(Note that I refer to Star Players as ’Free Agents’ from here on.)

At the beginning of the Season, the League Commissioner should invite all official NAF Teams (see Part 2 below) to the Season’s first Free Agent Auction. Numbered counters, corresponding with each of the Free Agents included in the league should be placed in a hat or simaler receptacle. One by one, the Commisoner removes a counter and the Coaches may start bidding for the player (see ‘bidding’, below) The total number of counters that will be removed from the hat during the Free Agent Auction is three for every NAF Team in the League. Note that Exhibiton teams can never sign Free Agents to a contract, as these are uber-professionals who will only play for official, cup contending teams!

• Bidding

When a Free Agent’s number is pulled from the hat, his card should be pulled from the pile so that his stats and skills are prominently displayed. Any teams eligible to hire the Star Player may bid auction-style (with the starting price as listed on the Star Player card, a Free Agent will only play for at least that much!). For example, the Commisoner asks:

‘Do I hear 50,000 gold for Ripper Bolgrot?’ and the Coach(s) answer, if interested (the ‘going once... going twice... gone!’ convention should be used, to give all Coaches a fair chance to bid).

The price listed for a Free Agent is the price to sign him to a one year contract, maximum (until the winner of that year’s Blood Bowl is determined).

The Auction continues until all Free Agents have been offered to be bid upon. Most likely, many of the available players won’t or can’t be bid for, and will remain in the Free Agent Pool.

• The Free Agent Pool

If a Star Player isn’t hired, he remains an available Free Agent, possibly for the rest of the year, and is placed in the Free Agent Pool. All the Free Agents who were pulled from the hat but not hiredshould be carefully noted by the Commissioner. These are the Free Agents who may be hired at the next Free Agent Auction. Any Free Agents not pulled from the hat at the Season Opening Auction will not be available for the remainder of the Season, as thhey are taking a year’s sabbatical in a remmote part of the Old World, enjoying their famme and fortune to their fullest!

• Free Agents on the Roster

Any Free Agent hired counts against the team’s roster maximumof sixteen players. Under no circumstances may a Coach hire more than four Free Agents! Additionally, if the Free Agent is a ‘postion player’ (i.e. not a lineman type) , the player would occupy a ‘position’ spot on the team’s roster. For example, the Guggenheim Ravens (humans) hire Griff Oberwald. Griff is a Blitzer, so the Ravens could have a maximum of three other Blitzers on the team roster.

• No. Of Auctions per Season

Altogether, the Commissioner should hold four auctions per Season: one ate the beginning of the Season, one as soon as the Dungeonbowl Tourney begins, one as soo as the Chaos Cup Season begins and one as soon as the Blood Bowl Invitational begins, In these auctions, the Coaches may only bid on those Free Agents not taken in the first auction.

Under no circumstances may a Free Agent be signed to a contract at any time, other than at the Free Agent Auction!

• Free Agents not Showing at a Match

Generally, Free Agents are the most self- centered, erratic members of a Team. To take this into account, if a Coach has any Free Agents on his team, before every game he must roll a blocking dice for each one on the roster. If it’s a ‘Skull’ result, the Star sits out the game because certain perks in his contract were ignored!

• Dead Free Agents

If a Free Agent is killed, the player is removed from the Free Agent Pool for the entire Season. The Free Agent should be put back into the Free Agent Deck the following Season, and may be bid upon at that time.

• Freebooters

Note that Freebooters may be hired as per Death Zone rules, as long as they are hired from the remaining pool of Free Agents drawn in the Season’s first free Agent Auction. Although Exhibiton Teams may not hire Free Agents, they may hire Freebooters (not even stuck-up primadonnas will turn their noses up at large sums of cash!).

There are two types of teams in a Blood Bowl League. One type is an official memmber of a Division, and can participate in the various Blood Bowl Tournaments. The other type of team is put together for ‘pick up’ games to attract large crowds for fun and to gather huge sums of cash, which are used to support various personal ‘hobbies’ (but I digress...).

The point is, the twon team types co-exist and can play each other as much or as little as they like.

