Jervis Johnson and Marc Gasgoigne on Blood bowl

I met up with Marc Gascoigne and Jervis Johnson to hear them chat about Blood Bowl! In the video they cover the first 3 editions of the game, and look at some of the differences. We also see the first ever scratch built BB model by Dave Andrews, whether the game takes place within the Warhammer Fantasy setting, and what their favourite editions are!
Big thanks to John Stallard & Warlord Games for hosting us.
These videos were made in my spare time, and if you wish to pop a donation my way to help support me it'd be greatly appreciated:
Paypal: PayPal.Me/Filmdeg

[@andreaarnold5613]

I've been playing it since the 80's. Nearly 40 years. It has to be the greatest game ever. Thanks Jervis!

[@danh945]

Jervis and Marc are being extremely humble here - creating the core of one of the greatest games ever made. The last World Cup, that Jervis mentioned, had around 2,500 people playing in it. I think the only games that run bigger tournaments are Magic the Gathering, and Chess. Quite an achievement from such humble beginnings. Thank you to both, and so many other contributors, for such a great game.

[@dvomk]

A very good watch! Thanks for getting these two gents in front of a camera!

[@farpointgamingdirect]

Jervis Johnson signed my 1st edition copy of Blood Bowl when he visited the Baltimore MD Battle Bunker. My friend and I were playing the 10mm Battle of Five Armies set. Jervis enscribed my copy of Blood Bowl with "Keep Rolling 6's! Jervis Johnson". And I did roll 6's...I failed all of my command rolls for the rest of the evening 😅😅😅

[@Kindrin]

Blood Bowl is such a great game. Thank you Marc and Jervis!

[@matthewthomas5657]

I would have picked up blood bowl with or without the 2016 edition dropping. Jervis Johnson is an icon and frankly i cannot belive how humble he is being. He set up the NAF to continue the game, that insane. Filmdeg, these interviews are sensational please keep up the good work xx

[@Wolf359inc]

I picked up Rogue Trader when it was first released, and was fascinated with it, but I had no space to set up a game, or anyone to play against, as no one else was interested, at the time. I picked up the second edition of Blood Bowl on release, and was hooked. I now have every edition of the game, except for the most recent, and a full complement of teams, and Star Players (kit-bashed, when necessary) from the Living Rulebook edition, which was peak Blood Bowl for me. I intend to keep them forever, and they have survived many game and miniature culls over the years, simply due to the many fond memories, and friendships forged, from this game. I have no children of my own to bequeath them to, but have nieces and nephews who may be in for a surprise, one day… :) Blood Bowl was my gateway game into the Warhammer hobby, so, I guess, both thank you, and damn you, Jervis, Mark, et al… 😈 Honestly, GW dropping the game was the best thing that could have happened to it. The Blood Bowl community not only kept the game alive, but helped it grow, to the point, unfortunately, where GW realised they could squeeze some more money out of it, and decided to pick it up again. All I can say is thank Nuffle for One Page Rules - the only reason I can continue to afford to wargame to this day. I was out of wargaming for decades, due to the prices, by OPR has been my saviour, and has reignited this old fart’s love of the hobby. Oh, and Jervis, while it is not your game, I feel Blood Bowl will always be your baby. 😊 Cheers,

[@clockmonkey]

What I liked about Blood Bowl is you could lose, really badly, and still have a good afternoon.

[@Grom_the_Paunch]

You mean like, right?

[@AnthonyWatts]

I was one of the original group who helped create the NAF so many years ago. It's so cool that it's still going strong today thanks to the awesome Blood Bowl community!

[@dominicconroy810]

I never played blood bowl, but what intrigued me about the game, as a late 80s WD reader, was how it seemed to weave around the Warhammer world in its own way but ultimately had its own vibe going on. Really interesting how Jervis and Marc talk about this in the video. Love these video interviews- nice one Filmdeg, thank you.

[@baldrickbob1677]

Nuffle giveth, nuffle taketh away. Just finished painting my Ork team this morning for next season in a league in a small city in south germany, with about 40 players. Thank you both so much for creating the best game!

[@SparksKnifecraft]

Damn you know its a good day when Filmdeg posts

[@moodymullet9767]

Blood Bowl is such and amazing game! I loved it as a 10 and 11 year old in the 90s in the UK, and rediscovered it living in the US Midwest in my 40s. I’ve barely played anything else the last couple of years! Thanks so much for organizing and posting this conversation. Your channel, and Jordan Sorcery, have given me a wonderful new perspective on the games I loved as a kid, and rediscovered 20-30 years later. Keep up the good work!

