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8->''"Good evening sports fans. I'm Bob Bifford, welcoming you to the Blood Bowl for tonight's contest. You join a capacity crowd, packed with members from every race from across the known world, all howling like banshees in anticipation of tonight's game. Oh, and yes, there are some banshees...''"
9
10''Blood Bowl'' is a fantasy boardgame made by Creator/GamesWorkshop, creators of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''.
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12It is a game of "Fantasy Football", loosely based on the rules of UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball, with some elements of rugby. Players field teams of Humans, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, etc. and roll dice to decide the outcome of passes, tackles, and dodges.
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14In its initial inception, the game engine was closely based on that for ''Warhammer Fantasy Battle'', and the background was consistent with the established ''Warhammer'' setting. However, the rules tended to bog the game down in a series of mid-pitch fights and the 1994 re-release of the game reinvented the rules to produce a more free-flowing game, as well as starting to take the game in a different, lighter tonal direction: in an alternate ''Warhammer'' world, warring armies found that their battlefield hid an ancient temple to the god Nuffle, whose worshippers in the land of Amorica practiced a brutal but highly entertaining combat ritual called Football. The troops decided to give it a try, and soon they developed their own version of [[{{Pun}} Nuffle's Amorican Football]].
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16The pawns in the game are referred to as "players". Consequently, to avoid confusion, the real people who own the players are referred to as [[PrestigiousPlayerTitle "coaches"]].
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18Each team moves one player at a time, and if any player fails an action, then a turnover is called, and their entire team's turn is ended -- this means that coaches quickly learn to prioritise actions and get very good at working out the best sequence of events to affect dice multipliers. That said, once a player is moved, the previous acting player will be inactive for the rest of the turn, forcing coaches to take risk quite frequently. This nature of the game is lampshaded by the named-in-the-fluff RandomNumberGod, Great God of Dice "Nuffle" (a pun on the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]]), as entire games can turn on a single failed dice-roll. Experienced coaches sometimes refer to a spectacularly unlikely yet gravely devastating failed roll as being "Nuffled".
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20League play is encouraged, with players earning "star player points" for successful actions, which can lead to advances after the game at certain levels. Most commonly, players acquire extra skills, but can also end up with stat increases or, in the case of Chaos and Skaven players, mutations. Fans also come and go with the success of a team, and some dice-rolls during a game can be affected by how many fans have turned up (not to mention affecting the gate takings, and therefore the winnings generated). A handicap system ensures that weaker teams are given advantages to "even the odds" a little -- this has been overhauled in the Living Rule Book and now includes temporary hire of Star Players, the ability to Bribe The Ref, numerous different Random Event/Special Item cards, and the like.
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22Originally released in 1986, ''Blood Bowl'' proved highly popular and went through a number of editions until it was discontinued, along with the rest of the ''Specialist Games'' range, in the early 2000’s. In November 2015, it was announced that the ''Specialist Games'' division was to be resurrected, with ''Blood Bowl'' being the first game released (on 25th November 2016) due to its continued popularity. A 6th Edition, titled Blood Bowl: Second Season Edition, was released in November 2020 and saw the rules being revamped and streamlined far more than in previous editions.
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24There was a comic adaptation released by BOOM! Studios in 2008, and a four volume series of novels by Matt Forbeck following the career of Dunk Hoffnung, Quarterback of the Blood Bay Hackers. There also exists an old, 1990s DOS-age game, rudimentary as far as graphics go, but highly entertaining due to multiplayer requiring only one computer. [[http://www.bloodbowl-game.com/ A second video game adaptation]] was released in 2009, developed by Creator/CyanideStudio. ''Blood Bowl 2'' was released on September 22, 2015, and ''Blood Bowl 3'' is set for a 2023 release. The release of the 5th Edition of the game in 2016 resulted in the rerelease of the novel series in [=eBook=] format and has seen the release of a number of [=eShort=] stories.
25
26Compare ''VideoGame/MutantFootballLeague'', a video game that also focuses on a version of American Football with fantastical creatures.
27----
28!!The game and setting provide examples of the following tropes:
29* AccidentalAthlete:
30** The Dark Elf Star Player Horkon Heartripper was once an infamous assassin hired by the Ashbane Vendettas to kill an opposition blitzer. Unable to take out the player before the game, Horkon launched his attack during the game itself and ended up taking out half his target's team and accidentally scored a touchdown in the process. Such talent was immediately in high demand and the Vendettas hired the assassin on the spot.
31** Anqi Panqi, the [[LizardFolk Saurus]] Star Player introduced during 5th Edition, was the Temple Guard bodyguard of Xlu’hotex, the [[FrogMen Slann]] Head Coach of the Tlaxtlan Stegadons. This all changed when he took to the pitch in order to protect his master from a Pitch Invasion where, in the confusion, Anqi somehow managed to score a touchdown that gave the Stegadons a chance of winning the match. Finding he enjoyed life on the pitch far more than guarding crumbling ruins, Anqi embraced his new role as a player with an eagerness unusual for a Saurus.
32* TheAce: Griff Oberwald, Star Blitzer and captain of the Reikland Reavers, is said to be the most talented human to ever pick up a Blood Bowl ball with a plethora of awards, good looks and a massive fan following. Griff’s game rules represent this by giving him the best overall stats and skills of any human player, but at the cost of him being the second-most expensive individual Star Player in the game.
33* AchillesHeel: Several teams have "keystone" players they pretty much need in order to handle the ball or use their primary strategy, and having these players leave the pitch is more or less a guarantee that you can't score any more. Lizardmen skinks are a good example, as are dwarf runners and vampire thralls.
34* AmazonBrigade: While some races have a small number of female players and/or Star Players, the Amazons are the only team to be made up exclusively of female players, recruiting their members from the all-female human tribes of the Lustrian jungles.
35* AnnouncerChatter: The background material for the game often includes numerous humorous excerpts from the various Cabalvision sports announcers, most often from Jim Johnson the Vampire and Bob Bifford the Ogre but other announcers have been included in some material. The Cyanide Studio Video Games include Jim and Bob commentating on events during the game as well.
36* ArchEnemy: In their background information, the Athelorn Avengers, the most famous Wood Elf team to ever play the game, have considered the Darkside Cowboys, the most famous Dark Elf team, to be their greatest enemies since their first match against them resulted in more than half the Avengers starting roster suffering career ending injuries and the rest suffering from years of psychological trauma. The fans of the two teams in particular seem to have taken this animosity to heart, with arguments between the two groups often resulting in violence that surpasses the game itself.
37* ArmorPiercingAttack:
38** The Claw mutation treats all armour over 7 as 7 when blocking players down (a knocked-down player must roll a number less or equal to his armour on 2d6 or risk injury, so Claw ensures a ~42% chance of armour break). This makes it a killer against highly armoured teams like chaos, dwarves, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs chaos dwarves]], but near worthless against low-armour teams like wood elves, amazons, and skaven.
39** The chainsaw (wielded by certain star players and the goblin loonie) adds a +3 to armour break rolls, making it superior to the Claw for anything with an armour lower than 10. The disadvantages are that the chainsaw is illegal and will be taken off-field at the end of a drive, and because it is a special attack and not a block, it will either pierce armour or do bugger-all (as opposed to a block, which knocks players down for a turn even if they succeed at the armour roll). It also has a 1 in 6 chance of backfiring on the wielder.
40** Gang-[[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown fouling]] adds a +1 to armour breaking per participant after the first one. A full eight-member pile on is all but guaranteed to break armour.
41* ArtificialInsolence: Some Chaos players (the units themselves, the people playing the game are called "coaches") will ignore orders unless ordered to kill someone. Moreover, the entire team considers killing at least half of the opposing team more important than actually winning the game, and can't (read: refuses to) score until that happens.
42* ArtificialStupidity: The AI in the video game is infamous for this, to the point that veterans routinely warn new players to avoid playing any practice matches against the computer… copying its tactics is a sure-fire way to find yourself on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle, and even learning how to exploit its flaws won't help against human players, few of which would ever make such glaring errors. The only two reasons that the AI ever wins matches against human players are [[RandomNumberGod Nuffle]] and the fact that the AI [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard doesn't play fair]].
43* AwesomeButImpractical:
44** Most Big Guys are considered this. They're good at bashing and tough as nails, but it takes some effort to use them in circumstances other than blocking. These brutes are slow, clumsy, and commonly have a debuff that occasionally forfeits their moves, even losing their tackle zone. They are also expensive, and thus many coaches shy away from hiring them to avoid inflating Team Value.
45** Several of the Star Players are this as well, especially Morg 'n' Thorg (who comes at a whopping 430K for a single player). Their stats and skills are better than anything your players can develop into, but a lot of the time, you may be better off with a cheap mercenary and some other inducements like a wizard and an extra apothecary.
46** Vampires have one of the best stat lines of any non-specialist player in the game (starting with a 4 in strength ''and'' agility as well as an above-average 8 armour), regeneration, can hypnotise enemy players, and to top it all off, can select skills from almost any discipline. Unfortunately, they also suffer from [[WarmBloodBagsAreEverywhere Blood Lust]], meaning that for ''every action they try to take'', they have a 1 in 6 chance of either latching onto one of their nearby Thrall teammates and draining him (knocking him out of the game) or running off the field to attack a spectator (causing the action to fail, ending your turn, and moving the Vampire to the Reserves box). Additionally, Thralls themselves aren't very spectacular players.
47** Ogre teams can field up to six ogres. Six ''[[LightningBruiser OGRES!]]'' Only the Khemri can even ''approach'' that kind of muscle! Unfortunately, while they don't have Loner like ogres on other teams do, they still suffer from Bonehead, making them painfully unreliable, they still don't get General skill access (meaning you need a doubles roll to give them even something as basic as Block), and their only other players are Snotlings, who are… [[{{Understatement}} weak]].
48** Almost all the players on the Khorne teams start with Frenzy. This ability allows you to block again if you got a "enemy pushed" result. While it does increase players' chances to get defender down results, it also increases chances of getting attacker down results, causing turnovers. Frenzy also forces the player to follow anyone they punch, possibly putting them out of position. Additionally, having the Frenzy skill means a player cannot take the Grab ability (they are mutually exclusive).
49** Chaos Pact can hire three Big Guys, a mutated dark elf to do ball handling, and their marauder linemen have ''incredible'' MagikarpPower potential with their skill access. However, three Big Guys means three chances of going stupid each round (and unlike ogre teams, they aren't guaranteed to make the reroll), and [[WeAreStrugglingTogether the whole team has animosity]].
50* BellyMouth: The Nurgle Star Player Guffle Pusmaw has been blessed with the mutation of a large mouth situated on his swollen paunch. Guffle has since learned how to use this drooling maw to receive a pass far better than he could when using his hands, becoming the most successful Nurgle Catcher in the history of the game.
