All teams that take part in a league must be given a team rating. This is based on the Spike Magazine Team Rating System, and is a very good indicator of the teams ability and effectiveness on the Blood Bowl field. Two teams with equal team ratings would expect to have a very close match, while if one team has a team rating considerably higher than their opponent’s, they should win the match easily.

To calculate a team’s Spike Magazine team rating, first work out the total value of the team in gold pieces. Remember to include any money in the treasury in the total. For every 10,000 gp that the team is worth, it receives 1 team rating point. This may sound like a difficult sum to work out, but it is actually quite easy. Just take the value of the team and knock off the last four zeros. For example, a starting team with a value of 1,000,000 gold pieces has a team rating of 100 points.

Next work out the combined total of all the Star Player Points belonging to the players in your team. Divide this number by 5, rounding any fractions down, and add the result to the total worked out above. For example, if the players in a team had a total of 60 Star Player Points then 60 / 5 = 12, so 12 points would be added to the team rating. Note that the Star Player points of all the players in the team are used, even if some of them have to miss the match due to injury.

Once a coach has worked out his team rating, he should record it on the team roster in the space provided. Note that all starting teams have a team rating of 100 points.

Players contribute their list price for Team Rating purposes, even if this is not the price actually paid. [JJ]

The accumulated Star Player Points for a non-star player who has been Peaked still contribute to team rating. [JJ]

Re-Rolls contribute their list price for Team Rating purposes, not the actual price paid. [JJ]

A Team may purchase a Home Stadium, which must be named. All stadiums cost 200,000gp and have the same benefits: +1 Fan Factor and +1 Team Re-Roll for the game for the Home team. The Away Fans Banned special play card is useless to the Visiting Team. Stadiums are worth 10pts to the Team Rating (ABBA)

Players are able to earn Star Player Points (SPPs) in league matches. Star Player Points are earned for scoring touchdowns, making complete passes, making interceptions, killing or injuring opposing players, and for earning ‘Most Valuable Player’ awards. Once a player has earned enough Star Player Points he becomes entitled to a ‘Star Player roll’, and will gain an extra skill or increased characteristic. Players who survive long enough may even progress to become Star Players, with special abilities or skills they have picked up over their long career on the Blood Bowl field. This is a very cost effective way to add Star Players to your team, though it does take time.

A team may have any number of Star Players generated in this way, in addition to the four Star Players that can be hired for the team as ‘ready-made’!

The team roster includes boxes so coaches can keep track of the number of Star Player points their players earn during a match. Each time a player does something that earns Star Player Points his coach should put a tick in the appropriate box on the roster. At the end of the match count up the number of new ticks for each player, and upgrade their total score of Star Player Points accordingly.

Star Player Points are earned for performing the following actions:

Hired Star Players cannot earn any more Star Player Points. They are considered to have Peaked and cannot get any better. When a Star Player is hired for a team, a large letter P should be written in his SPPs box on the team roster to remind the coach that the player cannot earn any more points.

 Only "pure" interceptions count for Star Player Points. Catching inaccurate passes throw by your opponent or flubbed catches do not earn points. [JJ]

No Star Player Points are awarded if a player is injured on a failed Dodge or Go For It. [WD] [JJ]

When a player is pushed back into the stands, roll only on the Injury table. If this results in a Badly Hurt, Serious Injury or Death, then award Star Player Points to whoever knocked this player into the crowd. [WD]

Players with 26 SPPs are still considered position players; they do not count against the 4 stars you may hire, but they do count against limits like 2 mummies or 4 blitzers. [GWUK]

As players earn more Star Player Points they go up in levels of experience and are entitled to make Star Player rolls. All players start out as rookies with no Star Player points. Once a player has earned 6 points he becomes ‘experienced’ and is entitles to his first Star Player roll. Each time the player goes up another level he is entitled to another Star Player roll. The Star Player Points table lists the number of Star Player Points that are required to reach each different level.

At the end of the match work out how many Star Player Points each player in your team has earned, an look up their scores on the Star Player Points Table. If the player has earned enough points to go up a level, then immediately make a roll for them on the Star Player Roll Table. To make the Star Player roll, roll two dice, add the scores together, and look up the result on the Star Player Roll Table.

In the team lists it is noted which skills are available to each different type of player. For example, Human Catcher can take General Skills and Agility Skills, Human Throwers can take General Skills and Passing Skills, and so on. Within these restrictions the coach of the player is allowed to freely chose any skill from the Skills section of this rulebook. Remember to record the players new skill on the team roster.

A Star Player Roll of 10-12 will increase one of the players characteristics – simply record the new value on the team roster. However, no characteristic may be increased by more than 2 points over it’s starting value. Any additional increases are lost and the Star Player roll is wasted.

No characteristic may be permanently increased by more than 2. [JJ]

Normally a player is only allowed to choose a skill from the categories listed for him on his team list. However, if the Star Player Roll was a double (e.g. 2 & 2, etc) then the coach may ignore the result rolled on the Star Player Roll Table (even if it was a characteristic increase) and instead may take any skill they like for the player. The restrictions for the player’s race and the position he plays are ignored in this case, so a Human Catcher could take a Strength Skill, for example. Only Chaos and Skaven players may take a physical ability – see below

Players who start with negative skills, such as Vampires and Dryads, may choose to remove the negative skill if the roll doubles on a Star Player Roll. (ABBA)

Physical Abilities are rather different from normal skills, in that they are things that a player is born with, rather than learned abilities like skills. This means that in most cases players may never be given a physical ability as a new skill, even if the Star Player roll was a double. The only exception to this is players from Chaos and Skaven teams. These players are noted as being able to take Physical Abilities on the team lists, which represents the fact that they can develop strange mutations later in life. For Chaos players, these mutations are a ‘gift’ from the gods the worship; Skaven players can mutate as a result of consuming the magical substance known as warpstone. Such players are allowed to take a physical ability as a new skill, but only if the Star Player roll was a double.

Mutations are, by their very nature, highly visible, and because of this they must be represented on the model – in other words, the coach of a mutated player will have to convert the players model to show the mutation. If the model does not actually show the mutation then the player may not use the skill. For example, the model of a player with two heads and four arms must actually have two heads and four arms., otherwise the abilities can’t be used.