Blood Bowl: Team Manager rules summary

Object: Each player manages the players on a Blood Bowl team through five weeks of highlight and
tournament matchups, culminating in the Blood Bowl tournament. Fans, better players, and upgrades are gained
during the matchups. The player with the most fans at game end is the winner.

Terms:
Manager – one of the real-life people playing this game.
Player – a card representing one member of a team.
TMU – the Team Manager’s Union, which has two subdivisions identified by the logo on the card back:
CWC – the Chaos Wastes Confederation.
OWA – the Old Worlds Association.
Matchup – a highlight or tournament card.
Highlight – a Highlight card from the Highlight Reel.
Tournament – a Tournament card from the Spike! Magazine deck.
Midfield – when the ball token is on a Highlight or Tournament card.

Setup:
1. Shuffle the Highlight deck and place it at one end of the common play area.
2. Randomly give a team to each manager along with a scoreboard (set to 00) and his team’s 12 Starting Player
cards, five Team Upgrade cards, and three team tokens.
3. Each manager shuffles his Starting Player cards (his Team deck) and his Team Upgrade cards.
4. Shuffle each deck of Star Player cards (cards with a star symbol on each side of the player’s name) – the
CWC and the OWA.
5. Shuffle the Staff Upgrade deck.
Note: remove the following cards if you do not wish to use the No Salary Cap variant: Hall of Famers, Fan
Club Enrollment, We’ll Get ‘Em Next Season, Staffing Office (x2), and Talent Scout (x2).
6. Prepare the Spike! Magazine deck by first setting aside “The Blood Bowl” card.
a. Shuffle the remaining three Tournament cards and randomly return one to the box, unseen.
b. Shuffle the Headline cards, randomly draw two of them, and return the rest to the box, unseen.
c. Shuffle the four cards from steps a and b together, place “The Blood Bowl” card on the bottom, and
place this deck on opposite end of the common play area from the Highlight deck.
7. Mix the Cheating tokens face down in a pile to form the Cheating Token Pool.
8. Randomly determine the first manager and give him the Golden Coin token.

Game Rounds: Whenever your Team deck becomes depleted shuffle your discard pile for a new deck.
You can never have fewer than 00 fans.
Each of the five game rounds represents a week of the season and consists of the following three phases:

Maintenance Phase:
1. Each manager refreshes all exhausted Upgrade cards to their upright positions.
2. Each manager draws cards from his Team deck until he has six cards in his hand.
3. The first manager returns all cheating tokens to the pool and mixes them face down.
4. The first manager draws the top card of the Spike! Magazine deck and places it face up on top of any
previous Spike! Magazine card. If the card is a headline, read its text aloud and resolve any effects.
5. The first manager “rolls the highlights” by drawing a number of Highlight cards equal to the number of
managers in the game and placing them face up in a line between the Highlight and Spike! Magazine decks
to create the Highlight Reel.
6. Place a ball token on each Highlight card and on the Tournament card (if present).
Matchup Phase: Starting with the first manager and going around until all managers have passed, each
manager performs the following steps:
1. Commit One Player to a Matchup – play one card from your hand face up, perpendicular next to one side of
a matchup (the side of a matchup being called a team zone). You may only commit to a team zone that does
not already have players from another team. You may not commit your players to more than one team zone
in the same matchup. If the last player is removed from a team zone, a different manager may place a player
into that team zone.
Committing players to a tournament works the same except every manager can participate.
If this is your first player in that matchup, place one of your team tokens next to it to indicate that the player
belongs to you (especially when using a Star Player with a different team logo from your own).
Resolve any “When Played” abilities and then resolve the player’s skill icons on the card from left to right,
one icon at a time:
• Cheating – you must draw one cheating token for each cheating icon and place it face down on the
player’s card without looking at it.
• Passing – you may move the ball from an opposing player to midfield or from midfield to the
committed player for each passing icon. If another player on your team is the current ball carrier,
you may choose to either leave the ball with that player or move it the committed player with
passing. Ignore any excess passing icons.
• Sprinting – for each sprinting icon, draw the top card of your Team deck and then discard one card
from your hand (which can be the card you just drew).
• Tackling – for each tackling icon, you may attempt one tackle against any opposing player in the
same matchup. Multiple icons are resolved separately, so the same or multiple players may be
tackled.
If your tackling player’s Star Power is > the target’s, roll two dice and choose one result.
If your tackling player’s Star Power is = the target’s, roll one die and apply the result.
If your tackling player’s Star Power is < the target’s, roll two dice and your opponent chooses one
result.
Unless stated in a player’s ability, the ball token does not affect a player’s Star Power.
Target Down – the tackle succeeds. A Standing player becomes Downed or a Downed player
becomes Injured.
Target Missed – the tackle fails.
Tackler Down – the tackle is evaded and the tackler falls. A Standing player becomes Downed or a
Downed player becomes Injured.
Downed – rotate the player card 90 degrees and begin using the Star Power that was in the lower
left of the card. If the player is the ball carrier, he drops the ball and it moves to midfield.
Downed players lose all abilities and remaining skill icons, but retain any assigned cheating
tokens already placed on them. Downed players can still be the target of Staff Upgrade and
Team Upgrade cards.
Injured – place the player in his owner’s discard pile, discarding any cheating tokens and dropping
the ball.
Unless stated otherwise, all abilities only interact with players at the same matchup. If multiple abilities
occur in the same phase, resolve them in turn order according to the holder of the Golden Coin.
If an ability allows you to move a player to a different matchup, the player’s skill icons are not used at the
new matchup. If the ball carrier is moved to a different matchup, place the ball on a friendly player of the
owner’s choice at the same matchup.
When abilities cause cheating tokens to be discarded, set them aside until the Maintenance Phase rather than
return them to the pool.
Morg ‘N Thorg has one OWA card and one CWC card. You cannot commit a Morg ‘N Thorg to a matchup
that already has a Morg ‘N Thorg committed.
2. Resolve One Matchup Action (optional) – you may exhaust one Staff Upgrade or Team Upgrade card in
your play area and resolve its text.
Passing – if you do not wish to (or cannot) commit another Player card, you must pass. Once you pass, you
cannot commit any more players or resolve any matchup actions for the remainder of the phase. You may
discard any Player cards that you do not wish to keep for the next round.