51* BerserkButton: The 5th Edition Wood Elf Spite Star Player Swiftvine Glimershard is said to get extremely irate if she even ''thinks'' someone has called her something such as adorable, small, delightful, or fey. Using such insults in the presence of the short-tempered sprite can cause serious repercussions, as one Underworld Denizens team discovered when they were mysteriously slaughtered in their own locker room after a match.
52* TheBerserker: Players with the Frenzy skill throw two blocks in a row (stopping only if they or the opponent is downed) and will always follow-up. This makes them very hard to manage, especially if you try to use them for busting cages.
53* BigEater:
54** The Troll comes with the trait "Always Hungry", which comes into play when it [[FastballSpecial wants to throw a goblin]], and runs the risk of the Troll deciding that they would rather eat their teammate instead.
55** While all Ogres are continuously hungry, the 5th Edition background material mentions that the Ogres who play for the Gnoblar Goblars are infamous even amongst their own ever-hungry kind, getting their names for their habit of killing and eating their smaller servants and teammates if they are even slightly late in delivering their meals.
56* TheBigGuy: Most teams have access to a player designated as the Big Guy, a model with natural strength of 5 or more, which you can take in extremely limited numbers (normally 1; goblins and halflings can take 2 and Chaos Pact has 3 different ones). They tend to have good armour, the Mighty Blow trait (or alternately Claw in some Big Guys), lousy agility, subpar movement, the Loner trait, and some other drawback (Bonehead, Really Stupid, or Wild Animal), and lack of access to General Skills: Big Guys can knock your opponents' linemen senseless and little else. However, if a Big Guy somehow gets hold of the ball, it will be… quite difficult for the opposition to strip it away. The Ogre team is half made up of these players. Two specific subversions are Undead Mummies and Khemri Tomb Guardians. Both have strength 5 and limited numbers, and beginning players may think of them as Big Guys. However, they are not considered to be Big Guys, specifically because they do not have any major drawbacks (beyond low mobility and lack of general skills — and for Tomb Guardians, they have the Decayed trait and replace Mighty Blow with Regeneration) and therefore no reason not to take them.
57* BlackComedy: Mix satire of Football hooliganism with the worst stereotypes of Rugby and American football (and ''their'' supporters) and add to the already quite darkly comedic ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''-verse. The living rulebook is full of gags and jokes and the game itself leans quite to [[SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness the silly side of the sliding scale]].
58* BloodKnight: The orcs and dwarves are notorious for putting higher imperative on downing the other side's players than getting the ball. Almost every bashing team is also this trope, to a ''slightly'' lesser degree. And then there's Chaos, which… well, see ArtificialInsolence above.
59* BloodSport: Beating up the other team is about as important as winning.
60* BoobyTrap: Some teams, particularly Goblin and Skaven teams, will go to any lengths to hinder their opponents, including laying traps on the Blood Bowl pitch itself. These traps can range from simple tripwires hidden in the turf to more esoteric, magical traps such as a concealed Rune of Unwilling Flight. In-game, various editions have represented these traps with various Dirty Trick Special Play Cards that can be used by a coach during the game to hinder opposition players.
61* BoozeBasedBuff:
62** Heady Brew, an Inducement that can be purchased by 5th Edition Halfling and Ogre teams, is a potent ale brewed by the Halflings of the Moot that can drive even the most placid Stunty to violence. In-game, this inducement allows a small number of players with the Stunty skill to be dosed with Heady Brew, giving them the Dauntless, [[TheBerserker Frenzy]], and [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy Really Stupid]] skills.
63** One of the stadium enhancements in ''Blood Bowl II'' is a Bloodweiser stand, which serves wonderfully intoxicating and violence-inducing brews to your patrons. Naturally, this makes the Pitch Invasion and Get The Ref! kickoff results more likely to happen, perfect for adding another dollop of carnage to a game.
64* BoringButPractical:
65** The Block skill. For any player which is going to be doing any fighting (pretty much all of them), not taking Block or its counter skill Wrestle puts them at a considerable disadvantage against anyone who has.
66** The cage grind. Take a player with the ball. Put one player in each diagonal corner around him. Run that formation to the opponent's end zone. Unless you're playing an agility 4 team that can pass with any regular chance of success, it's your best bet at scoring, but hardly very 'exciting'.
67** [[MightyGlacier Dwarves]]. They can't throw the ball. They can't catch the ball. They can't run with the ball. Only four of their players can even ''handle'' the ball. But they can go toe-to-toe with practically everything except high-level Chaos players and come out on top, and their (already very slow) cages described above are almost impossible to slow down (further). A good dwarf coach will tie or win practically every match 2-1 through certain strategies. Even orcs (with goblin tosses and passing plays) have more variation than that.
68** Chaos teams have incredible flexibility thanks to Mutation access and can be turned into JackOfAllTrades teams with a little effort. However, most Chaos coaches just turn the team into straight-on killing machines by giving everyone Block, Mighty Blow, Claw, and Piling On (in that order) instead.
69* BucketHelmet: Halfling players are often depicted wearing a variety of cookware as improvised helmets, with the 5th Edition models in particular featuring wearing a plethora of kitchen equipment on their heads; ranging from teapots and pans to cauldrons and cullenders.
70* CannonFodder: The lot of a ''Blood Bowl'' lineman, or any other 0-16 player (a player you can buy up to 16 of, meaning they have no limit on their number), is usually to mark and occupy opposing players that could otherwise harm your more valuable limited players. They are replaceable with journeymen if they die, and usually cost as much to replace as an average match result. Elves and dwarves (whose players are really expensive) avert this, and the Lizardmen and Chaos Dwarves invert it, as their 0-16 players are the only ones with a snowball's chance in Lustria of actually handling the ball with any rate of success (which makes the bigger, more specialized players the [[WeNeedADistraction distractions]] and muscle that stops the enemy team from pummeling the linemen).
71* CardCarryingVillain:
72** The Evil Gits team in the fluff. They do not call themselves "Evil" for nothing.
73** The Dark Elf Hubris Rakarath is AxCrazy even by the standards of Blood Bowl players and also mocks other elves as lesser. That doesn't stop him from working for them, saying that a player can't let "integrity and hypocrisy" get in the way of getting paid.
74* CareerEndingInjury: Injuries that lower stats and increase the chances of getting more and[=/=]or worse injuries. For low-level players, this is pretty much the end of the road, while high-level players are able to keep playing because their skills are too valuable to get rid of — until more injuries start piling up.
75* ChainsawGood: The chainsaw is an eternally popular secret weapon that gives its wielder a powerful ArmourPiercingAttack. Goblin teams can always field chainsaw wielders, known as Loonys, while other teams, such as Humans and Dwarves, have had the option to field similar players in certain editions (usually as optional rules). There are also a number of Star Players armed with chainsaws that teams can hire such as the zombie Hack Enslash, the Norse berserker Helmut Wulf, the Chaos Cultist Max Spleenripper and, most famously, the Goblin Nobbla Blackwart.
76* CheatersNeverProsper: ''Blood Bowl'' laughs at this concept. The Heroes of Law and Bright Crusaders in the fluff refuse to cheat, much to the amusement of the rest of the world. The intro to the video game has Jim the vampire pointing out that ''even'' proponents of fair play are welcome.
77** Essentially the entire point of the Goblin team. In every actual aspect of the game, they are incompetent. However, they have the most secret weapons that have no use beyond wreaking as much havoc as possible before the referee throws them out. In addition, the Goblin team pays less to bribe the referee than any other team, allowing them to cheat without consequence more often.
78** In the fluff, the Skavenblight Scramblers are the only team to ever win the Blood Bowl twice in a row. The first time, they did this through guts, skill, and tenacity (well, as much as you'd expect from the average Blood Bowl team…), whereas the second time, they did it by sending slaves to die by their multitudes while the real team spent the entire season rigging their home stadium with booby traps, pitfalls, and other horrible ways to maim their opponents in the final!
79* TheChewToy: Halflings in the fluff[[note]]yes, even more so than goblins, who are at least noted for being good at ''something'' relevant to the game, even if that something is [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat foul play]]; [[ExpertInUnderwaterBasketWeaving all halflings really have going for them]] is [[SupremeChef cooking skills]] (and [[FragileSpeedster being somewhere between humans and skaven in terms of speed]] if you're ''really'' looking for something to praise them for)[[/note]]. The rules currently limiting teams to 16 players were instituted after a Norse vs. Halfling match that led to several hundred dead or injured players. [[BlatantLies By sheer coincidence]], that very same match also instituted a rule banning giants from playing the game.
80* CombatReferee: A number of referees mentioned in the background material have gotten tired of not being listened to during a game and decided to enforce their decisions with violence and, in at least one instance, a chainsaw. In-game, one of the 5th Edition Famous Referee characters who can officiate a game is Jorm the Ogre, who has a chance of physically attacking a random player on a team that commits a foul.
81* ACommanderIsYou: In the second Creator/CyanideStudio VideoGame:
82** Humans: ''Generalist.'' Humans have all the expected players (Catchers, Throwers, Blitzers) plus the Ogre and no outstanding weaknesses, and so their team is extremely adaptable. Face the opposing team with the strategy they lack — if you face a bashy team, play a clever positioning game; if you face a wimpy team, bash their heads in. The obvious weakness, of course, is that everybody is better than you at a certain type of play.
83** Orcs: ''Brute.'' Orcs are the inventors of Blood Bowl and their teams are some of the most renowned in the league. Their playstyle favours bashing holes in the opposition's defensive line and exploiting those gaps with their excellent Blitzers. They are strong and well-armoured but relatively slow, and their ball handling skills could use some work. Overall a team for people who believe that the best defence is a good offence.
84** Dwarfs: ''Elitist Brute.'' Dwarfs would seem like the perfect Blood Bowl players — compact, tough, and stubborn. They refuse to die or give up, and this suits defensive play really well. Their blocking ability is extraordinary and any Dwarf who gets knocked down will be back up to fight again later. As you might expect, [[MightyGlacier their short legs make them terrible runners]], barely as fast as the slowest members of other teams, so smart positioning is incredibly important when playing Dwarfs.
85** High Elves: ''Elitist Ranger.'' High Elf teams are often comprised of Princes, noble sons, and other {{Blue Blood}}s, making them some of the most arrogant and best-outfitted players out there. Their ball handling game is absolutely first-class, they are hard to catch and pin down, and decently well-armoured as well; however, they are still slight of frame and easy to injure, and this is a bad thing given the exorbitant rates some of them ask for!
86** Dark Elves: ''Elitist Technical.'' Dark Elves play quite similarly to their goodly kin, but prefer a more malevolent and direct game that goes through the opposition rather than around them. They are not as fast, but they are stronger and able to survive and prevail in clashes that the High Elves could not. Any casualties on the pitch are going to cost the treasury big time, and likely will be the Witch Elves — anyone familiar with Dark Elves know what these ladies are capable of, so they are attractive targets for the other team.
