slaughter ball draft rulebook first 33 pages

8/12/2019 Slaughter Ball Draft Rulebook First 33 Pages

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WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT ON


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YTABLE OF CONTENTSSlaughterball ..................................................................................................................................................................2

Components ..................................................................................................................................................................3

Athletes .........................................................................................................................................................................6

Traits ..............................................................................................................................................................................8

Scrimmage Games .........................................................................................................................................................9

Rolling the Dice ............................................................................................................................................................12

Turn Sequence .............................................................................................................................................................13

Scaering the Ball ........................................................................................................................................................15

Acons .........................................................................................................................................................................16

Interference .................................................................................................................................................................17

Move Acon ................................................................................................................................................................18

Chop Acon .................................................................................................................................................................19

Pass Acon...................................................................................................................................................................21

Shoot Acon ................................................................................................................................................................22

Spike Acon .................................................................................................................................................................23

Interrupts .....................................................................................................................................................................25

Carve ............................................................................................................................................................................27

Sacricing Cards and Dice ............................................................................................................................................29

Knockdowns and Injuries .............................................................................................................................................30

Fouls and Penales ......................................................................................................................................................31

Scoring .........................................................................................................................................................................33

The following secons are not included in this pre-release dra copy of the rules. They will be included in the nal pro-

ducon version of the rules.

Exhibion Games ........................................................................................................................................ 34

League Rules ............................................................................................................................................... 36

League Games ............................................................................................................................................. 40

Underdog Bonus ......................................................................................................................................... 43

Edge Tokens ................................................................................................................................................ 44

Teams .......................................................................................................................................................... 45

Carnage ..................................................................................................................................................... 46

Nemesis ..................................................................................................................................................... 47

Swords of Damocles .................................................................................................................................. 48

Valkyries .................................................................................................................................................... 49

Mavericks .................................................................................................................................................... 50

Skills and Training ....................................................................................................................................... 53

Support Sta ............................................................................................................................................... 59

Oponal Rules ............................................................................................................................................. 60

Addional secons including index, glossary, league record sheets, and so on.

2014 Frog the What Games LLC. All Rights Reserved. Reproducon is prohibited. Not suitable for children under 14 years old.

Actual components may vary from those shown. Designed in USA. Made in China.

This rulebook is a pre-release, unnished dra.

It includes only the rst 33 pages of the rulebook. Were sll working on the rest.

Playtesng may result in changes to rules. Formang and artwork may change.


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YSlaughterball is a ruthless and relentless future sport of

furious acon and vicious strategy. Two to four teams

clash in a remorseless steel pit, striving for maximum

carnage and conquest.

You are the head coach of one of these teams, guiding

your six genecally-engineered neohuman athletes to

assault opponents and score points with the unyielding

steel ball.

There is no half-me, no me-outs, no substung

athletes. The teams are locked in the merciless struggle

unl the buzzer sounds or they are carried out a mangled,

pulpy mess.

If you like brutal sports, genecally perfected athletes, and

steel-plated carnage, grab your dice, choose your team,

and lets get crunchy!

3 WAYS TO PLAYThere are three dierent ways to play Slaughterball:

SCRIMMAGE GAMES. Learn the basic rules quickly by

playing a few scrimmage games. Skills and support sta

arent used, and each team is idencal. These

simplicaons speed play and concentrate on the basic

rules. You only need to read to page 33 to learn the rules

for a scrimmage game. Aer youve mastered scrimmage

games, you can move on to exhibion or league games

where you can get your athletes hyped up with all those

sweet skills (not to menon the cheerleaders!).

EXHIBITION GAMES. Want to play one of those crunchy

pro teams but dont want to commit to a full season? Then

you can play an exhibion game. Using the standard

roster, you can experience deeper pit strategy with athlete

skills and Edge tokens. Each team has dierent strengths

and weaknesses, so you'll have to adjust your taccs based

on the teams in the game.

LEAGUE GAMES. Want to improve and customize your

team? Want to earn prizes for winning games and then

spend that money to buy more athlete skills, increasetraits, and hire support sta? Want to see your team grow

into an unstoppable juggernaut of deluxe brutality? Then

league games are for you!

In a league, coaches choose eight athletes to form their

roster and then play in a series of ten consecuve games.

The four best teams at the end of the season face o in

the Slaughterbrawl! The winner of that is the season

champion and earns the right to swagger and boast across

the arena!

YOU ARE THE COACH, NOT

THE PLAYERTo avoid confusion, this manual does not use the term

player to refer to the real people playing the game or the

plasc gures on the game board. Instead, the gures are

called athletes, and the people playing the game are

coaches.

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YIn addion to this rulebook, Slaughterball includes the following components:

COMPONENTS

EDGE TOKENS (quantity) These tokens are used to give weaker teams a bonus to make them

compeve against stronger teams. Not used in scrimmage games.

DOUBLE-SIDED GAME BOARD (1) The board depicts two slaughterball arenas: the Octagon for 2 and 4 -team games and the Hexagon for 3-team games.

CUSTOM DICE (20) These six-sided dice have custom faces and are used to determine the

success or failure of acons taken by the athletes.

SCATTER DIE (1) This eight-sided die is used to determine where the ball bounces to aer certain events.

GOAL DOOR TOKENS (4) These tokens are used to show that the goals are closed unl any

athlete opens them by running the ball over the Meat Grinder.

Dice image placeholder

Scaer die image

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YPLASTIC BALLS (2)

Slaughterball is played using a large, steel ball sporng repulsor elds that give it a some-

what errac rebound trajectory. The ball is represented by a plasc piece in the game. To

make them easier for coaches to pick up, the balls are not to scale with the athletes.

STRATEGY CARDS (70) These cards provide coaches with ways to help their own athletes or hinder opponents.

Coaches can refresh their hand at the start of their turns, and if the deck runs, out justshue it and start again.

PROFESSIONAL TEAM REFERENCE CARDS (4) Each of the four professional teams (Carnage, Nemesis, Swords of

Damocles, Valkyries) has its own double-sided reference card that lists

the athlete traits, skills, costs, and standard exhibion game roster.

REFERENCE SHEETS (4) One side of these sheets lists the athlete traits you use in a scrimmage game. The other

side is a quick-reference sheet for the turn sequence and acons available to the athletes

(used in scrimmage, exhibion, and league games).

MAVERICK REFERENCE CARDS (4) These double-sided reference cards present the traits,

skills, and Team Value adjustment of the four mavericks

Gibraltar, Simba Khan, Toccata, and Fugue.

FIRST COACH TOKEN (1) This token is given to the coach who

takes the rst turn in a game.

ROUND TOKEN (1) This token is used to track rounds on the

Round tracker on the board.

SCORE TOKENS (8) These double-sided tokens are used to keep

track of each teams score on the Score tracker

on the board. If a team scores over 30 points,

ip the token over and restart from 1.

INJURY TOKENS (30)

These tokens are used to track inju-

ries in exhibion and league games.

ONSLAUGHT TOKENS (12)

These tokens are used to indicate which

athletes have taken acons during a turn.

RELAUNCH TEMPLATE (1) A double-sided template used

to determine which launcher

the ball comes out of aer a

goal is scored.