Scoreboard Phase:
1. Resolve Matchups – starting with the Highlight card closest to the Highlight deck, resolve each matchup as
per the following steps:
a. Flip all cheating tokens in the matchup face up. If there are any Ejection tokens, immediately place the
player in his owner’s discard pile, discarding any remaining cheating tokens and dropping the ball.
Otherwise, score one fan for each flag token and add any Star Power icons to the player.
b. In turn order, resolve any “Scoreboard Phase” abilities on players or upgrades.
c. Calculate each manager’s Star Power at the matchup, including each player, any cheating tokens, the
ball token, and any player abilities.
d. If tied, the team with the ball carrier is the winner.
If tied at a highlight and the ball is at midfield, neither team receives the central payout.
If tied at a tournament (for the winner or runner-up) and neither tied manager has the ball, the first
manager decides which tied manager has the higher Star Power.
At a highlight, each manager collects his zone’s payout and the winner also collects the central payout.
At a tournament, the winner collects the trophy payout, the player with the second-highest Star Power
collects the runner-up payout, and all other players with at least one player at the tournament collect the
“LOSE!” payout.
When only one team has players at a matchup, that manager collects all payouts shown on the card.
Fans – for each icon, gain one fan.
Star Players – for each icon, draw one card from your subdivision deck (OWA or CWC), draft one face
down to your improvement pile, and place the remaining cards on the bottom of that deck in any
order.
Team Upgrades and Staff Upgrades – for each icon, draw one card, draft one face down to your
improvement pile, and place the remaining cards on the bottom of that deck in any order.
Note that cards collected from your team zone are collected separate from cards collected from the
central payout.
A central payout separated by a slash means you must choose one of the listed rewards.
e. The players in the matchup go to their owners’ discard piles. Return the Highlight card to the box.
Some card abilities only resolve when you win or lose a matchup. At tournaments, the winner and runner-
up are both considered winners.
2. Reveal Improvement Piles – each manager reveals the contents of his improvement pile. In turn order,
managers read the text aloud (in the following order) for each Staff Upgrade, Team Upgrade, Star Player
with the Freebooter ability, and then all other Star Players.
If you drafted a player with the Freebooter ability, you may search your roster (all of your cards including
those in your Team deck, discard pile, and hand) for any one player and return it to the box (culling your
deck). Then add the Freebooter player to your roster and shuffle your roster to create a new Team deck
(although you don’t have to shuffle cards in your hand into your Team Deck). Note that you must shuffle
your Team deck and discard pile even if you chose not to cull a card.
Then if you drafted any players without the Freebooter ability, place them on top of your deck in any order.
3. Pass the Golden Coin – the Golden Coin token is passed to the left.

