2025 Base Rules

This page documents any ambiguities and decisions made by Jervis when implementing the base rules for the 2025 ruleset.

Page 23 - The Blood Bowl Pitch

The definition of Wide Zone is unclear (bullet 2). The rules describe it with "from End Zone to End Zone", but does not clarify if that includes or excludes the End Zone.

Jervis uses the interpretation that it does include the End Zone as the Sidelines (bullet 3) include the same wording, and those clearly run the entire length of the pitch.

Page 38 - Player Status!

The rulebook doesn't explicitly state that the statuses: Standing, Distracted, Prone, Stunned, Tackle Zones, Marked, Being Marked and Open Players are only present when a player is on the pitch, but it is pretty clear from the context that this is assumed.

If not, it leads to weird consequences, like being able to move a player unto the pitch when rolling High Kick.

So when interpreting the rules, Jervis will always assume that these statuses also imply that the player is on the pitch.

Page 48 - High Kick

No available players

It is unspecified what happens if you roll High Kick and no Open players are available.

In this case, Jervis just ignores the High Kick result and continues with the kick-off sequence.

Move into opponent's half

The following scenario is not covered by the rules and thus seems legal:

Following the strict ordering of the rules, the Kick-Off Event is resolved before "What Goes Up...". This means that the touchback rule cannot yet be applied when High Kick is resolved.

No-where is it stated that the High Kick player cannot enter the opponent's side. This means if the ball deviates into the opponents half, it is allowed to move a player into the opponent's side before resolving the ball coming down.

When the ball comes down, it would result in a touchback, and the ball could then be given to the player that moved into the opponent's half.

Page 50 - End Turn and Forgo Activation

The wording around turns is a bit unclear about whether you must activate all players (or forgo their activation), but the wording "until they have all activated or a Turnover is caused" indicates this.

For this reason, Jervis does allow you to end a turn before manually activating all players. But in that case, Jervis will automatically Forgo Activation for all remaining players as this might trigger Stalling.

Page 52 - Forego Activation

This section is written in a way that indicates that forgoing activating doesn't clear Distracted. This is based on this wording "...and so will not be subjected to any rules that take place at the start or during their activation".

This means that if a player is Distracted and chooses to forgo their activation, the Distracted status will not be cleared.

Page 54 - Move Action

There are a number of skills that can interact with a Move Action, but the order in which skills are checked and used is not defined in the rulebook.

For now, Jervis is using the following order as that seems the most reasonable (for a suitable definition of "reasonable"):

1. Declare intent to move player.
2. Tentacles: If they succeed, the Move Action stops before the player is moved.
3. Move the player into the target square.
4. Fumblerooski
5. Rush if needed a. Sprint b. Sure Feet
6. Dodge if needed a. Stunty / Titchy b. Two Heads c. Break Tackle d. Prehensile Tail e. Diving Tackle
7. Shadowing

Page 54 - Standing Up

The rules for standing up state that: "If a player with a Move Allowance Characteristic of 2 or less (regardless of any modifiers) wishes to stand up..."

But it is unclear what modifiers actually apply? Is e.g., a Dodgy Snack a modifier?

For now, when checking if MA < 3, Jervis will only take into account base MA plus any adjustments with aduration of PERMANENT (e.g. stat increases).

This means that a Mummie (MA 3) with Dodgy Snack, does not roll to stand up.

Page 56 - Jumping over Players

Since players leave their square in a slightly unconventional way, the order of checks needs to be defined. This isn't 100% clear from the rulebook, but the following order seems correct:

1. Tentacles
2. Rush(es)
3. Jump/Leap/Pogo
4. Diving Tackle

This order is not strictly defined in the rules, and there could be an argument for needing to roll to Rush before Tentacles as you do not strictly move until the rushes succeeded. However, Tentacles uses the wording "attempt" which could be read as declaring the intent to Jump.

This is also the order used by FUMBBL, so Jervis has adopted this order as well.