87** Skaven: ''Spammer Guerrilla.'' They may be wimpy, they may be cowardly, but boy, [[FragileSpeedster Skaven are fast]]! Even the elves struggle to cover the gaps in their lines and prevent a lightning-fast rat touchdown. Skaven can even score a touchdown on the very first turn without giving the other team a chance to do anything, with a bit of luck and skill. Unfortunately, their lack of muscle and armour mean that any clash will go horribly for the rats and they are likely to be injured or killed. But Skaven life is cheap anyway.
88** Chaos: ''Brute''. "If all the opposing players are dead then scoring is irrelevant", sums up Chaos' playbook. Games with Chaos resemble street brawls more than ball games, as the horrifying ensemble drive up the centre pitch, maiming any opposition foolish enough to get in the way. Their mutations add new abilities to complement their raw power, but they still lack mobility and diversity; they don't even have dedicated catchers or throwers. Forget the ball and just look for fights!
89** Bretonnians: ''Elitist Generalist.'' In the fair land of Bretonnia, every knight dreams of the Bloodweiser trophy and they travel far and wide for the chance to one day lift it. With dirt-cheap linemen (incompetent peasants drafted to play with the knights) and excellent Blitzers, Bretonnia is a team that likes brawling. However, the team is centered around these players; they need to be well-supported or they will be crushed, and if they are crushed, then you will lose. Their passing and running game is also impeded by their heavy armour.
90* CrapsackWorld: The rulebook {{Lampshade}}s this, pointing out that any world where ''Blood Bowl'' is popular must really suck. On the other hand, the replacement of endless gruesome wars with endless gruesome sporting contests makes it absolutely idyllic in comparison with the standard ''Warhammer'' setting. See SeriousBusiness.
91* CriticalFailure: Any roll of 1 fails, no matter your stats or modifiers. Even that agility 6 elven player will fail his dodge roll on a 1.
92* CrutchCharacter:
93** All the teams have TV values where they reach an optimal peak, the crutch teams being those excellent at low TV while doing less well at high-level play (2500 and up team value) because they lack the stats and skill access to compete at those levels. Examples of good low-TV teams are the WeakButSkilled or UnskilledButStrong teams like Amazons, Norse, and Dwarves, as well as Undead and Orcs.
94** Certain players, particularly catchers, start their career with skills which make them the team's natural scorer. Natural scorers then get SPP from touchdowns, gaining extra skills that make them even better at it. Since every skill costs more than the one before it, these players can suck up nearly all of their team's touchdown XP with relatively little benefit. Unfortunately, since any player can be hit by {{permadeath}} or a [[CareerEndingInjury crippling injury]], especially if they're a fragile scorer, over-relying on that high-level player can become a team's AchillesHeel. Many guides recommend taking moderate risks with passes to spread out XP, particularly early on.
95* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard:
96** AI teams in the ''Blood Bowl'' video game are not bound to standard rules for XP gain and their team values are generated automatically, leading to the computer suddenly re-acquiring two new level 3 players after your last match put their star players down for good. AI vs AI matches being auto-resolved lead to hilarious score results that would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve for a human, and their skill gain is not bound to the same rules humans must obey and leads to teams with an ungodly high frequency of doubles and stat gains, while their number of touchdowns, injuries, and [=MVPs=] recorded would make it impossible for them to be that high level. One AI team, the Lizardmen Itzi-Bitzi Blockers, seems to exist just to wave this fact in the player's face -- it's a 10-man skink team (with a kroxigor) where ''all the skinks have block as their first skill'' (a doubles skill for them). 'Unlikely' doesn't begin to cover it.
97** The sequel manages to reign in some of the impossible skill combinations of the first, while managing to turn this up to eleven in other ways. Prepare to see multiple instances per match of AI teams carrying out what would take miraculous luck to do even ''once'' for a human player.
98* DanceBattler: Wood Elf teams include Wardancers on their rosters. These players are highly popular with fans as they dance their way through the opposition and use their excellent hand-to-hand skills to bring down even the strongest of foes.
99* DeathByFallingOver: If you try to move a player 1 or 2 squares beyond his normal movement allowance (a move known as "Going For It"), you have to roll a D6 for each extra square. On a 2-6, the player is fine, but on a 1, he trips and falls over, and you have to roll on the armor/injury/casualty tables just as if he'd been hit by an opposing player. Roll very badly three times in a row on those tables, and the player ''dies''.
100* DenserAndWackier: To the main ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' universe, being more tongue-in-cheek and humorous. Sure, it's still probably a crappy place to live, but at least it's a ''funny'' crappy place to live, and it is easier to opt out of the violence (easi''er'', not '''easy''').
101* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: It's also entirely possible for a player to stop his own drive dead in the water with a turnover by fouling and getting caught, or failing a block intended to injure an out-of-the-way player, ''before'' running or passing the ball. Most experienced coaches will know better than to do this.
102** The fluff describes Dark Elves as doing this. Goblins go even further, since it's the only thing they excel at.
103* DifficultButAwesome:
104** The rule book specifically notes that several factions are deliberately designed to be far harder to play than others, including Chaos, Chaos Pact, Khemri, Underworld, and Vampire. They're specifically for "advanced players" only.
105** Some of the teams venture closer to Difficult But Impractical. Ogre teams, for example, are incredibly hard to play, but capable of incredible feats of brutality; however, any way you slice it, they're ''[[CompetitiveBalance just not as good as most other teams]]''. [[JokeCharacter They're regarded as a gimmick team included in the game for fun, rather than serious competitors.]]
106** The amount of applicability varies between teams and scenarios. Chaos, for example, has a team of very expensive players with good stat lines, but no real starting skills. It is very difficult to get started, but once you start earning skills, Chaos has good skill access and baseline stats on their players and can develop into a very good bashing team with surprising flexibility from their mutations.
107* DistractedByTheSexy: The special play card Lewd Maneuvers has the cheerleaders doing this to the players.
108* TheDreaded:
109** Due to certain unmentioned practices, the Amazon team 'The Venus Maneaters' are this for anyone who's male.
110** In the background material, certain Star Players will send some teams into palpitations of dread when they see them in their opponent's roster. The famous Minotaur Grashnak Blackhoof in particular is known to cause entire teams to lock themselves in their dugout and refuse to take to the field, not that something as flimsy as a door will stop the rampage of the 'Great Black Bull'.
111** Judging by the commentary from the ''Chaos Edition'' of the Creator/CyanideStudio game, Khornate teams are feared by everyone, especially Jim. Even Bob gets rather nervous when they're around.
112** [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Hubris Rakarath]] is a player so feared that the reporters avoid talking about him, as it may incur his wrath.
113* DumbMuscle: All Big Guys in the game have negative traits that backfire on them. The most common one is "Bone-headed", which makes the character stand around dumbfounded and lose all his actions and tackle zones for a round. "Really Stupid" is "Bone-headed" on steroids and has an even greater chance of activating unless you've got a non-stupid player to poke the Big Guy in the leg. "Wild Animal" makes the character stand still and bellow challenges at the enemy for a turn, and activates a lot unless the player [[BloodKnight is being ordered to punch somebody]]. Finally, Treemen are liable to take root and stand still for the remainder of the drive, and Deathrollers will be sent off by the ref as soon as he's done quaking in fear of them (though that last one can be by-passed with a bribe, unless, of course, you rolled a one while doing it). All of these characters also have the Loner trait, which makes them too dumb to use re-rolls properly (Ogre teams are the exception; their Ogres are still bone-headed but not loners; similarly, Treemen on Halfling teams are not loners as well).
114* EasilyDistractedReferee: Due to rampant bribery and overzealous fans threatening them with bodily harm (and in the case of the 'get the ref' kick-off event, following up on it), Blood Bowl referees are notoriously short-sighted and will ignore flagrant rules violations five times out of six. They also won't stop play for people bringing unsanctioned foreign objects onto the pitch until a drive has ended.
115* EcoTerrorist: Although nothing was proven, the dryad Star Player Willow Rosebark has been implicated in the vandalism of a number of stadiums constructed from wood taken from sacred groves. She will also offer her services to teams playing against opponents known to cause damage to arboreal environments.
116* EdibleAmmunition:
117** The 5th Edition Halfling Star Player Cindy Piewhistle is a professional baker who took up Blood Bowl to advertise her wares. During the game, Cindy is known to throw scalding hot pies at the opposition, which have the same effect as the bombs thrown by some other players.
118** The Halfling Hot Pot, available to hire for Halfling and Ogre teams in a number of editions, is an improvised catapult that can be used to throw a cauldron of boiling hot stew at the opponents that, in the 5th Edition of the game, results in an effect similar to that of a fireball cast by Hireling Wizards.
119* {{Elfeminate}}: In the PC game, Jim mocks Pro Elf teams by pointing out that if he didn't know better, he could have confused them for an amazon team. [[InsultToRocks Bob replies that this is silly, since he's never heard of anyone fearing an elf.]]
120* EmptyLevels: Amazon (and to a lesser degree Norse) teams are very good at the beginning, since all their players start with one of the two best skills, dodge or block. This makes them very good in short tournaments, but long tournaments (where players can gain 3-4 skill levels) see them at a disadvantage due to a poorer-than-average armour value.
121* EpicFlail: Models with the 'Ball & Chain' Extraordinary Skill, such as the manic Goblin Fanatic players, carry massive flails so large and heavy that the centrifugal force causes them to move randomly across the pitch and automatically perform a block on any player in their path, enemy or otherwise.
122* ExperiencePoints: During League Play, players on a team can earn experience points to gain levels, receiving a new skill or characteristics increase for each level gained. To earn experience points, a player must perform specific actions during a game, with most editions rewarding scoring touchdowns, making successful passes, making an interception, and causing casualties with various amounts of points.
123* FanDisservice:
124** ''All'' of the races have cheerleaders. The game inclues undead and greenskin teams. And Ogre Teams. And Dwarf Teams (and yes, the cheerleaders have beards too). And Chaos-Mutants-Dedicated-To-The-God-Of-Disease-And-Putrification Teams (though the PC versions just make Nurgle cheerleaders conventionally attractive with a nice sickly green paintjob). Yes, there are people who made miniatures for them. Yes, the miniatures are just as disgusting as they sound.
125** At least partially averted in the video game, where Orc "cheerleaders" are actually drummers (this no doubt came after the orcs were {{Retconned}} into a OneGenderRace), the Skaven have Plague Monks, the Dwarves have a dwarf who waves around some mugs of beer while standing on a podium, the Lizardmen have skink priests waving football rattles, and the Ogres have Snotlings and Squigs dancing instead.
126** And then there's the Underworld teams. In the PC version of the game, their cheerleaders are masses of writhing flesh, mouths, and tentacles, squeezed into an iron cage which is presumably there to stop them from slithering off and eating the spectators.
