Copyright 1998, 2000 Bruce Tong & The Athens Wargamers
Welcome to the exciting world of Blood Bowl: the Role-Playing Game! So what if it started out as a joke. So what if its still kind of a joke. It's Blood Bowl!
Perhaps it was just the mood we were in, perhaps we were destined for greatness, or perhaps it was just because we had gone to the Burrito Buggy for dinner, but the local game crowd was in a strange mood. As near as I can figure, if you take a year and a half of Friday night Blood Bowl leagues and a batch of role-players, put them in a room, the natural result will be a strange hybrid. It's all just a matter of time.
I've run this little pick-up game off and on now for a while and I think it's high time it makes an official debut. This is no way intended to be a challenge to Games Workshop's Blood Bowl trademark, copywrite, or whatever else serves to protect their gravey train. So far Blood Bowl is the only game Games Workshop has done right (with the possible exception of Warhammer Quest) and I don't want to be part of ruining a good thing. Thus, if you want to play this game, you'll need copies of Blood Bowl and Death Zone. And since this game builds on top of those rules, you should know how to play Blood Bowl too. If you're already a rabid Blood Bowl fan, then this game is right up your alley. It makes for a great way to kill time until your next match is ready to start.
Finally, when somebody gives you a hard time about playing BB:RPG, tell them it could be worse... you could be using the "Live Action' rules. (No, we didn't write those rules. It's a joke; get it?)
Each player should have a character. They're called Player Characters, or PCs. One person, the Referee, runs the game, which means he gets to play a bunch of Non-Player Characters, or NPCs. Regardless of who controls the character, however, they all work the same way.
As a group, the Players are going to make a Blood Bowl team. Some of the characters (the Player Characters) on the team will be further defined so they can be used as role-playing characters. Somebody must choose a race for the team. It can be, the players or the referee, so long as a choice is made. Once chosen, use the Blood Bowl/Death Zone rules and make a team. You know, spend $1,000,000 on players, re-rolls, fans, coaches, cheerleaders, etc. Just make sure there's one Lineman for each person playing your game, except for the Referee, of course.
Each Player in your game takes a Lineman from the team list for the their role-playing character. Players will want to keep track of the Blood Bowl stats (MA, ST, AG, and AV), and some role-playing stats: Knowledge (KN), Charisma (CH), and Perception (PC). The values of the original stats come right from the Blood Bowl game, so you can just copy them.
For the three role-playing stats (KN, CH, and PC) each Player has nine (9) points to spend on those three stats. No stat can be greater than five (5), or lower than two (2) when a character is created. Experience will slowly improve these stats as the game progresses.
If your character got skills from Blood Bowl, write them down. In fact the characters will continue to gain new Blood Bowl skills using the same rules you're used to from Death Zone. If you got natural abilities, such as Thick-Skull or Homs, write them down too.
Characters also start with one role-playing skill, which the Player is free to choose. This skill could represents what the character studied in college (assuming he played college ball), or it could represent some other ability he learned in his past. Heck, it could even be a hobby. The following is a list of skills used in BB:RPG. They're organized by the role-play stat used to determine success. (More on that later.)
Knowledge (KN)
Charisma (CH)
Perception (PC)
You've seen the game system before. It's Blood Bowl and Death Zone. You'll get the idea; just keep reading.
During a Blood Bowl game, you use a skill chart to determine if an action succeeded or failed. The base chance of success is based on a stat, such as Agility (AG). This stays the same for the role-playing game. If you want to throw a frizbee, resolve it like a pass.
For the role-playing skills, use the same Blood Bowl chart you used to resolve anything. The base chance of success depends on the stat on which the skill is based. So, if you want to search for clues at the scene of a crime, the Criminology skill is involved, so the base chance of success depends on your character's Knowledge (KN) stat. There for, if your Knowledge (KN) is 3, then you succeed on a 4+ on a d6. See, it really is just the Blood Bowl game.
Combat is resolved using the Blood Bowl system too. If you want to attack another character, compare Strengths and roll the appropriate number of Blood Bowl dice. Knock-downs, push-backs, skulls, and so forth are all handled as if you're playing a Blood Bowl match.
There are times when people will use weapons. Fortunately, you can still use the Blood Bowl system. Need weapons -- remember the chainsaw and the poison dagger.
Combat rounds in role-playing also use the Blood Bowl rules, which makes them somewhat unpredictable and fun. Combatants are grouped together into sides. If your fight has only two sides, then use a coin toss to determine which side goes first. If you have more than one side, then you'll have to roll dice and go from highest rolling side to lowest rolling side. Before the first side takes an action, make sure you roll a Kick Off event.
When it's a side's turn, one character can act at a time, just like in Blood Bowl. The character can either attack, or move and use a skill. Only one character on a side can move and attack (Blitz), just like in Blood Bowl. Finally, again just like Blood Bowl, if a character fails attempting to complete his action, then the whole side's turn is done -- a Turnover.
To resolve an attack, compare Strengths to determine how many Blood Bowl dice are rolled, roll those dice and determine the result as if you were playing a Blood Bowl match, and apply the result. Knocked Out characters are out of the fight, but they come back after the fight is over just as if it were a Kick Off. Injuries which take you out of the game, well, they take you out of the game. Killed characters, are, well, dead. (That's life in the Big Leagues.)