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YATH LETES The genecally-engineered athletes that parcipate in slaughterball are represented on the board by plasc gures.

Each of the four teams comes in a dierent color. There are 12 gures in each team and four types of athletes, indicat-

ed by the shape of the base: square butcher, hexagonal slasher, pentagonal cleaver, and round razor.

NEMESIS A team of sleek neohumans with a

deep playbook and potent counter-

strategies. The cleavers give their

coach more opons during a turn.

CARNAGE

A brutal team genecally engineeredto resemble goblins, orcs, and ogres

of myth and legend. They score more

points by slaughtering opponents

than making goals.

SWORDS OF DAMOCLES Current slaughterball champions who rely

on the speed and accuracy of their talented

razors to score amazing goals.

VALKY RIES An all-female team famed for their Nordic

beauty and feared for their prowess at

manipulang opponents.

MAVERICKS Mavericks are slaughterball athletes owing

allegiance to no team. They sell their services

to the highest bidder and frequently break the

rules just by entering the pit.

Maverick #2

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YSlaughterball teams are composed of genecally-

engineered neohuman athletes harvested from heavily

regulated corporate or United Globe government biovats.

While their physical traits are rened to excel at

slaughterball, most teams dont have the funds to implant

more than rudimentary memories and personalies. As

such, you dont usually see these athletes wandering the

streets of the metroplex.

There are four dierent types of athletes: razors, cleavers,

slashers, and butchers. Each has a dierent role in the

game, as explained below.

The Global Slaughterball League (GSL) regulaons do allow

variaons in the genomes for these types, although even

this customizaon must stay within the well-balanced

norms. The GSL does not want min-maxing genecists

tweaking the system and ruining the careful equilibrium

that ences millions of fans to watch the games every

week.

If some scheming genecist nds a loophole in the

regulaons, the commissioners swily lock it down and

ne the oender. Slaughterball rule number one is, of

course, make it fun for all the fans!

ATHLETES

CLEAVER(NEOHOMO SAPIENS ATHLO -TACTICUS)

Cleavers are hyper-observant with enhanced spaal reasoning, strategic

training, and command abilies to direct their teammates to victory. Theyre

also very good at feints, blus, and misdirecon to confuse opponents.

Cleavers have pentagonal bases.

Most-valuable cleavers:

2128Coop, maverick

2129Harold Brain, Nemesis, San Angeles Metroplex

RAZOR(NEOHOMO SAPIENS ATHLO -VIVUS)

Razors are the stars of the team, with accelerated vision, four arms, super -human

hand-eye coordinaon, and the speed and agility to run circles around opponents.

Usually, the other athletes try to get the ball to the razor so he can score big with

the long shots.

Razors have round bases.

Most-valuable razors:

2133Apollo Speed, Swords of Damocles,

Elliniki Historiplex

2128-2132Tijuana Heebertson, Brutal Destrux,

Regional Atlanta Metroplex


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YBUTCHER

(NEOHOMO SAPIENS ATHLO -HORRIBILIS)

Butchers are inexorable juggernauts of muscle and

ferocity. They are the biggest, strongest, toughest, and

meanest athletes in the pit. They cant handle the ball very

well, but for sheer brutality they cant be beat.

Butchers have a square base and are so big that they

somemes dont t enrely in one space. Dont worry

about that, though. Theye considered to be in just one

space, even if they dont t in it.

Most-valuable butchers:

2128E. Toyota, Katanas, Tokyo Megaplex

2133Four-Fisted Farouk, maverick

Famous quote:

I wasnt gengineered to answer your stupid quesons. I

was gengineered to kick bu! -Zool Bukicker,

Gruesomes butcher, right before kicking a reporters bu.

SLASHER

(NEOHOMO SAPIENS ATHLO-BRUTUS)

Piless machines of bloodthirsty carnage, slashers excel

at hunng down and mangling opponents. They are

designed to protect the razors and cleavers while

brutalizing the opposion. They specialize in unusual

maneuvers intended to inict maximum harm, such asdouble-teams, ying chops, ballbusters, bukickers,

dirty stompers, and wallbangers. By choosing the right

mix of skills, a slasher can even become a threat to the

mighty butchers.

Slashers have hexagonal bases.

Most-valuable slashers:

2127-28Gibraltar, maverick

2130No-No Johnson, Carnage, Great Lakes Metroplex

Famous quote:

Were gonna force-feed them Alpo with a serrated

shovel! -Shred Lester, Fury slasher, before a game

against their rival team Havoc.


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YEach athlete is dened by a set of six traits genecally

engineered to comply with voluminous sporng

regulaons. Each athlete must conform to the genec

standards of the league, and pre-game genec scans are

required for all athletes.

Each year, the GSL reviews and updates its genec

requirements. However, these changes are usually so

minor that they have lile real impact on an athletes

capabilies. For example, in 2122, the league deregulated

the cosmec appearance of athletes and now most teams

design custom looks for the athletes to enhance popularity

for product endorsements.

Check out the Teams secon to see the various trait

values.

ACCURACYYou can't win a game unless you score. One way to do that

is to get the ball into a goal. Accuracy is an athlete's abilityto throw the ball exactly where he wants it to go. Accuracy

is used for passing, shoong, and spiking.

BRAWLINGThe fans want more carnage and they love butchers and

slashers who can deliver the most casuales. Brawling is a

combinaon of the athlete's strength, ferocity, combat

skill, and pain threshold. Athletes use Brawling during

chops, carves, and spikes.

DEXTERITYThe ball is a bouncing steel sphere always in moon.

Catching and picking it up can be a challenge. Dexterity is

the trait that determines how good an athlete is at

snagging the ball. Dexterity is used to catch and pick up

the ball.

EVASIONWhile butchers and slashers wade in to mix it up with their

opponents, razors and cleavers try to avoid clashes and get

the ball into the goal. Evasion helps them do this. It is how

nimble the athlete is at eluding opponents. Athletes with

high Evasion can dodge around opponents with lile

eort. Evasion is used during carves and spikes.

SPEEDSlaughterball is a game of unrelenng momentum.

Athletes are always running, rarely slowing down. The

Speed trait is the maximum number of spaces an athlete

can run when taking the Move acon.

TOUGHNESSToughness is a combinaon of an athletes genecally-

engineered endurance, plus the protecve gear that he

wears. Athletes with high Toughness can suck it up and

take heavier hits. Toughness determines how dicult it is

to send the athlete to the Slaughter Box.

TRAITS


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YScrimmage games are the best way to learn how to play

slaughterball. In these games, you wont be using the more

advanced rules, such as skills, support sta, Edge tokens,

and Injury tokens. Each team has the same roster of ath-letes, and the teams are idencal except in color.

Aer youve mastered the scrimmage game, you can try

out exhibion and league games, which use the profes-

sional team reference cards complete with varying starng

rosters, trait values, and skills.

SCRIMMAGE GAMES


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YBOARD SETUPSlaughterball fans prefer the insane mayhem of a full, four-

team game. However, you can also play with just two or

three teams. The four-team and two-team games use the

Octagon side of the board, while the Hexagon side is used

for three-team games.

