by my league while in college. Most of these came straight from Jervis Johnson (creator of Blood Bowl) when he was on the Blood Bowl listserv, and later became a part of the 4^th edition Living Rulebook.

I.  Team Information

I.A.  New Teams       

The Norse team rules were published in White Dwarf. The Lizardmen rules came from the Citadel Journal. 

I.A.1  Norse Team

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills	New Skills
0-12	Lineman	50K	6	3	3	7	Block	General
0-2	Thrower	70K	6	3	3	7	Block, Pass	General, Pass
0-2	Runner	80K	7	3	3	7	Block, Dauntless	General, Agility
0-4	Blitzer	90K	6	3	3	7	Block, Frenzy, Jump Up	General, Strength
0-2	Ulfwerner	110K	6	4	2	8	Frenzy	General, Strength

Rerolls:  60K        

I.A.2  Lizardmen Team

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills	New Skills
0-12	Skink	60K	8	2	3	7	Dodge, Stunty	General, Agility
0-6	Saurus	90K	6	4	1	9	None	General, Strength
0-2	Kroxigor	170K	6	5	1	9	Prehensile Tail, Thick Skull	Strength

Rerolls:  60K          

I.B.  Changes to Existing Teams

Upon discussion with Jervis and others, it was decided that some things needed to change from what was in the rulebooks. Here are the ones we adopted. 

I.B.1  Changes to Elf Teams Startup Costs

Jervis said several times that Elves in particular cost too much and started too far behind the rest of the teams in the league. Elf teams could not compete in terms of Fan Factor, and costs of replacing players were too high. Thus the costs were changed to better make them playable in a high-strength league.

Jervis first made the elves cheaper, then gave them a free reroll and kept starting costs, and later couldn’t make up his mind and so didn’t do anything. Putz.  

I. B.1.a  High Elf Teams

Stats of players do not change; only costs for players. Note that the thrower did not change.  Rerolls do not change.  

Player	Old Cost	New Cost
Lineman	70K	60K
Blitzer	100K	90K
Catcher	90K	80K
Thrower	80K	80K

I.B.1.b  Dark Elf Teams

No stat changes. Only cost. Rerolls are the same cost as before.

Player	Old Cost	New Cost
Lineman	70K	60K
Thrower	90K	80K
Blitzer	100K	90K
Witch Elf	110K	100K

I.B.1.c  Wood Elf Teams

Again, no stat changes. Rerolls do not change.

Player	Old Cost	New Cost
Lineman	70K	60K
Catcher	90K	80K
Thrower	90K	80K
Wardancer	120K	110K

I.B.2  Undead Regeneration Rolls

Jervis came out rather strongly for a Regenerate roll of 4+. We discovered that a 3+ was still really easy to make, and that the Undead became powerhouses in the league because they NEVER lost anyone! To fix this, we finally adopted Jervis’s advice, and changed regeneration.

In league games, regeneration is now a 4+ for all teams, including Undead, Trolls, and Skaven and Chaos mutants. 

Please note that if the Necromancer of the Undead team is missing in any way due to a Dirty Trick or Random Event card (Look Out Sir! and Kidnap Rival Coach), the Undead will not be able to regenerate. Vampires, trolls, and mutants can still regenerate, as they do not rely on magic to do so. 

I.B.3  Additions to Existing Team Rosters

                These players are in addition to the regular existing team roster for 3rd ed.

I.B.3.a    Treeman position (Halfling teams)

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills	New Skills
0-2	Treeman	150K	2	6	1	10	Stand Firm, Mighty Blow, Thick Skull	Strength

I.B.3.b    Troll position (Goblin Teams)

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills	New Skills
0-2	Troll	140K	4	5	1	9	Mighty Blow, Regeneration	Strength

I.B.3.c    Bull Centaur position (Chaos Dwarf Teams)

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills	New Skills
0-2	Bull Centaur	160K	6	4	2	9	Sprint, Sure Feet, Thick Skull	Strength

I.B.3.d  Rat Ogre position (Skaven teams)

Qty	Title	Cost	MA	ST	AG	AV	Skills	New Skills
0-2	Rat Ogre	160K	6	5	2	8	Prehensile Tail, Mighty Blow	Strength

II.    Star Players

Star Players may be hired as normal. Once hired, they are a part of your team for the rest of season. Star Players do NOT earn Star Player Points. See the Modified Star Player chart.