127** In the sequel, while the human and dwarf cheerleaders are largely the same, the "female orc" cheerleaders have also returned in full force. Full, saggy breasted, ball and chain pasty wearing, hideously overdone makeup force. Of course, the camera just loves to linger on the most unpleasant aspects of their touchdown dances.
128* FanService: Mind you, the humanoid cheerleaders are certainly attractive, and there are several teams with lots of scantily-clad hotties on them, most obviously the [[AmazonBrigade Amazons]].
129** The Norse provide the game's SpearCounterpart -- apart from the Yhetee, their team is made up exclusively of buff, muscular athletes running around in just their boots, a horned helmet, and a fur loincloth.
130** Then there's the Star Player known as Zara the Slayer. Most people will depict her as dressed in a chainmail bikini. Good for the fans, but bad if you're an undead team, as she seems to specialize in killing undead players.
131* FantasticRacism:
132** Jim and Bob in the PC game have a derogatory comment on practically every team (including Jim ragging on ogres and Bob ragging on vampires, both of which annoys the other), but they seem [[ScrewYouElves especially disdainful of elves]]. In the sequel, this hatred of elves only applies to Bob.
133** Chaos Pact and Underworld include this as a gameplay mechanic: The teams are made up of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits of various races who hate each other, so whenever you want to pass the ball between races, you need to roll the dice first to see if they're willing to pass the ball in the first place.
134* FantasyForbiddingFather: The Dragon Princes were a team made up of bored young High Elf princes. Horrified that their children wished to participate in such an uncouth game, the players’ parents threatened to disinherit them if they played against any team that wasn’t their social equal, resulting in the Dragon Princes disbanding without playing a single game.
135* FastballSpecial: The "Throw Teammate" skill (innate to ogres, trolls, and treemen) allows the throwing of characters with the "Right Stuff" skill (snotlings, goblins, and halflings). 5th Edition Goblin teams even have access to the Doom Driver player, a goblin who specialises in being thrown, using crudely made artificial wings to guide their path towards the End Zone. Throwing players down the pitch is a popular tactic for those teams able to do so, as it allows for the possibility of a one-turn touchdown if the player is lucky. If the player is unlucky, then their goblin ball-carrier is liable to be eaten by the team's troll.
136* FatAndProud: The Star Player Glart Smashrip is a massively fat Skaven Blocker who is not only proud of his bulk, but is still trying to get fatter, as it is his goal to achieve the record for being the heaviest player to compete in the Blood Bowl final.
137* FeatherBoaConstrictor: The 4th Edition Vampire Cheerleader model wears snakes around her neck as part of her outfit, giving her an evil burlesque dancer look.
138** The 2022 redesign of the Amazon team also features these on their Python Warrior Throwers. Also double as literal [[FeatheredSerpent feathered serpents]].
139* FishPeople: A long running in-joke in the main ''Warhammer Fantasy Battles'' setting, the ''Blood Bowl'' background makes reference to Fishmen a number of times. The 5th Edition {{Sourcebook}} ''Death Zone: Season Two!'' mentions the Southstorm Squids, a former Sea Elf team who suffered a hostile takeover at the fins of a group of Fishmen.
140* TheFixer: The 5th Edition (In)Famous Couching Staff character, Fink da Fixer, is renowned for getting his colleagues absolutely anything they want a few seconds before they want it. In-game, Fink's abilities count as three regular assistant coaches and he has the special ability that helps with bribing the referee.
141* FlamingSkulls: The 5th Edition artwork for Bryce 'The Slice' Cambuel depicts the chainsaw wielding Skeleton Star Player with a skull wreathed in green balefire.
142* FlavorText: As usual with a Creator/GamesWorkshop game, ''Blood Bowl'' has quite a bit of background material in the various {{sourcebook}}s, including in-universe game and career stats for famous players and teams, and multiple 'Did You Know…' box-outs that give random, and often humorous, snippets of background information.
143* ForcedTransformation: Turning opposition players into toads and frogs is a fan-favourite tradition for Hireling Sports-Wizards and one that has been present in a number of editions either as a spell or as a special play card.
144* ForTheEvulz: [[spoiler:The Skavenblight Scramblers in the second game come up with an EvilPlan to summon a Verminlord in the final game of ''Blood Bowl II'' to murder the opposing team and the spectators.]] Why? Because they felt like it.
145* FragileSpeedster: The players on most of the Elf teams, Skaven teams, skinks on the Lizardmen teams, and almost every "Catcher" player on the other teams (excluding Amazon, due to her average movement speed and innate access to dodge) can run across the field really fast and dodge hits like nobody's business, but once someone manages to land a hit on them, their weaker than average armor can result in a greater number of injuries.
146* FrankensteinsMonster: Flesh Golems, who fulfil the role of [[MightyGlacier Blockers]] on Necromantic Horror Teams, are created from stitched together bits of various corpses and share the traditional look of Frankenstein’s Monster. The most famous Flesh Golem to have played the game is the Star Player Frank N. Stein, who was unfortunately killed during an incident involving a werewolf and a mob armed with torches and pitchforks.
147* FrogMen:
148** Some early editions of the game included frog-like Slann teams, but they have since been mostly removed from the game and background due to the background material in the main ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' game moving on considerably since that time.
149** The 5th Edition Chaos Chosen Star Player Gobbler Grimlich is a revolting mutant resembling a hybrid of human and toad with a massive mouth, a long, sticky tongue, and elastic legs that allow him to move in great leaps.
150* FootballHooligans: Blood Bowl fans have a reputation for being just as drunken, violent, anti-social, and unpleasant as the players, with one piece of background information stating that they believe something should be done about the minority of fans who just want to watch the game rather than start a fight. The game itself represents this with random chances of riots, pitch invasions, and other fan violence happening whenever there is a kick-off. Fans will also beat up any player who's unfortunate enough to be pushed out of bounds and into the crowd.
151* GeniusBruiser:
152** The famous Orc Star Player Varag Ghoul-Chewer, captain of the Gouged Eye, has an unusually tactical mind for a greenskin. This combination of intelligence, muscle, and a violent playing style has earned Varag a legion of fans.
153** The Troll Star Player Ripper Bolgrot underwent experimental ‘sports therapy’ that greatly elevated his intelligence. Now, despite retaining the look of the average troll, Bolgrot is easily one of the smartest players to have ever taken to the Blood Bowl pitch, and has become famous for his strategic plays that combine tactical maneuvering of his teammates with extreme violence.
154* GentleGiant: The Star Player Morg n' Thorg is mentioned to be perfectly nice off-pitch and safe to be around unless you're an interviewer misspelling/mispronouncing his name. He is kind to children, (relatively) nice to his fans, and was used as a spokesman for a successful road accident reduction ad campaign. On the pitch… Not so much.
155* GlassCannon:
156** Dwarf Slayers start with two very good offensive skills (Block + Frenzy) and Dauntless, which allows them to go toe-to-toe with TheBigGuy of other teams with a little luck. Like all dwarves, they are slow as heck, and have the lowest Armour Value in the dwarf team (which, granted, isn't saying much; the dwarves' ''lowest'' AV is 8, equivalent to most other races' linemen and blitzers). They also tend to operate solo a lot and are favourite targets for your opponents. Fluff describes slayers as berzerk warriors with [[DeathSeeker death wishes]], so it only makes sense.
157** Similarly, Wood Elf Wardancers and Dark Elf Witch Elves are very good natural blitzers, but are very expensive and very vulnerable to counter-attacks. Wardancers in particular are nightmares; a Wardancer built for taking the ball away will generally only fail to get the ball away if she suffers from poor rolls on the part of her coach (against a target without Sure Hands, a Wardancer with Wrestle and Strip Ball has a 98% chance of knocking the ball loose on a 2-dice block). Wardancers beginning with Block and Dodge is almost enough to elevate them to LightningBruiser status, but, sooner or later, a Wardancer is going to wind up prone, and when she does, a brutal multiple-player game of KickThemWhileTheyAreDown is sure to follow.
158** To the great surprise of most beginning players, Amazon teams actually fall under this. A lot of people mistake them for a running or passing team, but they don't have dedicated runners, their speed is strictly average (6 on all players), and their passers and receivers are pointedly unspectacular compared to most races (they don't get any agility 4 players or any other special advantages). However, Amazon blitzers are one of the few classes in the game to start with Dodge ''and'' Block (the infamous "Blodge" combo), they can have up to 4 on their starting lineup, and all their other players get Dodge, meaning they can get Blodge after their first level-up. Amazons actually play as a bashing team, relying on Block to let them stand up to bigger, tougher teams like Orcs and Chaos, but their armour value of 7 means that they're alarmingly fragile.
159** Norse teams are similar to Amazons in this respect, but all of them have Block as their starting skill instead, but still only have 7 armor.
160* GoKartingWithBowser: Granted, everybody is still trying to kill each other, but people are still playing sports with AlwaysChaoticEvil factions.
161* GracefulLoser: In the campaign of ''Blood Bowl II'', Bob makes an agreement with the Reikland Reavers' coach to commit three fouls in the playoff match with Gouged Eye in exchange for a favor on Bob's part if he loses. While not the nicest guy in the world, he does take losing surprisingly well, since he enjoyed seeing the violence and the coach has started to grow on him, so Bob doesn't mind owing him a favor.
162* GreenThumb: The Horticulturalists of Nurgle, specialist Wizards available to hire by Chaos Chosen, Chaos Renegade, and Nurgle teams, are able to cause the weeds and grass of a Blood Bowl pitch to writhe with life before they rot to nothing. The Horticulturalist is able to use this ability in an attempt to trip opposing players trying to 'Go For It' or to knock them from their feet with a rapid bloom of putrid fauna.
163* GrenadeHotPotato: Some players can use and throw bombs. If a bomb touches the ground, it explodes, so it quickly becomes a game of hot potato as the teams keep [[HeyCatch throwing the bomb at each other]] till one drops it.
164* {{Griefer}}: Fouling or surfing in the 16th turn serves no practical purpose and is generally seen as a sign of this. Doing it in a tournament where there's good odds you might play that coach again gives it a purpose, and as such is merely seen as 'ruthless' rather than 'dickish'.
165* GrievousHarmWithABody: So, an opponent has bypassed the defenses of your Ork team and almost reached your end zone? Well, your troll can stop him dead by throwing your goblin at him.
166* GuestStarPartyMember:
167** Mercenaries, Journeymen, and Star Players are all hired for single matches out of your inducement money. They all have the Loner trait as well, making them unreliable.
168** In the second video game, Bob Bifford joins the Reikland Reavers during the match against Gouged Eye.
169* GuideDangIt:
170** The [[TutorialFailure tutorial of the 2010 computer game]] even ''seems'' to expect the player to have an external rulebook handy; otherwise, expect a lot of trial and error in discovering the actual mechanics of the game.