1. Each coach takes a Scrimmage Athlete Reference

Sheet. One side shows helpful turn and acon infor-

maon. The other side lists the athletes under the

coachs control, including their traits. Each coach will

have an idencal team.

2-and 4-team game: place the board Octagon-side up

in the center of the table and put the dice nearby.

3team game: place the board Hexagon-side up in the

center of the table and put the dice nearby.

2. Place Closed Goal tokens over each of the

goals on the board. Teams cannot score

goals unl these tokens are removed

when an athlete with the ball runs over

the Meat Grinder at the center of the board.

3. Shue the cards and place them near the board.

4. Deal cards to each coach up to the max-draw hand

size:

5. Place the Round marker on the LO (Launch

O) space of the Round tracker.

6. Place each teams score marker near the

Score tracker. When a team scores, move

their marker along the tracker.

7. Each coach gets three Onslaught tokens to

indicate which athletes have acted during

their turn.

8. The Edge and Injury tokens are

not used and can be put back in

the box.

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YTEAM PLACEMENT1. Each coach rolls four dice. The coach who rolls the

most knives (reroll es) takes the First Coach token

and chooses his teams home slice and team color.

2-team 4-team game: the First coach can choose from

slices 1, 3, 5, and 7.

3team game: the First coach can choose from slices 1,

3, and 5.

2. In descending order of rolled knives, the other coaches

pick their home slices from the remaining odd slices.

2-team game: The other coach must choose the slice

opposite the First coach.

3. Each coach places all six of his athletes (one razor, two

cleavers, two slashers, and one butcher) in the starng

spaces of his home slice as indicated on the Scrimmage

Athlete Reference Sheet.

LAUNCH THE BALL1. Roll the scaer die and place the ball in that launcher

space. For example, if you roll a 5, put the ball on the

launcher marked 5. If you are playing in the Hexagon,

reroll 7s and 8s.

2. Scaer the ball from the launcher as described in the

Scaering the Ball secon.

STARTING THE GAMEThe First coach takes the rst turn and play connues

clockwise from there. See the Turn Sequence secon.

WINNING THE GAMEAt the end of round six, the team with the most points

wins.

If there is a e for rst place, connue playing unl one

team has more points than any other team at the end of a

round.

Ties for 2nd and 3rd place are permissible.

It is possible there is so much carnage that only one team

has any athletes le standing in the arena. In this case,

play connues unl the end of round six as usual. Ties also

sll prompt overme. Usually, the last team in the pit will

win on points, but there may be mes when a team wins

the game while all of their athletes are in the Slaughter

Box.


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YThe basic mechanic of this board game is the trait test. The

trait test determines if the acon of an athlete succeeds or

fails. There are two parts of the trait test:

1. Roll a number of dice equal to a trait (plus or minus

some dice, depending on circumstances).

2. The number of knives rolled determines whether or

not the acon succeeds.

Whenever an athlete aempts something that might fail,

such as passing the ball, shoong a goal, or chopping an

opponent, the coach must make a trait test for the athlete.

In a test, the coach rolls a number of dice equal to theathletes relevant trait.

For instance, if a razor tries to shoot a goal, the coach rolls

a number of dice equal to the razors Accuracy. Or, if a

cleaver moves into a space with the ball and wants to pick

it up, the coach rolls a number of dice equal to the

cleavers Dexterity.

Circumstance can add and subtract dice to or from the roll.

INTERFERENCEOpposing athletes can interfere with trait tests if they are

adjacent to the athlete aempng the test.

Each opposing coach has the opon to have his adjacent

athletes interfere with your athlete. For each such

opponent that interferes, subtract one die from the trait

test. If mulple opponents interfere, that many dice are

subtracted from the Trait test. For more informaon, see

the Interference secon.

MINIMUM DICEEven if subtracons would reduce the number of dice

rolled to zero or less, you can never roll fewer than one die

for any Trait test.

Subtracng dice for any reason happens aer all addions.

OTHER MODIFIERSThere are other modiers to the number of dice rolled for

a Trait test. They are detailed in the appropriate secons.Some examples of other modiers include:

+1 die for chops and carves if the aacker has possession

of the ball (its a big solid steel ball, and great for pounding

opponents).

+4 dice for chops against prone opponents.

Extra dice from cards (for example, +3 dice for Evasion

tests when you play the Dodger card).

SUCCESS OR FAILURE The success of the athlete's acon is determined by how

many knives are rolled on the dice. More knives are beer.

For example, to shoot a goal you must roll a number of

knives equal to or greater than the number of spaces

between the thrower and the goal.

The Acons secon lists all the acons available to

athletes, along with the related traits, the number of

knives required for success, and the possible modiers tothe number of dice rolled.

OPPOSED TESTS Somemes, an opponent will roll dice at the same me

your athlete does. During a Chop test, for example, when

both athletes are trying to injure the other. In this case,

the athlete who rolls the most knives succeeds, while the

other athlete fails.

DICE SYMBOLSThe custom six-sided dice have symbols on each side:

double knife, knife (2), boot, star, and skull.

In scrimmage games, only the knife and double knife sides

are used. In exhibion and league games ,the boot and

star symbols are used for various skills. The skull symbol is

not used.

ROLLING THE DICE


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YA game of Slaughterball proceeds in a series of six rounds.

In each round, each coach takes a turn, starng with the

First coach and moving clockwise around the board.

When play gets back to the First coach, the round marker

is advanced.

WINNING THE GAMEAt the end of round six, the team with the most points

wins.

If there is a e for rst place at the end of round six, over-

me ensues. Play connues unl a round ends with one

team having more points than any other team. That team

wins.

Ties for 2nd and 3rd place are permissible, and do not

cause overme.

TEAM TURNA coachs turn has three phases:

1. Draw phase

2. Onslaught phase

3. Cleanup phase

DRAW PHASEDuring the Draw phase, do the following:

1. If you are the First coach and the round marker is al-

ready on round 6 or OT (overme), the game is over

unless there is a e for rst place.

2. If you are the First coach, move the round marker to

the next round (leave it on OT if it is already there).

3. Except during round 1, discard as many cards as you

want.

4. Draw back up to your maximum draw hand size. A

coachs draw hand size depends on the number ofteams in the game, as shown in the table below:

In exhibion and league games, draw hand size may in-

crease due to skills or support sta.

If you have to draw a card and there are no cards in the

draw deck, shue the discard deck to create a new draw

deck.

You cant play any cards while you are drawing cards.

5. Take three Onslaught tokens.

ONSLAUGHT PHASEIn the Onslaught phase, you can take acons with your

athletes:

1. Take three Onslaught tokens.

2. Select an athlete and place an Onslaught token near it.

You cannot select an athlete that already has an On-

slaught token.

TURN SEQUENCE


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Y3. Perform up to two dierent, consecuve acons with

the selected athlete. This is called an onslaught. See

the Acons secon for a full list of available acons.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 unl you run out of Onslaught

tokens or you dont want to use any more.

Your Onslaught phase ends when any one of the following

occurs:

You have used all of your Onslaught tokens.

You voluntarily end your turn.

Your team loses momentum (see below).

