Blood Bowl: Get ‘Serious’ With New Matched Play Guidelines
The of Fantasy Football is getting “serious” with some new Matched Play guidelines and rules for Tournaments everywhere.
Games Workshop is introducing some new Blood Bowl Matched Play rules for players and Tournament Organizers everywhere. These new rules help to codify “how to run a Matched Play Tournament” and will be in use at official GW events moving forward. But what does that mean for the game of Blood Bowl and it’s community?
What Is The Matched Play Guide?
In GW’s own words:
“The Blood Bowl Matched Play Guide is the ideal companion for anyone who attends Blood Bowl tournaments and gaming weekends. It outlines everything you need to know to run an event yourself, complete with guidance on how to organise your rules pack, how to work out scoring, what tiebreakers you can use, how pairings should work for an event, and more. This is ideal for budding Tournament Organisers (TOs) who are looking to run their first events, but also for veterans who can use this as a standardised formula for their events.”
This is really just a guide on how to run a Blood Bowl event. And it’s a standardization for everyone who plays no matter where you play. If an event is running based off this guide you’ll know what you’re in for from the beginning. That’s lowering the barrier to entry for folks who might want to travel to a convention or a big event and play Blood Bowl.
Again, this guide will be used at all official Games Workshop events moving forward as well. That’s a big step in making the tournament scene “serious” — or as serious as moving plastic miniatures around a board can be.
Joking aside, when a manufacture comes out with an “official tournament format” it does help legitimize the game as a competitive game. That can be a boon for players and Tournament Organizers alike.
What The Match Play Guide Isn’t…
The Matched Play Guide isn’t an extra rulebook for the game. You don’t need it to play or run independent events or leagues with your friends (although you can use it as a tool to help set those up). If you don’t use this book the Blood Bowl Police aren’t going to show up at your door and burn your teams with a flamer. It’s okay if you don’t use the Matched Play Guide.
That said, the Matched Play Guide does support some Alternative Formats for Blood Bowl. And it’s got a bunch of extras in there, too. Who knows…you might be able to steal a few ideas from the book and incorporate them into your own events or leagues.
“We also know that many experienced TOs enjoy putting their own unique twist on their Blood Bowl events. The additional rules section provides a number of ideas for fun, alternative rules that can be used for your events, from the likes of including injuries and player advancement, to creating your own custom Inducements, and even generating Secret Objectives that coaches must try to accomplish. These are just some of the ideas found inside, and may serve as inspiration for your own events.”
If you’re already running your own Blood Bowl Tourneys and events — awesome! Keep it up. GW isn’t trying to tell you how to do your thing. But if you’re not and have always wanted to this is a great place to start. And who knows, you might get enough practice with these Matched Play Guidelines you’ll feel comfortable enough travelling to an official GW event for Blood Bowl.
What About Balance?
This is always the question when it comes to “serious” competitive events. “How is GW balancing X,Y, and Z?” Good question. They are introducing a Skill Point system to help keep things manageable.
“Teams are given a number of Skill Points depending on their Tier, as found within the Blood Bowl FAQ and Errata. These Skill Points are used to purchase Skills for their players, with a Primary Skill costing 1 Skill Point and a Secondary Skill costing 2 Skill Points.
Skill Points aren’t just spent to take Skills though. Hiring a Star Player will cost 2 Skill Points – plus their associated cost in gold pieces, of course. This means that coaches will need to decide if it is better for their team to spend those Skill Points on more Skills, or on a Star Player. “
There’s also additional Skill Point expenditures for “the most dominate Star Players” as well. These players are dubbed “Mega-stars” and will cost 4 Skill Points to field.
Personally, I’m curious to see how a Matched Play Tournament for Blood Bowl would be organized by GW. I’ve played in leagues before and I appreciate the accomplishment of playing a team long-term. But I’d also be interested in a shorter “weekend” event that functioned more like a Matched Play event from 40k or AoS.
I think new players will appreciate being on an even playing field every game as you really get to pit your skills on the pitch to test instead of playing against a team that’s just got more Skills and Abilities than you.
What does this mean for the Blood Bowl Community? Well, hopefully it means more events to play at and more players to play with! I know there’s a pretty diehard community out there that already exists with their own scene. Great! Keep it up. I hope this new Matched Play Guide only boosts their numbers and helps more players enjoy the game.
Would you want to play at an official GW Blood Bowl event with these new Matched Play Guidelines?
