TRUBBL

These are the rules of TRUBBL for Season VII. Anything not covered here is covered by §2.1, and anything §2.1 does not cover, ask the Lord Commissioner.

1 About TRUBBL

1.1 Who we Are #

The Reading Undependent Blood Bowl League (TRUBBL) is a league-style competition for Games Workshop's Blood Bowl: Third Season (a.k.a. BB2025) based in Reading, Berkshire. We are an independent league, meaning we are not associated with any shops, venues or organisations – just some folks who love the game and wanted to play a little closer to home.

TRUBBL is run by Lord Commissioner Torquemada (Karl Sainz). All league management is done via TourPlay, and using it is a requirement to take part. The app is completely free to use for coaches and makes it a breeze to keep track of what happens during and in between games (plus, it makes the Lord Commissioner's life much easier!). Though TourPlay does charge the league admin a small amount, there is no fee for playing in TRUBBL. Donations for end-of-season awards or TourPlay costs are gratefully accepted, but in no way required or expected.

1.2 Contact #

Our main point of contact is our official Discord community. If you're interested in the league, or just want to chat Blood Bowl with us, feel free to join in! To contact the Lord Commissioner directly, email torquemadabb@pm.me.

The channels you will actually use:

• #league-announcements – season start, rules changes, and anything else official.
• #season-7-dates – each round's window is posted here as it opens, with its closing date, and again a few days before it closes naming anyone whose game is still outstanding.
• #games-setup-premier, #games-setup-second, #games-setup-third – arrange your fixtures in your own division's channel. #setup-games-interdivisional is for friendlies (see §3.3.2).
• #league-result-input – a live feed of what is being entered on TourPlay while games are in progress.

Everyone playing this season carries the S7 Coach role, plus a role for their division – Premier Division, Second Division or Third Division. That is so the Lord Commissioner can tag the people a message actually concerns, rather than pinging the whole server.

If you want to meet us in person, check Discord to see when games have been scheduled, and come say hi! You can usually find some of us at the Reading Biscuit Factory on weekday evenings or the odd Saturday morning.

1.3 Venues #

We are not tied to any shop or venue – you can play wherever you and your opponent choose. However, we usually play in one of these two places:

• Reading Biscuit Factory, 1 Queens Walk, RG1 7QE. Craft beer and a wide open bar / remote-work space with big tables that are perfect for BB.
• The Castle Tap, 120 Castle St, RG1 7RJ. A friendly and alternative pub with a great selection of booze, and delicious cheese boards. We recommend booking in advance if you are planning to play here on a Friday or weekend evening as it can get quite full, but it is usually quiet on weekdays or early weekend afternoons.

When organising games, do check if there is another game happening at the same time, as it is always nice to have games side by side. Also, remember the venues are not charging us anything for the 2–3 hours we are taking up their tables, so please be considerate of other patrons and consider getting a drink or two while you are there.

Alternatively, Reading's local games shop Eclectic Games is at 21 Duke Street, and has a games room available for hire. Eclectic also stocks Blood Bowl merch, paints and other goodies, so if you need any hobby supplies, give them a look!

2 League Rules

2.1 The Golden Rule #

TRUBBL is a casual, no-stress league. This doesn't mean we don't play to win – some of our coaches are very competitive people! It just means that we want to be as welcoming as possible, and let people have a good time whatever their life circumstances, skill level, and interest in competitive play. So far, we haven't needed any kind of code of conduct, and we hope to continue that way. The only rule we have is very simple:

This is not to say you shouldn't take every block you can in a game that's already decided to get SPP, or foul on turn 16 against an opponent who might still overtake you in the rankings. Any and all in-game actions that can give your team a better shot at the title are completely legitimate! All we ask is that you are considerate in the way you behave while you're stomping your opponent's team into the dirt, especially if they are a newer coach or they're having a bad season.