Lost Momentum Usually, you can use all of your Onslaught tokens before

your Onslaught phase is over. However, any coach can play

a Lost Momentum card to prematurely end anothercoach's Onslaught phase when one of the following occurs:

One of the acng coach's athletes is knocked down.

An opposing athlete picks up or catches the ball.

Whenever one of these events happens, any other coach

can play a Lost Momentum card if they have one. The

acng coachs Onslaught phase then ends, even if he has

unused Onslaught tokens.

CLEANUP PHASE In the Cleanup phase, the acng coach takes back all his

spent and unspent Onslaught tokens.

Return Athlete to Pit from Penalty BoxWhen a coach plays a Penalty Expires card, he can return

an athlete to the pit from the Penalty Box during his Clean-

up phase.

During the Cleanup phase, place the formerly penalized

athlete in the unoccupied Re-entry space of his starng

slice. If the Re-

entry space is occupied, then the athletecannot be returned to the Pit.

In exhibion and league games, the coach also has the fol-

lowing extra opons. Aer the coach is nished with these

opons, his turn is over and the next coach starts his turn.

Heal Injured Athletes A coach can play Heal 2 edge tokens to heal his athletes in

the Slaughter Box. For each Heal token, remove two Injury

tokens from one of your athletes.

If the team has a physician on the support sta, the coach

can sacrice cards to heal injured athletes in the Slaughter

Box. For each card that the coach sacrices, remove one

Injury token from one injured athlete.

Return Athlete to Pit from Slaughter BoxIf an athlete in the Slaughter Box is uninjured (no Injury

tokens), the coach may place him on the unoccupied Re-

entry space of his starng slice during the Cleanup Phase.

If the Re-entry space is occupied, then the athlete cannotreturn to the pit.

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YScaer is when a loose ball bounces to a new space. This

happens in a variety of situaons, as listed in the table be-

low:

LAST PLACE COACH

Whenever the ball scaers, the Last Place Coach is incharge of deciding where the ball ends up based on a

scaer die roll. The Last Place Coach can change from one

scaer to the next.

The Last Place Coach is determined in the following order:

1. The coach with the lowest score in the game. If there

is a e for this, then go to step 2.

2. Out of the ed teams, the coach with the lowest Team

Value. If there is a e for this, the go to step 3.

3. Out of the ed teams, the coach who takes his turn

last in a round.

SCATTER PROCE SSWhenever the ball scaers, the Last Place Coach follows

these steps:

1. Roll the 8-sided scaer die. The result is the maximum

scaer distance.

2. The Last Place Coach can decide which space to scaerthe ball into, up to the maximum scaer distance from

the starng space. For example, if the coach rolls a 4

on the scaer die, he can place the ball 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4

spaces away in any direcon.

3. The ball cannot scaer into an occupied space. If all of

the spaces within the maximum distance are occupied,

the coach can choose any of the nearest unoccupied

spaces.

SCATTER EXAMPLE In this example, a team has just scored a goal and the red

coach is the Last Place Coach. Using the Relaunch tem-

plate, he determines that the ball scaers from launcher 3.

He then rolls the 8-sided scaer die, geng a 2. The green

spaces in the image below indicate which spaces the Last

Place Coach can place the ball. All the spaces are within

two spaces of the launcher. The ball cannot scaer into

any of the occupied spaces.

SCATTERING THE BALL


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YWhen a coach assigns an Onslaught token to an athlete,

that athlete can take up to two acons.

An athlete cannot take the same acon more than once

per onslaught. For instance, an athlete cannot move twice,

or chop twice, etc.

Each acon must be completed enrely before the next

acon is taken. So, an athlete cannot split up his Move ac-

on, such as move one space, take a Chop acon, and then

move four more spaces.

STRATEGY TIP: During league or exhibion games, athletes

with Interrupng skills can use Interrupt cards to take ad-

dional acons. They dont need an Onslaught token to

perform interrupng skill acons.

The following acons are available to all athletes. They are

explained in full on the proceeding pages.

Move: The athlete runs across the pit. During a move, an

athlete can try to pick up the ball for free. Standing up re-

quires a full Move acon.

Chop: The athlete tries to knock down and injure an oppo-

nent by making an opposed Brawling test.

Pass: The athlete tries to throw the ball to a teammate by

making an Accuracy test. The receiver makes a free Dex-

terity test to catch the ball.

Shoot: The athlete tries to throw the ball into a goal by

making an Accuracy test. If successful, the athlete scores

points equal to the number of spaces between him and

the goal.

Spike: The athlete throws the ball at an opponent in an

aempt to knock him down.

Special: Some skills give athletes the opon to take Special

acons not covered by the standard acons above. Each

Special acon can be taken once per onslaught. For exam-

ple, if an athlete has both the Divert and Direcon skills, he

could take a Special acon to use Divert, and then another

Special acon to use Direcon. But he cannot use Divert

twice in the same onslaught.

ACTIONS

Art placeholder


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YBefore going into detail about each of the acons, you

should know about interference.

Slaughterball is a game of grappling, mangling, punching,kicking, bing, chopping, and other brutalies. Athletes

use every opportunity to interfere with their opponents.

That can mean trying to block a pass or shot, or distracng

opponents so they get chopped by a teammate.

Any athlete can interfere with an adjacent athletes test by

subtracng one die from the roll.

The following rules apply to interference:

NOT AN ACTION: Interference is not an acon. It doesnot require an Onslaught token, nor does it require a

card. It is a free ability that all athletes have against all

adjacent opponents at all mes.

ONCE PER TEST: An athlete can interfere with only one

opponent during any one acon. If more than one ath-

lete can be interfered with during an acon, the inter-

fering athlete's coach can pick which eligible opponent

he interferes with. For example, if an athlete is adja-

cent to both the chop aacker and chop defender, the

athlete can interfere with only one.

NO LIMIT PER ROUND: An athlete can interfere with

any number of dierent tests per round.

OPTIONAL: Athletes are not required to interfere; their

coach decides if they do so in each case.

PRONE: A prone athlete cannot interfere.

NOT A PARTICIPANT: An athlete cannot interfere in a

test in which he is a parcipant (for example, he cant

be the aacker, defender, evader, or thrower).

MINIMUM DICE: Interference cannot lower the num-

ber of dice the rolled to less than 1.

SKILLS: There are several skills that alter the rules for

interference, such as Throw Interference and Counter-

interference. See the Skills chapter for more details.

INTERFERENCE EXAMPLEIn the image below, the green butcher takes an acon to

chop the blue cleaver. The butchers two green teammates

are adjacent to the cleaver and both interfere. Fortunately

for blue, the yellow butcher is going to interfere with the

green butcher.

The green butcher gets the following dice:

The blue cleaver doesnt get nearly as many dice:

Obviously, the blue cleaver is in a lot of trouble!

INTERFERENCE


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YUsing the Move acon, an upright athlete may move up to

a number of adjacent spaces equal to his Speed trait. Adja-

cent spaces are spaces that touch sides or corners.

Athletes cannot move into or through spaces containing

opposing athletes (upright or prone).

Athletes can move through spaces containing their team-

mates, but they cannot end their movement in such a

space.

In this example, the green butcher has Speed 4 and moves

four spaces to end adjacent to the red slasher. The butcher

can move through the space with his teammate.