III.  Apothecaries

              Only one apothecary per team.

III.A.  Junior Apothecaries

Junior Apothecaries are apprentices in training to those masters of healing known as Blood Bowl Team Apothecaries. Keeping a team whole and healthy is a monumental task, and these guys are well respected as some of the best docs around!

Junior Apothecaries cost 50K (med school is expensive!), and can heal Badly Hurt, Serious Injuries, and Death at a 4+. Junior Apothecaries are limited to 3; more would stretch the Apothecary and he wouldn’t be able to do his job!

Junior Apothecaries may not heal Niggling Injuries.

III. B.  Apothecary Rules Clarifications

Failed Apothecary rolls may not be rerolled.

A wound may only be apothecaried once. If an apothecary fails, it is assumed that he took too long, and now the patient is beyond help!

An Apothecary may be used to heal a Niggling Injury at the beginning or a Serious Injury at the end of the game. 

You may sell the services of your apothecary, but this means you can’t use him in the game yourself.

Any injury except player death may be healed at the end of the game. Death must be healed at the time of injury.

An Apothecary may not heal crowd-inflicted injuries. They’re not crazy enough to fight off a Blood Bowl crowd to save anybody.  (“Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a riot squad!”)  

III. C.  Sigurd’s Injury Table

Once Dirty Player becomes common, it quickly becomes obvious that the number of deaths outweigh the Badly Hurt and Seriously Injured results. This makes it prohibitively expensive for many teams to replace players, and the Undead become very powerful. 

To combat this, a guy named Sigurd on the old Blood Bowl listserv proposed a replacement injury table for use when the dice are modified to a 12 or above. Jervis liked it, and took it to use in the 4thedition Living Rulebook. Without crediting Sigurd, of course.  

This table is used in replacement of the one on the blue card in the Blood Bowl set.

Sigurd’s Injury Table

When the injury roll is modified to a 12+ for any reason, roll an additional d6 and consult the table below. No modifiers are applied. A natural 12 is still dead, dead, dead!

1-3          Badly Hurt

4-5        Seriously Injured

 6          Dead, Dead, Dead!

This last d6 result also may NOT be rerolled!

IV.  Extended table for High Gate/High Team Rating games

This chart for match winnings is used in place of the one in the book. It is for particularly high gate/high team rating conditions. Notice that as the team rating gets higher and as more and more fans show up, the bonuses actually go down! This is because the fans are so rowdy and destructive and the damage they cause is so extensive and so bad that the teams actually have to pay for damages incurred. Once the Gate is above 90,000 fans, use the following table instead of the one in Death Zone.

Match Winnings Table

The Gate	0-99	100-125	126-150	151-175	176-200	201-250	251+
0-15,000	+1	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0
15,001-30,000	+2	+1	+0	+0	+0	+0	+0
30,001-45,000	+3	+2	+1	+0	+0	+0	+0
45,001-60,000	+4	+3	+2	+1	+0	+0	+0
60,001-75,000	+5	+4	+3	+2	+1	+0	+0
75,001-90,000	+6	+5	+4	+3	+2	+1	+0
90,001-105,000	+7	+6	+5	+4	+3	+2	+1
105,001-120,000	+6	+5	+4	+3	+2	+1	+0
120,001-130,000	+6	+5	+4	+3	+2	+1	-1
130,001-140,000	+5	+4	+3	+2	+1	0	-1
140,001-150,000	+4	+3	+2	+1	0	-1	-2
151,000+	+3	+2	+1	0	-1	-2	-3

Won Match: +1

Lost match: +0

Draw match: +0

Match Winnings= (d6 + modifier) x 10,000 gp

 V.  Rules Clarifications

V. A. New Stuff (modifications of extra league rules)

Buying Extra Cards—You may buy extra Special Play cards for 50,000 gp each during the pre-match sequence when calculating the handicap and drawing cards normally. Extra cards MUST be drawn randomly.  You may pick which deck to draw from.

Home vs. Away matches—This is only really necessary when starting to use Stadium Improvements. Roll a d6 during the pre-match sequence and before rolling on the Weather table. Whoever rolls highest is the home team.  Mark this in the Game Notes section of the roster page. If your last game was a home game, your opponent gains a +2 to this roll. 