If your team has an Apothocary (or perhaps easy access to a hospital) then you can try to heal wounded or killed characters. An Apothocary can only heal one character per role-play session, just as if it were a Blood Bowl match.
Teams which have a Wizard are free to use that Wizard during role-play, once.
Coaches, Cheerleaders, Apothocaries, Wizards, and other things which like to hang out on the side lines during a Blood Bowl match, are allowed to make cameo appearances in combat. In this way, they influence Kick Off results, shoot Lightning Bolts, and so forth.
However many re-rolls were purchased for the team on the Blood Bowl roster is the number of re-rolls available for role-play. Any player can use a re-roll at any time during their turn. Re-rolls can be used outside of combat too.
During a Blood Bowl match, characters earn Star Player Points in accordance with the Death Zone rules. When you reach a break point, you roll on the skill/stat table and you'll either get a new skill or a stat increase. You know the drill.
When you're role-playing, you can also earn Star Player Points, but you have to keep them seperate from the Star Player Points earned for playing a match. Star Player Points for role-play can only be used for role-play skills and stats, and points earned in a match can only be used to gain Blood Bowl skills and stats. Role-playing Star Player Points are earned in the following ways:
Award SP Bonus Description
---------- ---------- -------------------------------------------
MVP +5 One chosen randomly between all that played
Casualty +2 For each Death or Injury inflicted
Clue +1 Found a clue in a mystery/investigation
Played +3 Just for having played the game
Use the normal SPP chart to determine when new skill rolls are earned.
Every time you get a skill roll in Blood Bowl, you roll on a chart to see what you got. For role-playing, whenever you get a skill roll, roll 2d6. If you get doubles you can either increase one of your role-playing stats (KN, CH, or PC), or you can pick a skill. If you don't get doubles, then you can pick a skill but you can't improve a stat. In Blood Bowl, characters are restricted to picking skills off of certains lists, but with the role-playing skills, no such restriction exists. Orcs can pick knowledge skills. (Hey, it happens.)
What do you mean you don't want to play a Lineman? Okay, okay... here's some rules for emerging from the rank and file.
A player may choose to have a newly created character work towards another position. To do so, determine the desired position. Then subtract the cost of the new position from the current (Lineman) cost of the player. The result is then divided by 1000 to yeild the number of Star Player points needed to transform the character from one position to another. These Star Player points can come from both the role-playing side of the game and the Blood Bowl side of the game. While a character is changing postions, Star Player points (of both types) cannot be spent for anything else.
Example: Sam Spiker, a newly created character, would rather be a Blitzer than a Lineman. Sam takes the price of a Blitzer (70,000) and subtracts from it the price of a Lineman (50,000), leaving 20,000 which is then divided by 1000 to determine the next 20 Star Player points from role-playing and Blood Bowl combined are will go to changing the character into a Blitzer. All Star Player points are erased, and the character continues as if he had just been made.
When the character accumulates the required Star Player points, change his stats and skills to match the new position. This can mean a character's stats go down and skills are lost. You'll also have to update the Team Record on the Blood Bowl side of things. For instance, the team has to be able to afford the character's new salary. If the team cannot afford the new salary, then the player will have to remain in his old position until the new salary can be payed. Finally, a teams must continue to meet all restrictions on numbers of players in certain positions. If there's no room for another Blitzer, then the character must continue to be a Lineman.
At the beginning of the play session, each player can draw a card. Only one player may draw from the Magic Item deck. The Referee also draws one card for every card drawn by the players.
These cards can be played at any time during the play session. This can lead to strange situations, such as a player falling into a pit trap while sneaking through a warehouse, or a (Woof Woof) dog running away with a suitcase full of strength drugs. This could be disconcerting in a normal role-playing game, but Blood Bowl players are used to it.
Cards which award extra money to a team require some special attention. You might treat them as a Bribe NPC card, or you could simply rule a player with one of these cards can make a large expenditure of money. When the Referee plays one of these cards, he might choose to bribe an NPC not to cooperate with the PCs. The referee could also impose a debt on the PCs. Finally, a money card could be used to cancel the effects of another money card.
Now let me ask you something. Do you really expect something as strange as Blood Bowl the Role-Playing Game to have a Campaign section? Are you saying it's an amusing set of rules thus far, so why not go for broke? Damn, I was certain I could forget this section. Okay, but I'll keep it short.
Blood Bowl is already full of the little things which bring a world to life. Nuffle, the Association of Broadcast Conjurors, and Cabal Vision should all ring a bell. Watch ESPN and Monday Night Football, twist all the names into Fantasy sounding puns, add water, and you've got a world. Now all you need is a premis for adventures.
For Blood Bowl: the Role-Playing Game, just fall back on the bread and butter of modem adventure. Cartoons such as Josey and the Pussycats and Scooby Doo can be emulated perfectly. Adventures are all episodes with lite connections back to previous episodes. Maybe there's a re-occuring villain; maybe not. Who really cares? At the end of each episode, the Pussycats play a gig, so your team can solve the mystery of Tut-Uncommon's Tomb just in time for a Blood Bowl match against the Dwarf Giants.