Bloodbowl Sevens

Welcome to Blood Bowl Sevens, the game of Fantasy Football in your lunchtime. Inspired by the popular 40K in 40 minutes, Blood Bowl Sevens was created so staff at Games Workshop head office could enjoy a game of Blood Bowl in their hour lunch break. For many staff, family and other social commitments means that the only time they get to play games is during their lunch break.

Traditionally, this has meant playing one half of Blood Bowl in one lunch break and the other in another. However, what usually happens is you run out of time and end up rushing the last couple of turns or you get busy the following day and the second half could take up to a week to be played. Not very suitable for league commissioners trying to run an office league!

So, the idea was to create a version of Blood Bowl that could be played within an hour and that would allow league commissioners to quite simply put together a Blood Bowl league.

The easiest way I could envisage making this possible was to do two things – to reduce the number of players taking part in a match and to also reduce the size of the pitch. Here I was inspired again, by ‘Hong Kong’ Sevens – a seven aside rugby tournament. With fewer players and a smaller pitch early play testing proved successful. However, the game still didn’t feel quiet right. It needed something to tie everything together. What I hit on next was to make all the difference. I decided to make Blood Bowl Sevens an amateur form of Blood Bowl. This would give me greater ability to make the changes I needed to make the game flow appropriately and, all importantly, be able to be played in a single lunchtime (and allowing Aftermathematicians to get up to three games played on a club night). So without further ado I present ... Blood Bowl Sevens.

MAKING THE BOARD

The pitch for a game of Bloodbowl Sevens is smaller than the 11-a-side, professional game. It's 20 squares long (including both endzones) and 11 squares wide. Each wide zone is 2 squares wide rather than the usual 4. Rather than a central line of scrimmage, there are two lines of scrimmage, each one 6 squares from an endzone.

GAME RULES

These are the core rules you will need in addition to those in the Blood Bowl rulebook in order to play Blood Bowl Sevens. Except where noted below, players should use the rules in the Living Rulebook.

SETTING UP THE GAME

Each coach may set up 7 players between their End Zone and their line of scrimmage. In Blood Bowl Sevens the teams set up apart from each other in a similar fashion to Rugby (there I go again, stealing ideas). This means that there are two lines of scrimmage (one for each team), rather than just one in the middle of the pitch. The following other restrictions also apply:

1. The kicking team always sets up first.
2. At least three players must be set-up on the line of scrimmage.
3. Players using the Kick skill must be set-up on the line of scrimmage (i.e. the opposite to the way it works in the professional game).

THE KICK OFF

After both players have set up, the coach of the kicking team places the football anywhere on the field in front of the kicking team’s Line of Scrimmage. The kick then proceeds as usual but a ‘touchback’ only occurs if the ball goes off the field (as normal) or crosses back over the kicking team’s Line of Scrimmage (not over the halfway line). Note: this may result in the ball finishing in front of the receiving team.

THROWING THE BALL

As an unprofessional league, Blood Bowl Sevens players are not as athletic as their professional counter parts. To represent this, all Blood Bowl Sevens players must increase the range by one category when they make a pass. This means a Quick Pass counts as a Short Pass, a Short Pass as a Long Pass, and a Long Pass as a Long Bomb. Players may not attempt a Long Bomb at all as the distance is just too great.

CROWD BEHAVIOUR

Sevens supporters are a much better behaved lot than followers of the professional game. A player pushed out of bounds only has to make an Armour roll if he is knocked down - the crowd itself won't beat him up. The bonus as far as players are concerned is that they will earn SPP for such blocks. If a player is pushed off the pitch there's a chance the referee didn't notice. A failed roll means the referee has noticed he's out of bounds and sends him to the reserves box (a bribe can be used to change this decision). Roll a D6 to re-enter play with a +2 modifier if the player wasn't knocked down. The player can re-enter the game on a 6.

If a player manages to sneak back on he can block or blitz to do so (or dodge into an empty adjacent square if one is available). While off the pitch players cannot assist blocks or move from where they left the pitch.