The green slasher has Speed 5, but only moves three spac-

es to end adjacent to the red cleaver.

STAND UP It takes a full Move acon for a prone athlete to stand up.

Players who stand up cannot normally move to any other

space during their Move acon. However, some skills

make it possible for athletes to stand up and move to oth-

er spaces with one acon.

FACINGIt doesnt maer which direcon a gure is facing on the

board. The athletes are genecally engineered to be hyper

-observant with excellent peripheral vision. They are con-

stantly scanning the pit in all direcons in order to keep

track of the opposing teams. There is no facing.

PICK UP THE BALLAs a free part of a Move acon, an athlete in the same

space as the ball on the oor can try to pick it up. It does

not cost any spaces of movement to try to pick up the ball.

If the athlete in the same space as the ball doesn't try to

pick it up, the ball scaers.

To pick up the ball:

1. Move into the space containing the ball.

2. Roll a number of dice equal to the athlete's Dexterity

trait.

3. Subtract one die for each interfering opponent.

4. If one or more knives are rolled, the athlete picks up

the ball.

If no knives are rolled, the ball scaers. If the athlete

has enough movement le over, he can connue his

movement and try to pick up the ball again.

In this example, the yellow razor moves two spaces into

the space with the ball and can then try to pick it up.

Whether successful or not, she can connue her move.

Picking up the ball at other ti mes Some skills enable athletes to move outside of a Move ac-

on. Unless otherwise noted, whenever an athlete moves

outside of a Move acon, the athlete cannot try to pick up

the ball.

MOVE ACTION


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YIn slaughterdome vernacular, aacking opponents is calledchopping. Using punches, kicks, throws, wrestling, or anyother violent medium, an athlete tries to inict severebodily harm on an adjacent opponent.Teams score points for knocking down or injuring opposing

cleavers, slashers, and butchers. See the Scoring secon

for more informaon.

The aacker must be upright and the defender must be

adjacent.

CHOP TEST 1. The aacker rolls a number of dice equal to his

Brawling.

Subtract one die for each interfering opponent who is

not the defender.

Add one die if the aacker is holding the ball. (It's a

solid piece of steel!)

Add four dice if the defender is prone.

2. The defender rolls a number of dice equal to his

Brawling.

Subtract one die for each interfering opponent who is

not the aacker.

Add one die if the defender is holding the ball.

CHOP RESULTS If no one rolls any knives, nothing happens and the

chop fails.

If both athletes roll the same number of knives, both

are knocked down.

If one athlete rolls more knives, the opponent is

knocked down.

If one athlete rolls more knives than the opponent's

knives + Toughness, the athlete that rolled fewer

knives is sent to the Slaughter Box with Injury tokens

equal to the dierence.

If the athlete is knocked down or injured in a Meat

Grinder space, his opponent gets +4 knives for determining

the extent of the injury.

If an athlete holding the ball is knocked down, the ball

scaers.

CHOP FOULS Other coaches can play a Penalty card on any athlete that

commits a foul by chopping one of the following:

A prone opponent

A razor not holding the ball

CHOP EXAMPLEIn this example, the blue slasher can chop any opponent in

the adjacent red spaces. In this case, that includes the red

cleaver and the yellow razor.

CHOP ACTIONArt placeholder


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YChopping the yellow razor wont earn the blue team anypoints. Plus, chopping a razor is a foul and could result in apenalty. So the blue slasher decides to chop the redcleaver. If successful, hell score two points for blue.The yellow razor is adjacent to the blue slasher anddecides to interefere with the chop aack, subtracng adie from blue slashers test. So, the blue slasher gets thefollowing dice:The green slasher is adjacent to the red cleaver, but

decides not to interfere. Maybe the blue team is in the

lead and green doesnt want them to score any more

points.

The red cleaver gets to roll the following dice:

Both athletes roll their dice with the following results:

The cleaver gets 5 knives while the slasher gets only 2. The

cleaver gets more knives! No doubt thanks to the razors

interference, the red cleaver managed to turn the tables

and knock down the blue slasher! (Three extra knives are

not more than the blue slashers Toughness 4, so hes not

injured.) The red team scores one point for knocking down

the blue slasher.

THE MEAT GRINDERThe dark spaces in the middle of the pit are called the

Meat Grinder. The oor in this area is not smooth steel,

but made up of pointed tenderizers designed to inict pain

and suering on anyone unfortunate enough to fall down

here.

If an athlete is knocked down or injured in a Meat Grinder

space during a chop, carve, or spike, his opponent gets +4

bonus knives for determining injuries.

If an athlete is pushed into a Meat Grinder space and then

knocked down or injured, his opponent gets the +4 bonus

knives.

Coaches can play a

Penalty card on

any athletes that

end their Move

acon in a Meat

Grinder space

before the goals

are opened.


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YSlaughterball is a brutal sport full of crushing chops and

serious injuries, where the butchers do their best to pum-

mel opponents into unconsciousness. But its probably

even more important to control the ball and make sure it

gets into the hands of your athletes who can shoot the

longest goals.

An athlete with the ball can throw the ball to any other

athlete in the pit. Usually, the receiver will be a teammate,

but there is no rule against passing to an opponent. Some

coaches might form alliances in the pit, likely to gang up

against a more powerful team.

An upright athlete takes a Pass acon to throw the ball

with an Accuracy test, while the receiver can make a free

Dexterity test to catch the ball. The results of these tests

are added together to determine if the pass was success-

ful.

PASS DISTANCEThe pass distance is equal to the fewest number of spaces

between the passer and the receiver. Do not count thespaces that the passer and receiver are in. If the passer

and receiver are adjacent, the pass distance is considered

to be 1.

PASS TEST1. Roll a number of dice equal to the throwers Accuracy.

Subtract one die for each interfering opponent adja-

cent to the passer.

2. Roll a number of dice equal to the receivers Dexterity.

The receiver can do this for free. Receiving is not an

acon.

Subtract one die for each interfering opponent adja-

cent to the receiver.

3. Add up the number of knives from the Accuracy and

Dexterity tests.

PASS SUCCESSIf the sum of the throwers and receivers knives is equal to

or greater than the pass distance, the receiver catches theball.

PASS FAILUREIf the coach rolls less knives than the throw distance, the

pass fails and the ball scaers from the receiver's space.

PASS EXAMPLE In this example, the yellow cleaver is passing the ball to

the yellow razor. The throw distance is four, the fewest

number of spaces between them (not counng the spaces

they are in). The coach rolls the passers Accuracy dice and

the receivers Dexterity dice. If four or more knives show

up, the pass is completed.

In this case, there are two trajectories with four spaces,

indicated by white and yellow numbers. Usually, the tra-

jectory of the ball wont maer. However, in some cases

(such as when an opponent uses the Throw Interference

skill), it may be important to know which trajectory the

ball is using. The thrower always gets to choose which of

the shortest trajectories to use.

PASS ACTIONArt placeholder


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YFans swarm to the slaughterdomes to see the brutality and

viciousness of butchers and slashers racking up the injuries

to win a game. But its just as likely that the keen eyes and

strong throwing arms of the razors and cleavers triumph,

thanks to scoring goals. A long Hail Mary shot from beyond

the Meat Grinder scores a lot more points than taking

down a butcher. No team should ignore the chance to

shoot goals.