[@treesandgeeking]

Ive never seen Marc in the wild! RPG legend!!

[@alexthompson3447]

Great interview with him by Jordan Sorcery kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5DEp3yqnd55fsksi=tfS6Rf53lIbBxg6-

[@alecmulinder5759]

Great channel, and this is the best game ever created. My brother and I have been playing it since its creation and currently am playing with 20 active teams. I even write my own yearly journals now. Thank you!!!

[@TheGunnarRoxen]

Marc is a hobby hero to me. I always looked for his name on things like Fighting Fantasy and GW games.

[@goodtimeluke]

I got into this game a couple years ago and it has given me so much joy. So cool to hear the history!

[@Coltarion]

These interviews are gold. Great work!

[@peteliddleyork]

GW was right to fear Bloodbowl stopping customers buying minatures. I only have 18 teams. Love the story of the game being handed over to the community. Beautiful.

[@HB2K-h8m]

The best game. For my GSCE Technology project I made a stadium for my polystyrene pitch. Well, I tried to! It's a testaments to the longevity of the rules that I didn't play Blood Bowl for over 25 years once I left school, picked it up again a couple of years ago and was still good to go!

[@stuarthill5309]

I got into Blood Bowl when 2nd edition came out. I still love how much character that range of minis has - who knows maybe I'll actually finish painting them all some day.

[@DopeGaminG_cQ]

I grew up on 3rd edition. I still remember going to this one comic book store that I never heard of as a kid taking the bus up there just to see what kind of comic books they had there because my local shop a few blocks from my school was really small, and I saw this store in the phone book and it seemed like this outrageously grand store it was called “Caps Comic Calvacade”… when I got there I found out it was more grand than I thought. It was definitely a big store, as a kid I got lost in the aisles and as I was browsing around I stumbled upon a section of the store that wasn’t dedicated to comics at all but board games I never heard of(no Milton Bradley stuff there lol), I saw these monster miniatures and boxes of really cool fantasy armies and then, on the bottom shelf, sitting there in all its glory was Blood Bowl(the then 3rd edition) with Griff and Morg on the cover and it looked AMAZING to me. My broke little self had no money for this obviously, so I just sat there and read the back and perused all the team boxes and felt my excitement get to a fever pitch immediately to the point where I left the store and said I HAVE to have this! I got in trouble a lot because I stole money from momma bear many times even when she was giving me an allowance as well to gather the $50+ it costed for the core box but man the excitement I had with just reading the handbook and learning about the lore it was crafted so well, through the book I fell in love with my first team the Skavenblight Scramblers looking at their paint jobs they just looked so awesome to me their colors grabbed my attention immediately and the lore behind them as well, I remember being particularly enamored with Split Tendoncutter, although they only dedicated a small bit of lore to him on a did you know- I made him a player in my roster all the time and still do lol… anyway I went off on a huge ramble…. I just want to say this, Games Workshop may have the rights to the IP, but this is JJ’s game.

[@RancidCat]

Excellent stuff as per usual.

[@Sleepysod]

When I joined as a shop worker they were still stocking 3rd edition. The manager was asked by a customer to demonstrate the game, which he did. Manger sold the game and a bunch of minis… however, he got a formal reprimand as a company store spy had spotted him and it had been forbidden to promote by head office… he was very (understandably) paranoid after that incident.

[@LordoftheSith]

I had the cut out skaven team from White Dwarf for first edition Bloodbowl

[@thatfriggingbathroom2656]

Great stuff, as expected. Thanks again!

[@RolandoRatas]

They've been instrumental in creating an amazing sports fantasy game. I had a thrilling BB2020 rules game in Spain a couple of years ago with my Elfheim Eagles and those dastardly Human team that did a last minute long throw win.

[@freelancerblitz2579]

Wish games workshop won't bring back that old school mentality About fun gaming and community, thanks for all your work

[@nagashthegod]

Great little game with so much passion, and punning, behind it. I know that's what appealed to me back in the day. I even remember cobbling together some Warhammer golf rules at some point for the same sort of reason - turn based, opportunity for violence, etc.

[@jonathan2950]

The Turnover Rule was a game changer (no pun intended)

[@stuarthill5309]

Great video, i would have been interested to hear their thoughts on Blitz Bowl

[@GinjaBadger]

To me the Blood Bowl Universe is an alternative Warhammer Universe with Blood Bowl instead of War.