Home teams gain the following advantages:

         Home game!         Temporary +1 to Fan Factor for this match only. This will not add a d6 to the gate rolls. 

          Home turf!              If the home team owns any Stadium Improvement, the game will be played using those rules.

Stadium Improvements—more on these to follow.  Don’t worry about it for now. 

V. B. Additional clarifications

Blocking

You must choose to follow up before the armor roll. You must roll armor/injury before the scatter. 

You can assist a block even if you have lost your tackle zone due to Hypnotic Gaze, but cannot prevent opponents in your tackle zone from assisting.

Multiple Block may be combined with Dauntless. Ugly, but good.

To assist with Multiple Block, you must be in the tackle zone of one of those being blocked. To assist against, you must be touching the player making the Multiple Block. You cannot be in another opponent’s tackle zone in either case.

Only one skill may be used to modify a dice roll. If you have Mighty Blow and Claw, you must choose which one you are using.

Multiple Block does NOT count as block for the “both down” result on the block dice. 

Catch

You do not have to catch a bouncing ball. If you choose not to, scatter it again. Failing to catch a bouncing ball is a turnover.

Picking Up the Ball

You may not enter a square occupied by the ball without trying to pick it up. Failure to pick up the ball is a turnover.

If a player is pushed into a square occupied by the ball, he may not pick up the ball, as he’s too busy trying to keep to his feet! Scatter the ball once.

A scattered or bouncing ball requires a Catch roll. The Catch skill may be used. Sure Hands cannot be used.

If the ball bounces into a player's square during his active turn, he may choose not to catch it to avoid a possible turnover. Scatter it again.

Scattering the Ball

The ball scatters from where a player carrying it is knocked down to, NOT from his original square.

The skill Strip Ball causes the ball to scatter from his pushed-back position, not his original square. You must choose to follow up before the ball scatters.

Interceptions

Instead of bases, use the occupied square to see if a player can intercept the ball. Bases vary too much in size.

Interruptions

Some things can interrupt your opponents turn, such as wizards, special play cards, etc. If the opponent just moves his player from one place to the next, you may move him back to any point from A to B. If they count out their squares, you must stop them as soon as you want to do it; you can’t force them to go back.

Passing

Throw Team-Mate is a Pass, and counts as your Pass action for the turn. A failed Throw Team-Mate is not a turnover unless they are the ball carrier.

Throwing Bombs, Custard Pies, or Stink Bombs do not count as the team’s Pass action for the turn.

Handing off the ball

A hand-off is a free action. Only one per turn.

A hand-off counts as a successful pass, and so is a Catch roll. They do NOT earn SPPs.

Push Backs

Push backs must go in unoccupied squares. Downed players may no longer be moved while down; no more domino chains. Players can only be pushed out of bounds if there are no empty squares available. Standing players will not be pushed back; if all spaces are full of standing players, the blocked player stays there or goes down in his original place.

Fouling

Dirty Player, Claw, Mighty Blow, and Razor Sharp Fangs all add modifiers in addition to the normal +1 to armor for fouling. Nasty. 

Only one skill may be used to modify a dice roll. If you have Dirty Player and Mighty Blow, you must choose which one you are using. I know which one I’d use!

Teams are limited to two Dirty Players per team, INCLUDING stars!

Kickoffs

You should place the ball before rolling the kickoff results. Then roll on the Kickoff Table. 

Scatter the ball before applying the results from the Kickoff Table. 

Kickoff results and rolls (Cheering Fans, Throw Rock, etc.) may NOT be rerolled.

Thrown Rocks can only affect players on the field, not in the dugout like the card says. Pitch invasion can only affect players on the field. 

Forfeits

You can forfeit at any time.

If you forfeit at a time other than the kickoff, use the number of players you had on the field at the last kickoff.

If you forfeit with 3 players or less on the field at the kickoff (not any time), you will gain no MVPs, no money, and no FF upgrades. The winning team rolls for all these, but does NOT get any of the money or MVPs that would go to the forfeiting team.

If you forfeit with more than 3 players on the pitch, you are subject to all the above plus a pitch invasion. In the pitch invasion, roll injury for each player on the field, not d6 as for the kickoff.

A forfeit is a 2-0 win for Fan Factor purposes, unless the score is already higher than that. SPPs are not earned for these points unless actually made during the game.  