When an athlete takes a Shoot acon, hes trying to throw

the ball into any of the goals in the pit. He makes an Accu-

racy test, and if he gets more knives than the shoot dis-

tance, he scores points equal to the shoot distance.

SHOOT DISTANCEThe shoot distance is equal to the fewest number of spac-

es between the thrower and the goal. Do not count the

space the thrower is in. You must count the space with the

chevron directly in front of the goal. The shoot distance

cannot be lower than one, even if the shooter is adjacent

to the goal.

SHOOT TEST1. Roll a number of dice equal to the throwers Accuracy.

2. Subtract one die for each interfering opponent adja-

cent to the shooter.

SHOOT FAILURE If the athlete rolls fewer knives than the shoot distance,

the shot misses and the ball scaers from the goal. This

scaer must pass through the chevron space directly in

front of the goal.

SHOOT SUCCESS If the athlete rolls knives equal to or exceeding the shoot

distance, the shot is successful and a goal is scored!

The throwers team earns points equal to the shoot dis-

tance. If the shooter is in the chevron space, he sll earns

1 point.

The ball is then immediately launched from a random

launcher on the other side of the pit, as explained in the

Relaunch secon below.

Aer the ball is relaunched or scaered, the acng coach

may connue his turn.

SHOOT EXAMPLEIn this example, the red razor is aempng a shot. There

are ve spaces between the razor and the goal. If the razor

succeeds in rolling ve knives on his Accuracy test, he

scores ve points. If not, the ball scaers from the goal.

RELAUNCH THE BALLAer each goal, the ball is immediately scaered from a

random slice on the other side of the pit. Follow these

steps to relaunch the ball:

1. Place the Relaunch template so that the goal on the

template is aligned with where the goal was scored on

the board.

2. Roll one die and place the ball on the launcher indicat-

ed on the Relaunch template.

3. Scaer the ball from the launcher.

4. The acve coach connues his turn.

SHOOT ACTION


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YAnother way to score is to use the ball as a projecle

weapon against opponents in the hopes of knocking them

down or injuring them.

This is not an easy path to victory. Dodging and blocking a

thrown slaughterball is not very dicult. Even if you hit

your target, you have to overcome his armor and tough-

ness. This means that injuries from spike aacks are quite

rare in the Slaughterball pit.

SPIKE DISTANCE The spike distance is equal to the fewest number of spaces

between the spiker and the target. Do not count the spac-es that the spiker and target are in. If the spiker and target

are adjacent, the spike distance is considered to be one.

SPIKE ATTACK The thrower makes a Brawling test + Accuracy test.

Subtract one die for each opponent interfering with the

thrower.

The target cannot interfere with the spike thrower.

The thrower gets bonus Accuracy dice based on the target:

SPIKE DEFENSEThe target makes an Evasion test.

Subtract one die for each opponent interfering with the

target.

SPIKE RESULTSTo determine if the spike is successful, follow these steps:

1. Subtract the spike distance from the aackers knives.

2. Subtract the targets knives from the result of step 1.

3. Subtract the targets Toughness trait from the result of

step 2.

4. If the result of step 3 is zero or less, the spike failed,

the target remains upright, and the ball scaers from

the targets space.

If the result of step 3 is 1 or more, the target is

knocked down and the ball scaers from the targets

space. The throwers team then scores points equal to

the throw distance +1 (unless the target is a razor, in

which case no points are scored).

SPIKE ACTION


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YSPIKE EXAMPLEIn this example, the blue cleaver has the ball and decides

to spike the red cleaver. The spike distance is two.

The blue cleaver adds up the following aack dice:

The blue cleaver rolls the dice with the following results:

Thats a whopping 8 knives! A prey good roll.

The red cleaver must now defend with the following dice:

The red cleaver rolls the dice with the following results:

Too bad for the red cleaver he only rolled 3 knives.

The results are calculated as follows:

The red cleaver is knocked down! The blue team scores 1

point for knocking down a cleaver +2 points for the throw

distance, for a total of 3 points.

The Last Place Coach rolls the scaer die, gets a three, and

places the ball in a new space of his choice within three

spaces of the red cleaver.

SPIKE INJURIESIt is rare for a spike to injure an opponent due to high-tech

armor and inherent toughness. However, it does someme

happen. If youre lucky enough to draw the Brutal Spike

strategy card, you can use it to injure the target instead of

knocking him down.


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YThe card deck includes several Interrupt cards. By itself, an

Interrupt card enables an athlete to carve an opponent

who moves out of an adjacent space.

The real power of Interrupt cards comes into play as ath-

letes learn Interrupng skills. As they gain more experse,

athletes will be able to take extra acons to move, chop,

and throw during other teams turns, thanks to the Inter-

rupt card/skill combos.

WHEN YOU CAN PLAY AN INTER-

RUPT CARD You can play an Interrupt card during any coachs turn at

the following mes:

During an opponents Move acon to make a Carve

test

Before or aer another acon or interrupt

During a scaer, or a Pass, Shoot, or Spike acon (for

Interrupng Intercepts and Immaculate Recepons

only)

During the Draw and Cleanup phases

STRATEGY TIP: One strategy that is sure to annoy is to play

an Interrupt card just before the Cleanup phase.

Then, use an athletes Interrupng Move skill to block the

entry space of an opposing coach with healed athletes.

Since your athlete is blocking the Re-entry space, the

healed athletes cannot return to the game.

PLAYING INTERRUPT CARDS An Onslaught token is not required to use an Interrupt

card.

Coaches should give other athletes the opportunity to play

Interrupt cards. Aer you nish an acon or an interrupt,

pause momentarily and ask if anyone wants to interrupt

you. If not, you can connue.

While moving one of your athletes out of a space adjacent

to an opposing athlete, you should ask that athletes coach

if he wants to carve. If not, connue your movement.

Coaches should not be allowed to rush through their ac-

ons to avoid interrupts. The game is not about how

quickly you can take acons or play Interrupt cards.

You cannot play mulple Interrupt cards at the same me.

You must play them one at a me, compleng each before

playing the next, giving other coaches the opportunity to

interrupt in between.

INTERRUPTSArt placeholder


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YINTERRUPTING MOVEMENT THAT

IS NOT PART OF A MOVE ACTION Several skills grant athletes the ability to move without the

use of a Move acon. You cannot interrupt movement that

is not part of a Move acon.

For example, the Beckon skill lets a cleaver sacrice cardsto move a teammate two spaces per card. This movement

cannot be interrupted.

INTERRUPTING INTERRUPTSAn interrupt cannot itself be interrupted, with two excep-

ons:

An Interrupng cove can be interrupted by an Inter-

rupng carve.

An Interrupng throw can be interrupted by an Inter-

cept.

INTERRUPTING OTHER CARDSOnce a card has been played, you cannot interrupt unl

the results of that card are completed (except to carve

during an Interrupng move).

For example, if a coach plays the Penalty Expires card, you

cannot then use your Interrupng Move skill to move over

and block his Re-entry space, thereby prevenng his ath-

lete from re-entering the pit. You must wait unl the op-

posing athlete re-enters, thus compleng the eects of the

Penalty Expires card.

