THE REF IS NEVER WRONG League Commisioners, have you ever felt left out while your friends are playing Blood Bowl and you have to sit around and watch them play> Are you fed up with answering their rules questions? Is the only fun you get is writing the league magazine? Well if the answer is yes to any of these then here is your answer, REFEREES!!!! Yes, the friendly ref. Humble in appearance but with power far beyond a mere mortal. The power to change the match or to be smashed into a pulp. Whatever, referees are going to make your (The League Commish) lives more fun and exciting. Aren't we good to you!! Referees have been around since the Blood Bowl game first began and they have had to change every time Blood Bowl has changed. But two things have remained the same throughout. Referees still either get their heads smashed in by players or the refs smash the players heads in. After all Blood Bowl was built on good old fashioned violence. During the last few years a strange development has been taking place amongst referees. Some refs are becoming rather popular. Thes so called Star-Refs travel the Old World, turning up for Blood Bowl matches and are more often than not picked for the match by the tournament organisers because the bring in the crowds for some reason or another. Some Star Refs are so inexplicably bad at refereeing that players can get away with almost any unspeakable acts of..., well they are unspeakable. Others are just dead 'ard and the crowd just love to watch referees giving as good as they get back to the players. CHOOSING A REFEREE Because it is the League Commisioners job to play as the referee, you get the job as choosing them too. If you created a referee of your own using the following rules then you could have him refereeing your match or you can chooseone of the 8 Star Ref which are included at the end of this article. The players can't argue with you, they agreed to you being the League Commisioner so its tough. But please do not let all this power go to your head. Try and choose a referee for the match that will make the game more fun and challenging. IE: don't take the minotaur to every match. CREATING YOUR OWN REFEREE Firstly choose which race you want your referee to be. The referee has the same profile as the basic Lineman type of their race and follows any special rules ans skills for that race or position. Referees begin with no skills and experience but gain these as they progress in the refereeing trade in the same manner as players do. REFEREES ON THE PITCH You might use a suitable referee miniature which should be painted in black and white stripes. There are a few of the referee miniatures from the Blood Bowl 2nd edition available from mail order. The referee's aim in life is to remain within 9 squares of the football every turn so that he can keep up with the action an make decisions as and when they are required. The referee's turn takes place after both other players turns. IE: after the second players turn 1 but before the first players turn 2. The referee's turn slats in here every turn of the game until the end of the match or until the ref is injured. If there is a Get The Ref result on the kick-off table then the ref has been injured and may not referee this match. A replacement ref is found at the last minute who must be a normal ref and as such you should play a normal match. After both teams have set up, but before the kick off the League Commish may place the ref in any empty square on the pitch. When you place the ref remember there is a point to staying 9 squares from the football, but you may choose not to if you wish. The League Commish takes the referee's turn and he has the choice of one of the following actions: Move his MA (a ref may not "Go For It" or Blitz) Make a Block against an adjacent player. Make a Foul against an adjacent player.(if he rolls a double, the crowd throws rotton eggs at him and he must leave the field as if he has been sent off) Stay still and watch the field like a Hawk*. *A ref who stays still and watches the field like a Hawk will spot any foul made on the pitch and will send off the fouling player on a D6 roll of 4 or more. If the player making the foul rolls a double then he is sent off anyway. Referees do not exert a tackle zone so players do not need to make a dodge roll when standing adjacent to the referee. Referees may ignore tackle zones when moving because nobody will trip up the ref by accident. Referees may never touch the football and if the ball should land in a square occupied by a referee then it will scatter on square away from him. You see, referees always get in the way in every sport. After the referee has had his turn, count the number of squares that the ref is away from the football. If the referee is within 9 squares or less then the ref is doing a good job of keeping up with the action and making sure the game is flowing. Note down how many turns the referee is within 9 squares of the ball at the end of his turn on a piece of paper. This will be required at the end of the game when star player points are awarded. A Star Ref is as good as they are going to get and will not recieve any star player points but should still attempt to remain within 9 squares of the ball to keep up with the action, at least if he wants to keep his job. Players may block or blitz the referee during their turn and risk the wrath of the ref. If a referee is blocked but does not get injured (ie: off the pitch) then as soon as he is standing on his feet again he will try to send the perpetrator who blocked or fouled him. The player is sent off on a D6 roll of 4 or more. Other players who assist the block/foul will