Tabletop League Rules & Regulations

The Tahoma Area Blood Bowl League is an inclusive space meant to be representative of all players who participate. That means we do our best to respect every player who plays, refer to them in the way they want to be referred to, and create a space wherein they can feel that they belong. We show respect to each and every player and try our best to create a space for them to play Blood Bowl.


Season League Rules


A. League Format

The league will be divided into 2 divisions of a varying number of players. Each team will play every other team in their division at least once. If the number of players in the league is less than 16 then players will play cross-divisional in order to meet the goal of 8 games per season. 


# of games in Preseason: Up to 3 per player (Challenge Format)

# of games per season: 8-10 (Round-robin)

# of playoff games: Up to 3 (Knock-out)

# of games in Postseason: Up to 3 (Challenge)

Time between games: 2 Weeks.

Length of Season: ~4 Months

Playoffs: TBD

Cost of League: $20 per player 


Standings tiebreakers:


Scheduling rules:

Games must be played in sequential order. Each player will have 2 weeks to schedule and play their games. Players are allowed to play ahead in their fixtures on TourPlay if both players are ready to play their games. In general, games should not take longer than 2 weeks to play. In the event that a game is taking longer to play than 2 weeks then please notify league staff so that the situation can be evaluated.


Please be reasonable and try to work around each others schedules. We all get that life happens but communication is key. If it’ll take you longer than 2 weeks to play your game, let the league staff and your opponent know as soon as possible. And try to make that time up later in the season by catching up in your schedule. Our goal is to have 4 month long seasons and that means everyone needs to work together to hit that goal. 


In the event that a player is unable to schedule their game and there is clear fault on one side, that game will be forfeit by the negligent player and the schedule will be moved forward. League staff may, however, choose to mitigate these consequences or do something altogether dependent on circumstances.


Scheduling Process:

Divisional rules:

Two divisions will exist in the league in order to protect newer players: an upper division and a lower division. At the end of the season, the bottom two positions from the upper division will demote and the upper two from the lower will promote. This will be our system or promotion and relegation. In the construction of the divisions, the following criteria will be considered and in this order of importance:

It'll always be the intention of the league to try to balance these features and to provide folks with as competitive of a league as possible. However, this won't always be possible and will be highly dependent on the overall balance and progression of the league. But the guidelines will be as above.

Team building:

Two options will be used this season:

All added skills are subject to a league review prior to them being added onto the chosen player.

Team Tiers as below EXCEPTING changes listed above:

B. Playoff Format

Playoffs will be played as a Knockout Tournament with no more than 8 players. Seeding will be determined based upon regular season performance. For example, 1st seed will play 4th in the other division, 2nd seed will play 3rd seed in the other division, and visa-versa. Additional rounds to determine unseeded players will be played, e.g. 3rd plays 4th, etc. The league commissioner reserves the right to put forward a vote in special case scenarios where there are less than 8 players. Should there be a need to adjust the format then the league will democratically vote on the structure and number of players in the playoffs. 


Each season a vote will determine whether star players will be permitted in the playoffs. The reason for this is that GW often releases new star players or FAQ's that can dramatically alter the balance of the game and, consequently, a decision will need to be regularly made as to how we will handle this.


C. Seasonal Transition

The league staff will provide the opportunity for the league to vote during the offseason to provide feedback on the league and feedback as to what they would like to see. As each new season introduces new challenges, changes, and things to consider we will handle this on a per-season basis.


Redraft

Redrafts will be done in accordance with standard GW rules. The following criteria will be used


GW Rules are displayed below to help make with understanding the process of redrafting. While we may choose to change the rules to some extent throughout the league's life and progression, we are currently using them as written here.



D. General Rules

Special rules of play are listed below. We play with some slight variations to the Blood Bowl rules to help make the experience better.



The league reserves the right to consider special circumstances in the event of an illegal concession and break from precedent. This means assigning unique punishments or not assigning punishments.




In the event that a player leaves the league mid-way through the season, we will process their games according to the below table:

For example, if a team, on average, earned 8 spp against a team then 8 spp in total will be granted to the team. This will be done through manual edits to the team and will be rolled randomly across the team.






How this works: Timmy and Chad are scheduled to play their match. Timmy is playing a 900K halfling team and Chad has a 1360 Orc Team. Timmy selects Morg N' Thorg and Akhorne as his star players. Chad spotting that this is not a legal choice because Morg counts for 2 star players asks Timmy to refer to the rules and remove Morg N' Thorg from play. Timmy forfeits his 380k in inducement money and is forced to play with only Akhorne on his roster.

Side note: If Chad wants to be a really cool guy and knows that Timmy is a newer player, he can choose to let Timmy redo his inducement phase and choose new players or inducements. This will be up to the two players to coordinate and decide the exact process for it as it will not be able to be tracked in TourPlay. But Chad isn't required to do this and isn't a bad guy if  he doesn't. It's every player's responsibility to know the rules and it's just on you if you mess up.



Conduct Rules


This does not mean that one cannot tease, chirp at, or razz the opposing player. It’s Blood Bowl, after all, if you don’t complain about your opponent's dice at least once then are you really playing? But don’t be a dick about it. We’re all adults, we know when it’s too far, don’t go too far. The league will handle sportsmanship complaints with a heavy hand. Don’t make this game unfun for others. 

We’ve all played against that guy once or twice. They make their skills hard to read, their models can barely be determined what’s what, they try to take that extra movement square when you aren’t looking, or some other sordid act. Don’t be that guy. Be as honest as you can be, try your best to know the rules, and if you’re wrong… just admit you’re wrong and move on.

Don’t try to mess with your opponent by offering the worst possible windows for scheduling. Be proactive, make concessions, do your best to help get that game played. The effort that you put into scheduling games is part of the decisioning factor if a game ever goes to toss up for forfeit review. 

League Organizers

Eric Paulsen - Commissioner

Jay Smith - Co-Commissioner