Page 58 - Rushing

The wording in the rulebook does not strictly specify that you can only Rush after using all normal Movement, which means that you can argue that a player can roll for Rush at the beginning of the turn, which could be an advantage in terms of positioning if the roll fails.

The opposite argument is that the rulebook uses the wording "..attempt to push themselves and move a little bit further than they normally could..."; this phrasing indicates that the roll happens after using normal movement.

The one example in the rulebook also demonstrates it happening after using the normal movement.

Since the BB2020 rulebook was also clear about this happening after using normal movement, Jervis will adopt the same interpretation for BB2025.

Page 59 - Secure the Ball

It is unclear if modifiers like "Pouring Rain" apply to securing the ball.

Arguments for: * Secure the Ball counts as "Picking up the ball" as described on page 57. This is true as the rule references pickup through "must attempt to pickup the ball" and "A player attempting to pick up the ball". * This means that things like Pouring Rain and Marks are taken into account. So even though it isn't an agility test, it is the same as rolling for someone with AG 2+.

Arguments against: * The wording "they will automatically pick up the ball", indicates that this is not a "pickup"-roll, but a "secure-the-ball"-roll with the successful pickup being a side effect. * This implies that modifiers applying to Pickup do not also apply to Secure the Ball. Since no modifiers explicitly mention Secure the Ball, it is always a unmodified 2+ roll

Both NAF and FUMBBL are using the first interpretation, so Jervis has adopted the same.

Page 62 - Both Down

If both players are Knocked Down, the rules do not specify the sequence of events. E.g., do we first roll for Steady Footing for each player and then roll Armour/Injury for each, or do we fully resolve each Knocked Down event in full?

There is a slight chance that choosing to use certain skills or the apothecary on the injury depends on knowing this, but the likelihood seems very low.

For that reason, and since it is easier to implement, Jervis will fully resolve each Knocked Down event in full. First the Defender, then the Attacker.

Page 62/63 - Pushed Players and Chain Pushes

Pushbacks and the timing of other events are not well-defined in the rulebook. This impacts a number of things, like trapdoors, bouncing balls, throw-ins and scoring. It gets further complicated when you consider Ball Clone (which is not yet available in BB2025, but it might be in the future) or environmental hazards like those found in Dungeon Bowl.

The only rules we have from the rulebook that can act as guidelines are these:

• Follow-up: Choose Follow-up before rolling any dice.
• Pushed Players: If pushed into the ball, it will bounce.
• Pushed into the Crowd: Roll for Injury, then Throw-in the ball.
• Trapdoor: When entering a square for any reason, remove from play similar to being pushed into the crowd. The ball will be dropped on the ground and bounce.
• POW: After the Push Back result has been applied, the target player is immediately Knocked Down.

This section will attempt to surface some of these gray areas and the rationale Jervis has taken to resolve them.

Leaving the Square

The rulebook does not specify exactly when a player leaves their square and enters the next one during a chain push.

This is a problem for e.g. Trapdoors, since Trapdoors mention "player enters the square".

This leaves a number of interpretations:

1. A player leaves their square as soon as they are pushed and enters the next one immediately. This will trigger events like Trapdoor, but will also contradict the rule that you cannot roll dice before choosing to follow up.

2. A player does not leave their starting square until the full push chain is determined but only registers the intent to move. They occupy their starting square until the end of the push chain.

3. A player declares their intent to push into another square, is considered as having left their starting square but not yet "Entered" the target square. I.e. they are in some kind of intermediate "Pushed" state.

We can probably rule out option 1 immediately, which leaves options 2 and 3.

The choice has implications on circular chain pushes, because with 22 players, chain pushes can circle back and affect the attackers starting square again. With 28 players (less in Dungeon Bowl), a chain push can result in a chain push on another square that was already part of the push chain, causing an infinite circle.

If we treat the pushing player as not having left their square yet, then we end up in a situation where a chain-push can push the original attacker away from the person they are pushing themselves, which seems paradoxical.

So for that reason, Jervis will choose option 3 as the interpretation. It is also easier to implement.