An Exhibiton Team is a team founded in the spirit of the Death Zone League format, the wandering ‘circus-type’ team that plays to provide entertainment and make money. A real-world comparison would be the Harlem Globetrotters, who play to entertainand don’t compete in the NBA. A player may Coach as many Exhibiton Teams as he likes. Also, a League Commissioner may Coach as many Exhibiton Teams as he likes! Exhibiton Teams conform to all the rules in Blood Bowl and Death Zone (note that their players gain experience and the Team has a Team Rating, etc.) with a few exceptions:

1. They may not sign Free Agents, who are uber-pros available only to ‘professional’ Blood Bowl Teams.
   
2. They do not have to roll for retirement of Stars with Niggling Injuries (see below)
   
3. They may not play in Tourney Games unless they make the crossover to Official Nuffle Amorical Football status ( yes, in 2498, the NAF has made a comeback!).

If a Coach wishes to transform his Exhibition Team into an Official NAF Team, he must make a roll for every player with 26 or more Star Player Points who has one or more Niggling Injuries, to see if they retire. Roll a D6; if the result is equal to or below the number of Niggling Injuries the player has, he decides to call it quits and never play Blood Bowl again!

Now, the team is an Official NAF Team, with all the glories and curses inherennt to the role. An Exhibiton Team may acquire NAF status at any time, but the timing of the switch may effect the team’s chances to qualify for the Blood Bowl Invitational Tournament.

The second type of team is the Official NAF League team. A Coach may have only on team in an NAF League,, and the League Commissioner may not have an Official NAF Team! Only an Official NAF team may play in Tournaments and win the Blood Bowl! NAF Divisions: An Official NAF team mmust be a member of an NAF division.

Each Division must be designed by the League Commissioner. A Division should consist of at least 4 and have no more than 10 teams (note that it is possible to have only on division in a NAF League, if the Commissioner so chooses.) Note that the Commissioner should put the most experienced Coaches in different divisions, so that the divisions are of roughly equal strength, and so that the participants in the Blood Bowl Invitational are determined fairly, resulting in a well-balanced Blood Bowl Tourney!

Spike Magazine, Dungeonbowl and Chaos Cup Champions are dtermined for each Division, so if a League has three Divisions it will have three Spike Champions, three Dungeonbowl Champions and thhree Chaos Cup Champions. However, note that at the end of the seasonthere can be only one Blood Bowl Champion! If the Commissioner likes, he may renamme the Spike, Dungeonbowl and Chaos Cup prizes so that the winners of each Division Tourney win ‘different’ Tournaments (it doesn’t matter what they’re called, as long as the prizes awarded for winning the Tourney remain the same).

The Blood Bowl Season is year-round, divided into three ‘open’ Tourney periods of roughly four months each. Thesse Open Tournaments are qualifiers to help determine who will participate in the Blood Bowl Invitational:

1. Spike Magazine Trophy (prizes as per Death Zone).
2. Dungeonbowl (prizes as per Death Zone).
3. Chaos Cup (prizes as per Death Zone).

The Date spread for these tournaments should be determined by the League Commissioner, at the beginning of the Season. For example, Spike Magazine tourney games may be played between September and December, with the Spike Magazine Champion(s) being determined at the end of December, etc.

If player wish, they may play Exhibiton Games at any time, against an Exhibiton Team or NAF team in any Division. These games are conducted exactly as per Blood Bowl and Death Zone rules, an will always effect the team’s Team Rating, but can never result in the collection of Tourney Points! If a Coach is challenged byu another Coach and he doesn’t wishh to play the Exhibiton Game he may opt out, with no penalty! Note that overtime is never played in Exhibition Games; if, after 2 halves, the game is tied, it’s considered a draw.

Tournament Games must be played so that the winner of each Division can be determined. If a Coach challenges another Coach in his Division to a Tourney Game, the other Coach must play.

Failure to play the game will result in the cowardly Coach losing his NAF status and any Blood Bowl Seed Points his team might have acquired, and becoming an Exhibiton Team! Note that if Tourney Games or Championship Games remain tied after two halves, the game goes into overtime, as per Death Zone. If, after two more four-turn periods, the game is still tied, it is considered a tie. Unlike the Death Zone rules, a Tourney or Championship Game winner can never be determined by a ‘shoot-out’.

Two conditons must be met to play a Tourney Game:

1. Both teams must be in the same NAF Division.
2. Both teams may play a maximum of one Tourney Game against each other for each and every Tournament.

There are two types of Points a Team can gather during the Season. Tourney Points are gathered throughout a Tournament to determine the Team’s final standing within that Tournament.

Blood Bowl Seed Points, on the other hand, are distributed after a Tournament, based upon the Team’s final placemeent in that Tournament.

