History of Blood Bowl

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Blood Bowl is a tabletop game, originally made by Games Workshop, in which you win the game by scoring more touchdowns than your opponent. The players on the pitch are represented by miniatures, and the effect of their actions is decided by the human coach rolling dice. These dice are standard d6s, d8s, and a special six-sided blocking dice, which are used for hitting people, known as blocking. Blood Bowl has been around in various forms since the late 80s, but changed substantially in the 3rd edition in the early 90s with the introduction of the block dice, which have been around since.

Blood Bowl was invented by Jervis Johnson (JJ) in 1987, and went through a number of iterations before arriving at the game most people play today. The major change was in 1994 with 3rd edition, which introduced the block dice and the 16-turn structure.

Thank you to the FUMBBL site for the original comprehensive list of the Blood Bowl versions:

  • 1st Edition (1987)
  • 1st Edition – Death Zone (1987)
  • 2nd Edition (1988)
  • 2nd Edition Dungeonbowl (1989)
  • 2nd Edition – Star Players (1989) and Compendium (1990) hardcovers
  • Kerrunch – Blood Bowl Lite (VERY simple rules) (1991)
  • 3rd Edition (1994)
  • 3rd Edition – Death Zone (1994)
  • Blood Bowl Compendium #1 (added some official rules to 3rd edition) (1998)
  • 4th Edition – Blood Bowl Magazine #1 (2000)
  • 4th Edition Gold – Blood Bowl Magazine #2 (2000)

After the 4th edition, the Blood Bowl Rules Committee (BBRC) was formed,
and the Living Rulebook process began:

  • Living Rulebook 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 (2001) — (BBRC = Chet, Milo, Dean, JKL, Babs, Andy, JJ)
  • Living Rulebook 2.0 (2002) — (BBRC = Chet, Milo, Dean, JKL, Babs, Andy, JJ)
  • Living Rulebook 3.0 (2003) — (BBRC = Chet, Milo, Dean, JKL, Babs, Andy, JJ)
  • Living Rulebook 4.0 (2004) — (BBRC = Chet, Dean, JKL, Babs, Tom, Jake, JJ)
  • Living Rulebook 5.0 (2006) — (BBRC = Chet, Dean, JKL, Babs, Tom, Ian, JJ)
  • Competition Rules Pack (CRP / Living Rulebook 6.0) (2009) — (BBRC = Babs, Tom, Ian, Paul, JJ)

In 2016, Games Workshop re-released the game (BB2016 rules), with minor tweaks to CRP. There were then a serious of Spike releases, expanding the rules.

In November 2020, GW then re-released the game as Second Season, referred to on this site as BB2020. This was a major revision to the rules, introducing the passing characteristic, jumping, and various other developments.