171** The sequel resolves this with its Campaign mode, introducing the mechanics in separate games, rather than as an InfoDump.
172* HiddenWeapons: Players with the "Stab" and "Weeping Dagger" Extraordinary skills (such as Dark Elf Assassins and Skaven Gutter Runners, respectively) are able to sneak knives of various types onto the pitch to use during a game. Unlike the bombs, chainsaws, and steamrollers used as secret weapons by other players, these knives are easy to conceal from the gaze of the referee and so their use will not get the player sent off for using them during the game.
173* HoldYourHippogriffs: The comic has a few, though in this case it's football terms rather than aphorisms that are being adapted. For instance, announcers refer to a deep pass as a "ballista bolt" rather than a "long bomb".
174* HomeFieldAdvantage: 5th Edition introduced rules that allow teams to purchase their own stadiums during league play. Playing at home has a number of advantages for a team, including allowing them to choose the stadium Attribute rather than rolling for it randomly, seeing more of their fans turn up resulting in a higher chance of getting certain bonuses, and having less chance of players being injured if they are pushed off the pitch.
175* HonorBeforeReason: The Bright Crusaders and Heroes of Law refuse to cheat, and the latter often has players off doing charity work during games.
176* HornedHumanoid: Horns are a common mutation available to players that can acquire such skills, with the [[BeastFolk Beastmen]] of Chaos Chosen teams having them as standard. In game, the mutation gives the player a [[HornAttack bonus to their Strength characteristic]] when making a [[DashAttack Blitz]].
177* HornyVikings: Norse teams, obviously. One of the few Norse Star Players is a fellow named Icepelt Hammerblow, in case you weren't convinced.
178* TheIgor: Igors, also known as Hunchback Henchmen in some version of the rules, are deformed minions who can be hired by the Necromancer Coaches of the various Undead Teams instead of apothecaries. These assistants are highly skilled at repairing and manipulating rotting flesh and allow a re-roll to one 'Regeneration' roll each game.
179* IKnowMaddenKombat: The Grudge Keepers started out as a group of Dwarfs dedicated to cataloging and reporting on Blood Bowl games, who became sick of simply writing about it and wanted to actually play. Much of their threat on the pitch is due to their encyclopedic knowledge of plays and techniques, making them an alarming oddity: a Dwarf team that specializes in scoring touchdowns.
180* ImAHumanitarian: Vampires and Trolls will eat their teammates on occasion.
181* ImplacableMan: The Block + Dodge + Stand Firm combination (which is thankfully rare since only two players -- Vampires and Amazon Blitzers -- can get it without at least one doubles roll) renders a player immune to Both Down, Defender Fumbles, and Defender Moved results on the block die when attacked. Barring the attacker having its counter-skills (Wrestle, Tackle, Juggernaut), only one out of every six blocks (Defender Down) will affect them at all, with an equal chance of the attacker rolling an Attacker Down and going down instead.
182* ImpossiblyDeliciousFood: [=McMurty's=] Squig Burgers, which are so tasty and filling that eating one will mellow even the most bloodthirsty of beings. In the sequel video game, installing a [=McMurty's=] stand in your stadium ''calms the fans down'' to the point that you'll never suffer a Pitch Invasion or Get The Ref! on a kickoff. This is widely speculated to be the reason why signing a sponsorship deal with [=McMurty's=] includes a curious little clause that strictly forbids your team from eating there before a game.
183* IResembleThatRemark: In the story mode of ''Blood Bowl II'', after Jim says Bob needs to overcome his problem with the elves, Bob says that he's not racist. He simply hates elves and wishes they would all die.
184* InASingleBound: The Leap skill allows a player to make great jumps over the heads of opposition players. The skill is popular with [[FragileSpeedster high Speed and Agility, low Strength and Armour]] players, especially elves, as it allows them to bypass the opponent’s defensive line and rush for a touchdown.
185* {{Intangibility}}:
186** The 5th Edition background material mentions the Forlorn Phantoms, an Undead team made up entirely of spirits, ghosts, banshees and other ethereal shades. The team did surprisingly well, despite not being able to pick up the ball, managing to scare their opposition so much that they managed a number of no-score draws and wins by concession. The banshee Star Player Gretchen Wächter is the only member of the Phantoms still playing and in-game, has the No Hands skill[[note]]meaning she can never carry the ball[[/note]] and a high Armour Value stat to represent her ethereal nature.
187** The 5th Edition Sports Necrotheurge Hireling Wizards are able to cast a spell that turns an opposing player incorporeal. A player under the effects of the spell is unable to carry the ball and loses his tackle zone for a turn.
188* ItsAWonderfulFailure: In ''Blood Bowl II'', [[spoiler:losing the story mode's final match against the Skavenblight Scramblers, who are attempting to summon a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent verminlord]] in the Altdorf Oldbowl, treats you to an alternate game-over screen that depicts the verminlord in question emerging from the pitch while the Reikland Reavers flee in terror]].
189* JackOfAllStats:
190** Human teams are collectively able to play all the main strategies (running game, throwing game, beat-snot-out-of-opponent game) equally well, but their individual players are too different in stats to allow them to fully commit to any strategy. Human teams thrive at flexibility and taking whatever it is their opponents do poorly at and using that strategy against them.
191** Also, although they're technically humans anyway, the [[AmazonBrigade Amazons]] are even more average than the Humans -- ''all'' their players have the same stat line (even their specialists) except for a few starting skills, and they don't have access to any "big guys" like Humans do.
192** Vampires are probably the best example of a straight Jack when hired. They have average speed, but hit as hard as any non-big guy MightyGlacier player and are as agile, if not more so, as any FragileSpeedster player. Vampires also have access to most of the skills naturally, though they can only take Passing skills 1/6 of the time. The only skill set they can't get is Mutation, which is specific to Chaos-based teams and the Skaven. They don't start with any skills specific to a particular role, though, so skill selection determines what role they develop into. Due to the high stats, they are still competent blockers, passers, catchers, and runners without the appropriate skills, but not as good at any individual role as most of the more specialized players.
193** Thanks to their mutation access, Underworld teams can quickly go from LethalJokeCharacter to a fairly good Jack team after a few levels. Chaos teams can also be built this way, although most coaches would consider it an odd choice when [[BoringButPractical just optimising them for murder tends to pay off better]].
194* JokeCharacter: Goblin and Halfling teams are treated as this in the fluff; whenever they make an appearance, it's usually so they get mocked by bad play results or how horrible they are at the game. Mechanically, they are widely considered to be amongst the worst teams, both depending on a single gimmick (cheats/bribery and halfling master chefs, respectively) to make them mechanically viable, and mainly played for fun and CherryTapping potential.
195* TheJuggernaut: Due to their strength and/or bulk, players with the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Juggernaut]] skill (such as the Dwarf Deathroller and the massively obese Skaven Star Player Glart Smashrip) are almost impossible to stop once they get going, able to outright ignore a number of skills that would otherwise allow an opponent to slow or stop the player.
196* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown:
197** [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat If the referee notices a player doing this, they will get sent off and be unable to return for the rest of the match]]. At the same time, the ref is often an EasilyDistractedReferee, so fouling is encouraged, especially with goblins.
198** Many teams have access to a Star Player who specialises in attacking downed opponents, such as Hubris Rakarth for the less moral Elf teams, Bilerot Vomitflesh and Lord Borak for various flavours of Chaos team, and Big Jobo Hairyfoot for Halfling teams. In-game, this is represented by these players having the Dirty Player skill that makes fouling more effective.
199* LampreyMouth: The 5th Edition model for the Nurgle Rotspawn player sports a lamprey-like mouth that fits well with the model's overall worm-like appearance.
200* LegacyCharacter: The Clan Rigens scientists who created and maintain the {{Cyborg}} Rat Ogre Star Player Kreek Rustgouger claim that he is actually a different creature every time he takes to the pitch, so any previous lifetime bans no longer apply. Whether this is the case or not is much debated by fans and pundits.
201* LethalJokeCharacter:
202** Khemri teams are painfully slow and have no players with an agility over 2. This makes them rather inept at handling the ball; even the dwarves can do ball handling more reliably than Khemri. However, they can hire 4 strength 5 tomb guardians, more strength than any other team except the ogres, and while tomb guardians can't get block except on doubles, they don't have any Big Guy negative traits. A Khemri team can sail to a close victory over the broken bodies of their opponents, but if their Tomb Guardians go down, the team is practically nothing but (literal) dead weight.
203** Underworld consists of a rag-tag collection of the worst players from the skaven and goblin teams, who all suffer from animosity that means their ball handling never reliably crosses the species barrier. However, normal access to mutations and a very varied skill set (they're one of only two teams in the game to have normal access to ''all'' the game's skills, spread amongst their characters) means their MagikarpPower is second to none when it comes to flexibility, even if their players are crap stat-wise.
204** The video game sequel introduces the Bretonnion teams. While their Blitzers are expensive, keeping them alive is important, as they are needed for almost every action.
205* LightningBruiser: Most teams could develop into this through the right skill and stat choices.
206** Ogres are pretty close to this -- they have the standard 5 strength and 9 armor of most Big Guys, but also have a decent 5 move allowance (faster than Trolls, Beasts of Nurgle, Deathrollers, Treemen, Tomb Guardians, and Mummies) and, more importantly, 2 agility rather than the more common 1. Most significantly, they're the only Big Guy to actually get their own ''team.''
207** Beyond the ranks of the Big Guys, Lizardman Saurus are strength 4, move 6, and armor 9, and the team can field 5 of them at once as well as their Kroxigor. Sure, they're only agility 1, but skill them up enough and a Lizardman team can float like a butterfly and sting like a steamroller.
208** Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs have strength 4, move 6, and armor 9, can sprint, and are sure-footed, which means they can go up to 9 squares every turn barring some very unlucky rolling. They also have agility 2, making them viable (if less-than optimal) ball carriers. You can only field 2 of them, however, and they're expensive as heck.
209** As a general role, Blitzers have higher than normal movement and have the Block skill, making them very good right out the gate at hunting down ball carriers, whose specializations tend more toward the FragileSpeedster school.
210* LizardFolk:
211** As in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', the ''Blood Bowl'' version of the Lizardmen are the {{Mayincatec}} servants of the Old One with three main races: the man-sized Saurus that have thick scaled hides, viciously sharp teeth and fangs, and muscular tails; the smaller, amphibian Skink that have slick-scaled skin, short tails, and crested heads; and the ogre-sized, crocodilian Kroxigor. The Lizardmen are also very important to the historic backstory of ''Blood Bowl'' as they were the original race to introduce Nuffle and his sacred game to the world. In-game, the Lizardmen are a traditionally a Tier 1 team with a good mix of fast and tough players.