Winning the Game: The game ends at the end of the fifth round, after scoring “The Blood Bowl”.
Each manager collects any fans from any “End of Game” abilities on Team Upgrade or Staff Upgrade cards.
The manager with the most fans wins. If tied, the tied player with the most improvements (Star Players, Team
Upgrades, and Staff Upgrades) wins. If still tied, the Union suspects foul play and suspends each tied manager,
and they lose all their fans. Recalculate the winner from the remaining managers.
Errata and FAQ:
Conditioning Coach – this Team Upgrade for the Athelorn Avengers (elves) reveals tokens from the pool and
ignores any icons that do not show Star Power.
Eshin Assassination Coordination – this Team Upgrade for the Skavenblight Scramblers (rat creatures) is not
considered a tackle attempt, so abilities like Guard are not triggered.
Gryphon-ade – this Team Upgrade for the Reikland Reavers (humans) may be used during the Scoreboard Phase
in which it is revealed.
Guard – a player with this ability cannot use it to guard himself.
Hired Wizard – this Staff Upgrade is not considered a tackle attempt, so abilities like Guard are not triggered.
Lessons in Violence – this Team Upgrade for the Grudgebearers (dwarves) only needs one opponent in a
tournament to have more downed players than you to activate.
Offensive Firepower – to apply this Staff Upgrade at a tournament, if you finished in first place, you must have
3+ Star Power more than the second place manager. If you finished in second place, you must have 3+ Star
Power more than the third place manager.
Piling On – this ability cannot be used more than once on a successfully tackled target player.
Referee Contract Dispute – this Headline resolves when the cheating skill is used, not when other abilities assign
cheating tokens without using the cheating skill.
Rigorous Training – the text on this Team Upgrade for the Grudgebearers (dwarves) should read, “Response:
Each time 1 of your players with the Guard ability becomes downed, draw 1 card from your Team deck and
then choose 1 card to discard from your hand.”

Sudden Death Expansion: The expansion adds three new teams in a new TMU subdivision called the Dark
Sorcery Syndicate (DSS). The DSS has its own Star Player deck.
A sixth Team Upgrade card has been added to each base team. An additional Tournament card has been added.
Contracts – during setup, shuffle the pool of face down Contract tokens (the crystal balls). During the
Scoreboard Phase, draw one Contract token for each corresponding icon in the payout but it remains face
down in your play area until after resolving “End of Game” abilities. No one can look at a face down
Contract token. If there are no tokens left when a manager resolves a payout, he immediately gains 2 fans
per token instead.
Either/Or Skills – when a player with skills separated by one or more slashes is committed to a matchup, you
must choose which one to use. The unchosen skills are treated as if they don’t exist.
Downed Skills – some player cards have skill icons next to their downed Star Power. These skills are resolved
immediately when the player is downed, interrupting the active manager’s turn. Downed players with
downed skills still lose their printed abilities.
Regeneration Skill – the icon for this new skill is crossed bones. Regeneration is optional and it is only a
downed skill. If you use regeneration on a downed player, roll two dice and apply one result. If the result is
a Tackler Down (X), you may return that player to standing. All other results are ignored. If the skill is
used to stand, any downed skills to the right of regeneration are not used and any standing skills are ignored.
Blood Tokens – some players on the Black Fangs (vampire) team have the Bloodlust ability, which allows them
to gain blood tokens which are placed on their cards. A player can have more than one blood token. Each
token increases that player’s standing Star Power and downed Star Power by 1. Blood tokens are limited to
the six provided with the game.

Optional Rules:
Enchanted Balls – return all of the ball tokens from the base game to the box.
Mix the enchanted balls into a face down pool.
During step 6 of the Maintenance Phase, place one random ball on each Highlight and Tournament card face
up (revealed so players know their effects).
Star Power – the ball carrier’s team gains this Star Power when determining the matchup winner.
Fans – the ball carrier’s team gains this number of fans during the Scoreboard Phase.
Skills – each time a player becomes the ball carrier, his manager may immediately use the skill icon,
interrupting the active manager’s turn. Cheating icons must be used.