A Brief History of Dungeon Bowl

 "Over 10 years ago Jervis Johnson designed a game called Dungeonbowl. The game was a supplement for a previous edition of Blood Bowl, and it proved highly popular – so much so that people still ask him about it at conventions and in letters to this day. What makes this especially surprising is that the game was designed over the course of about a week, when they decided at the very last minute to include a game with two new plastic Blood Bowl teams GW were releasing at the time. In spite of the rather limited amount of time available to develop the game (or maybe because of it!), the game played surprisingly well. ... Ladies and Gentlemen, Orcs, Dwarves and Elves of all nations, I present to you…. DUNGEONBOWL."

-Introduction to Dungeon Bowl 5, 1998

There are many tales of the early days of Games Workshop, tales of impossible briefs and designs made under the kind of pressure only a young company can create. Such a time constraint was thrust upon the now-legendary designer Jervis Johnson when it came time to produce some kind of expansion to the rather popular Blood Bowl second edition. This was for the second wave of plastic miniatures; the elf and dwarf teams. As quoted above, Mr. Johnson put the Dungeonbowl (this was in the bad old days when Dungeonbowl was one word) rules together in record time and the finished product looked something like this.

Properly titled Elves, Dwarfs, and Dungeonbowl, this is the first time Blood Bowl went down into the depths of the old Warhammer world. The box came with plastic teams for (believe it or not) Elves and Dwarfs, six A4 sized dungeon tiles, and all the fixins. The rules were as straightforward as the title might have suggested: Blood Bowl in a dungeon. The colleges were also introduced, but instead of the eight we know and love (or hate) today, there were ten. This included the eight we associated with the winds of magic plus the College of Dark Wizards and the rainbow college. 

Over the years it was supplemented by the occasional revision, online or in White Dwarf magazine, but otherwise received little official support. These White Dwarf expansions included such hits as the bestiary released in White Dwarf 113. 

In 1998, Johnson and co. took the time to update Dungeonbowl for use with third edition Blood Bowl rules. A complete release of this rework was published in White Dwarf issue 225 and then later on the Games Workshop SDS studio website. This is Dungeonbowl third edition, sometimes referred to as Dungeonbowl 5. The document included print-and-play tokens and tiles modeled after the 1995 Warhammer Quest, which gave the now ten-years-out-of-date Dungeonbowl a much-needed shot in the arm.

After that come the wandering years. Blood Bowl was essentially handed off to the NAF and the adoring gamers who helped with the "Living Rulebook" program, with the blessing of Johnson. For the interim, which included exactly zero official releases for Blood Bowl as a product line from approximately 2001 to 2016, various unofficial iterations of Dungeonbowl came and went. The standard for competitive play were the rules maintained by the NAF, which are still available on their website.

Then, like a cloud bursting ball crashing down onto the pitch, a Warhammer Day announcement was made in 2021: Dungeon Bowl was back! And this time, the title included two words instead of just one. Double the fun!

This box took Dungeonbowl 5 and its use of the original Warhammer Quest dungeon tiles, tweaked it a tad, and gave it that Games Workshop polish. Finally, those hungry dungeon divers could sate their appetite without having to brew things up for themselves. The second boxed edition of Dungeon Bowl (referred to as DB2021) in over 30 years was upon us.

This was, to my knowledge, the first edition made without the direct involvement of Jervis Johnson, as the venerable designer had retired in mid-2021. This newest version kept many of the same rules as its 1998 predecessor, including the room effects and portals. However, this was a complete starter box with two mixed teams and rules adapted from the Second Season Edition of Blood Bowl (BB2020)! The Blazing Axes, made up of dwarfs, ogres, and gnoblars, for the Colleges of Fire as well as The Umbral Blades, composed of Skaven and Dark Elves representing the Colleges of Shadow.  

One year later, Dungeon Bowl was expanded with the Death Match box.

While this was a true expansion, requiring the "core" Dungeon Bowl box to be playable, it was stuffed to the gills with two more teams and nine tiles. This time the Colleges of Life and Death were represented by the Emerald Crusaders and Black Widows teams, respectively.

This brings us to the present day. Dungeon Bowl events (now titled with two words) happen the world over each year. But with the release of Third Season Edition Blood Bowl (BB2025) the question lingers: will the light of day be cast on more dungeons? Or will this humble little game remain in regulation, back to being a product of and for the people who love it?

If you prefer to listen to your histories, the Bonehead Podcast has a video covering much the same content in a bit more detail here.

And happy delving.