At the end of the Tournament, the Commissioner will have to determine who the top teams are in each Division. This is determined by adding all the team’s Tourney Point totals (based on whether they won, lost or tied Tournament Games, as described above). Any ties in Tourney Point totals go to the teamm with the higher Team Rating. The top two teams in the Division will have a game to determine the Champion for that Division. Note that Championship games can never result in a tie, the teams will play until a winner is determined, as per sudden death overtime rules in Death Zone (4-turn periods at a time, no team re-rolls allowed). Unlike Death Zone, a Tourney or Championship Game winner can never be determined by a ‘shoot-out’.

After every Tournamet Final, all teams that didn’t win the Tournament have to roll to see if their Free Agents will stay with the team. For each Free Agent, roll 2 blocking dice. If the result is double Skulls, the Free Agent leaves the team, disgusted that they didn’t win the Tourney! The team, of course, may re-acquire the same Free Agent in the next Free Agent Auction, but will have to bid against all other eligible teamms. The team will, in no way, be compensated for the loss of money as a result of this disertion. Note that the team who won the Tournament for its Division doesn’t have to roll to see if it keeps its Free Agents, the Stars are happy to play with a winner and will stay on (the exception of this is the Blood Bowl winner, who loses all his Free Agents, as does everybody else!). (Note that any Star Players who return to the Star Player deck will lose any injuries or stat decreases they might have previously acquired, as they use their fame and fortune to become well and whole again!).

All Teams (including the tournament winner) have to roll to see if any niggled Stars will retire (Blood Bowl is, after all, a brutal sport!). For every player with 26 or or more Star Player Points ("homegrown" star players) who have one ore more Niggling Injuries, each Coach must roll a blocking dice. If the roll is a Skull, it means the player is thinking of retiring. Roll a D6. If the result is less than or equal to the number of Niggling Injuries the player has, he has had it and calls it quits (the player may be kept on as an Assistant Coach, if the Coach wishes). The teamm will, in no way, be compensated for the loss of money as a result of the retirement.

After the Chaos Cup, the total Blood Bowl Seed Points (BBSP’s) for the year are added up for all Teams in all Sivision. The number of teams invited to the Blood Bowl Invitaional depends on the overall size of the NAF League.

If there were 4-12 teams in the League, the top 4 seeded teams in the League are invited. (In the case of ties in BBSP’s, Team Rating is used to determine which team gets the higher ‘seed’ ranking).

If there were 13+ teams in the League, the top 8 seeded teams in the League are invited. (In the case of ties in BBSP’s, Team Rating is used to determine which team gets the higher ‘seed’ ranking).

The Blood Bowl Invitational is a more intense tourney than the others, and should take place in the space of about 2 weeks. The Blood Bowl Invitational follows a stricter format than the other tournaments (see table).

At the end of the Season, all Free Agents’ contracts are up and they are thrown back into the Free Agent deck, perhapd to be auctioned off at the start of the next Season (note that at the beginning of the next Season, any Free Agents will lose any injuries or stat decreases they acquired, as they use their fame and fortune to become well and whole again!).

Additionally, at the end of the season all teams lose half of their Team Rerolls (round all fractions up). This represents the fact that teams will get a little rusty in the off season, reflects the loss of players (if any) and won’t be as motivated to win at the beginning of the next season as they were to win near the end of the previous one!

As in the first three Tournaments, teams that played in Blood Bowl must determine if any niggled players decide to retire. For each player with 26 or more SPP’s (homegrown Star Players) who have one or more Niggling Injuries, the participating Coaches must roll a blocking dice. If the roll is a Skull, it means the player is thinking of retiring. Roll a D6. If the result is less than or equal to the number of Niggling Injuries the player has, he has had it and calls it quits (the player may be kept as an Assistant Coach, if the Coach wishes). The team will, in no way, be compensated for the loss of money as a result of the retirement.

For the Blood Bowl Champion, the chance that niggled players will retire is greater than for the other teams (injured players prefer to retire on a high note!). For each player with 26 or more SPP’s who have one or more Niggling Injuries, the Blood Bowl Champion Coach must roll a D6. On the roll of 1-3, the player is thinking of retiring. Roll another D6; if the result is less than or equal to the number of Niggling Injuries the player has, he has had it and calls it quits, never to play Blood Bowl again but forever savouring the sweet taste of bone-crushing victory! (the player may be kept as an Assistant Coach, if the Coach wishes).