[@michaelk9284]

I always stop bloodbowl.Wasn't the war hammer?Universe, birth and that's where space Marines went to the games to relax.But I, but I haven't read much into the lore.I'm a nerd but i'm not a super nerd

[@Kim_Jong-un1356]

Now I've heard everything! An englishman uttering the word "soccer". This Marc guy is...suss. ;) Great interview, never tire of hearing these stories.

[@AndorianBlues]

I don't know where so many people (Americans and Brits alike) got the idea that soccer is an Americanism, but it isn't, at least not originally. Historically it was a very commonly used slang term for association football in the UK.

[@JakeStaines]

@@AndorianBlues I think it's one of the weird products of the Internet, social media, and getting to talk to Americans more often than we ever had before. Once we heard them refer to "football" and "soccer" as being different things, English people near-unanimously decided that "football" was the only acceptable term and "soccer" marked you as an outsider!

[@Kim_Jong-un1356]

@@AndorianBlues Interesting, didn't know that. Thanks!

[@hughcrosthwait5497]

@@Kim_Jong-un1356 It's just short for 'asSOCiation'. Association Football and Rugby Football, Soccer and Rugger for short

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

In the 80s when Blood Bowl came out it was still pretty common for middle class people (and Marc sounds quite middle class) in England to call football soccer.

[@awaller7746]

The bloodbowl top trumps were brilliant, if just for the funny names

[@daveno774]

Thank you!

[@fromthewastes15]

BB is my favourite game by far. This was interesting, but would love more of a deep dive on the process of creating the 3rd edition rules that form the basis of the game to this day. Also, does anyone know what the 4th edition changes were that Jervis rowed back on - alluded to in the last 10 minutes of this video?

[@misomiso8228]

Marc Gasgoigne ! I met him at Fighting Fantasy Fest! Great guy. Does he still work in publishing at the moment? If so which company? ty

[@guid4380]

Jervis Johnson my hero. Respect from France. I have a question, who is the ork player called Ramstatlon Mulanex from the very first edition rulebook? No background nowhere but this is my pseudo everywhere since nearly 40 years now :D

[@lostalone1271]

I had two copies of bb2nd and the two books as well as a dozen metal teams. Now I play bb3 on the computer, it's just not the same.

[@timelwess7787]

Never has there been a game that can be both ace and terrible, entirely depending on who you play it with. Ive been playing since 3rd edition was released, and have been paying various leagues with the same core group of friends since then. Played in a casual league with some randoms and it was absolute bobbins. But a weekend with a group of mates, some beers, classic tunes on the CD player and its the third best thing you can do while being bent over a table.

[@Oluabayo]

Who came up with BB 7s as that is my favourite version?

[@brionl4741]

I never found 1st edition, but I have been playing BB since 2nd edition with the astrogranite board. Which I still have BTW. In case anybody was wondering which is my favorite team, I have fully painted 2nd edition, 3rd edition and BB16 Skaven teams.

[@Grom_the_Paunch]

Blood Bowl is the best game that Games Workshop makes by far.

[@user-ko3tv7jl2r]

How old is Marc? Did he join GW as a toddler or something!

[@LordoftheSith]

Marc has aged really well, he looks about 30!

[@Andy-ub3ub]

Why was Marc sacked as editor of WD after a brief stint? Anybody?

[@Andy-ub3ub]

To anybody interested, and ut appears not, Marc allowed(and I assume actualaly chose) an offensive letter to be published in the letters section of WD.. It involved the word "spastics".. When he alludes to being "underprepared" in the interview, I believe this event is what he is referring to. He was sacked shortly afterwards. Goodbye Marc, you're not really a nice person, are you.

[@TeaNoSugar87]

​@@Andy-ub3ubget a life

[@TeaNoSugar87]

​@@Andy-ub3ubget a life

[@matthayward7889]

I never realised Jervis Johnson and Marc Gasgoigne were responsible for so many of the punny miniature names!

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

"That was big of you" about Jervis admitting his mistakes on 4th edition - yes, quite. Would that many modern day hobbyists took themselves a little less seriously and acted like grown men in the original convivial spirit of wargaming and roleplaying.

[@Dumnonia]

I want to dig out my BB and Fanatic mags now.

[@davidclemmett4372]

Always thought this should have been a computer game.

[@Slechy_Lesh]

11:11

[@awordabout...3061]

More minis should carry coke cans!

[@bradp6452]

For a second, i thought Jervis was saying he was playing actual American football not a boardgame version of it. Football as a sport is very interesting but the actual violence can be concerning. Pretty much every game behind the elementary school level results in someone getting injured.

[@johnelwen4435]

Very interesting. Never really found Bloodbowl all that funny as American Football is a parody sport in itself