[4] Blood Bowl is a two-player, turn-based board game that typically uses 28 mm miniatures to represent a contest between two teams on a playing field.

Elves tend to be agile and good at scoring, while dwarfs and orcs are more suited to a grinding, physical style of play.

Disparity between team values is offset by the purchase of ad-hoc star players or mercenaries, as well as bribes and additional temporary support staff, such as wizards or a halfling cook.

Teams, and in a few cases players, have a limited stock of "re-rolls" which can be used to re-take failed rolls (not more than once per turn in the original rule-set of the game).

It sustains tension throughout the turn, rewards effective planning by coaches who seek to prioritise actions which are the most vital to improving their position, and can result in dramatic moments from unexpected outcomes.

For instance the Lizardmen team has a mixture of fast-moving Skinks and slow, heavy Sauruses, the challenge for the player being to make good use of these two complementary player types; the Halfling team is mainly composed of Halflings, who on the face of things are entirely incompetent thanks to being weak, slow, and unskilled, but can nonetheless be played effectively The different races progress at different rates, with some having peaks at certain experience levels.

The most recent, official edition of the game, published in November 2020 has rules for playing the following teams: Official Rule Book[5] Teams of Legend, supplemental PDF[6] The Blood Bowl universe has its own fictional background story which establishes the tone and spirit of the game.

Additional background exists to describe the demeanour and character of the Blood Bowl players with frequent reference to rule breaking and excessive violence in a lighthearted manner.

The over-the-top nature of the game is reflected through the game's mechanics, including the use of stylised secret weapons ranging from chainsaws to spiked steamrollers, the ability for large teammates to throw small teammates down field (even while they possess the ball), as well as in-game effects like fans throwing rocks and injuring players prior to kickoff.

Blood Bowl includes numerous tongue in cheek references to real life products and companies.

The game spoofs at least four real-world trademarks, including McDonald's (McMurty's), Budweiser (Bloodweiser), Adidas (Orcidas), and Gatorade (Kroxorade).

Blood Bowl has evolved through a series of rules revisions, boxed set releases, and electronic media.

The pitch of this edition consists of six interlocking cardboard sections (end zones and centre, split in halves) with squares marked by white lines.

In 1982, TSR published a game called Monsters of the Midway which was very similar in concept to Blood Bowl but significantly different in-game play.

The pitch of this edition consists of three thick, gray polystyrene boards (end zones and centre), with squares marked by grooves.

Games Workshop later provided a boxed supplement, Dungeonbowl, dealing with subterranean play and dwarvish and elvish teams, and, later, two source books, Blood Bowl Star Players (1989) and the Blood Bowl Companion (1990), which added to the basic rules, creating games with greater variation which could easily last several hours.

In 1991, Games Workshop released Kerrunch, a light version of Blood Bowl, developed by Andy Jones.

It was released along with Mighty Warriors, Ultra Marine and Space Fleet, and was predominantly aimed at the younger gamer as an introduction to the Games Workshop hobby.

The third edition also featured a completely new range of miniatures, including new versions of plastic 28 mm humans and orcs in the boxed set.

[10] The pitch of this edition consists of a cardboard foldable board, with squares marked by black crosses at the corners.

[16] At Warhammer Fest in May 2016, various elements of the new edition were announced, including a double sided pitch, all new plastic miniatures and an initial wave of teams (Humans, Orcs, Skaven, Elves, Nurgle and Dwarf) with future expansions in development to add more teams to the game (including a new release of Goblins).

The Blood Bowl was held at Warhammer World from 2003 until 2010 at Games Workshop's HQ in Nottingham, England in the spring and attracted around 200 players to play in the two-day event.

The first World Cup was held in October 2007 in Nottingham, England over three days, with teams coming from as far afield as the United States and Australia.

[27] In 1995, an MS-DOS version of Blood Bowl was developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and released by MicroLeague, featuring the base teams as well as many of the free agents.

[28] In 2004, French-based Cyanide Studio developed a game called Chaos League (and, later, a subsequent expansion Chaos League: Sudden Death) which bore a heavy resemblance to Blood Bowl in its style and rules, even though it was a real-time game (rather than turn-based, like Blood Bowl).

The playable races in the original video game version of Blood Bowl included Dwarfs, Wood Elves, Humans, Goblins, Orcs, Chaos, Skaven, and Lizardmen.

Studios published Blood Bowl: Killer Contract a 5 issue mini-series written by Matt Forbeck and drawn by Lads Helloven.

[45] Richard Meadows reviewed Blood Bowl for White Dwarf #85, and stated that "The combination of [its] presentation, and the chaos death mayhem that occurs on the pitch, makes this game very, very entertaining, and a must for all fans of American football, good old fashioned death and violence, or just having a good time.