not get sent off. When a referee is stunned then place him face down as normal. A referee that is prone may not send any players off, so all the players can cheat and foul as much as they like while the ref is down. You can still only make one foul each turn it's just that on the roll of a double a player will not be sent off. If a referee is injured or removed from the pitch then a normal ref will come on in his place. Carry on the game as per the rules for a normal match. A referee who is knocked out during the first half will not return to the game until the start of the second half and a referee knocked out during the second half will not recover until after the game is finished. A ref who is badly hurt, injured or dead is out of the game as normal. If a Star Ref dies then they cannot be chosen to ref another match again, unless the Undead get a hold of him anyway! REFEREE EXPERIENCE At the end of the match count how many turns the ref has stayed within 9 squares of the ball. If the ref has only managed to be within 9 squares for 4 turns or less (or 25% of the game in the special case of a Riot) then he is sacked and may never referee in this league again. This means the League Commish may not choose this referee ever again. (Note: players, you can try and keep the ref away from the ball in an attempt to get him sacked. If the Ref has been within 9 squares for 12 turns out of the 16 (or 75%) then the referee recieves a Refereeing Award which is worth 10 star player points. The referee gains 5 star player points for each player he sends off during the game. The ref will also gain star player points for casualties that he has caused as stated in the Deathzone rulebook. When a referee has enough star player points he may make a roll on the Star Player Roll table in exactly the same way as a player. Characteristic increases are added to the refs statline as normal. If the ref is going to gain a new skill then you may choose a skill from the list below. The racial restrictions are noted down with the skills and the rules for rolling doubles and choosing skills not usually available to them apply. Note that the skills on the list are the only ones of any use to a referee so any other skills may not be chosen for a referee. REFEREE SKILLS (All Referee Races) SKILL DESCRIPTION BLITZ The referee may blitz the closest player each turn (Randomly decide if two are equi-distant). MOLE EYES Ref must stay within 7 squares instead of 9 EAGLE EYES Ref may be within 11 squares instead of 9 STRICT REF You may not argue a call with the ref SUPER PRO Gains a referee re-roll once per half ESCAPIST May evade a GET THE REF roll on a D6 roll of 4+ PERSONAL APOTHECARY Works in the same way as any apothecary but for the ref only. FAST RUNNER May go for it as described in the Blood Bowl handbook TERRIBLE REF Will only send a player off on a D6 roll of a 4+ The assistant ref will send off any players that block ASSISTANT REF or foul the ref (or any other players for that matter) while he is prone or injured BIAS REF This ref will side with the team that is winning at the time. The team which is losing cannot argue the call LOVES DIRTY TRICKS Add +1 to all penalty rolls when this ref is on the pitch HATES DIRTY TRICKS Subtract -1 to all penalty rolls when this ref is on the pitch When a player makes an assist roll a D6. If this is HATES GANG UPS equal or less than the number of models making assists on this block then a randomly chosen player making the assist is sent off. Whenever this referee sends a player off he quotes a LAW-QUOTER load of rules to them and misses a bit of the game action. During the next turn nobody will be sent off even if the ref has an assistant ref OTHER REFEREE SKILLS (Specific Races) CATEGORY SKILLS WHO CAN TAKE GENERAL Block, Dauntless, Dirty Player, Frenzy All except Halflings and Goblins STRENGTH Mighty Blow, Multiple Block, Piling On, Dwarf and Chaos Dwarf Stand Firm only Leap, Jump Up, Side Step, Sprint*, Sure AGILITY Feet* Halflings, Goblins, and * player may only take this skill if they Elves only also have the fast runner skill Claw, Foul Appearence, Razor Sharp Claws, Regenerate, Spikes, Thick Skull, Horns* *player may only take this skill if they also have the Blitz skill PHYSICAL Very Long Legs= only +1 to move Skaven, Undead and Chaos only Two heads= Ignore the regular rules for two heads, the ref is to be considered to be watching the field like a hawk all the time. SPECIAL: Whistle - (Penalty 10+) During his turn a ref witha whistle may stand still and blow his whistle. The ref may make no other actions this turn as he blows with all his might. The closest player will be deafened by the noise and cannot move and block next turn. A ref with a whistle must make a penalty roll to avoid losing his pea and running off to find another one. SPECIAL: Chainsaw - (Penalty 8+) A ref with a chainsaw must make a penalty roll as normal although this does not mean they are sent off. Instead the chainsaw has been glogged up with players limbs and the ref has gone to clean them off his chainsaw. THE STAR REFS NAME RACE MASTAG AV SKILLS Grandshank Masherhoof Minotaur6 6 2 9 Blitz, Horns, Thick Skull, Mighty Blow Blinky the Shortsighted Halfling5 2 3 6 Terrible Ref, Mole Eyes, Personal Apothecary Erik Van Der Gann Human 5 3 3 8 Hates Gang Ups, Eagle Eyes, Super Pro Lowdown Scurflick Goblin 6 2 3 7 Terrible Ref, Bias Ref, Loves Dirty Tricks Gunnar Wistleblower Dwarf 4 3 2 9 Block, Thick Skill, Whistle Two Heads Vermin Skaven 7 3 3 7 Fast Runner, Two Heads, Escapist Max 'Kneecap' Mittlemann Human 6 3 3 8 Blitz, Frenzy, Chainsaw Citelieth Lawquoter High Elf6 3 4 8 Strict Ref, Eagle Eyes, Lawquoter