In the example above, Player C has been pushed off the pitch during the red team's turn. When it's the blue team's turn, if he rolls a 4 or more (thanks to the +2 modifier) he can block or blitz Player A or B or wait for Player D to move away and then dodge into the empty square to reenter the game. If another player is pushed off the pitch in the meantime, Player C (and any adjacent team-mates) will be shuffled along the sideline to make room for him.

APOTHECARIES AND IGORS

The medical staff available to the amateur game are not fully qualified apothecaries. If a coach chooses to use his apothecary he rolls a D6. On a 3, 4 or 5 the medical student manages to reduce an injury by one level (Death becomes a Serious Injury - roll a D8 to see exactly what injury has been suffered, a Serious Injury becomes Badly Hurt and a Badly Hurt becomes a Knock Out). On a 6, the injury is reduced by two levels of severity (Death becomes BH, SI become KO and a Badly Hurt player is able to join the reserves). On a 1 or 2, however, the injury is beyond the student's ability to heal.

PICKING A BLOOD BOWL SEVENS TEAM

A Coach has 600gp with which to pick their Blood Bowl Sevens team. He may choose his team from any of those in the Living Rulebook. Use the standard rules for choosing your Blood Bowl Sevens team, but with the following changes:

1. All team costs are divided by 1,000. So if a player usually costs 80,000gp in Blood Bowl, they will cost a total of 80gp to sign to your Blood Bowl Sevens team. Similarly, an Apothecary (medical student) will cost 50gp (50,000pg / 1000). This is done primarily to reflect the unprofessional nature (low sponsorship and low pay) of the Blood Bowl Sevens leagues.
2. You must have between seven and ten players on your starting team roster (the Spiralling Expenses section below affects how large a roster you'll be able to afford, with the usual limit of 16 players).
3. You can buy starting Fan Factor in this competition (think of it as having a club house built if you like). Each point of Fan Factor bought costs 20gp (instead of 10gp).
4. Team re-rolls may not be purchased
5. Assistant Coaches and Cheerleaders cost 50gp each (instead of 10gp).
6. Star Players may not be purchased, not even as inducements. Blood Bowl Sevens is an unprofessional league and a Star Player wouldn’t be seen dead in such a place, let alone playing for a Blood Bowl Sevens team.
7. A wizard can be purchased by team but they cost a fortune - at least 100 gold pieces more than a lineman. A wizard has the stats (and skills) of a team's lineman but with -1 ST and -2 AV (they're not known for physical fitness and too much armour interferes with their spell casting). Why do they have stats? Because the rules of Blood Bowl Sevens prohibit off-field spell-casting. Yes, if you want a wizard he's going to have to be on the pitch to cast his spell! Wizards all have the Loner trait and develop - if they survive - as Linemen. Because of Dwarfs' and Halflings' resistance to magic, they can hire humans as team wizards.

To make team building easier, I've created an Excel spreadsheet for BB7s.

THE GATE

The Gate for a match of Blood Bowl Sevens is worked out in the following way. Each coach rolls a 2D6 and add his Fan Factor. The score is then multiplied by 10 to give the total number of people who turn up for a match. The relative support for each team is used to determine FAME as usual (+1 for the better supported team or +2 if one team's support is more than double that of the opposition.

MATCH WINNINGS

After a match, each coach must calculate their team’s match winnings. The coach that won the match receives (D6+FAME+1) x 10gp (and can choose to reroll the D6 if he wants to, but must accept the second roll if he does). The coach that lost the match receives (D6+FAME) x 10gp.

STAR PLAYER POINTS

Players' values increase when they gain skills as in the professional game, but the value of skills is also divided by 1,000 (so a normal skill adds 20gp to a player's value while +ST adds 50gp.

SPIRALLING EXPENSES

Because this is an amateur game, clubs have to manage their playing staff to keep expenses within their means. No team's value can exceed 1,000gp and players or backroom staff will have to be cut to keep a team below this limit.

INDUCEMENTS

All inducements' costs/values are reduced by a factor or 1,000 (so a Babe costs 50gp and a skilled Human Lineman mercenary would be worth 130gp). Star players won't reduce their fees, however, placing them well outside the budget of a Sevens team. Induced wizards cost 30gp more than a normal team wizard and must be on the pitch to cast his spell.