Illegal Procedures

If a coach calls an Illegal Procedure and it Is not one, the other coach gains a reroll for the half. 

Spectators may not call Illegal Procedure!

Illegal Procedure can be called as soon as the coach touches a player, rolls the dice, or declares an action before moving his turn counter. He may touch the dice without Illegal Procedure being called. 

Having over 11 men on the field is also an Illegal Procedure, and may be called each turn the condition persists. Randomly determine a player to send back to the Reserves dugout. 

Arguing the Call

You can argue any penalty you get normally, including Illegal Procedures, fouls, too many men on the field, etc. Arguing the call works on a 6. If you roll a 1, you cannot Argue The Call for the rest of the game. 

You cannot argue penalties caused by Special Play cards. 

If your head coach is out for any reason (special play cards) you may NOT Argue The Call, nor may you call an Illegal Procedure.

Overtime

A draw does not result in overtime unless it is a tournament final or semi-final. In that case, flip the coin for receiving team; then play sudden death overtime with NO additional rerolls. 

If a team has any unused team rerolls from the second half, they may be used in overtime. 

Skills  

You never have to use a skill. If you don’t want to use Thick Skull, then don’t. It’s up to the coach as to what skills a player uses in a turn.

Players with AG 1 may not take Agility skills, even on a doubles roll. Players with ST 1 may not take Strength skills, even on doubles.

If you start using Frenzy, you must use it until your opponent falls down or you do. You do not have to Go For It.

Standing Up

Players with MV 3 or better can stand up on their own. If a player’s MV is 2 or 1, they must roll a 4+ on a d6 to stand up. Each team-mate next to the player adds +1 to the roll. Ignore tackle zones for these assists.  

Dodging

You must dodge to leave an enemy tackle zone. Entering a tackle zone is a free movement.

A player may only use the reroll from the Dodge skill once per turn.

Referee Penalties

It is the opponent’s responsibility to catch doubles on fouls, illegal procedures, etc. Watch all rolls!       

MVPs

End-of-match MVPs may be awarded posthumously. They can also be given to stars.  

Player Stat Upgrades

No player stats may go above 10. No attribute may be raised more than 2 points from its original value.  

In other words, 10 is the absolute highest value for any stat. If a Wood Elf gets a movement upgrade to 10, fine. If he rolls another movement upgrade, it is not allowed, and gains a skill instead. If a Black Orc Blocker rolls 12 twice, bringing his strength to 6, that's it. It has been upgraded twice and can go up no more. Reroll that result.   

VI.  Special Play Card Clarifications

Cards that say that they last until the end of the turn end at the next turnover, not until the end of their next turn.

Cards that cause penalties may not be argued.

You can trade or sell cards to the opposing coach, but not to coaches in other games. 

You can take bribes not to play cards.

You do not have to play all your cards.

Blatant Foul

Blatant Fouls may not be argued.

If you win Get The Ref, a Blatant Foul will not be called against you.

Robbed!

You cannot rob the money from Demo Game, Will, Merchandising, #1 With A Bullet, Side Bet, or an Alchemist, as they are not technically winnings.

Kidnap Rival Coach

This means that you cannot do any of the coach-related things. You cannot argue a call, you cannot call Illegal Procedure, and Undead cannot Regenerate or Raise The Dead. 

VII.  Common Sense Stuff

Team Rosters

You cannot play a league game without having your team roster with you at the time. No trying to do it from memory!

Team rosters are not secret. You must show your roster to your opponent if he asks.

Ideally we should keep all team rosters in one place. This will limit misplacing or forgetting rosters. 

Coaches with Multiple Teams

You cannot play your own teams against each other unless another person agrees to coach them for that game. Agreements to take it easy on the other team so as to build them up are not good sportsmanship.

You can only enter ONE team into tournaments.

Disbanding a Team

If you disband a team, you may not give money, players, apothecaries, coaches, wizards, or cheerleaders to another team. 

Dice Rolls

If a die goes off the table, it must be rerolled. If it is crooked (up on a base or something), it should be read as to what is on top. Do not reroll it. 

Notes from League Games

Make sure to write the winnings and score from each game. I am beginning to suspect some creativity with the money on some teams. If you write it down, there is no doubt. You don't have to take notes from the game, although I encourage you to do so.