Blood Bowl is the indisputable number one fantasy sport, but getting into a league is a real headache. All those forms to fill out, sponsorships to find, and rules to follow. It may be ‘the beautiful game’, but the bureaucracy is a real barrier.*
That’s why sports fans with a love of the true essence of the game are flocking to Gutter Bowl: The Game of Street-Level Fantasy Football Mayhem. This is a no-holds-barred version of Blood Bowl played in the streets (and sewers) of cities all over the land without referees to cry foul. It’s a riot! Literally!
The sport of Gutter Bowl has its murky origins in downtown Altdorf in 2475. Fans kicked out of opposing taverns after a fraught finale began a melee that raged for five hours until the battered ball in play was torn in two. Each ale house claimed one half as a trophy of their victory, even though to this day no-one really knows the final score.
Exceptionally violent and even more shambolic than the most Nuffle-blasted game of Blood Bowl, this urban variant is now outlawed in most cities and settlements. Avid fans keep it alive by attempting to codify its peculiarities, and fairly well-established guidelines now make it a genuinely enjoyable spectacle, rather than an endless, formless brawl.**
The box packs in two game boards with matching dugouts, with a 32-page Gutter Bowl rule book which explains how to tweak the rules for amateur players to beat the snot out of each other in the streets and sewers of the Old World – and argue with the City Watch that actually, it was just a zesty tackle.***
A change of terrain comes with a change of rules too, the facades of market stalls and the dank walls of sewers can be used to ricochet the ball, while the heinous drains also provide effluent-filled hazards unique to Gutter Bowl. New Kick-Off Events inspired by the surroundings also ensure that no two games are ever the same and with far looser security, unruly fans and secret weapons can run amok.
Gutter Bowl is coming soon, so keep an eye on Warhammer Community for more information!
* Doubly so if you’re Bone Headed, or Really Stupid.
** Some have noted an alarming correlation between Jim Johnson hosting solo shows on Cabalvision and an Ogre wearing shoddy prosthetics turning up in Gutter Bowl matches.
*** you’ll still need The Official Rules.