New to Blood Bowl?

Ben Smith's Wood Elves, winner of last year's Best Painted of the Year'

Blood Bowl is an amazing hobby. There are loads of different ways to engage, focusing on the painting and modelling side or on playing games. There are also many different ways to play.

Playing
The best way to start playing Blood Bowl is in a League, but there are also many tournaments across Scotland. The main difference is that League play normally uses Progression - that is, the various rules that involve players gaining SPP and new skills and suffering injuries. Tournaments are normally run using a Resurrection format - people build their team before the first game of the Tournament, and the team stays the same throughout the Tournament.

Hobby
Building and painting Blood Bowl models is often referred to as 'Hobby': it's an important part of Blood Bowl, and some people's main focus.

Social and Community
Blood Bowl in Scotland - and wider - has a really great community. You can get involved through your Leagues, through Tournaments, and through the SBBC socials: our Facebook page and Discord server.

League Play

There are Leagues covering all of Scotland: from Dumfries to Shetland, with a particular concentration in the Central Belt. You can find your nearest League on our League Page, which will tell you how to get in touch with the organiser (usually called the League Commissioner).

Many Leagues will be running learning games to get to grips with the new edition, and the coaches there will often let you borrow their teams to try them out to see if they fit how you want to play.

League Play is usually split into Seasons: they vary in length; but 8-12 games is around average. The start of a new Season is usually the best time to join a new League.

Tournament Play

There are Tournaments hosted across Scotland, on a regular basis; and Scottish coaches often travel further afield to play in tournaments in England, Ireland, Wales, Continental Europe, and beyond.

In 2028, Scotland will be hosting Eurobowl, Blood Bowl's major international tournament.

Coaches at the Home Nations Tournament in 2024.

You can find a list of Scottish Tournaments on our Tournaments page, which will let you know how to sign up.

Most Tournaments use custom Tiering, different to the Games Workshop Tiering, and give coaches a different number of skill points to give their players based on those Tiers. Whilst this can seem intimidating at first, it's simpler than it looks, and other coaches in your League or on the SBBC social media will be happy to help you talk about how to build teams.

Most Tournaments don't require you to use official Games Workshop models: the tournament rulespack will specify any restrictions on models you can use.

Some tournaments are Team Tournaments, where a group of coaches are playing together, and the results of the team are based on the results of the individual matches played by the team members.

You don't have to be amazing at Blood Bowl to sign up to a tournament - the fun and social side of the event is as important as the competitive side, and there are usually other awards than just for winning the tournament: causing the most Casualties, being the best-placed Stunty team or new coach, and Best Painted are all common awards.

A number of Tournaments in Scotland are grouped together in the Scottish Tournaments Series: your placings in these tournaments will give you points for the Series, and your best 5 results will be counted. At the moment, there are Championships for overall champion, best Rookie, and best Stunty.

The NAF acts as an organisation that co-ordinates Blood Bowl players internationally. One of the things that they do is recording players' statistics from Tournaments, so most players choose to join the NAF - but you don't have to do so to play in a tournament. You can usually join the NAF at a Tournament.

Variants

As well as standard Blood Bowl, there are also a number of variant ways to play. It's not yet clear how directly all of these will transfer to the new ruleset, but either Games Workshop or the NAF will publish rules so you can play these using the latest rules.

In the previous edition, the variants were:

Sevens - just like regular Blood Bowl, but with a shorter game, smaller pitch, and fewer players (7 on the pitch rather than 11). This is a really good way to get familiar with the mechanics of the game.
Gutter Bowl - played in a Street or a Sewer, with more chaotic elements and fewer players.
Dungeon Bowl - played in 'Dungeons', this ends up being halfway between a game of Blood Bowl and a HeroQuest style Dungeoncrawler RPG.

Earlier editions of the game also had a number of other variants which have not continued on, including Beach Bowl, Death Bowl, and Street Bowl.

New to Blood Bowl?

League Play

Tournament Play

There are Tournaments hosted across Scotland, on a regular basis; and Scottish coaches often travel further afield to play in tournaments in England, Ireland, Wales, Continental Europe, and beyond. In 2028, Scotland will be hosting Eurobowl, Blood Bowl's major international tournament.

Variants

Sevens - just like regular Blood Bowl, but with a shorter game, smaller pitch, and fewer players (7 on the pitch rather than 11). This is a really good way to get familiar with the mechanics of the game.

​Gutter Bowl - played in a Street or a Sewer, with more chaotic elements and fewer players.

Dungeon Bowl - played in 'Dungeons', this ends up being halfway between a game of Blood Bowl and a HeroQuest style Dungeoncrawler RPG. Earlier editions of the game also had a number of other variants which have not continued on, including Beach Bowl, Death Bowl, and Street Bowl.​

There are Tournaments hosted across Scotland, on a regular basis; and Scottish coaches often travel further afield to play in tournaments in England, Ireland, Wales, Continental Europe, and beyond.

In 2028, Scotland will be hosting Eurobowl, Blood Bowl's major international tournament.

Gutter Bowl - played in a Street or a Sewer, with more chaotic elements and fewer players.

Dungeon Bowl - played in 'Dungeons', this ends up being halfway between a game of Blood Bowl and a HeroQuest style Dungeoncrawler RPG.

Earlier editions of the game also had a number of other variants which have not continued on, including Beach Bowl, Death Bowl, and Street Bowl.