212** The Zoat were a race of nature-loving, centaur-like lizard people from early editions of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' that were later written out of the background material. The 5th Edition of ''Blood Bowl'' saw the Zoat make a return with the strong but stupid Star Player Zolcath the Zoat, who is available to hire by Lizardmen, Amazon and Wood Elf teams.
213* LogicalWeakness: Despite the setting operating heavily on RuleOfCool and RuleOfFunny, weapons have the drawbacks you expect them to.
214** Players using chainsaws risk injuring them with them.
215** A player constantly spinning a massive ball and chain risks injuring their own team.
216** Dwarf deathrollers are hard to knock over, as they are machines. But they ''are'' machines, and their sheer bulk means that anything that hits them hard enough to knock them over will wreck them.
217* LongHairedPrettyBoy: The High Elf Star Catcher Bo Gallanté is thought to be the most handsome player ever to have taken to the Blood Bowl pitch. Sporting long blonde hair that won him Lauriel Elflock's Fabulous Follicles Award three years running, Bo is so good-looking that his mere presence is liable to drive his less attractive foes into fits of rage, driving them to fight as hard as possible to spoil his pretty face.
218* LoopholeAbuse: While some players outright ignore it, the rules for Blood Bowl ban the use of weapons on the pitch. Armour decorations and embellishments are allowed however, leading to many players sporting numerous suspiciously sharp and pointed ornamentations on their gloves, kneepads, shoulders and helmets.
219* LuckManipulationMechanic: Many abilities (such as Sure Hands, Dodge, or Pass) allow to reroll failed actions without using a team reroll, others add to whatever dice roll you make (Accuracy adds +1 to pass rolls) or decrease the rolls made by your enemies (Prehensile tail adds -1 to enemy dodge rolls).
220* MagikarpPower: Teams that need a few gained skills on their players before they hit their stride are in this category, and tend to do well at mid-to-high TV play. Examples of this kind of team are lizardmen and chaos, as well as chaos dwarves, chaos pact, underworld, and necromantics.
221* {{Magitek}}:
222** The fluff has magically powered cameras broadcasting to magic balls alongside a lot of other tech akin to our world, like something akin to a radio broadcasting system.
223** The latest video game also has Jim and Bob make mention of social media, like Facetome and Twerper.
224* MassiveRaceSelection: This game has at least 11 distinct playable races that can form teams: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Nurgles, Undead, Lizardmen, Halflings, Orcs, Goblins, Ogres and Skaven. Then they get even further divided into different factions.
225* {{Metagame}}: Depending on what teams and skills are popular in a given league, some skills become more or less valuable. The most obvious example is Tackle, which serves solely to cancel the effects of the Dodge skill, and therefore is nearly useless unless you're facing many agile teams.
226* MightyGlacier:
227** Dwarf teams. Excellent bashing game, slow as molasses and about as agile.
228** Nurgle teams too. Their speed and agility are comparable to Dwarves.
229* MultipleHeadCase: The Two Heads mutation is a physical ability available to any player on a Chaos, Nurgle, and Skaven team that gives them a bonus to their Dodge rolls. The Skaven are particularly fond of this mutation, with their most famous Star Player, Tarsh Surehands, having a pair of heads. Unfortunately, Tarsh strangled himself to death after his heads got into an argument about a missed pass.
230* MultipurposeTongue: Chameleon Skinks, introduced into Lizardmen Teams during 5th Edition, use their long, sticky tounges to interfere with the ball during a game. This is represented by the Chameleon Skinks having the Pass Block skill and their model being shown catching the ball with their tongue.
231* {{Mutants}}: Any non-undead, non-daemonic race that has been tainted directly or indirectly by Chaos have a chance of having their characters become one, including the Underworld and Skaven teams. With some exceptions like Hideous Appearance, Tentacles and Claws, etc., many of these mutations aren't quite as potent as more standard skills, but they give otherwise limited players a lot of flexibility (for example, a Beastman is normally a mediocre catcher, as he just has average agility and no Catch skill, but if gains an extra arm, he gets a fairly hefty +1 to catching a thrown ball or picking a loose ball off the ground, and for his agility of 3, that +1 may be better than getting the extra re-roll from the Catch skill that he'll likely just botch again).
232* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: Due to AI teams receiving random generation of skills, there is a full possibility you can encounter AI players with the Frenzy + Grab combo, which is illegal.
233* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: The Scarcrag Snivellers are unique amongst Goblin teams as they attempt to win their games fair and square without any trolls, fouling, chainsaws or any other secret weapons. Despite this, the team has had some limited success in the background material and have actually managed to survive a few seasons without being totally wiped out, something even more traditional Goblin teams struggle with.
234* MythologyGag: In the sequel video game, Bob hails a game of Humans versus Orcs as being "...the most classic of all Blood Bowl matchups." Then he begins musing that, if he were to create a [[HomeGame board game]] of the sport, those would be the teams he'd include in the starter set. No points for guessing what the in-box teams for every edition of the tabletop game were.
235* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Many of the named players. And coaches. And one ref. This is best displayed with the last names of Black Orcs like "Eat'Ribz" or "Break'Legz".
236* {{Necromancer}}:
237** The Head Coaches of Shambling Undead[[note]]generic Undead[[/note]] and Necromantic Horror[[note]]more esoteric Undead including Werewolves and Flesh Golems[[/note]] teams are Necromancers who wish to become rich and famous under the lights of a Blood Bowl stadium rather than lurk in dark and dank tombs. In most editions of the game, Necromancer coaches are able to raise opposition casualties as rookie zombies, as well as argue with the referee like any other coach.
238** The Sports Necrotheurge is a specialist Sports Wizard, available for hire by all types of Undead team in the 5th Edition of the game. Necrotheurges use their Necromantic skill to enhance the abilities of Undead players and to interfere with opposition players.
239* NoSell: Several skills allow players to no sell results other players take for granted. For example, Stand Firm makes you immune to being pushed, and Safe Throw (as long as you make an AGI roll) makes you immune to being intercepted.
240* NonHumanUndead: The 5th Edition ''Spike! Journal Issue 04'' introduced a couple of Star Players, for the various flavours of Undead team, from the non-human races of the Old World in the form of Skrull Halfheight, a Skeleton Dwarf Thrower, and Throttlesnot the Impaler, a Zombie Goblin with a pogo stikk.
241* NonIndicativeName:
242** Chaos Dwarves aren't too plentiful, so most "Chaos Dwarf teams" largely consist of Hobgoblins.
243** Similarly, Vampire teams rarely feature more than 2-3 vampires, the rest being taken up by human thralls.
244* NooseNecktie: The 5th Edition artwork for the Zombie Star player 'Rotten' Rick Bubkis show the notoriously dirty player wearing a noose as part of his uniform, despite the fact that his death had nothing to do with hanging.
245* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught:
246** A foul will only get a player sent off if the ref sees it happen (i.e, rolling doubles either while breaking armour or determining injury).
247** In the rules, it's perfectly legal to "forget" to make rolls for "the player does something stupid" unless the other coach calls you on it.
248* NotPlayingFairWithResources:
249** In the first game, AI teams start at a minimum of 1300 team value, while humans create teams at the standard 1000. Sure, it means 300K worth of inducements... But there's really nothing that can counter the imbalance of running your newly created lizardmen right into an orc team where all the black orcs have Block 'for free'. They also tend to get inducements for free in games without spending from their own cash box even with a higher team value.
250** Thankfully averted in the second PC game, which features a full roster of "green" TV 1000 teams.
251* OffWithHisHead:
252** One piece of FlavorText in 5th Edition mentions that the record for Most Decapitations in a Single Match was once held by the chainsaw wielding Star Player Helmut Wulf who managed 22 decapacitations against the Champions of Death in 2485. With the maximum team size of 16, the record was only possible because the Necromancer coach of the Champions of Death kept reattaching the heads to keep the match going.
253** As mentioned in their background material, the half-time entertainment of the Dark Elf team known as the Kelthari Executioners is a demonstration of the skills of the swordsmen they are named after on a couple of hundred lucky fans.
254* OneManArmy:
255** Ogre Star Player Morg'n'Thorg once boasted that he could probably beat an entire 16-player Halfling team by himself, and outraged by his arrogance, a team called the Moot Mighties challenged him to do so. While not supported by the actual game rules, according to the fluff, the result of the game was… not pretty for the Halflings.
256** Certain players -- especially Star Players -- have stats and skills that make them appropriate to play in any position, be it fighting in a melee or running to score. This occasionally results in a spectacular drive in which one player tackles the opposing ball carrier, picks up the ball, dodges their way through the rest of the opposing team, and runs in a touchdown almost unaided by their teammates.
257* OurGnomesAreWeirder: One of the 5th Edition [[FlavorText "Did You Know…" box-outs]] mentions the Glimdwallow Geezers, a team of white bearded, pointy hat wearing players who entered into Halfling only tournaments. Thinking they were a team of elderly Halflings, the other teams went easy on them until it was revealed that they were actually Gnomes, at which point the Halfling fans gave the deceptive Gnomes a beating.
258* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Those werewolves who play Blood Bowl are tormented creatures driven into a wild frenzy by their conflicted nature and are prone to outbursts of crazed violence, something that would make them the perfect Blood Bowl player if they could confine such violence to the opposition. As such, werewolves almost exclusively play for Norse Teams (who don't care about such incidents) and Necromantic Horror teams (where any damage they cause to their own side can be easily repaired by the Necromancer Coach).
259* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Two kinds. Zombies (which are more or less the linemen of the Necromantic and Undead teams) are of the voodoo variety (although they are corpses); high armor and regeneration makes them hard to take down for a unit of their cost, but tied for the third slowest unit in the game. Nurgle rotters, on the other hand, are more in the line of plague zombies; they are faster and have the same armor, but have decay, which means they are very prone to injury. Any unit they (or another Nurgle unit) kill may turn into a rotter.
260* OvershadowedByAwesome: Armour Value increases share a result with the much more useful Movement increase, making Armour Value essentially the DumpStat. Things aren't helped by Armour being perhaps the most situational stat: Strength, Agility, and Movement are pretty much always useful, while Armour only comes into play if you get knocked down or fouled.
261* {{Permadeath}}: Roll badly enough on the injury table, and this is the fate that awaits your star player.
262* PlayingWithFire:
263** The most common attack spell sanctioned for use by Hireling Sports-Wizards is the {{fireball}}. The wizard is able to cast this spell at the opposition to knock over and damage multiple players. Fireball is also the only spell known by 8th Edition (In)Famous Coaching Staff character Horatio X. Schottenheim, even if his accuracy leaves something to be desired.
264** Firebellies are [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogre]] wizard-priests who sometimes hire themselves out to Ogre and Chaos Renegade teams. Specialising in fire magic, a Firebelly is able to launch {{fireball}}s onto the pitch in the same manner as a traditional Hireling Sports-Wizard, as well as sending columns of flame from one touchline to another that, in the 5th Edition rules, have the chance of knocking over any player in their way.