2.2 League Management #

Use of TourPlay for the league is mandatory, but how you use TourPlay is largely up to you. All we need from a league management perspective is that all SPP-generating events (casualties, touchdowns, interceptions etc) and MNGs / permanent injuries are logged on the correct players by the end of the game. Logging Badly Hurt injury results, or fouls and send-offs, is entirely optional. Likewise, don't feel like you have to bother with tracking turns on TourPlay if you prefer doing it the old-fashioned way.

Having said that, anything you put into TourPlay during the game will be shown on the app for other coaches, and reported in the #league-result-input channel. So if you want people to be able to follow your game as it develops and cheer or boo along in the Discord, then by all means put everything in!

Changes to your team (such as spending SPP, hiring new players etc) can be made at any time up until your next match. This means you can make last-minute changes to give yourself just the amount of inducement cash you need for your next match. That's fine, but it can lead to a situation where both coaches are stuck waiting for each other to update their teams. To avoid this, the coach with the lowest current TV can request that their opponent make all their changes first and then freeze their team ahead of a match. If you want to do this, please request the freeze as soon as possible after your previous game in your division's games-setup channel, tagging your opponent and the Lord Commissioner.

2.3 Allowed Game Rules #

TRUBBL uses the core BB2025 ruleset and includes all non-optional rules from:

• The Blood Bowl: Third Season core rulebook
• All teams and star players published by GW¹
• The unofficial Slann team as described by the NAF
• All FAQs published by GW²
• The NAF Recommendations for BB2025 (a.k.a. the NAFAQ)³

Nothing else is allowed.

2.4 Scoring #

Points will be awarded after each game as follows:

• Win 3
• Draw 1
• Loss 0
• 3+ TDs scored +1
• No TDs conceded +1
• 3+ Casualties caused +1

If two coaches are tied on points, the following tiebreakers will be used in this order:

1. Head to Head
2. Net TD
3. Net CAS
4. Net TD + Net CAS

MVP awards for the game are selected semi-randomly. When finishing the game, TourPlay will allow you to select 6 players as your MVP candidates, and one will be randomly picked.

3 The Season Cycle

3.1 Pre-Season #

Before a new season is due to start, the Lord Commissioner will make an announcement on the TRUBBL Discord, giving the planned start date for the next season and detailing any changes to the ruleset for the new season. If there are no objections to these changes, the new season will be created on TourPlay, and coaches will be free to sign up with their team and make changes up to and including the given start date.

Coaches are welcome to play any friendly games in this pre-season period, and are especially encouraged to do so if there are any newer coaches joining in, to show them the ropes.

All new teams will start with a 1,000,000 GP budget. Returning coaches may instead re-draft the team they finished the previous season with, under §3.4.4, or draft a fresh team under §3.4.5.

3.2 Main Season #

TRUBBL uses a standard round-robin format for the league, where every coach will play every other coach in their division once.

On the announced start date, the Lord Commissioner will draw the first two rounds, and a new round will be drawn every two weeks thereafter. TRUBBL rounds are two weeks long, except the first round of the season, which is three weeks, to give everyone time to get their teams drafted and their first game in the diary.

This is loosely enforced – we would like all matches to complete within the window, but we understand that life comes first, and sometimes it just isn't possible. The Lord Commissioner may, at his discretion, extend rounds if there are scheduling difficulties for a particular period (summer holidays or the Christmas period are the usual suspects). However, we do want to get the season done eventually, so please do try to stick to the windows given. If you think you are not going to be able to finish your game in time, please let your opponent and the Lord Commissioner know as soon as you can, so we can sort something out.

If a match remains unplayed for too long and is preventing the league from moving on, we will try to contact you to sort it out. If we don't hear back (this has never happened in six seasons of TRUBBL!) we will follow the procedure below:

a) One coach has attempted to organise the game, but there has been no response

2–0 concession with 2 MVPs in favour of the coach who attempted to organise the match.

b) Both coaches attempted to organise the game in good faith, but no agreement could be reached

1–1 draw, no MVPs awarded.

c) No attempt to organise has been made by either coach

0–0 draw, no MVPs awarded.