Note; this choice does not fix the problem that a chain-push can affect a square that was already chain-pushed. In this case, there are two interpretations for player A (pusher) and player B (pushee):

1. Resolve the push chain from the front, meaning the player A moved into B's position and when the chain pushes reaches the square again, A is now pushed in a new direction, potentially no longer adjacent to B.

2. Resolve the push chain from the back, meaning that player A might be pushed away from player B, and once we get to A, they will push some new player X rather than B.

As we can see, using interpretation 2, raises some really weird questions as you need to figure out if Player A was pushed away before resolving their block. The implications for what happens then become really messy, as their push is suddenly happening in a different location from them (if it stays the same). And if it follows their new location, an entire new push chain might be triggered.

For those reasons, Jervis is choosing to move players in a push chain from the front. This also seems more "logical".

After players have moved, Jervis will then resolve Trapdoors as the players fully entered their target square.

Note, the rules also make a distinction between "Pushed Back" and "Knocked Down", these are two different things. A logical consequence of this is that if a player leaves the pitch during "Pushed Back" (like when falling through a Trapdoor), they are not around to suffer the consequences of being Knocked Down afterward. Similar to what happens when being pushed into the Crowd. This is a different interpretation than the one used in FUMBBL.

Follow-up

Given the above interpretations, we can end up in a situation, after all pushes, where the attacker is now more than 1 square away from the defender, making a follow-up impossible.

The rulebook does not mention this situation, it just says that the attacker gets a free move into the square vacated by the defender (see page 63).

However, since this might be occupied by another player, that was chain-pushed into it. Jervis will disallow follow-ups in this case. This is also consistent with the behavior in BB2020.

Ball bouncing and Throw-in

After moving players in the push chain and the attacker follows up, balls are now ready to resolve their final location. There are four kinds of situations involving balls:

1. A player holding the ball is knocked down.
2. A player holding the ball was pushed into a trapdoor and was swallowed.
3. A player holding the ball was pushed into a crowd.
4. A player is pushed into a ball on the ground.

The order of resolving this is not defined in the rulebook and only matters if there are multiple balls in play. But an order still needs to be defined.

The solution that would makes "most sense" would be to just resolve events in order of the push chain, but it is a somewhat arbitrary choice. Another solution could have been by "event type", for which an order would when need to be created.

This means:

1. Jervis resolves squares in the push chain, one at a time, starting from the defender position. For each square in the chain we resolve evens in this order: Bounce, Trapdoor, Crowd Injury, Throw-in, Check for Touchdown.

2. Then resolve the attacker location, as their "follow-up" was the last move.

Note that Strip Ball is a special case. It will bounce right after following up, but before we start resolving the push chains and before the defender is placed prone. This means that it is technically possible for the defender to catch it again, and then be knocked down, for it to bounce again. In the UI, we can streamline this by only showing Strip Ball as an option for Pushbacks and not for POW's.

Touchdowns

When resolving the push chain, there are multiple places where a touchdown can be detected, and the rulebook does not specify if any situation takes precedence over another. This is probably because it only really matters when Ball Clone is in play. But some of the questions that arise:

1. During a Push sequence, do we trigger a touchdown as soon as it is detected? E.g. bounces happen before we check for throw-in. So two players (bounce and throw-in) might be able to catch a ball. Does the playing catching the bounce then immediately score a touchdown?

2. Do we delay checking for Touchdowns until all balls are "at rest", and if yes, which order do we then check them in?

3. When checking the push-chain, do we go from the front or the back of the chain?

4. If the attacker is trapped by a trapdoor, but managed to push another team player into a scoring position. Is the touchdown scored or is it a Turnover?

For now, Jervis uses the same logic as for how chain-pushes are resolved, i.e., we check for Touchdowns in the order the push chain is resolved. The player that first gets hold of the ball successfully will score a touchdown (and all other touchdowns are ignored). In the case the attacker caused a turn-over, this will be overridden if a touchdown is scored by another player.

These choices are somewhat arbitrary, but seem to make thematically "sense".

This means the following:

1. We resolve all ball-events at each step in the push chain, starting from the defender's position and ending with the attacker's.