CANCELLING INTERRUPT CARDS You can cancel an Interrupt card with a Cancel card or a

Cancel Card token. You cant cancel an interrupt that does

not use an Interrupt card, such as an athlete using the Au-

tomac Carve skill.

SIMULTANEOUS INTERRUPT ING

Interrupng cannot be simultaneous.

If two or more coaches declare an interrupt at the same

me, use the Last Place Coach rules to determine who can

interrupt rst.

A coach cannot play two Interrupt cards in a row unless no

other coach wants to interrupt him. That is, aer any

coach plays an Interrupt card all the other coaches must

be given an opportunity to play an Interrupt card.

INTERRUPT LIMITSAn athlete can Carve an opponent only once during that

opponents move. Other athletes can sll Interrupt that

moving athlete, of course, but only once each.

Also, as is stated in each of the Interrupng skills, an ath-

lete can only use a specic Interrupng skill once per team

turn (no maer whos turn it is). So, an athlete with the

Interrupng Move and Interrupng Chop skills can do both

once per turn, but that athlete cannot do two Interrupng

Moves or two Interrupng Chops in one turn.

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YCarving is when an athlete aacks an opposing athlete that

leaves an adjacent space during a Move acon. The carver

rolls his Brawling to knock down the mover, while the

mover rolls his Evasion to avoid the aack.

Carving is NOT an acon, it is an interrupt. Carving does

not require an Onslaught token.

To carve, keep the following in mind:

You can carve simply by playing an Interrupt card.

An athlete with the Automac Carve skill does not

need a card to carve, he can do so whenever an oppo-

nent leaves an adjacent space.

An athlete can only aempt to carve an opponent once

during that opponents move, no maer how many mes

that opponent moves out of an adjacent space.

More than one athlete can carve the same opponent dur-

ing the same Move acon. But each must be aempted

separately.

CARVE PROCESS To carve an opponent, follow these steps:

1. Play an Interrupt card (or use an appropriate skill) dur-

ing an opponents Move acon when that opponent

tries to move out of an adjacent space.

2. Pause your opponents move before he moves out of

the adjacent space, making him stop.

3. Begin the carve aack.

CARVE ATTACK The interrupng coach rolls a Brawling test.

Subtract one die for each interfering opponent who is not

the mover.

Add one die if the carver is holding the ball.

CARVE DEFENSE The moving athletes coach rolls an Evasion test.

Subtract one die for each interfering opponent who is not

the carver.

CARVE FAILURE If the mover rolls more knives than the carver, the carve

fails and the mover can connue his Move acon.

CARVE SUCCESS The carver might knock down or even injure the mover.

If the carver rolls a number of knives equal to or greater

than the knives rolled by the mover, the mover is knocked

down in the adjacent space and his Move acon is over.

If the carver rolls more knives than the movers Toughness

plus the movers knives, the mover is injured and sent to

the Slaughter Box with Injury tokens equal to the dier-

ence.

CARVE


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YIf the mover is in a Meat Grinder space and is knocked

down or injured, the carver adds +4 knives to his roll.

CARVING P ENALTIESThink twice before carving a razor when he doesnt have

the ball. If you carve him, other coaches can play a Penalty

card on you.

CARVE EXAMPLE

The blue razor wants to go grab the ball so he can pass it

to a teammate closer to a goal. But that means he has torun around the yellow slasher. If the yellow coach has an

Interrupt card, the blue razor could be in trouble, but he

has to risk it.

As it turns out, when the blue razor leaves space A, the

yellow coach plays an Interrupt card. The blue razor must

stop in space A and a carve aack starts.

The yellow slasher gets to roll the following aack dice:

The blue razor gets to roll the following defense dice:

The coaches roll for their athletes and get the following

results:

The blue razor rolled more knives. Therefore, the razor can

connue his move.

Even if the yellow coach has another Interrupt card, he

cant play it during the razors same Move acon.

The razor moves around the slasher to the ball, manages

to pick it up, and then moves away from the slasher.


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YSACRIFICING CARDS AND DICE

At various mes, usually due to a skill, you will have the

opon to sacrice a card or die.

SACRIFICE CARDS When you sacrice a card, it means that you discard it

without the eects wrien on the card taking place. In

exchange, you usually get some other eect.

For example, an athlete with the Direct skill can sacrice a

card to move a teammate two spaces.

A sacriced card cannot be cancelled.

SACRIFICE DICE

Some skills give you the opon to sacrice dice that roll

certain symbols in exchange for some eect. For example,

the Speedy Accuracy skill lets you sacrice boots to move

one space per boot aer an Accuracy test.

Follow these steps when you use skills that let you sacri-

ce dice:

1. Roll the dice for the test.

2. Decide which dice you want to sacrice, following therestricons of the skill.

3. Resolve the test without the sacriced dice.

4. If the athlete is not injured, implement the eect of

the sacriced dice.

For example, an athlete with the Beckon skill can sacrice

dice that rolled a boot to move a teammate one space.

Those boots cannot be used for any other purpose.

Aer you sacrice dice, you cant reroll any of the dice

from that test.

KNOCKDOWNS AND SACRIFICED

DICEAthletes who were knocked down can sll use their sacri-

ced dice, except they cannot use the dice to move them-

selves (using Speedy Brawling, for example). Such sacri-

ced dice are ineecve.

However, such sacriced dice CAN be used to move other

athletes, even if the athlete using the skill is knocked

down (using the Beckon skill, for example).

INJURIES AND SACRIFICED DICESacriced dice eects are not implemented unl aer the

test is resolved. If the athlete who sacriced dice was in-

jured during the test, then that athlete is sent to the

Slaughter Box and cannot use the sacriced dice.

Art placeholder


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YSlaughterball is a brutal game rife with injury and pain.

Athletes are knocked down and injured with alarming reg-

ularity. This is not only because athletes get points for

slaughtering opponents, but theyre also genecally-

engineered with violent disposions.

KNOCKDOWNSAthletes can be knocked down when they lose a Chop,

Carve, or Spike test. See the Acons secon for more de-

tails.

When an athlete is knocked down, place the plasc gure

on its side in its space. A knocked down athlete is also

called aprone athlete.

Prone athletes can get back up by using a Move acon. In

fact, prone athletes cannot take any acon except a Move

acon to stand up (some skills can also be used).

Athletes cannot enter a space occupied by a prone oppo-

nent. No athlete can end his movement in a space with a

prone athlete.

If an athlete is knocked down in a space occupied by an-

other athlete, scaer the knocked-down athlete into an

unoccupied adjacent space.

INJURIESAthletes are injured when, during a Chop or Carve test, the

sum of their Toughness and knives is exceeded by the

number of knives rolled by their opponent.

When an athlete is injured, remove the athlete from the

pit and place him in the Slaughter Box.

INJURY TOKENSIn league or exhibion games, the injured athlete gets Inju-

ry tokens. These represent how badly injured the athlete is

and how long it takes the physician (if any) to get him

patched up and back in the game.

The number of Injury tokens placed on the injured athlete

is equal to the opponents knives minus the injured ath-

letes knives plus Toughness.