None of these outcomes earns bonus points, per §2.4. TD assignments will be made semi-randomly: the coach will be allowed to nominate 6 players (no, you can't select a player with the No Hands or Loner skill, you powergamers!). Each TD will then be randomly assigned to one of the players selected.

Please note that the Lord Commissioner cannot verify any communication made outside of Discord, so we strongly encourage you to organise your matches in your division's games-setup channel, or at least post there once you have agreed a time and date.

3.3 Division Structure #

3.3.1 Divisions #

TRUBBL runs three divisions: Premier, Second and Third. Twenty coaches have signed up for Season VII, so this season they are of seven, seven and six.

Divisions are seeded from the Season VI final tables, using the promotion and relegation rule set out last season: the top two coaches in the Second and Third Divisions go up, and the bottom two in the Premier and Second Divisions come down. Applied to Season VI, that gives:

• Up to Premier: Liripipe_, Season VI Second Division champion. Mashbat finished second and would also have gone up, but is not playing this season.
• Down to Second: neiltring and Captainfalcon.
• Up to Second: PlunderBeard and Stephen Bourne, first and second in the Third Division.
• Down to Third: James__Sea. AlexGB finished below him and is not playing this season.

Nine Season VI coaches have not returned, so the divisions do not fill by promotion and relegation alone. Where a place is left over, it goes to the next-best finisher in the division below, on the previous season's merit, and the upper divisions are filled first. For Season VII that affects one place only: colderclimate moves up to the Second Division, having finished third in the Third.

Coaches new to TRUBBL start in the Third Division. This season that is garvfield – welcome!

At the end of Season VII the same rule applies: top two of the Second and Third Divisions up, bottom two of the Premier and Second Divisions down.

3.3.2 Inter-divisional Friendlies #

Coaches may, at any point during the season, decide to play a friendly game with a team outside of their division. These games will not provide any points for the regular season, but all other effects will apply: players gain SPP, teams gain cash, and injuries can occur.

Any coach may play a maximum of three such friendlies during the season, which must all be against different coaches. Arrange them in #setup-games-interdivisional.

Note: you may, of course, play as many games as you want with other TRUBBL coaches outside of the league itself. But only three of them will count as Inter-divisional Friendlies.

3.4 Post-Season #

3.4.1 Glittering Prizes #

When the last game of the main season is over, it is time to crown our divisional winners! The prizes below will be awarded at the end of the season and will consist of a certificate (and possibly a small token prize). Prize money will be added to the team treasury immediately, ahead of the Play-offs. Expensive Mistakes will not apply from this point forward, so coaches may wish to save the money for re-draft, or spend it immediately to improve their play-off chances.

3.4.2 Bonze-offs #

Before the Play-offs can begin, the teams that ranked third in their division will play each other in the Bonze-offs. The coaches will play each other once, and the top two will advance to the Play-offs proper. Tiebreakers will be applied as per the regular season, but will only count stats during the Bonze-offs themselves.

3.4.3 Play-offs #

The Play-offs will be a 3-round knockout competition where the top coaches from every division will compete to be crowned Grand Champion for that season.

Initial pairings will be done through challenges. The Premier Division Champion will choose their opponent first, followed by the Second Division Champion and so on until all four pairings have been made. Coaches may not select an opponent from their own division, unless all other opponents have been challenged first. The order in which challenges are issued will be:

1. Premier Division Champion
2. Second Division Champion
3. Third Division Champion
4. Premier Division Runner-Up
5. Second Division Runner-Up
6. Third Division Runner-Up
7. Bonze-offs Winner
8. Bonze-offs Runner-Up

Aside from eternal glory, the winner of the Play-offs will take home the TRUBBL Cup and receive a shiny new title on Discord. They will also receive 150,000 GC which they may spend as part of the re-draft, as described below.