2. The player during this that catches the ball in a scoring position will score a touchdown. Even though we still resolve the rest of the chain, which might also include a normal turnover being triggered.

Implementation

As has been demonstrated above, the exact interpretation of timings can affect quite a lot of things, and none of them are clearly defined.

So for completeness, this is the order implemented in Jervis for single blocks (Multiple Block does this slightly differently, see its section for more details):

1. Roll block dice and determine the result.

2. Determine the push chain, including all relevant skills at each step, like Sidestep, Stand Firm or Grab. For chain-pushes, players are considered as having left their square, but does not yet count as having fully entered the target square. No dice are rolled yet.

3. Once the push chain is determined, moves are resolved from the front, starting with the defender. This might result in some players being moved twice, including the attacker which can end up no longer adjacent to the defender. No dice is rolled yet.

4. Choose to follow up or not. If yes, the attacker is moved.

5. Strip Ball trigger (if applicable). That ball will bounce now, while the defender is still Standing.

6. Resolve all events in the push chain (we treat them as part of "applying the Push Back"), starting from the Defender's position and ending with the Attacker's. For each square we check the following: a. If there is a ball on the ground, it will bounce. b. If there is a Trapdoor, roll for it. If failed, the player will drop their ball (if any), be removed from play, roll injury. The ball will bounce. If a player leaves the pitch this way, they will not suffer the consequences of being Knocked Down. c. If pushed into the crowd, roll for Injury and then Throw-in the ball. d. if the player is holding a ball, check for touchdown. If yes, we will resolve the rest of the chain, but this player is considered the scoring player. Further turnovers will be ignored.

7. Knock defender down (if applicable). Roll for Armour and Injury. If they had the ball, it will now bounce.

8. Knock attacker down (if applicable). Roll fo Armour and Injury. If they had the ball, it will now bounce.

9. If the Attacker has the ball, check if a touchdown is scored.

Page 64 - Blitz Action

Technically, selecting the target of the Blitz is part of declaring the action. This has an impact when paired with nega-traits as the correct ordering would be:

1. Activate Player
2. Declare Blitz
3. Select Target
4. Roll for Negatraits, like Bone Head

However, this sequence complicates an otherwise nice split between Activating Players and Performing the action. So since it has no practical impact, Jervis has changed the order to be:

1. Activate Player
2. Declare Blitz
3. Roll for Negatraits, like Bone Head
4. Resolve Blitz, including selecting the target as the first step.

Page 69 - Foul Action and Lone Fouler

It is ambiguous what happens if you reroll a natural double in a Foul Action with Lone Fouler.

Does the fouler still get sent off or not?

The Re-rolls section on page 33 is no help here either as it doesn't mention what happens to the original role.

Arguments for: * Being Sent-off uses the wording "...if during a Foul Action a natural double is rolled..", with no indication that rerolling removes consequences of the first roll. * The wording is "rolled" not "outcome of the roll" (or similar).

Arguments against: * In all other cases, e.g., Rush, you do not fall over if you re-roll a 1. * The word "re-reroll" implies that the first roll is not counted.

Jervis has adopted the 2nd interpretation, as that is most in line with what people would assume a re-roll does (entirely replacing the first roll). This would also explain why it isn't described better in the rulebook. NAF has a similar interpretation,

Page 71 - Test for Accuracy

Rules as written make PA 1+ identical to PA 2+, which is probably not intended.

Both NAF and FUMBBL have adopted the interpretation instead:

If the Passing Ability Test is a 1 or lower after modifiers, or a natural 1, the Pass is Fumbled. PA1+ players pass the test on a modified 1.

So Jervis has done the same.

Page 71 - Fumbled Pass

The BB2025 rulebook does not specify what happens if you try to pass with a PA stat of "-". In BB2020, this was defined as you would always fumble the ball

Since BB2025 lacks any guidance on this, Jervis uses the BB2020 rule.

Page 78 - Landing

Picking up the Ball

In BB2020, a player landing successfully on the ball was allowed to pick it up.

