These are the full league rules for the Drawbridge 2018 Blood Bowl league. They will use the league rules presented in the current Blood Bowl Annual (2018) with the modifications noted below. The Annual includes a streamlined and comprehensive version of the pre-and-post-match sequence for team management, and all team managers should have and familiarize themselves with the full league rules.

Critical Rule

We’re here to have fun and tell good stories about epic Blood Bowl games. If you’re here to win at all costs, this isn’t the League for you.

League and Divisions

The Drawbridge Blood Bowl League (DBBL) 2018  will run for 6 weeks, starting on September 6th, 2018. The All-Star game will happen the week before playoffs, and will be held on Thursday, October 18th. The Playoffs will happen on October 25th and 27th, with the Final Game on Sunday the 28th. NOTE: Currently those timings are only tentative–they may be adjusted depending on player availability and Drawbridge timings. 

Team managers will be split into two Divisions: East and West. Players can play any opponent in the League, but your in-Division standings will be what will determine playoff participation. We’ll endeavor to split the two Divisions by available times for games (roughly weekend players and weekday players), but I’ll also have to make the Divisions equal in numbers.

League Teams and Player Recruitment

Teams in the DBBL begin with the standard 1,000,000 gold coins and free Head Coach to create their team. All currently published teams are available to Team Managers. Note that this League DOES NOT USE STAR PLAYERS. They cannot be recruited at any point during play. Instead, players are encouraged to come up with identities of their own Star Players as the course of play runs onward. Note that we’ll have an All-Star game where coaches from each Division will contribute their top players to their Division team and run the game as a group against the other Division coaches (should be amazingly silly and fun). This also means that other named personas are not being used (referees, coaching staff, etc.).

Recruit teams young and old alike!

Note that if a team needs to be restarted, the rules presented for restarting in the Blood Bowl Annual will be followed. The short version is: new roster of recruits, keep current fan factor, can buy-in players with skills from old team at cost. We encourage players to not abuse this system unduly–if a pattern of frequent restarts for free fan factor is noted, expect suitable censure.

Playing Games and Progress

Team Managers are welcome schedule matches via online connection, or simply show up for games at the likely timings at Drawbridge. Team Managers cannot play a game against the same opponent twice in one week (Thursday to following Wednesday counts as the week each week). Division Standings will reward playing a lot of opponents (e.g. a player who is 2-1 would be ranked ahead of a player who is 1-1 but behind a player who is 2-2).

Specific League Rules

Special Plays: Special Plays are extremely limited in the DBBL. During the pre-game sequence, only a single Special Play card is drawn by each player–there is no roll to randomly determine number of choices. Additional pulls from the special play deck can be purchased through inducements as normal.

Weather: Yes, we’re using Weather. Roll on that table, and have some fun.

Expensive Mistakes: Yep, using this rule. Keep spending on the team.

Spiraling Expenses: And this one too. It’s hard to manage expensive teams.

Sponsorships: There will be a list of active Sponsorship deals maintained on this page. These will be one source of Special Plays, as well as other benefits (and drawbacks) for teams.

Inducements: The DBBL will use the inducements rules as normal to help balance teams of different value. Again, as the rules list: either Team Manager can purchase inducements in that phase pre-game, but the Team that has a smaller total team value gains the difference in team value as “free inducements” points for that match only.

• 0-2 Bloodwiser Kegs (50,000gp each)
• 0-3 Bribes (100,000gp each)
• 0-4 Extra Team Training (100,000gp each)
• Mercenaries (Various Prices)
• 0-2 Wandering Apothecaries (100,000gp each)
• 0-1 Hireling Sports-Wizard with the Fireball and ZAP! spells (150,000gp, Spike Issue 1)
• 0-5 Additional Special Plays (100,000gp each)

Coaching Staff: These rules are used as written.

Illegal Procedure: These rules are used as written. Don’t fuss about it. Accept that it’s a part of the game, and remember to keep the correct turn marked.

Exhibition Games, Piling On, Free Fan Factor, (In)Famous Coaching Staff, Famous Referees, Special Balls, and Blood Bowl Stadiums: All of these rules are not used in the DBBL 2018 season.

Painting Teams

Fully-painted teams are not required, but they do have rewards. First off, filmed games and commentary will only be done for teams that are fully painted. So you should want to get those colors on your models only for that. But there’s even more incentive: when you field a fully painted team, you get an immediate +3 boost to your Fan Factor for free. The value of the team increases accordingly, but you don’t need to spend the money from treasury to do it. Should you change team members or recruit others, note that you’d lose that +3 boost if unpainted models hit the pitch (so paint up those reserves too!).

Prizes and Trophies

Enrico at Drawbridge has some great official Blood Bowl prize support for the event: special coins, Special Play cards, special color roster sheets we’ll be using to track our teams, and more. There will also be a MVP Star Player award for the Star Player that is the biggest Star during the All-Star game (likely by making their foes see stars). And the overall league trophy for the winner of the big game at the end of the season. We’ll have additional prizes for “down on their luck” and best-painted team as well. And the final prize will be a random draw among all League participants who played at least five games during the season: you’ll get a plastic GW Blood Bowl team box of your choice.

 

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