What is the NAF Annual Review?
The Annual Review is the method by which the NAF sets rules and guidelines for tournaments held over the next calendar year. It is our aim via this process to reduce confusion, increase stability and make sure that our tournament rules and guidelines are fit for purpose in an exciting time for Blood Bowl (the ongoing release of the Blood Bowl 2020 edition).
Each year, the NAF will discuss all Games Workshop rules releases since the prior review. We will also review the NAF tournament sanctioning procedure. Then, on November 1, we will release the NAF tournament rules and other tournament documents for the coming year for feedback, becoming mandatory on January 1. These rules will remain static for a calendar year, increasing stability and reducing confusion for tournament organizers and attendees. This is our second year of conducting the Annual Review, and as such, we will not be directly reviewing the tournament sanctioning procedure.
Why are you doing this?
Prior to the first Annual Review, throughout GW’s gradual release of Blood Bowl’s last edition (BB2016), the NAF had been reacting and updating tournament rules shortly after each new addition was published. While this approach allowed tournament organizers to quickly incorporate new game elements, it did have its drawbacks. It can take some time for new rules to be translated into different languages, leaving some members unclear on the mechanics of the new rules they are expected to play with. Members that don’t follow GW’s release cycle can be confused as to which rules have been mandated. As a main objective of the NAF’s sanctioning procedure is help its members feel secure in the consistency of the rules they’ll encounter at any tournament they choose to attend, such issues are problematic. The speed with which we attempted to deliver updates also provided little time for the NAF to consider community reaction to new rules before choosing whether to include them. With this in mind and considering community feedback, we felt a change of approach was necessary. We felt that the first Annual Review (2018) was successful both in collecting opinion from across the membership and in setting a stable set of rules and guidelines for 2019, so we will continue with the process each year.
What is going to happen?
A forum has been set-up to facilitate discussion between the global staff and the approval team. Towards the end of each year we’ll explore feedback on the ongoing GW rules releases and discuss any other business. All global NCs and some RCs from bigger nations have been invited, so wherever you are in the NAF world, you can feedback via your staff member and have your say on the topics mentioned. The output of this discussion will be considered by the committee, and then the tournament documents for the following year will be released before January 1st.
The documents you can expect to see published are updates (if appropriate) to those found on the NAF Tournament Documents page.
FAQ
Q: If some rules arrive between Annual Reviews and I want to use them, can I?
A: While the NAF rules will remain static for a calendar year, GW will continue to release new rules and new material. The NAF has always allowed tournament organizers leeway to include house-ruled star players or custom / thematic rules, and any new material from GW will be handled similarly. If you would like to include a new team or star yet to make it to the NAF rules, that’s normally fine.
Q: Why not just incorporate rules as they arrive?
A: As noted above, there has been membership feedback that this approach added to, rather than reduced, confusion in the tournament community. Therefore, the Annual Review is a community idea we’ve adopted to try and reduce this confusion. We have undertaken similar processes before when reviewing the sanction document, it’s just not been as advertised this widely previously. Like any other BB league or group, the NAF is a ‘commissioner’ of sorts, and has a view on what works for our very specific purposes. Everything released for BB2020 so far has been included in the mandatory NAF tournament rules via this process.
Q: Can I expect much to change, should I be worried about a number of new NAF tournament conventions I will need to understand?
A: No, not really. Think of this as a review and an update in light of rules that have arrived in 2020, rather than a ground-up re-write.