3.4.4 Re-Draft #

TRUBBL uses the normal Redraft rules from the Third Season rulebook. The re-draft cap (i.e. the maximum amount of cash that can be spent on re-draft, including agent fees) depends on the division the team is re-drafting into:

However, the budget you end up with may well be higher than that if you had a good season. Any excess cash can be spent on the following Redraft Bonuses:

• 0–2 Medical Retreat [50,000] – you may remove 1 niggle or permanent injury from one of your players.
• 0–3 Very Dedicated Fans [50,000] – you receive 1 free Dedicated Fans for the coming season.

3.4.5 Drafting a New Team #

A returning coach may choose not to re-draft, and instead create a brand new team for the next season. If they do, they may choose whether to remain in the division their previous team ended up in, or to move to the Third Division. Coaches in lower divisions will be promoted to fill the gaps. Newly drafted teams for all divisions will receive 1,000,000 GC as their initial team budget.

4 The Commish-Bot

commish-bot runs the day-to-day admin of the league inside Discord. It posts round deadlines, chases games that have not been played, and will answer a handful of questions about where the season stands.

Everything it does for you is a subcommand of /trubbl. Type /trubbl in any channel the bot can see and Discord will offer you the list.

4.1 Asking the bot something #

These three reply in the channel, so everyone can see the answer. Use them wherever it is useful for other people to see it too.

/trubbl status

Where the current round stands: its deadline, how many days are left, how many games are in and how many are still to play. Use it when you have lost track of where the season is – which is most of us, most of the time.

/trubbl table

The standings for all three divisions, with wins / draws / losses, net TD, net CAS and bonus points. Use it to settle an argument about who is actually winning.

/trubbl outstanding

Every game still to play this round, with both coaches tagged. Use it to see who the league is waiting on – including, occasionally, you.

4.2 Telling the bot something #

These reply only to you, so you can run them anywhere without cluttering a channel.

/trubbl link naf:<your NAF number>

Ties your Discord account to your TourPlay coach record. If you have no NAF number, use name: and your TourPlay coach name instead. Once, at the start of the season, before anything else. Until you have linked, the bot does not know which coach you are, so mygame, schedule and extend cannot help you. If you voted in the sign-up poll you are probably already linked – run /trubbl mygame and see.

/trubbl mygame

Your fixture this round, who you are playing, and the date it has to be done by. Any time you cannot remember who you owe a game to.

/trubbl schedule when:<YYYY-MM-DD>

Records the date you and your opponent have agreed. Add a time if you like: 2026-10-14 19:00. As soon as you have agreed a date. This is a note for the league, not a booking – but it tells the Lord Commissioner the game is in hand, and it stops the bot chasing you as though nothing were happening.

/trubbl extend days:<1–28> reason:<why>

Asks for more time on your fixture. The request goes to the Lord Commissioner, who approves or refuses it; the deadline does not move until he does. As soon as you know you are going to miss the window – not the night before it closes. Nobody minds an extension asked for early. See §3.2.

4.3 Lord Commissioner only #

/trubbl forfeit match:<fixture id> outcome:<a, b or c> side:<home or away>

Applies one of the three §3.2 outcomes to a game that never got played. side is only needed for outcome (a), to say which coach did not respond. Restricted to the Commissioner roles – anyone else who tries is politely refused. Every ruling is posted to #league-announcements, so nothing gets decided quietly.

4.4 What the bot does on its own #

You do not have to ask for any of this – it happens whether you want it or not:

• When a round opens – a post in #season-7-dates with the round number and the date it closes.
• Seven days before a round closes, and again with one day left – a post in your division's games-setup channel listing the games still to play, tagging both coaches.
• Once the deadline has passed – a daily post in the same channel naming what is still outstanding, until it is played or ruled on.
• When a game is ruled on under §3.2 – the ruling is posted in #league-announcements.