265* PluckyGirl: Former pig farmer turned Star Blitzer Karla von Kill has had to deal with low-level sexism from Cablevision reporters, as well as major injuries caused by a Minotaur that apothecaries said should have ended her career, but has been determined to push onwards regardless. Karla’s attitude was ably demonstrated during the 2492 Blood Bowl final, where she attempted to stop the Mighty Zug, only to be knocked out for her trouble. Karla didn’t let this stop her, however, and once she regained consciousness, she immediately singled out Zug again and actually managed to knock down the famously solid Blocker, something that gained her a nod of respect from Zug himself.
266* PoisonedWeapon: In 5th Edition, models with the 'Weeping Dagger' Extraordinary Skill are armed with a [[HiddenWeapons hidden blade]] impregnated with warpstone that constantly drips a magical toxin that can incapacitate anyone. In-game, the Skill forces a Badly Hurt model that the player Blocked to miss the next game in League Play as they are recovering from the poisoning.
267* PomPomGirl: All teams have the option of hiring cheerleaders as part of their coaching staff to encourage the fans to show their support. In all the editions of the game where they have been included, cheerleaders give their team bonuses for various results on the Kick-off table that involve the fans. The 5th Edition rules also include temporary and special character cheerleaders that have extra rules.
268* PowerCreepPowerSeep: The PC game's ''Chaos Edition'' introduces the Khorne team, whose BigGuy is a Bloodthirster. As a Big Guy, it is very good at its role, but only has Strength 5, same as the Ogre and the Kroxigor. In normal ''Warhammer'', a bloodthirster has twice the strength of those two units and could single-handedly destroy entire regiments of soldiers, let alone a ''football team''.
269* PrehensileTail:
270** Prehensile tails are a mutation that players from some teams are able to develop as they level up. The mutation makes it harder for opponent players to dodge out of the mutant’s tackle zone and is a particularly popular mutation for [[RatMen Skaven players]].
271** In a visual representation of the trope, [[GameplayStorySegregation which doesn’t appear in the actual rules]], the 5th Edition Skaven Thrower models are depicted passing the ball with their tails.
272* PrestigiousPlayerTitle: The game calls the in-universe team members "players" and the real-world players "coaches" to avoid ambiguity.
273* PsychoPrototype: Hakflem Skuttlespike was the first successful attempt by the masters of Clan Rigens to breed a player equal to Tarsh Surehands, the most talented Skaven to ever take to the Blood Bowl pitch. The plan to create an entire team of such players failed, however, when the vicious and jealous Skuttlespike began slaughtering any and all subsequent creations that had the potential to equal or surpass his abilities.
274* PyrrhicVictory: Scoring and how many casualties you sustain aren't always linked: Elf and skaven teams can often win games scores-wise but lose so many players that the prize money won't cover their losses. Moreso if high-level or valuable players got permanently injured or killed.
275* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Motley Horde. The coach has no idea what his lineup is going to be for any game until it starts.
276* RandomNumberGod: As described at the top of the page, Blood Bowl's RandomNumberGod is directly referenced in the game's backstory as Nuffle, the Patron God of the Game, and has been adopted by players as someone to appeal to when they need a critical dice roll to succeed. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption It works about as well as one would expect.]]
277* RealityWarper: The Slann Mage-Priests that hire themselves out to Amazon and Lizardmen in the 5th Edition of the game are able to use their reality altering powers to assist their team. The Reality Blinks spell can, if cast correctly, switch the positions of two players as the Slann alters realty so that the players had taken different directions. If cast incorrectly, however, it can lead to both players being [[{{Intangibility}} stuck between dimensions]].
278* RedOniBlueOni: In the video game sequel, Bob is the violence-loving red to Jim's calm, analytical blue. They briefly discuss this in the Campaign Mode, after the Gouged Eye is beaten for the second time.
279-->'''Bob:''' Knowing you, Jim, you'll have gone for something involving the ball or tactics. What's wrong with mindless violence?
280-->'''Jim:''' (facepalming) We can't all be brain-dead morons obsessed with murder, Bob. Some of us are polite, genteel bloodsuckers.
281-->'''Bob:''' You've met our fans, haven't you, Jim?
282* RingOut: Being pushed off the pitch is an automatic injury roll, and (even if the player survives unharmed) disqualifies the player from entering the pitch again until the drive is over. Aiming to do this intentionally (referred to as "crowdsurfing", or "surfing" in short, an opponent) is a quick way to get players off the pitch, and frenzy-heavy teams like Norse or Khorne in the VideoGame can do quite well at it.
283* RugbyIsSlaughter: The recent video game contains various references to an Albion League which is even more vicious and brutal than Old World Blood Bowl, in a direct invocation of this trope. The closest the sport gets to an unnecessary roughness rule is "don't let the ref catch you bringing a weapon onto the field". The key words here being "[[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught catch you]]".
284* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Pro Elf teams, which are made up of the High Elves that actually ''worked'' to get into a team.
285* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney:
286** High Elf teams are made up of rich kids who bought their way in.
287** Also, bribing the ref, a practice so common that the refs' union actually has guidelines for when and how to take the money.
288* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Dwarves were among the first of Nuffle's priests, so they feel that they are allowed to adjust the rules at their pleasure.
289* {{Seers}}: The background material for the 5th Edition version of the Chaos Chosen teams mentions that there are rumours that the upstart coach of the Everchosen possesses a magical artifact known as the Eye of [[ShoutOut Shearer]] that allows him to foresee the plays of his opponent.
290* SeriousBusiness: Blood Bowl has basically replaced full-scale war, and even, in a fashion, brought about peace; even the forces of Chaos no longer try to slaughter the world, instead focusing on dominating the Blood Bowl tournament. In fact, the first game stopped a battle between Dwarves and Orcs, two races that have been fighting for generations.
291* ShaggyDogStory: The comic is mostly about Kalter Morder, an assassin undercover in the Blood Bay Hackers, who takes contracts on opposing players. After the Dwarf Giants game, he receives a contract on one of his own teammates, star player Dunk Hoffnung, and is told to make it look like an on-field accident. He's constantly foiled by the chaos of the game throughout the season. After the Hackers win the championship, Hoffnung is momentarily distracted by his amorous fiancée, and Morder moves for the kill… [[spoiler:only to be killed by the team's coach, who has decided to "cut" him from the team.]]
292* ShearMenace: The Halfling Star Player Neddley Verrüca is a renowned Halfling gardener and Treeman stylist who often takes to the pitch with his trademark shears so that he can give his Treeman clients a quick trim during a match. He is also not above using his razor-sharp gardening tools on the opposition, something the 5th Edition rules represent with the Stab and Secret Weapon skills.
293* ShockAndAwe: In the 5th Edition rules, rather than the fireballs that regular Hireling Sports-Wizards can cast, Chaos Sorcerer Coaching Staff are able to throw lightning at opposition players with the Thunderbolt spell. While it cannot Knock Down as many players as a fireball, the Thunderbolt spell has a greater chance of Knocking Down the player it is aimed at. In previous editions, the spell was available to all Wizards.
294* ShoutOut:
295** A number of canon Blood Bowl teams are named after real life American Football teams, such as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Raiders Orcland Raiders]], the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Giants Dwarf Giants]], and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Cowboys Darkside Cowboys]].
296** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Landry Tomolandry the Undying]], head coach of the Champions of Death, is named after one of the most famous American Football coaches (and the undying bit is based on jokes about how ''old he is'').
297** The Blood Bowl novel series, and the comic ''Killer Contracts'', are about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers Bad Bay Hackers]], known for their ironman blitzer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Favre Rhett Carve]].
298** When scoring, Bretonnian Knights in the second game will [[VideoGame/DarkSouls praise the sun]].
299** The {{Cyborg}} Rat Ogre Kreek Rustgouger is also known as [[Film/TheTerminator ‘The Verminator’ and its famous catchphrase is “We’ll be back-back!”]]
300** One of the Pro Elf catcher models in the second game looks like [[Creator/DavidBowie Ziggy Stardust]], complete with the lightning bolt from ''Aladdin Sane''.
301* SiblingTeam: The Swift Brothers, Lucien and Valen, are a pair of Elven twins who, since reconciling with each other after a long-running feud, have refused to play for any team individually. As a Star Blitzer and Thrower who have been practicing together for more than a century, the pair combine into a strong team, with the only downside being the cost of hiring them (only Morg ‘n’ Thorg is more expensive).
302* SkillGateCharacters:
303** Orc teams have tough, cheap players with close-to-average stats and are easy to learn the game with, but in high-level play, their lack of a good throwing game or ability to score quickly (barring the odd goblin throw) means they're very predictable.
304** Dwarf teams are even slower and even better at making giant man-piles to crush their opponents, but they're even slower, less dodgy, and only have one way to win, making them extremely predictable and thus easier to counter if you know what you're doing.
305** All the players on the Norse and Amazon teams start with Block and Dodge, respectively. This makes them relatively forgiving. However, if they are the first team one plays, it may make playing a different team that doesn't start with those skills harder.
306* TheSleepless: Due to an addiction to Madcap Mushrooms, the Goblin Star Player, and former apprentice to the inventor of the pogo stick, Scrappa Sorehead hasn't slept a wink in over three years. Scrappa himself is perfectly fine with this situation, as his obsession with his pogo stick is such that he refuses to get down from the device for even a moment’s rest.
307* SportsWidow: The 5th Edition banshee Star Player Gretchen Wächter was, in life, a widow to her husbands' obsession with Blood Bowl and hated the game as a result. Gretchen was so incensed that her husband buried her wearing the strip of the Middenhiem Marauders, her spirit returned to torment him in death. When the necromancer Dirk the Abhorrent was forming his experimental ethereal Undead team, the Falorn Phantoms, Gretchen was summoned to terrify opposition players and the banshee finally found something she enjoyed about the game.
308* StatusEffects: The Druchii Sports Sorceresses, who hire themselves out to Dark Elf and Elven Union teams in the 5th Edition of the game, are able to cast the unique spell 'One Thousand Cuts'. This spell is an insidious Curse that reduces an enemy player's Move, Strength, and Agility characteristics for a drive.
309* SteamPunk: A game starring Elves, Dwarfs, Orcs, and Goblins also features gas-powered chainsaws and [[ShapedLikeItself steam-powered steamrollers]] as special models.
310* StoneWall: Nurgle. Practically every player worth his salary has high AV, ignores 1 in 6 blocks and regenerates from injuries, they can throw cheap rotters at opponents in hu-errr, rotter wave attacks, their Big Guy starts with one of the greatest 'roadblock' skills, and half the team has skills that makes the idea of passing around them a sad joke, making them very good at defending against opposing drives. On offence, they're a slower and less agile Chaos team with dead weight players that are useless for anything but marking, no ball handling skills, and an unreliable and slow Big Guy.