For example, a butcher grievously chops a razor. The

butcher rolls a whopping 11 knives, while the razor rolls

only two. The razor has Toughness 3. The razor is sent to

the Slaughter Box with six injury tokens.

HEALING INJURIESThere are mulple ways to heal injured athletes:

The No Time To Bleed card can be used in scrimmage, ex-

hibion, and league games.

Healing Edge tokens can be used in exhibion and leaguegames.

In league games, teams with physicians can tend to their

injured athletes, hoping to get them back in the game.

During the Cleanup phase, a coach can sacrice cards to

remove Injury tokens on his athletes. For each card sacri-

ced, remove one Injury token from any of that teams

athletes in the Slaughter Box.

RETURNING TO THE PITAn athlete in the Slaughter Box with zero Injury tokens can

be placed in his teams Re-entry space during the teams

Cleanup phase. If the Re-entry space is occupied, the ath-

lete cannot be returned to the pit.

KNOCKDOWNS AND INJURIES


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YA foul is a violaon of the rules, of which there are pre-

cious few in Slaughterball. Rules generally interfere with

the carnage that the rabid fans demand, and so they are

kept to a minimum and inconsistently enforced.

Athletes oen commit fouls during a game, to gain an ad-

vantage against their opponents, to exact vengeance for a

perceived slight, or just to spite.

The pit itself is far too dangerous a place for even the brav-

est of referees, so they remain outside, observing the

game from behind the safety of the pits steel walls.

This means that they dont have a good, close view of

whats going on, and so infracons oen go unnoced and

unpenalizedmuch to the delight or dismay of the fans

(depending on whether their team suered).

If an athlete is actually caught comming a foul, a ref can

penalize him by sending him to the Penalty Box. The many

unpunished fouls in a game are oen aributed to near-

sightedness of the refs. However, some cynics suggest that

the rules were created to be broken, so that the fans can

enjoy the violent spectacle even more.

In this board game, referees are simulated in the card deck

as Penalty cards. Coaches can play these when athletes

commit fouls. A Penalty card can be played on an athlete

who does any of the following:

Chop, spike, or carve a razor not in possession of the

ball.

Chop or spike a prone opponent.

End a Move acon on one of the Meat Grinder spaces

before the goals are opened.

As soon as the oending acon is complete, a coach can

play a Penalty card on that athlete. Unless the card is can-celled, the athlete is removed from the pit and sent to the

Penalty Box.

If an athlete holding the ball is sent to the Penalty Box, the

ball scaers from a random launcher.

Yes, you can play a Penalty card on one of your own ath-

letes.

FOULS AND PENALTIES

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YCANCELLING PE NALTIESA Penalty card can be cancelled with a Distracted Ref card,

an Axed card, a Cancel Card token, or by using some skills.

If a Penalty card is cancelled, another Penalty card can sll

be played for the same event that prompted the rst Pen-

alty card (unless the Distracted Ref card was used).

DOUBLE PE NALTIESIt is possible to commit mulple fouls with the same event.

For example, chopping a prone razor is actually two fouls.

One foul for chopping a razor who doesnt have the ball,

and another for chopping a prone athlete.

You can play a Penalty card for either foul, but there is no

reason to play one for each foul. One card is enough to

send an athlete to the Penalty Box.

SHOT CLOCKThere is another card that can send an athlete to the Pen-

alty Box, and thats the Shot Clock card.

One team strategy for coaches in the lead is to hog the ball

unl the mer runs out. Fans hate this, because it usually

just turns into a big pile-up in one spot with no more scor-

ing.

To convince coaches not to use this strategy, there are

three Shot Clock cards in the deck.

You can play a Shot Clock card during any coachs Cleanup

phase if, during the just-completed Acon phase, the

acng team did none of the following:

Make a goal

Take a Shoot acon

Take a Spike acon

When the card is played, the ball is scaered from a ran-

dom launcher. If an athlete is holding the ball, he is sent to

the Penalty Box.

This encourages coaches to take a shot at least once dur-

ing their turn and not hog the ball.

LEAVING THE PENALTY BOXThere are two ways to get an athlete out of the Penalty

Box and back into the pit: play a Penalty Expires card or an

Exit Penalty Box Edge token.

Either the card or token can be played during that ath-

letes teams Cleanup phase, and it lets you remove the

penalized athlete from the Penalty Box and put him in his

unoccupied Re-entry space.

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YThere are three ways to score in Slaughterball: open the

goals, throw the ball into the goal, or slaughter opponents.

OPEN THE GOALS At the start of the game, all of the goals are closed. The

only way to open the goals is to move the ball onto one of

the central Meat Grinder spaces.

The rst athlete to move onto one of the Meat Grinder

spaces while holding the ball scores two points for his

team and opens the goals. This can only happen once per

game.

Once the goals are open, they remain so for the rest of thegame and any team can then score in any goal.

While the goals are closed, if an athlete holding the ball is

moved into the Meat Grinder outside his teams turn, even

by another coachs eorts, he sll scores the two points.

THROWING THE BALL INTO A

GOALGoals are worth variable points. When a goal is scored,

that team earns a number of points equal to the shoot dis-

tance (minimum 1 if the shooter is in the space directly

adjacent to the goal).

Of course, longer shots require more knives showing up on

the dice. Deciding what range to shoot from is one of the

tough decisions a coach must make. Do you go for the easy

2-point shot, or do you try for a 5-pointer to gain the lead?

At the start of league play, when athletes dont have many

skills, scoring will generally be low. Rookie athletes justcant consistently make 6-or 7-point goals.

However, as athletes get good skills (such as Star Thrower

and Awesome Sharpshooter), they can start making some

impressive shots for 9 or 10 points.

Aer a goal is scored, the ball is immediately launched out

of a random launcher on the other side of the pit, as ex-

plained in the Shoot Acon secon.

SLAUGHTERING OPPONENTSSlaughtering is the term used when an athlete knocks

down or injures a standing opponent. Teams score points

for slaughtering as follows:

If the opponent is already prone, you get no points for in-

juring him.

If you slaughter an opponent with a Spike acon, you scorebonus points equal to the throw distance.

The goals do not need to be open to score points for

slaughtering opponents.

AFTER SCORINGA team's turn does NOT automacally end aer it scores. If

the coach sll has unused Onslaught tokens, he can keep

using them. This means that it is possible for a team to

score mulple mes during their turn.

This is a good reason to make sure you have some athletes

posioned to catch the ball when it relaunches aer you

score a goal.

SCORING

STOP! Youve read all the rules you need to know to play a scrimmage game. Why not play a few games before

moving on to the exhibion and league game rules that follow?


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YThe previous 33 pages are pre-release dra rules forplaying a scrimmage game of Slaughterball.Were sll eding and tweaking the rest of the book. The release version of the rulebook will include rules forExhibion and League games, and be around 70 pages.

If you have comments or suggesons, dont hesitate to

let me know.

I hope you like what you have read here, and consider

backing the game on Kickstarter.

You can learn more aww.slaugtherball.net.

Thanks!

Erik Kjerland

Designer of Slaughterball.

THANKS!

www.slaughterball.net


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