This wording has been removed from the rulebook in BB2025, and Pickup (page 57) specifies that a player moving outside their activation cannot pick up the ball.

Throwing a Stunned Player

Stunned players can be thrown but will automatically fail their Agility Test and Fall Over.

However, it is unclear what happens if the Armour Roll doesn't break Armour. Does the player stay Stunned or reverts to a Prone state?

Falls Over (page 40) says: "...When a player Falls Over, place a Prone Token next them and then make an Armour Roll..."". A RAW interpretation could indicate that the player then becomes Prone.

Stunned (page 39) says: "At the end of of each team's turn, any players on their team that started that turn Stunned will automatically roll over...". This could indicate that it isn't possible to remove a Stunned effect during the turn, although it isn't spelled out.

As it is both unintuitive, unclear and mechanically clunky to allow a Stunned player to become Prone this way, Jervis has adopted the interpretation that if a Stunned Player is either Knocked Down or Falls Over during a turn, and Armour isn't broken, they remain Stunned rather than reverting to Prone.

Page 97 - New Skills

When gaining new skills through advancements, it is illegal to get the same skill twice.

However, it isn't specified if this can happen in other cases.

In BB2020, there were a few cases where this could happen using Special Play Cards, but the interaction wasn't specified and mostly involved skills with modifiers like "Loner (4+)" or "Mighty Blow(+2)". In those cases, it was assumed that for negative effects, the lower number was chosen (e.g., Loner (3+) over Loner (4+)) and for positive effects, the higher number was chosen (e.g., Mighty Blow(+2) over Mighty Blow(+1)). However, you were not allowed to use the skill twice.

Right now, this is a hypothetical scenario in BB2025, as Special Play Cards are not available, and Prayers to Nuffle has wording that prevents this scenario.

So for now, Jervis will throw an error if Players end up having the same skill twice.

Page 144 - Team Mascot

Loner

Loner uses the wording "Whenever this player wishes to use a Team Re-roll...". Mascot uses the wording "...whenever the team wishes to use this Team re-roll ".

Which makes it unclear which order you check, and how they impact each other.

For now, Jervis uses the (somewhat arbitrary) order:

1. First we check for Loner. If failed, the Mascot re-roll is marked as used, without rolling for it as we treat the roll as par of the reroll.
2. If Loner is passed, we then roll for Mascot.

Reroll Mascot Roll

Technically, it would be allowed to use a Team Reroll to re-roll the Mascot Roll, but since the rules specify that failing the mascot role will allow you to do that anyway. There doesn't seem to be any use case for this, except complicating the re-roll logic.

For this reason, Jervis does not allow using team rerolls on the Mascot Roll, but any applicable skill (not Pro) can be used.

Team Captain

It is slightly unclear how the Team Mascot reroll should be treated in combination with Team Captain.

Jervis treats the "4+ to work" as part of the re-roll, so if Team Captain keeps the Mascot reroll. The Coach must still roll the next time it is used.

This is consistent with the NAF interpretation.

Page 155 - Team Captain

A few edge cases are unclear about how to handle Team Captain.

Loner

Loner describes "...the Team Re-roll is lost just as if have been used". Jervis interprets this as meaning that Team Captain can roll to prevent rerolls lost this way.

Pro

The Pro skill only works on rolls that are taken on behalf of the Player. Team Captain rolling is not considered such a roll, as it is taken for the reroll itself.

For this reason, Pro cannot be used to reroll Team Captain rolls.

Promotion

It is unclear what happens if a player with Pro already gets promoted to Team Captain.

1. Do they gain Pro twice?
2. If Pro was gained through an advancement roll, is the price reduced?
3. Do they just get the "Team Captain", designation, but otherwise keep their normal Pro?

Of these, the only thing Jervis prevents is someone having Pro twice. Otherwise, none of the questions are answered in the rulebook, but since all of them are related to "team building", and cannot happen in-game, Jervis does not have an opinion. This means that Jervis will leave it up to the Team Roster provider to handle this.

This also means that Jervis supports a Team Captain not having Pro at all.