311* StoutStrength:
312** The Skaven Star Player Glart Smashrip is not only insanely obese, but also the strongest Skaven player in the game who isn't a [[MixAndMatchCritter Rat Ogre]].
313** While all of Nurgle's favoured champions are known for the corpulence, the artwork for the Star Player Tolly Glockinger show him to be massively fat even by these standards. Despite his great obesity, Tolly retains all the strength that made him a famous [[TheStrongman circus strongman]] and he is able to swing his [[ImprobableWeaponUser enormous bells]] with a force equal to a charging Minotaur.
314* SupremeChef: As with most of their representations in fiction, [[{{Hobbits}} Halflings]] are renowned for their culinary abilities. This is represented in the game by allowing teams to hire Halfling Master Chefs as coaching staff[[note]]Halfling teams get to hire them at a reduced price[[/note]]. The abilities of a Master Chef are so great that they have a chance of greatly inspiring their team, granting them an extra re-roll, and distracting the opposition with the delicious smells coming from the dugout, costing them a re-roll in the 5th Edition of the game.
315* TacticalRockPaperScissors: Most teams have certain set-ups that they have trouble against, but none so bad as Amazons vs Dwarves or Chaos Dwarves. Amazons have the advantage of all starting with Dodge (making them harder to hit) to compensate for not being especially tough; Dwarves have the advantage of all their basic players starting with Tackle (which negates Dodge) and are ''much'' more durable in melee, compounded by the Amazons being a mainly bashing/running team (see GlassCannon). It's so bad that the best advice you can give to an Amazon player facing Dwarves is [[CurbStompBattle "try to bring at least a few players home alive."]][[note]]It IS possible to beat Dwarves with Amazons, but by Nuffle you're going to have to work for it -- and be VERY lucky.[[/note]]
316* TakingYouWithMe: The Wrestle skill counters the Block skill by sending both characters to the floor on a Both Down result, which characters with Block usually ignore. Since you don't roll for armour when using Wrestle, though, there's no chance of either player getting actually injured and it doesn't cause a turnover either (unless your ball carrier gets wrestled).
317* {{Teleportation}}: The alternate version of Blood Bowl known as Dungeonbowl, sponsored by [[WizardingSchool the Colleges of Magic]], involves teams playing through a network of caves and tunnels linked together by magical teleporters. The Elven Union team, the Celestial Comets, are particularly adept at using these teleporters, and when they switched to regular Blood Bowl, they brought some with them that they would install on a pitch before a match. The 5th Edition of the game represents this with the Celestial Comets 2489-2490 Hall of Fame Squad that includes special rules allowing their players to make a special Teleport Action to move between the teleporters during a game.
318* TerrainSculpting: The Slann Mage-Priests, hireable by Amazon and Lizardmen teams in 5th Edition as specialist Wizards, are able to use their world altering powers to affect the pitch that a Blood Bowl game is being played on. Once per game, the Slann is able to tilt the pitch with the Tectonic Shift spell, causing everything, from balls to players, to move in the direction of the tilt.
319* ThenLetMeBeEvil: The legendary Dark Elf Star Player Jeremiah Kool of the Darkside Cowboys was so skilled that many pundits and commentators accused him of using magic to enhance his game. Believing that if you are accused of something you didn't do, you may as well make sure it is true, Jeremiah helped the Cowboys start the Underearth Academy of Offensive Sports Magic and, after his retirement from the game, became the Cowboys' Offensive Magic coordinator.
320* ThrowDownTheBomblet: Players with the Bombardier skill (such as the Goblin Bombardier, and the star players Bomber Dribblesnot and Boomer Eziasson) are armed with bombs that they can throw in the same way as making a pass. Using such weapons will get them automatically sent off by the referee at the end of the drive.
321* TutorialFailure: The tutorial of the 2010 computer game is lacking in explaining the actual mechanics. Expect to spend some hours reading the rulebook -- in fact, the tutorial actually seems to [[GuideDangIt expect the player to have it handy]] -- or suffering through a lot of trial and error.
322* UndignifiedDeath: The notorious dirty player 'Rotten' Rick Bupkeis died after being buried under a veritable avalanche of [[BigEater Halfling lunchboxes]] when he attempted to foul the highly popular Star Player Puggy Baconbreath. This unfortunate end hasn't put much of a dent in his career, however, as he soon returned to the pitch as a zombie.
323* UnPerson: A bit of an unusual one: Slann teams are pretty much treated by Games Workshop as though they didn't exist, but Games Workshop has no creative control over the rulebook. In other words, the race is still in the rulebook, but no supplementary material, models, or mentions of the team exists in any Games Workshop-controlled media. Meanwhile, the second ''Blood Bowl'' video game introduces the Kislev Circus, [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute who have the exact same stats and skill access as the Slann, but completely different models]].
324* UnnecessaryRoughness: This is basically the entire premise of the game, to be honest. You can make tackles with freaking ''chainsaws''. Lore-wise, High Elves have an "unusually" bad track record of being on the receiving end of this by everyone else.
325* UnskilledButStrong: As a general rule, basic players who start with very good stats for a role (Saurus, Black Orcs, Chaos Warriors, etc.) start with no innate skills necessary to fill that role, which balances them somewhat with poorer-statted specialists who start with those vital skills (most teams' blitzers have Block, for instance). No Big Guys (models with base strength 5 or higher) have normal access to the General skills either, limiting access to the all-important Block. The sole exception is the vampires, who start with both good stats (four strength AND four agility) and a few great abilities (most notably hypnotic gaze), but come with their own issues…
326* UntouchableUntilTagged: Players with the Block and Dodge combos, coupled with high Agility, can weave in and out of tackle zones and easily fend off opponents going for a block attempt. But if something actually lands, expect the player to be on his back and a recipient of stomps from 3 or more opponents.
327* UselessUsefulSpell: The Stabbing skill sounds useful; it gives your player an attack that automatically makes an unmodified roll against the enemies' armour. This means the enemy can't fight back against it, like a regular block attempt would. However, being unmodified means that no positive or negative bonus is applied to the roll. So Dirty Blow and Niggling Injuries don't apply and high AV opponents can easily shrug off a stab attempt. Even worse, because Stabbing isn't a block attempt, if the roll fails to damage an enemy, then there's no possibility of a knockdown. This makes Stabbing only effective against weak opponents like goblins or halflings, and against those, you can simply hammer them with a regular block.
328* VerticalKidnapping: During the 2459 Lustrian Superleague semi-final match between the [[RatMen Queekwell Queasers Skaven team]] and the [[LizardFolk Tlanxla Terradons Lizardman team]], the great flying lizards that the Lizardman team was named for began grabbing Skaven players from the field and either dumping them into the crowd or taking them back to their nests for a snack. The Classic Plays special rules published in Issue 450[[note]]January 2020[[/note]] of ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' includes rules for representing these random Terradon attacks with a random chance of a Skaven player being abducted from the field.
329* TheVirus: All players on a Nurgle Team are infected with the daemonic disease Nurgle's Rot. This highly infectious disease corrupts its victim, body and soul, turning them into hideously mutated and utterly devout followers of the Plague God. Blood Bowl players who contract the Rot will be driven out of their original team to join those that infected them. In league play, most editions of the game represent this with a chance of any player taken out by an opposing player with the 'Nurgle's Rot' Extraordinary Skill turning into a Rotter and joining the Nurgle Team.
330* WeakButSkilled:
331** Amazons and Norse start with two of the best skills in the game on most of their units (Dodge and Block, respectively), but their stats are subpar. Most Stunty players have Dodge as well.
332** Dwarf blockers start with Block and Tackle to compensate for their bad agility (2) and their absolutely atrocious movement (4). However, those two skills and their AV of 9 means they'll stay relevant as roadblocks even into long tournaments, even if (or perhaps exactly ''because'') they hardly ever skill up.
333* WeatherManipulation: One of the more specialised Hireling Wizards available for teams to hire are Weather Mages who are able to use their abilities to alter the weather to a limited degree. The 5th Edition rules for Weather Mages represent this by allowing them to attempt to change the weather effect for a single turn per game.
334* WeatherOfWar: Most editions of the game include a table of random weather effects, generated at the beginning of the game, that can cause players may collapse in sweltering heat or find the ball too slippery to handle in snowy conditions. The 5th Edition of the game introduces a number of extra weather and environmental effects for the various race specific and additional playing field boards.
335* WeCanRebuildHim: The 5th Edition (In)Famous Coaching Staff character Krot Shockwhisker is a Skaven Engineer who excels in combining flesh with technology and hires out his services to Blood Bowl teams to finance his experiments. During a game Krot can attempt to fix a seriously injured player so that they can take to the field once more. Given the nature of Skaven technology however there are often complications.
336* WeHaveReserves:
337** Skaven coaches, due to their race's cheap linemen, and tendency to get turned into a pulpy mess, often end up with this mindset.
338** Undead, Necomantic, and Khemri coaches due to their players' ability to recover from serious injuries.
339** Snotlings and Halflings are the cheapest and second-cheapest players in the game, and the easiest to kill. Do the math.
340** Finally, vampire thralls have very low life expectancy due to low armour value and being preyed on not only by your opponent but your own players. Vampire coaches tend to fill the rosters with them "for safety's sake".
341* WhenTreesAttack: Halfling and Wood Elf teams are both able to hire Treemen, large and ancient beings that take the form of animate trees. Why these supernatural creatures take to the pitch is a matter of debate in the background material, but many pundits believe it is due to their protective nature or, in some cases, the desire to get revenge for the trees killed to build Blood Bowl Stadiums. In all editions of the game, Treemen are slow but incredibly strong and tough, giving those teams they play for some much needed hitting power on the pitch.
342* WolverineClaws: The Wood Elf Spite Star Player Swiftvine Glimmershard is able to grow razor-sharp claws from the ends of her fingers, a skill she is more than willing to use against anyone that she thinks has insulted her. In-game this is represented by Glimmershard having the Stab Skill in the same way as those players who carry knives onto the pitch.
343* YouHaveFailedMe:
344** It is impossible to buy life insurance if you are a coach.
345** If you fail one of the obligatory missions in the "legendary edition" story mode, your coach will be abducted and eaten by some ogre fans.
346* ZergRush:
347** The prevailing tactic for Halfling teams in both fluff and actual play -- "After all, if you can get half a dozen players in the opposing team's end zone and, by some miracle, manage to end up with the ball, then there is a small chance that one or two of them won't be jelly by the time you throw the thing."
348** Back when Snotlings had their own team, each only counted as half a player. This meant they could field twice as many players on the pitch as another team. However, Snotlings are so weak that they deserve to be called half a player.
349** Skaven coaches tend to sacrifice their linerats by the dozen by making them block opposing players' pieces so their gutter runners and stormvermin can work unmolested.

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